Gay Choruses and Music Confronting Heteronormativity, Cultural and Institutional Homophobia and Anti-Queer Violence
Telling Stories and Building Community through Song: Gay Choruses and Music Confronting Heteronormativity, Cultural and Institutional Homophobia and Anti-Queer Violence
Kevin C. Schattenkirk MA, Music History (2010, University of Washington) MA, Ethnomusicology (2008, University of Washington)
This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Western Australia.
University of Western Australia School of Social Sciences and School of Music Submitted for examination 18 December 2017
i Thesis Declaration I, Kevin C Schattenkirk, certify that: This thesis has been substantially accomplished during enrolment in the degree. This thesis does not contain material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in my name, in any university or other tertiary institution. No part of this work will, in the future, be used in a submission in my name, for any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution without the prior approval of The University of Western Australia and where applicable, any partner institution responsible for the joint-award of this degree. This thesis does not contain any material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. The work(s) are not in any way a violation or infringement of any copyright, trademark, patent, or other rights whatsoever of any person. The research involving human data reported in this thesis was assessed and approved by The University of Western Australia Human Research Ethics Committee. Approval #: RA/4/1/5819. This thesis does not contain work that I have published, nor work under review for publication.
Signature:
Date: 18 December 2017
ii Abstract
The focus of this project is the gay choral movement and commissioned music addressing heteronormativity, homophobia and anti-queer violence in the United States. With the emergence of openly gay choruses in the late 1970s, newly commissioned music has been valued as an essential means of addressing socio-political and cultural issues relevant to, and impacting upon, the queer community. For instance, new music about the devastation of the AIDS epidemic became an integral part of the gay choral repertoire in the 1980s and 90s. This project is primarily concerned with commissioned music about heteronormativity, homophobia and anti-queer violence. Some of this music addresses the 1998 murder of openly gay university student Matthew Shepard. More recently, gay choruses have commissioned music in response to an epidemic of suicide among queer youth. This serves to illustrate the ways in which gay choruses continually engage their audiences in discourse on the violent ramifications of anti-queer rhetoric and sentiment in the US. But before choruses take this music to the stage, singers individually and collectively contend with the meaning of a given piece of music in the rehearsal space – and how that piece of music might reflect and express their experiences. As such, I find that these pieces of music reproduce conflict, anxiety and resolution – the conflict of being a queer person in a heteronormative world, anxiety because of the emotional, psychological and physical impact of that conflict (being shunned by friends and family, suffering discrimination and/or violence, regardless of whether or not one is ‘out’), and resolution in contending with those experiences. I argue that in performing music that reproduces conflict, anxiety and resolution, gay choruses tell their stories. In doing so, this music becomes a site for healing and a strengthened sense of community. Choruses of study in this project include the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus (formed in 1978), Seattle Men’s Chorus (formed in 1979) and Boston Gay Men’s Chorus (formed in 1982). These ensembles are member choruses of the larger Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (or, GALA Choruses, formed in 1982), an international organization. It is pertinent to understand the respective histories of these choruses and the socio-political contexts from which they emerged. This project examines the ways in which these choruses have adapted their sense of purpose to the contemporary needs of the queer community. Following this historical background, this project examines commissioned music as a means of addressing and confronting heteronormativity, homophobia and anti-queer violence since the Shepard murder in 1998. However, this project is not limited to music about homophobic violence committed by perpetrators against a gay-identifying victim. Rather, the scope of anti-queer violence also includes acts of self-harm and suicide by queer people – which are acts of anti-queer violence where the queer person responds to a culture that conditions them to believe their life has no value. Music that addresses these concerns then becomes a utility for gay choruses, embodying the mission statements of these ensembles for outreach and creating social change. While effecting social change with audience members is not the focus of this project, it must be mentioned in order to understand what drives the purpose of these choruses. The change that does take place, however, is often within these ensembles. By preparing and performing the music in this project, singers tell their unique and individual stories. These stories share commonalities that allow singers to relate to one another, feel a sense of healing and strengthen a sense of community within their respective choruses.
iii Table of Contents
List of Figures … vii
Abbreviations and Acronyms … viii
Acknowledgments … ix
Dedication … xii
Chapter 1 Introduction … 1
Matthew Shepard, Harvey Milk and Queer Youth Suicide: Stories of Heteronormativity, Homophobia and Anti-Queer Violence … 4
Genesis of this Current Work … 9
Definition of Terms … 13
A Note About Gay Choruses’ Rehearsal Processes and Concert Seasons … 18
Research Questions and Focus of this Project … 21
Literature Review … 26
Methodological Approaches … 37
Chapter Summaries … 47
Chapter 2 The Origins, Development and Politics of the Gay Choral Movement … 50
Gay Choral Movement and Activism … 51
San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and Harvey Milk … 53
Seattle Men’s Chorus … 58
Boston Gay Men’s Chorus … 61
Formation of Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA Choruses) … 65
Commissioned Music as an Aesthetic Value … 69
iv Repurposing Songs for Social Commentary … 74
Chapter 3 ‘We’re going to tell our stories’: Commissioned Music in the Gay Choral Repertoire … 77
Repertoire Studies … 78
Musical Responses to the Shepard Murder … 81
‘What Matters’ … 83
A Whitman Oratorio … 87
Community Memory in Music About Shepard … 93
Raising Questions … 95
Heteronormativity and Violence in ‘Testimony’ … 98
I Am Harvey Milk (2013) and Beyond … 102
Chapter 4 Joining the Chorus, Biography and Experience: San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus as a Case Study … 109
Communities of Practice and Music Making … 110
A Note on the Audition Process: Behind the Scenes Logistics … 114
SFGMC’s Stories … 116
Biography, Experience and Musicking … 119
Premiering ‘Testimony’ … 123
Reflections on Performing in Laramie, July 2012 … 126
Chapter 5 ‘I’m actually, genuinely singing about myself’: Seattle Men’s Chorus as a Case Study … 132
Music Making and Identity … 136
In the Rehearsal Space … 138
Reflecting on Current Musical Practices: Singers in Conversation … 141
Passing the Mic: Singers Sharing Stories at the 24 March 2014 Rehearsal … 147
v Crisis, Scars and Self-Acceptance … 152
Chapter 6 – Conclusion … 158
This Work in Summary … 160
Avenues for Future Research … 164
Bibliography … 170
Appendices … 179
vi List of Figures
Figure 1 Matthew Shepard … 4
Figure 2 Matthew Shepard … 5
Figure 3 Harvey Milk … 6
Figure 4 Score: ‘What Matters’ (bb. 37-44) By Randi Driscoll, arranged by Kevin Robison … 86
Figure 5 Score: A Whitman Oratorio, ‘V: Protest’ (bb. 1-7) By Lowell Liebermann … 91
Figure 6 San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, Love Can Build a Bridge concert July 2012, University of Wyoming … 127
Figure 7 Pike Street, the Capitol Hill neighbourhood of Seattle, Washington… 133
vii Abbreviations and Acronyms
AIDS – Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
BGMC – Boston Gay Men’s Chorus
COAST – Come Out and Sing Together
GALA and GALA Choruses – Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses
HIV – Human Immunodeficiency Virus
LGBTQI (and variations on this acronym) – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, queer/questioning, intersex MSF – Matthew Shepard Foundation
SFGMC – San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus
SMC – Seattle Men’s Chorus
SWC – Seattle Women’s Chorus
WBC – Westboro Baptist Church
viii Acknowledgments
This research is supported by an Australian Post-Graduate Award, University of Western Australia Safety Net Top-Up Scholarship, and an Overseas Travel Award.
Prior to the start of this project, and certainly as my work has progressed over the last five years, I have been fortunate to have the support of a number of mentors, colleagues, friends and family. To those I may have missed below, please accept my apologies. I would like to express my gratitude to the following:
Dr. Jonathan McIntosh, for all of your invaluable feedback and guidance on this project from the very beginning. I cannot begin to adequately express my gratitude for both your mentorship and friendship.
