John Smyth: >Steve Schwartz and Bert Bailey ask how Britten's sexuality and/or his >relationship with Pears could have influenced his oeuvre musically. > >It's pretty obvious Britten's homosexuality has influenced his choice of >text. Yes, and I believe both Bert and I have allowed that possibility. Onward ... >I offer three musical examples: > >Some homosexuals "kill" their desires, or other self, with silence and/or >immobilization. As Vere closes the cabin door, how many of the same >unaccompanied chord does Britten give us? 32? How those repetitious triads >speak, yet how little is said--there is no progression, no mobilization. >Some are anguished, some frightening, some empathetic, some estatic....I'm >not suggesting that something sexual went on--Britten was smarter than to >psychologically provincialize his characters--but Britten's experience in >trying to reconcile public and the private and the resulting >immobilization Well, this certainly shows immobilization, but one can also point to Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle. That is, many have portrayed this psychological state with roughly the same means, but not every one of them were homosexual. Another way to put this is, if you didn't know Britten were gay, how would the music tell you? Would it also tell you whether he were a pedophile? After all, there's a lot of Britten work for boy trebles. I'm not trying to stir anything up, but it seems to me much of this is speculation after the fact - "he's a homosexual, therefore he's a homosexual." And, as you say, Britten the artist is more than his sexual orientation. Steve Schwartz