Queer Episodes in Music and Modern Identity (review)

Queer Episodes is a collection of essays that explore the points of intersection between music and queerness during the historical period surrounding the turn of the century and the two world wars, roughly 1870 to 1950. It was an era that saw dramatic changes both in musical expression and in the expression of individual sexual identity. These changes swept away many of the certainties of the past while opening up the possibility of new interpretations and associations. By focusing on the links between musicality and queer sexuality, these essays offer valuable insight into the musical culture of this era while addressing some watershed moments in the formulation of current conceptions of sexual identity.

Several of the authors focus on personal details that offer insight into the private lives of the subjects: Eva Reiger opens a rare window into the romantic correspondence between Eugenie Schumann (the daughter of Clara and Robert) and singer Marie Fillunger; Lloyd Whitesell reconstructs Parisian gay subcultures to interpret Ravel's dandyism as a self-protective strategy of disguise; Sophie Fuller uncovers the careers of various musical women in turn of the century Britain, several of whom moved in known lesbian circles; Fiona Richards examines the rarefied sexuality of John Ireland as revealed in a collection of confessional letters. Other authors examine issues of gender embedded in performance and composition: Gillian Rodger demonstrates how changing constructs of gender are revealed in the repertoire and style of male impersonators in American vaudeville; Jann Paisler discusses the transitivity of gender and its thematic embodiment in the music of Saint-Saëns; Byron Adams speculates on homoerotic meanings veiled in the appearance of various enigmatic personae in the works of Elgar; Ivan Raykoff offers musical transcription as a sort of queer musical liberation - an alternative form of the (pro)creative urge. Finally, there are discussions of the ways in which music and queerness combined to shape modern culture: Mitchell Morris reveals how groups of German men fashioned homosexual identities through the cult of Wagner; Philip Brett, while examining the life and work of musicologist Edward Dent, ponders the threat of homosexuality and its effect on the discipline of musicology.

Some questionable assumptions and approaches underlie a number of the essays in this collection. To begin, the evidence suggesting the homosexuality of several subjects, including Ravel, Elgar, Ireland, and Saint-Saëns, is either dubious or absent. Lacking solid evidence, the authors often look to the music for signs of queerness or turn to speculation in the hope that 'a picture might take shape from the signs and suspicions of concealment, as one might discover a hidden room by tracing the odd dimensions of the rooms around it.' In the case of Ireland, it is 'the programmatic and literary nature of [his] output [that] suggests an innate homosexuality.' Fortunately, these problems are balanced by essays that address these issues head on. While not disputing or contradicting the assumptions directly, they provide alternative viewpoints. Malcolm Hamrick Brown, in his essay on Tchaikovsky reception, identifies the 'biographical fallacy' (the view that 'the artwork somehow replicates an experience in the life of the artist who created it') and reveals how the spreading awareness of Tchaikovsky's homosexuality prompted increasingly homophobic reactions to his music. Sherrie Tucker, who writes on all-woman bands in the 1940s, shares her moral dilemma concerning the unconfirmed sexuality of some of her subjects. Despite indications that these bands may have provided some women with social spaces for same-sex exploration, none of her subjects were willing to openly confirm or discuss this information. She is thus able to address the problems that emerge when subjects do not come out.

Although music is a primary focus of the book, musical analysis is rare and largely on a basic level. The authors deal instead with the private lives of composers and performers, musical practices, and the social meanings embedded in musical composition and performance. While some readers will be disappointed by the absence...