Dennis Coleman, conductor emeritus of Seattle Men’s Chorus as of June 2016. This project would not be the same without you. Thank you for being a liaison of sorts, putting me in contact with Tim Seelig and others in the GALA Choruses organization. Your kindness, generosity and enthusiasm for this project will never be forgotten.
Dr. Martin Forsey, Dr. David Symons, Dr. Nicholas Bannan, and Dr. Steven Maras for your impeccable guidance, detailed feedback on my work, and ability to see the practical value of this research, especially over the last few years of completing this project.
Dr. Andrea Emberly for your assistance in securing funding for this project, and for introducing me to Dr. Jonathan McIntosh in 2010.
Dr. John Phillips for all of your invaluable advice and insights in the realms of academia, the gym, and a bodybuilder’s diet (12-egg omelettes every day!). I am so happy to have met you, and I look forward to many more years of knowing and working with you.
Dr. Patricia Alessi and Dr. Elizabeth Sekararum, for your warm welcome to the Music School at the University of Western Australia in June 2012. Thank you for your assistance in helping me clarify the focus of my work early on, and for your continued encouragement.
Dr. Tim Seelig, Dr. Kathleen McGuire, Dr. Reuben Reynolds, and Craig Coogan for being so open and giving, allowing me into your rehearsal spaces, sharing invaluable insights from your experiences in the gay choral world, and providing recordings, scores, lyrics, and video recordings pertinent to this project.
All of the participants in this project from San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, Seattle Men’s Chorus, and Boston Gay Men’s Chorus, for sharing your unique experiences in conversations and interviews. Your willingness to be vulnerable, honest and reflective will never be forgotten, and it is my honour and privilege to have worked with each of you.
Dr. Heather MacLachlan for your enthusiastic response to my work, and for our lunchtime conversation at the Society for Ethnomusicology conference in Pittsburgh in 2014. I look forward to many more discussions and exchanges of ideas.
Craig Carnahan for your generosity in providing me with a score for ‘Matthew’s Lullaby’.
ix Dr. Bob Mensel for our conversation in March 2014 in Portland, Oregon, which ultimately did not make the final edits for this project but still greatly informed my work on this project.
Dr. Carrie Preston at Boston University for your assistance mid-way through this project.
Colleagues at the Pittsburgh (2014) and Austin (2015) meetings for the Society for Ethnomusicology, a crucial period of time in the development of my project, for your inquiries, feedback and enthusiastic responses to my work in post-presentation discussions.
Peter Casserly for your friendship, for many laughs and good times, and for yours and Jonathan’s hospitality in Perth and Melbourne.
My thesis examiners, Dr. Ruth Finnegan, Dr. Aaron Gurlly, and Dr. Wendy Moy. Your response to the penultimate draft of this work helped me immeasurably in my edits to the final submission. Thank you for the honour of your time and considered feedback.
Dr. Fay Sudweeks, Dr. Val Hobson, Dr. Bonnie Barber, Dr. Christine Glass, Libby Jackson- Barrett, and Kit Lawson from my time working at Murdoch University; and Dr. Joan Graham at the University of Washington for my first teaching opportunity, which has shaped the way I think about shaping university-level instruction.
My Perth crew, an amazing group of people who were there at the beginning of this project and have remained steadfast in their encouragement, friendship and love: Ed Garrison and Jacques Maissin, Graham Lovelock and Steve Singer, Danielle McDonald, Stevie Modern, Erwin Swasbrook, Anna-Mieke Kappelle and Steve Grant, Matt and Suzie Baker, Rob Campbell and Jacq Flowers, Shannon Johnston, Gary Beilby, Malcolm Fialho, Carsten Ostergaard Pedersen, and George Wilkinson.
My colleagues from the University of Washington during the time I completed work on my Master’s in Ethnomusicology (2008) and Music History (2010): Dr. Jabali Stewart and Dr. Monica Rojas, Dr. Sabrina Bonaparte, Dr. Sean Ichiro Manes, Dr. Amanda Soto, Dr. Julie Parsons, Dr. Laurel Sercombe, Dr. Sarah Bartolome, Dr. Sarah Shewbert, Dr. Whitney Henderson, Dr. Patricia Campbell, Dr. Stephen Morrison, and Dr. George Bozarth.
My Seattle friends, for laughs, good times, your support and love: Brandon Blake, Matt Holzknecht, Amos Etheridge and Lari Garrison, Ralitsa Sergieva and Adonis Toro, Larry Clark, Dr. Russ Black, Dr. Chris Black, Dave Ramm, Jon Boudreau (thanks for all the bootlegs!), Mick Carter and Auralee MacColl Carter, Thomas Brook, TJ Elston (my sweet tj bear!), John Share, Paul Johns, David Bannon, and Tim Baccus.
And my Boston friends: Dr. Jenny Talbot, Dr. Saurabha Bhatnagar, Robin and Carol Flinn, Johnny Gall, Matthew Lorello, David Menino, Franck Baudry and Sean Brooks, Raheem Lee, and Trish Case.
Ethan Apter and Kellen Andrilenas for your friendship, and for your hospitality in early 2014 when I visited Boston for research.
David Hegarty and David Miller for hosting me in San Francisco in 2014.
x Dr. James Croft for providing me with photos from SFGMC’s 2012 Love Can Build a Bridge concert in Laramie.
Members of the Boston Pride Board of Directors, for your continued work on behalf of the queer community and for welcoming me as part of the team between 2015-18.
My dear friends Maureen Rase, Janice McKenna, Dr. Donna Thompson, Dr. Gary Troia, Justin Weiss-Galafant, Belen Pifel, Dr. Kim Flagg Sellers, Mee and Serge Knystautas, Katie Williams (my peaches!). I am so grateful for your support. But more than that, I just love having you all in my life. I am so incredibly fortunate to call you my friends.
My cousin Carley for keeping up with my PhD work while I keep up with yours! Your interest and enthusiasm are infectious. Also, aunt Peg and cousin Rachel for your love and support.
My parents, my sister Lisa and brother-in-law Andrew for being an absolutely amazing family. I love you all more than I can express.
My husband, Dr. Gregg Harbaugh. Where do I start? Your energy and enthusiasm is infectious. To watch you work as a statistical consultant and educational psychologist inspires me, and as a quantitative researcher you have compelled me to look at my work in different ways. As my companion and life-partner, I am constantly astounded by your compassion, and your love for all of the people we hold dear to us. You make every day so much fun, and your laugh is my most favourite sound in the world. I cannot adequately express my gratitude for every beautiful thing you bring to my life, so I will just say: LYMTWCS.
My work on this project is in memory of my brother Jason and my dear friend Bruce McKenna – both of whom believed that I could do this, but are not here to celebrate the end of this particular chapter in my academic life. Their absence makes the completion of this project bittersweet. Rest peacefully.
And to the memory of my heroes who passed away in final years of this project, whose music soundtracked necessary moments of breathing room – stepping away from the computer, putting down my notes, grabbing a cup of coffee, and taking an album’s-length moment to refresh. Rest peacefully, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Sharon Jones, Prince, George Michael, Chris Cornell, and Tom Petty.
xi Dedication
This project is dedicated to the memory of those no longer with us:
Matthew Shepard, Brandon Teena, Barry Winchell, Tyler Clementi, Gabriel Fernandez, Ronnie Antonio Paris, Ryan Skipper, Steen Fenrich, Jason Gage, Jamey Rodemeyer, Michael Sandy, Larry King, Gwen Araujo, Justin Goodwin, Lateisha Green, Angie Zapata, Mark Carson, Scotty Joe Weaver, The 49 people who died in the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shootings in Orlando, Florida and the countless other casualties of anti-queer violence.
To the strength of those who have survived:
Zachary Hess and Andrew Haught, CeCe McDonald, Nima Daivari, Kevin Aviance, The 53 survivors of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shootings, The courageous queer and allied people who share their stories through It Gets Better And everyone every day who endures and transcends anti-queer hatred and violence.
Finally, to the late Harvey Milk, for the continued impact of his legacy. The cost of queer visibility is evidenced in the names above, and in the acts of anti-queer discrimination and violence that continue to happen day in and day out. But with Milk’s vision, and our courage in coming out, being honest and open about who we are, our cultural fabric has changed. It is our duty to ensure its continued change for the betterment of generations to come.
xii Chapter 1 Introduction
In the mid to late-1970s, queer identifying choral ensembles began to form in various parts of the US. Among the originators of this emerging gay choral movement is Anna Crusis
Women’s Choir, which formed in 1975 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.1 A few years later,
Stonewall Chorale formed in New York City in 1977 – originally named the Gotham Male
Chorus, but changed their name in 1979 and began including women in the ensemble.2 The formation of these and other ensembles in short succession was largely in response to a need for greater societal acceptance and expanded legal rights for the queer community (Dillon
2007). In the time since, the gay choral movement has become a significant part of the queer rights movement. With the formation of San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus (SFGMC) in late
1978 as the first ensemble to openly use the word ‘Gay’ in its name, the movement rapidly grew and has since produced a wide variety of choruses in urban and rural locales all around the world.3 As this project will discuss in depth in Chapter 2, the formation of these ensembles – from their inception in the US through to their development as an international movement – is inextricably linked to the social and political concerns of the larger queer rights movement. As they have done since the early years of the movement, choruses have continued to respond to issues of concern in the queer community on local, national and international levels (Dillon 2007). Responses include outreach efforts, such as performing in
‘red’ areas or states – politically, religiously and socially conservative locales not necessarily friendly to queer people.4 More pertinent to this project, the gay choral movement values the commissioning of new songs and multi-movement works that function as musical statements
1 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/history 2 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/history 3 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/history 4 ‘Red’ is associated with the Republican party, in opposition to ‘blue’ which is associated with the Democratic party. A ‘red’ area or state is one that Republican candidates usually tend to win in election cycles.
1 about the queer community and how it is situated in the socio-political climate of the US.
Commissioned music contributes to a growing body of work in the gay choral repertoire, often reflecting the ways in which queer peoples’ lives and overall wellbeing are impacted and shaped by the cultures in which they live.
This project is specifically concerned with gay choruses and a body of music in their repertoire that addresses heteronormativity, cultural and institutional homophobia and anti- queer violence in the US.
Choruses responsible for commissioning these songs and multi-movement works usually work with queer-identifying or allied composers. These songs and multi-movement works essentially function as utilities: tools at the disposal of the larger gay choral movement, containing messages of concern relevant to the experiences of the larger queer community.
The specific body of music in the gay choral repertoire with which this project is concerned addresses these issues from two angles. First, in commemorating key figures of the queer rights movement, such as Matthew Shepard and Harvey Milk – whose stories will be discussed later in this project – gay choruses draw attention to the impact of heteronormativity and homophobia on cultural and institutional levels in political, religious and social discourses on acts of anti-queer violence. Second, by drawing attention and giving voice to queer experiences with self-destructive behaviours and suicide, gay choruses express the possibility of transcending heteronormativity through self-acceptance and finding community. All of this music functions as an avenue for autobiographical expression, through which chorus singers also give voice to their unique, but commonly shared, experiences.
In my work, experiences with homophobia and anti-queer violence, and the desire to be part of a community of singers, compels reflection in participants on why they joined their respective choruses. Singers reflect on their unique individual stories, and how their
2 experiences inform their approach to this particular form of social action – performing in a gay chorus that simultaneously entertains and engages in outreach and activism. Because the impact of this music cannot be measured quantitatively, the impact of outreach and activism on creating social change is not the topic of concern in this work. However, it must be mentioned because, the notion of creating social change is at the centre of every gay chorus endeavour, from their mission statements to commissioning new music, to putting on performances.5 Rather, this work is concerned with how music about heteronormativity, homophobia and anti-queer violence compels reflection in singers and creates a stronger sense of community within their choruses, from the rehearsal space to the concert stage.
In the context of a multi-dimensional gay chorus concert, I find the music examined in this work functions as a platform for chorus singers to tell their stories. In particular, this music reproduces conflict, anxiety and resolution: the conflict of being queer in a heteronormative world, the anxiety of what to do about it, and resolution in deciding to coming out. Thus, performances of this music become sites for healing and strengthening community bonds, embodying the beliefs embraced by the gay choral movement about creating social change through being out and open. Whether in rehearsal or performing on stage, the impact of this music is often profoundly personal and affective on both individual and collective levels. With these ideas as the basis for this work, I first examine the history of the gay choral movement, their values as expressed through commissioned music, how singers come to join their choruses, and how the process of making music about their experiences contributes to strengthening their respective chorus communities. With regard to the latter point, strengthening of the chorus community becomes even more significant when we consider that new members regularly join choruses. Most choruses hold auditions twice a year – at the beginning of the concert season in September, and again in January just prior to
5 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/history
3 preparation of the second concert (in a series of three per season). Thus, chorus membership
shifts and changes while the organization maintains its mission and values. The impact of
highly personal and affective music, that sometimes also represents key moments in queer
history, is a significant factor in building and maintaining a sense of community within the
chorus. I find in my work with singers in San Francisco, Seattle and Boston that when singers
share the experience of performing profoundly emotional music to which they can relate, it
compels feelings of compassion and empathy for their fellow choristers who have had similar
experiences. This contributes to strengthening a community bond within the ensemble and
informs their personal beliefs and perceptions of their effectiveness as agents of social
change.
Matthew Shepard, Harvey Milk, and Queer Youth Suicide in Gay Chorus Music: Stories of Heteronormativity, Homophobia and Anti- Queer Violence
In order to understand the purpose behind gay choruses’ performative aesthetics and how
commissioned music reflects their values as social movement organizations, it is essential to
understand the stories that inform the music this
project specifically examines. This section will
detail the stories of Matthew Shepard and
Harvey Milk, both of whom are commemorated
in songs and multi-movement works. Also, gay
Figure 1 - Matthew Shepard at home, year unknown; photo chorus music addresses the epidemic of suicide used with the permission of the Matthew Shepard Foundation among queer youth – self-destructive
behaviours as acts of anti-queer violence, in response to heteronormativity and cultural and
institutional homophobia. Specific pieces of music about these subjects will be analysed in
depth in Chapter 3.
4 To summarize the most well-known and substantiated version of Matthew Shepard’s story, late in the evening of 6 October 1998, Matthew Shepard was at the Fireside Lounge, a bar in downtown Laramie, Wyoming, USA. While he was at the bar, Matthew met two strangers, Aaron McKinney (age 22 at the time) and Russell Henderson (age 21 at the time).
The three young men shared pitchers of beer and played a few rounds of pool. At one point when Matthew was not within earshot, McKinney and
Henderson conspired to pretend they were gay in order to lure Matthew from the bar and rob him. Later,
McKinney and Henderson offered Figure 2 - Matthew Shepard, year unknown; photo used with the permission of the Matthew Shepard Foundation Matthew a ride home and he accepted. Some people close to Matthew suggest that he may have also left the bar with
McKinney and Henderson under pretences that sexual activity would take place. Seated between the two men, Shepard allegedly made sexual advances toward McKinney, the driver, who then became enraged. The men drove Shepard to a remote area just outside of Laramie.
McKinney allegedly yelled at Shepard, ‘we’re not gay, and you just got jacked’ (Loffreda
2000: 9).
McKinney and Henderson tied Shepard to a fence, beat him with a pistol, robbed him of his wallet and then fled the scene. Shepard was discovered 18 hours later by a passing bicyclist, Aaron Kreifels, who called police and paramedics to the scene. According to police recollections, Shepard was covered in blood, with only the tracks of his tears revealing any skin on his face. Rushed to Poudre Valley Hospital (in Fort Collins, Colorado), Shepard lay
5 in a coma for five days before passing away on 12 October 1998, the consequence of blunt
force trauma to the head.
In the years immediately following Shepard’s death, gay choruses responded by
commissioning new music. In 1999, Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus commissioned and
premiered ‘Matthew’s Lullaby’ by Craig Carnahan (composer) and Perry Brass (text), and
New York City Gay Men’s Chorus commissioned and premiered ‘Elegy for Matthew’ by
David Conte (composer) and John Stirling Walker (text). In 2002, the Los Angeles based
women’s ensemble Vox Femina premiered Kevin Robison’s arrangement of Randi Driscoll’s
song ‘What Matters’ while the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles premiered the men’s
arrangement two years later in 2004. Boston Gay Men’s Chorus (BGMC), one of the
choruses of study for this project, commissioned and premiered A Whitman Oratorio by
composer Lowell Liebermann in 2008. A work in five movements, A Whitman Oratorio
questions and critiques the state of queer rights in the US a decade after Shepard’s passing.
The aforementioned works represent the ways in which gay choruses continually respond to
heteronormativity, cultural and institutional homophobia and anti-queer violence through
new and relevant musical statements. Not
only do these songs and multi-movement
works address the issue through mourning
Shepard, but also through commemoration
of the politician and gay rights activist
Harvey Milk.
Two decades prior to Shepard’s Figure 3 - Harvey Milk in front of his Castro Street Camera shop, 1977; photo by Daniel Nicoletta, used by permission of death, Milk quickly rose to power as both an the photographer. activist in the gay rights movement (as it
was known at the time) and as one of the first openly gay politicians in the US (Schmiechen
6 and Epstein 2011). Milk often publicly spoke of his belief that coming out is the only way queer people could create positive social change for the larger community (Schmiechen and
Epstein 2011). To summarize Milk’s legacy, in early 1978, after years of campaigning for various offices, Milk won a seat on the San Francisco City Board of Supervisors. Milk’s philosophy is most emblematic in his famous speech at Gay Freedom Day on 25 June 1978
(see Appendices, pp. 175). He would reiterate much of this same speech later the same year on 7 November, celebrating California state voters’ defeat of Proposition 6, widely known and referred to as the Briggs Initiative. Essentially, Senator John Briggs, espousing the belief that gay people pose a threat to children and to American society on a larger scale, fashioned
Proposition 6 to protect public schools in firing teachers who identify as gay. The defeat of
Proposition 6 was largely due to Milk, and other leading political figures such as former
California governor Ronald Reagan and then-US president Jimmy Carter (among others), speaking out in opposition to the initiative (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). As a result of those who vigorously spoke against the initiative, voters rejected Proposition 6 in the
November 1978 election cycle. Both speeches contain similar content in that they both urged
‘gay people’ to ‘come out’ as a means of breaking down stereotypes and stigmatizations, thus creating positive social change for the larger queer community.
The defeat of Proposition 6 came less than a month before Milk was assassinated.
Milk’s political career, and his work as a gay rights activist, certainly flourished in the context of late 1978. Strangely, the defeat of Proposition 6 did not play a role in his assassination. Dan White, a fellow supervisor on the Board of Supervisors, killed both Milk and San Francisco’s Mayor George Moscone. But by many accounts, White did not act in a fit of homophobic rage. Both Moscone and White were heterosexual and in favour of expanding the rights of gay people in San Francisco. Also, Milk and White were known to have gotten along quite well. Before assassinating Milk and Moscone, White suddenly
7 resigned from the City Board of Supervisors four days after Proposition 6 was defeated.
Allegedly, White was never really comfortable with the political atmosphere in city government, never learned to negotiate and ‘back-scratch’ and, consequently, did not achieve much success. But only a few days after resigning, on 14 November 1978, White then wanted to rescind his resignation and return to the Board of Supervisors. By law, Moscone was not required to reappoint White, and therefore elected not to do so. Instead, Moscone decided to search for a replacement to represent White’s district. Milk, along with others on the Board of
Supervisors, had also lobbied against White’s reappointment because of the animosity it might cause. More significantly, Milk, who greatly understood how political bodies function, allegedly lobbied against White’s reappointment for the sake of filling his seat on the Board with someone who might regularly vote along the same lines. Moscone’s public statement focused on the rash decision of White to resign without consulting other supervisors or members of the public in the district he represented. Moscone agreed that White (a ‘10-month supervisor’, per Moscone’s statement) could be excused for ‘political naïveté’ but that the people of District 8 deserve ‘what’s fair, right and just’ (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011).
Essentially, White had killed Milk and Moscone over what he saw as a plot to keep him from resuming his role on the City Board of Supervisors.
Long before the tragedy of his murder, Milk had long since been aware that he was working in a culture of virulent homophobia and that he could be killed at any time. Despite his constant urging of all gay people to come out and live openly, Milk was also empathetic to the plight of closeted queer people who were not in situations where they could come out, and usually for fear of danger (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). Where music about Shepard confronts violence as a consequence of homophobia, I Am Harvey Milk by composer Andrew
Lippa (which was premiered by SFGMC in June 2013) commemorates its namesake while gauging progress, on cultural and institutional levels, several decades after his death. In
8 addition to music about Shepard and Milk, another branch of music in the gay choral repertoire addresses anti-queer violence as it manifests through self-destructive behaviours and suicide among queer youth. These self-inflicted acts of violence are anti-queer because they are usually in response to heteronormativity, homophobia, anti-queer sentiment and bullying.
In 2012, the year prior to their premier of I Am Harvey Milk, SFGMC premiered the song ‘Testimony’ by Broadway and film composer Stephen Schwartz. For the song’s lyrics,
Schwartz drew from videos submitted to the It Gets Better project, a video campaign founded by advice columnist Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller in 2010 designed to raise awareness of the epidemic suicide among queer youth. Essentially, It Gets Better is a platform for which anyone can submit videos of their stories. The campaign also provides resources of support (such as suicide prevention hotlines) to queer people being bullied and/or contemplating suicide. Essentially, the intent behind these videos is to mitigate suicide and self-destructive behaviours by providing viewers with other peoples’ stories, compelling the viewer to feel that they are not alone. Two choruses of study in this current work,
SFGMC and Seattle Men’s Chorus (SMC), have contributed video submissions to It Gets
Better. Schwartz’s song attempts to provide a similar message. Among many gay choruses,
SFGMC, SMC and BGMC have performed ‘Testimony’. The song will be analysed in depth in Chapter 3.
Genesis of this Current Work
This current work is an expansion of a study that examines protest music about the 1998 murder of the openly gay, 21-year old University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard (for more on this study, see Schattenkirk 2010). Much scholarship recalls the story of the Shepard murder as the basis for examining its larger implications in US society (Loffreda, 2000; Ott
& Aoki, 2002; Schattenkirk, 2010; Petersen, 2011; Schattenkirk, 2014). The implications of
9 the Shepard murder are far and wide reaching, centred on the question of whether anti-queer rhetoric and sentiment throughout US culture (in political and religious avenues, and in cultural products such as television, film, and music) influences acts of homophobic violence.
These implications are significant for a few reasons. First, in their testimonies at their respective trials, McKinney and Henderson both admitted they targeted Shepard because he was gay. In testimony at his own trial, McKinney referred to Shepard as a ‘faggot’.6 In another specific instance 11 years later, McKinney expressed no remorse, stating that
Shepard ‘needed killing’.7 Aside from McKinney and Henderson, the extreme far-right religious conservative group Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) rose to national, and arguably international, prominence in the aftermath of the Shepard murder. Essentially, WBC created their reputation by protesting McKinney’s and Henderson’s court trials as well as Shepard’s memorial service and funeral. In their protests, members of WBC carried picket signs with slogans such as ‘Fag Matt in Hell’, ‘God Hates Fags’ and ‘AIDS Kills Fags Dead’, among others. As a consequence, many otherwise political, religious and social conservative groups sought to distance themselves from WBC’s decidedly uncompassionate rhetoric toward the queer community and the Shepard family (Lindsey 1998). In many instances, similarly conservative anti-queer religious leaders, such as Jerry Falwell, would attempt to differentiate their brand of anti-queer ideology from that of WBC (Lindsey 1998). This would allow religious conservatives to simultaneously condemn WBC and homosexuality (though not
Shepard specifically), while presenting a façade of compassion for the Shepard family’s loss.
The media would broadly cover the various political, religious and societal responses to the Shepard murder long after his death. Often the question at the centre of the murder – specifically, the motivations and intentions of McKinney and Henderson in their fatal assault
6 Cullen, Dave. 1999. Quiet bombshell in Matthew Shepard trial. Salon (11 November 1999) [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://www.salon.com/1999/11/01/gay_panic/ 7 Moore, John. 2009. Murderer: “Matt Shepard needed killing”. The Denver Post (1 October 2009) [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.denverpost.com/2009/10/01/murderer-matt-shepard-needed-killing/
10 on Shepard – represents the larger implications of this tragedy. Certainly, in the time since,
US society on a larger level still appears to be in constant negotiation of whether the anti- queer rhetoric and sentiment in politically, socially and religiously conservative discourses influence continued acts of violence against queer people. This is the issue at the centre of the music examined in this project, as choruses engage audiences in discourse about the impact of heteronormativity and homophobia on acts of anti-queer violence. Thus, this work is concerned with broadening the scope of analysis to include music about Milk and queer youth suicide, and making a preliminary look into how gay choruses have continued to broach the subject through newly commissioned music.
The thematic focus of this project centres on community music making in gay choruses – the nexus of mourning and commemoration, autobiography and shared experiences among singers, and how all of this informs the practice of rehearsing and performing this music for audiences. A secondary theme emerges specifically concerning performance, and the intent of gay choruses in using this music to create social change. As mentioned earlier, effecting and gauging social change is not a focus of this work. But it is a motivating factor in how choruses approach their work. The focus instead is on how the value of social change informs singers’ perceptions of their work, and how this contributes to a stronger sense of community within their respective ensembles. Additionally, it is necessary to examine the spread, dispersal and reach of this particular branch of the repertoire, even if just to a small extent, to other choruses. The act of contributing newly commissioned works to a repertoire from which other choruses draw underscores the larger sense of community in the gay choral movement.
The primary method of disseminating gay chorus music to audiences is through the concert hall, as opposed to popular music where dissemination is largely through recordings
(for example, vinyl records, CDs, digital downloads, YouTube videos and various social
11 media websites). While some choruses do make recordings available to the public, this does not usually happen until long after a given performance. For example, SFGMC premiered I
Am Harvey Milk in June 2013, and the recording of that particular performance was not available for purchase (both on CD and digitally through iTunes) until later that year, in
October 2013. Admittedly, five months between performance and the release of the I Am
Harvey Milk album is a relatively short period of time. But not all gay choruses have the financial resources to even make professional quality recordings of their music. For many gay choruses, publishing and royalty rates can consume financial resources that might otherwise be used to benefit the chorus and community in other ways (for example, concert tours, outreach performances, or supporting other queer community organizations). While further discussion of issues pertaining to performances and recordings are rife for examination in another context, the primary point here is that gay choruses often pass this music amongst one another, as the music enters into a larger body of work from which other choruses frequently draw. For instance, after its 2012 premier by SFGMC, ‘Testimony’ was then performed by BGMC in 2013, by SMC in 2014 and then again in an encore performance by BGMC in 2015. This is in addition to the many other gay choruses that have and will continue to perform the song. Aside from ‘Testimony’, many gay choruses have also regularly performed both ‘What Matters’ and I Am Harvey Milk. However, the intent here is not to analyse the frequency with which this music is passed between gay choruses. Rather, tracing this music as it is utilised by individual choruses helps to illustrate the role of these songs and multi-movement works in building community within these ensembles and within the larger gay choral movement.
In examining the backgrounds of the aforementioned music, a nexus began to emerge, with many common connections between SFGMC, SMC and BGMC. These three choruses are part of the larger Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA), founded in 1982 by
12 SFGMC as an organization for myriad queer-identifying ensembles nationally, and eventually internationally. As previously mentioned, all three choruses have performed
‘Testimony’, while SFGMC and SMC have performed I Am Harvey Milk. These are just a few examples of how music is regularly passed between the three choruses. Also, this project focuses on SFGMC, SMC and BGMC for three additional reasons. First, these choruses are among the largest and most influential in the GALA organization. Second, all three choruses regularly commission, and in many instances co-commission, new music. For instance,
SFGMC took the lead in commissioning I Am Harvey Milk with assistance from other GALA ensembles.8 Regularly commissioning new songs and multi-movement works contributes to a growing repertoire from which other gay choruses draw (also see Mensel 2007 and
MacLachlan 2015). Third, these three ensembles reflect the way the larger gay choral movement values music and performance, both of which are designed to instigate positive social change. Individual choruses are social movements unto themselves, but also interconnected as part of a larger GALA Choruses social movement. As Patrick Coyle, former artistic director of Cincinnati Men’s Chorus, explained to MacLachlan (2015: 87), ‘in a community chorus, the singers exist to serve the music, but in a GALA chorus, the music exists to serve the singers’. The music in this project reproduces stories of conflict, anxiety and resolution, becoming sites for healing and strengthening community. The subsequent chapters in this project will engage in greater discussion on this point by drawing from work with SFGMC, BGMC and SMC between 2013-15.
Definition of Terms
Several terms appear throughout this work that need to be clearly defined: queer, cultural and institutional homophobia, anti-queer violence, outreach, artistic director and executive
8 Other GALA ensembles involved in co-commissioning I Am Harvey Milk with SFGMC include Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus (Atlanta, Georgia), Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles (Los Angeles, California), Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus (Minneapolis, Minnesota), Vancouver Men’s Chorus (Vancouver, British Columbia), and Heartland Men’s Chorus (Kansas City, Missouri).
13 director. First, use of the term ‘queer’ in this project seeks to discuss a larger group of people who do not identify as heterosexual and cis-gender. In many instances, it is not uncommon to see an initialism such as LGBTQI to refer to the community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, queer/questioning and intersex people. However, the growing initialism and its myriad variations (such as GLBT, GLBTQ, LGBTQ, LGBTQI and so on) poses questions about inclusivity in adequately representing every group of people in the larger queer-identifying community. This presents a dilemma in that the initialism and its variations continue to expand and yet various groups of queer identifying people remain displeased. For instance, Wesleyan University humorously and ironically posited
LGBTQQFAGIPBDSM (for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/transsexual, Queer,
Questioning, Flexual, Asexual, Gender-fuck, Intersex, Polyamorous, Bondage/discipline,
Dominance/submission, Sadism, Masochism) as an example of intended accommodation, ultimately making the case for ‘queer’ as the most all-inclusive term.9 Additionally, in their definitions of LGBTQI-related terminology, Vanderbilt University suggests that the term
‘“queer” can be used as an umbrella term to refer to all LGBTQI people’.10 Thus, the term
‘queer’ will be used throughout this project with specific reference to people who do not identify as heterosexual and cis-gender.
Throughout this thesis, I also use the terms ‘cultural homophobia’ and ‘institutional homophobia’, and sometimes in combination (such as, ‘cultural and institutional homophobia) in reference to their collective impact on queer people, as a descriptor of social conditions (the ‘cultural’) and codified laws (the ‘insititutional’) in US culture that perpetuate discriminatory behaviors, rhetoric and sentiment against anyone perceived to not be
9 Rosenberg, Gabe. 2015. Professor Threatened, Residents Resist as Open House Pushed Into Media Spotlight. The Wesleyan Argus (3 March 2015) [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://wesleyanargus.com/2015/03/26/open-house/ 10 Vanderbilt University. 2017. Definitions – The Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Life [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lgbtqi/resources/definitions
14 heterosexual and cis-gender. In his work on the matter, Blumenfeld (1992: 3) contends that
‘homophobia operates on four distinct but interrelated levels: the personal, the interpersonal, the institutional, and the cultural’. The gay chorus music in this project addresses cultural homophobia as ‘social norms or codes of behavior’ that legitimizes acts of oppression through exclusion from, or negative stereotyping in, media and historical representations
(Blumenfeld 1992: 6). Media and historical representations might include those of queer people in cultural products such as music, television, film, and literature. Blumenfeld (1992:
3-6) examines how cultural homophobia is informed by personal homophobia (beliefs and misperceptions of queer people on a larger scale), interpersonal homophobia (where discrimination is enacted between individuals) and institutional homophobia (codified in laws and policies of governments, businesses, and educational, religious and professional organizations). Cultural and institutional forms of homophobia are often defined distinctly from one another, in that the former refers to the ways in which bias can be present in music, film, television, and other cultural products (such as the homophobic epithets in lyrics by rap artists such as Eminem), and the latter refers to the ways in which anti-queer sentiment and belief are codified in the law (such as, the US military policy Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, which was repealed in 2010 and allowed queer people to serve openly in the military).
But there is often a blurring of the lines between cultural and institutional homophobia – such as conservative religious cake bakers who desire the legal right
(institutional) to turn away customers who wish to purchase cakes for weddings of same-sex couples as a matter of adhering to their religious beliefs (cultural). Other similar examples include landlords who wish to legally deny housing to queer people, doctors and professionals in the medical field who wish to legally deny treatment to queer identifying patients, and conservative politicians and activists who work to restrict the rights of same-sex parents to apply for adoption and/or foster care.
15 In making musical commentary on cultural homophobia, gay chorus music also addresses personal, interpersonal and, to a certain extent (as with A Whitman Oratorio and I
Am Harvey Milk) institutional homophobia as well. Thus, gay choruses’ intent behind compelling such reflection is to engage audiences in discourse through the messages in the music. The hope is to move toward greater positive social change, culturally and legally/institutionally, for queer-identifying Americans.
The term ‘anti-queer violence’ refers to acts of violence that are motivated by hatred of queer-identifying people. Because such acts of violence are often investigated and prosecuted as crimes, I will use the terms ‘anti-queer violence’ and ‘hate crimes’ interchangeably. For the definition of both ‘anti-queer violence’ and ‘hate crimes’ I draw from existing hate crimes legislation in the United States. On 28 October 2009, President
Barack Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes
Prevention Act (referred to as ‘the Act’ henceforth). The Act amends already existing hate crimes legislation – the 1969 United States Federal Hate-Crime Law – to included protections for victims based on actual or perceived gender identity and sexual orientation, and disability.
Additionally, the Act allows for the federal government to investigate possible hate crimes that local state authorities may not pursue. Where the Act specifically uses the terminology
‘homophobic violence’, this work will replace ‘homophobic’ with ‘anti-queer’ to refer to acts of violence against people of non-heteronormative sexual orientations and gender identities
(and gender non-conformity).
In accordance with Section 249, the Act is designed to prosecute anyone who
‘wilfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, a dangerous weapon, or an explosive or incendiary device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of the actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability of any person’. Punishments for non-fatal acts of violence are no more
16 than 10 years imprisonment. Lifetime imprisonment can be a consequence if the hate crime is fatal, or if attempted murder, aggravated and/or attempted sexual assault is also proven.
Where bullying and suicide is concerned, the Act does not contain language specifically addressing the influence of discriminatory rhetoric and sentiment on self-destructive behaviours of queer people. The primary concern is, to what extent can an alleged assailant be prosecuted for exercising their First Amendment right to free speech if their discriminatory language results in the suicide of a queer person? After all, if a queer person commits suicide in response to a discriminatory, abusive and oppressive culture, they do so at their own hand even if the culture influenced them to act. Needless to say, such scenarios muddy the waters of discourse on the intent and purpose of hate crimes legislation. This is where the activism of gay choruses in engaging in outreach is significant to enacting social change in countering over-generalizations and/or misguided beliefs about queer people.
The approach of gay choruses in performing music that addresses the violent consequences of cultural and institutional homophobia is best characterized by the term
‘outreach’. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines outreach as ‘the activity or process of bringing information or services to people’. In the case of this project, the ‘information’ in gay chorus music and performances presents a multi-dimensionality that attempts to counter negative stereotypes of queer people. Moreover, the ‘information’ also presents parts of queer history through commemorative works about Shepard and Milk, while addressing the larger epidemic of homophobia and the ways in which it influences acts of anti-queer violence.
Outreach is, arguably, the primary mission of gay choruses, and this is reflected in conversations and interviews I conducted with singers in SFGMC, BGMC and SMC. As the singers reflect on their respective choruses’ mission statements, performative aesthetics and overall purpose, they often describe their intended impact with performing outreach in terms of ‘changing lives’, ‘changing hearts’ and ‘changing minds’ about the larger queer
17 community. Furthermore, the notion of music as a means of telling queer stories in order to compel thought and reflection in audience members on issues of concern to the queer community is the primary method of outreach. Thus, the aim of gay choruses’ work is to create positive social change. The goal is that audiences will then take their evolving perspectives on these issues out into the larger world, into their everyday lives where they can then effect social change. This suggests a domino effect, of sorts: changing the world incrementally, on behalf of the queer community, one person at a time.
Finally, the term ‘artistic director’ is specific to GALA Choruses. The ‘artistic director’ functions in the same capacity as a conductor would in other musical ensembles – they select the music, choose themes for the concert, and, on more of a day-to-day basis, lead the ensemble through rehearsals and performances. In the few instances where it is mentioned, the term ‘executive director’ refers to a specific administrative staff person who oversees the business affairs of the chorus, primarily finances/accounting, marketing and requests from the community for chorus performances outside of the standard concert season, among other things. The ‘executive director’ is also usually responsible for overseeing the logistics of chorus operations, keeping the finances of the organization, hiring staff and seeking volunteers to assist with such behind-the-scenes work at performances and during the rehearsal process.
A Note About Gay Choruses’ Rehearsal Processes and Concert Seasons
For the three GALA ensembles in this project, a typical concert season usually includes three separate programs, essentially dividing the rehearsal year into quarters (with a break during the summer quarter, usually June-August). Rehearsals for each new season usually begin in early September. The first program is usually a holiday concert, taking place in early to mid-
December. The second, often referred to as the Spring concert, takes place in mid to late
March and usually contains newly commissioned music – though premiering newly
18 commissioned music can often take place in other programs during the concert season.
Singers, especially those in BGMC, often refer to the Spring program as their ‘message show’. The final program of the concert season takes place in early to mid-June, and is often scheduled to coincide with the Pride festivities11 that take place in each chorus’ hometown.
With the conclusion of the concert season, choruses often take two and a half months off
(approximately mid-June through the end of August) before preparation for the next concert season begins. In some instances, choruses occasionally engage in outreach tours following the June program, while the momentum of performing is still high. For instance, BGMC toured Israel and Turkey in June 2015 and then South Africa in June 2018; and SMC toured the more socially, politically, and religiously conservative areas of Eastern Washington in
June 2018. Tours can also take place at other times of the year, and where they see a need.
For instance, SFGMC conducted their ‘Lavender Pen’ tour in October 2017, performing in the South of the US, in states that overwhelmingly supported the current President, Donald J.
Trump. The intent was to engage in outreach with audiences that might not be as friendly to civil rights – and not just for the larger queer community, but also for people of colour, immigrants, and women.
With regard to these types of performances, these choruses regularly augment their concert season with outreach concerts as requested by, and/or organized in tandem with, other community organizations. As with SMC’s June 2018 tour describe above, outreach performances often take place in rural and/or politically, socially and religiously conservative
11 Pride festivities originated from the very first gay pride, which took place in New York City on 28 June 1970. This date marked one year since the riots at the Stonewall Inn (in the Greenwich Village neighbourhood of New York City), a gay bar that police regularly raided. The riots represent a historical turning point in contemporary queer history, in that those who were at the Stonewall Inn that evening decided to fight back against the police raid. The Pride festivities that took place on 28 June 1970 have taken place annually throughout the US. Also, with the need to recognize the diversity and inclusiveness of the movement, the festivities are often referred to simply as Pride – dropping ‘gay’ because of its specificity. Pride festivities generally occur in June, the beginning of Summer in the US. But many cities, such as Atlanta, Georgia, hold their festivities as late in the year as October, for any number of reasons. For more information on the history of Pride in the US, please see the following link: Holland, Brynn. 2017. How Activists Plotted the First Gay Pride Parade. History [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.history.com/news/how-activists-plotted-the-first-gay-pride-parades
19 areas not necessarily amenable to the queer community. Often, these types of outreach performances are designed to raise funds for local queer-related support groups (for example, the BGMC raises money for Gay-Straight Alliance groups at local high schools). In some cases, these performances also include vigils and memorial services. For outreach performances, choruses often sing music they are in the process of preparing for a given concert (for example, holiday, Spring or Pride). Choruses also tend to draw from a reserve body of songs that are often relatively easy to sing (for example, well-known amongst singers and audiences alike, not terribly complicated in terms of harmonic structure, easy to learn and sometimes have fewer parts) and do not need to be frequently rehearsed. Furthermore, a reserve body of songs often include universal messages in the lyrics that can apply to outreach performances, vigils and memorial services alike (for example, ‘You’ll Never Walk
Alone’ by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein).
For the purpose of outlining the process of choruses’ performance preparation, the timeframe for rehearsing a concert throughout the quarter is relatively brief. Choruses usually hold a three-hour rehearsal once a week, over 10-12 weeks prior to performances. Once per quarter, choruses will hold a weekend retreat for the purpose of immersing singers in the music in a way that is not possible during standard weekly rehearsals. For instance, in
October, BGMC holds a weekend retreat from Friday evening through Sunday morning at a location outside of their hometown. In preparation for the Spring and Pride concerts, BGMC will hold an all-day Saturday retreat for the same purpose of rehearsing the music extensively. Consequently, standard weekly chorus rehearsals usually entail reading through as much of the music for a given concert as possible during a limited three-hour time span.
Artistic directors, of course, focus on musical details such an enunciation, intonation, and dynamics. Because GALA ensembles generally do not hold copies of their scores during performances, artistic directors tend to emphasize to singers the urgency in quickly and
20 efficiently memorising the music. This is especially important in the last few weeks before a concert because, in addition to focusing on musicianship and singing from memory, choruses largely tend to focus on logistical aspects of performances – entering and exiting the stage, transitions between songs, ‘choralography’ (choreography performed by the entire choral ensemble usually during a limited selection of songs), and any use of props (placement on, and removal from, the stage). In addition, and for purposes of creating an entertaining show, concerts usually include costumes, lighting, sets, soloists, duets, small vocal ensembles, and dance troupes. Needless to say, all of this activity makes for a busy 10-12 weeks rehearsal timeframe while preparing a concert that is both entertaining and meaningful.12
Research Questions and Focus of this Project
Scholarship in repertoire studies examines the role of gay choruses in commissioning new music (Coyle 2006; MacLachlan 2015; Mensel 2007). In one case specifically, Mensel
(2007) proposes ‘affinity music’ as a new genre term for all music by queer composers specifically for queer ensembles. In her analysis of gay chorus repertoire, MacLachlan (2015) determines that the body of work performed by these ensembles makes use of three specific characteristics as communication devices: sincerity, irony (often with humor), and contrafacta (for example, changing gender-specific pronouns in the lyrics of a given song to reflect same-sex desire, such as a gay men’s chorus singing ‘I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa
Claus’). However, the study of gay chorus repertoire that specifically addresses homophobia and anti-queer violence is an area rife for investigation. Certainly, the songs and multi- movement works in this project convey a sense of affinity and community and tend to make use of the characteristics MacLachlan (2015) describes. However, whether a given piece of
12 Many ensembles in the GALA Choruses organization also include what BGMC calls a ‘fifth section’: Active members who wish to be involved with the chorus in a non-singing, non-performing capacity. The role of such members usually entails assisting in various ways at rehearsals (such as, preparing snacks and drinks for the 15- minute break) and the performances (such as, taking tickets, handing out concert programs and/or ushering audience members to their seats).
21 music is about Shepard, Milk, or the real-life survivors of attempted suicide (as in the song
‘Testimony’), these songs and multi-movement works are profoundly personal, intimate and vulnerable while also decidedly political. Considering these characteristics, several questions emerge as to how:
1. This music addresses heteronormativity, homophobia and violence; 2. Commemoration is used as a device for social commentary; 3. Chorus communities remember and value musical commemoration; 4. This music reproduces stories of conflict, anxiety and resolution; 5. This music becomes a site for healing and strengthened community bonds; 6. This music presents in the context of a gay chorus concert, and its intended impact.
As utilities, the music in this project makes social commentary on the influence of heteronormativity and cultural and institutional homophobia on acts of anti-queer violence in the US. Recalling Coyle’s statement to MacLachlan (2015) that gay chorus music serves the singers, this reflects the musicking (Small 1998; Rice 2014) of communities of practice (Lave and Wenger 1991; Wenger 1998).
Lave and Wenger (1991) discuss communities of practice as a context in which members of a given community transform individually, and as a community, through sharing knowledge and experience. On a general level, this would suggest ‘participation in an activity system about which participants share understandings concerning what they are doing and what that means in their lives and for their communities’ (Lave and Wenger 1991: 98). In order to participate fully in a community of practice, the individual must have ‘access to a wide range of ongoing activity, old-timers, and other members of the community; and to information, resources, and opportunities for participation’ (Lave and Wenger 1991: 101).
Or, individual skill and knowledge is acquired through community activities, information is passed on by veteran members (‘old-timers’) and others who perhaps hold positions of power over the community. For the individual, success is reliant on ‘participating in the social relations, production processes, and other activities of communities of practice’ (Lave and
Wenger 1991: 101). With regard to the choruses in this project, this would encompass
22 participation in rehearsals and concerts (‘social relations’), preparing and performing music that attempts to give voice to queer experiences (‘production processes’), and engaging in outreach and community bonding events (‘other activities’).
In a later work, Wenger (1998: 24) further explains participation in communities of practice as an ‘encompassing process of being active participants in the practices of social communities and constructing identities in relation to these communities’. Wenger’s (1998:
24) emphasis of the words ‘practices’ and ‘identities’ highlights the relationship between the activities of the community, as mentioned above, and how participation in those activities contribute to the transformation of both the individual and the collective whole. This would suggest that the individual’s experience in the community of practice informs and shapes who they have, or will, become because of their participation in the group. In terms of gay choruses, members share identities – they are queer, allied (for heterosexual singers), singers, musicians and activists. In many instances, one or more of these identities motivated them to audition for their respective choruses. By engaging with the chorus, individuals learn about the workings of the ensemble – from the ways in which rehearsal and performances are conducted, to the importance of outreach and how it informs musical selections, topics for commissioned music, transmission of message and presenting an affirming queer identity in the music and in performance for the purpose of social justice. Participating in the chorus as a community of practice also entails representing the chorus publicly in the best possible way, as both an entertainment ensemble and as an activist organization. In the daily activities of the chorus, whether at rehearsal or in settings where socialization occurs (such as, BGMC singers doing karaoke at a local bar after rehearsals), participants learn about one another. In this work, I examine the ways in which music about heteronormativity, homophobia and anti- queer violence not only facilitate that learning, but also compel a strengthened bond within the chorus as a community of practice.
23 On a personal level, the songs and multi-movement works in this work use stories
(such as the Shepard murder, Milk’s work as a gay rights activist, and the real-life voices of queer people who survived suicide attempts) to give voice to subjects who have suffered from homophobia and violence. However, as this section will outline and the following chapters will examine in greater depth, this music is not purely commemorative and biographical. Rather, the composers of these songs and multi-movement works use direct approaches to lyrical content that renders their messages relevant to contemporary issues.
Also, through the use of first-person voice, the composers create space for the singers to interpret through the lens of their own unique individual experiences. While such an approach is not unique to gay chorus music, it allows the singers to feel as if they are, as
Dana, a singer from BGMC, shared with me, ‘tell[ing] our stories’. Thus, storytelling in this music functions as both a personal and political statement: Paying tribute, expressing affinity with the subjects in the music, as well as kinship with one another (through unique but comparable and shared experiences) in presenting this music as an ensemble, all while addressing the relevant concerns of the queer community as addressed in the lyrics. The purpose is to compel reflection in audiences on the implications of cultural and institutional homophobia and anti-queer violence. Even more significant, this music serves to remind audiences that queer people continue to suffer from similar acts of violence, based on actual or perceived sexual orientation and/or gender identity, despite any semblance of progress on behalf of queer rights and societal acceptance in the US.
In using these songs in this manner, choruses commemorate and re-present the stories of key figures such as Shepard and Milk. The stories of subjects such as Shepard and Milk are consolidations, drawing from social constructions and representing how communities – in this case, gay chorus ensembles and their allies – remember. As I will examine later, the songs and multi-movement works about Shepard and Milk in this project are not purely
24 biographical. Rather, generally speaking, they draw from elements of both men’s stories as the basis by which to make socio-political commentary on homophobia and violence.
Similarly, choruses also give voice to the real-life people whose stories make up the protagonist struggling with self-destruction in ‘Testimony’. Again, as I will examine later, the many real-life voices in combination present a protagonist that is at once both unique and universal.
On yet another level, the content of these songs and multi-movement works also creates space for singers to present the ways in which they have been impacted by homophobia and violence. This music then allows singers the opportunity for personal expression, where the content can function as an autobiographical expression, or an avenue via which autobiographical elements might be conveniently included (filling the cracks).
Following an analysis of songs and multi-movement works in the body of music about homophobia and violence, I will examine how chorus communities remember and value commemoration as a means of social commentary. Then, I will examine how choruses go one step further and personalize this music. These affective devices in these songs and works lend themselves to the performative aesthetics of gay choruses in attempting to appeal to the audience’s emotional response. In contrast to protest music that provokes and sometimes alienates listeners, this body of work is designed for outreach: By presenting stories of key figures, while simultaneously presenting the music as a personal expression, gay choruses attempt to engage in discourse and compel reflection on homophobia, on cultural and institutional levels, and anti-queer violence by moving audiences emotionally. I argue that in performing music that reproduces conflict, anxiety and resolution, gay choruses tell their stories. In doing so, this music becomes a site for healing and a strengthened sense of community.
25 Literature Review
Scholarship in ethnomusicology, music history, choral conducting and sociology covers the history of the gay choral movement to various extents (see Attinello 2002; Attinello 2006a;
Brett and Wood 2013; Coyle 2006; Gurlly 2014; McLachlan 2015; Mensel 2007; Moy 2015).
In their chapter ‘Lesbian and Gay Music’ for Queering the Pitch, Brett and Wood (2013) summarize the background and emergence of gay and lesbian ensembles. Where the gay choral movement is concerned, the founding of GALA Choruses in 1982 was essential to a thriving national, and eventually international, gay choral movement. Brett and Wood (2013:
361) highlight a significant aspect of GALA Choruses, stating that the organization’s member choruses ‘have contributed to the queer critique of musical institutions and authorized culture by mixing traditional, popular and highbrow musics of all kinds within single concerts’. This performative aesthetic – situating commissioned music with a specifically serious message in the larger context of a multi-dimensional gay chorus concert designed for entertainment – will be discussed throughout this work.
Much scholarship broadly examines the term ‘publics’ as it refers to dominant, normative culture and ‘counterpublics’ as it refers to non-normative groups and social movements (see Berlant and Freeman 1992; Butler 1993; D’Emilio 1992; D’Emilio 1998;
Desmond 2001; Fisher 2006; Foucault 1990; Fox 2010; Fraser 1997; Giffney 2008; Grace,
Hill, Johnson and Lewis 2004; Gray 2009; Gurlly 2014; Halberstam 2011; Halperin 2012;
Holt 2011; Love 2007; McGlotten 2005; McGlotten 2013; Moore 2004; Muñoz 1999; Munt
2008; Nardi 1994; Padgug 1989; Renna 2008; Sedgwick 2008; Warner 1993; Warner 1999;
Warner 2002). As counterpublics, gay choruses perform commissioned songs and multi- movement works to give voice to the contemporary concerns of the larger queer community.
While singing as the voice of the queer community, one might argue that the ‘real’ intended audience is heterosexual and cis-gender, with heteronormative culture as a specific target.
26 Where such politics of identity are concerned, in her seminal work Epistemology of the
Closet, Sedgwick (2008: 61) explains:
To identify as must always include multiple processes of identification with. It also involves identification as against; but even did it not, the relations implicit in identifying with are, as psychoanalysis suggests, in themselves quite sufficiently fraught with intensities of incorporation, diminishment, inflation, threat, loss, reparation and disavowal.
Additional discussion on similar uses of terminology can be found in Fraser (1997), where the queer-identifying community would be a ‘subaltern counterpublic’ positioned against a heteronormative ‘public’ that seeks to maintain queer subordination socially, religiously and politically. In his book How to be Gay, Halperin (2012) examines the role of dominant normative culture in shaping gay identity (and queer identity on a larger scale). Halperin’s definition of ‘heteronormativity’ describes that which queer counterpublics confront:
…a system of norms connected with a particular form of life, a form of life that comprises a number of interrelated elements, all of them fused into a single style of social existence. That system of norms does not so much describe how people live or ought to live as it defines a horizon of expectations for human life, a set of ideals to which people aspire and against which they measure the value of their own and other people’s lives (Halperin 2012: 450).
Focusing on the ‘normative’ and how it is used in political, social and religious discourses,
Halperin (2012: 451) lists specific markers of heteronormative culture that subordinate queer people: ‘intimacy, love, friendship, solidarity, sex, reproduction, child-raising, generational succession, caretaking, mutual support, shared living space, shared finances, property ownership, and private life.’ Heteronormative culture, as Halperin (2012: 451) contends, would dictate that these markers ‘go together and should not be parcelled out among different relationships or otherwise dispersed’. The reference to ‘different relationships’ would suggest those that are not heterosexual and monogamous in nature. In referencing Warner’s (1993) seminal work in Fear of a Queer Planet, Halperin (2012: 451) continues to explain of heteronormative culture:
Linked to this single form of life are models of appropriate community membership, or public speech and self-representation, political participation, freedom, family life, class identity,
27 education, consumption and desire, social display, public culture, racial and national fantasy, health and bodily bearing, trust and truth. All are associated with heterosexuality as a sexual practice and preference.
Heteronormative culture distinguishes itself with these traits and attempts to retain its dominance over queer people. However, Halperin (2012: 451) goes on to describe the notion that just as straight people can participate in gay culture (for example, allied heterosexual singers in gay choruses) without actually being or identifying as homosexual, so can gay people participate in straight culture without being heterosexual. The ramification is that gay
(and even more broadly, queer) people run the risk of participating not just in heterosexual culture, but participating in and subjugating themselves to heteronormativity – behaving and living like heterosexual cis-gender people because that is the ‘normal’ thing to do. As a counterpublic, queer-identified social movements fight against heteronormative notions that seek to reinforce this type of shame inflicted upon queer people for not being heterosexual, not being ‘normal’ (see Giffney 2008; Grace, Hill, Johnson and Lewis 2004; Gray 2009;
Gurlly 2014; Halberstam 2011; Halperin 2012; Holt 2011; Love 2007; Moore 2004; Munt
2008; Nardi 1994; Sedgwick 2008; Warner 1993; Warner 1999; Warner 2002).
The dominance of heteronormative culture is also best illustrated in a study by
Petersen (2011: 90-91) regarding the passing of all-inclusive hate crimes legislation with protections for victims based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. Petersen (2011:
90-91) specifically analyses discourse about the mitigation of discrimination and violence against queer-identifying people in the aftermath of the Shepard murder. Regarding the emotionally charged discourse of that particular time, Petersen (2011: 91) states ‘both sides in this argument were based in attachments, deeply invested in how the law would define the boundaries of community. Politics, here, was motivated simultaneously by attachment to principles and to specific groups of people’. While queer people would advocate for legally codifying consequences for anti-queer discrimination and violence, heteronormative publics
28 would be concerned with protecting the anti-queer rhetoric of political, religious and social entities from any culpability in influencing anti-queer discrimination and/or violence.
With regard to the ways in which gay choruses address heteronormativity, I do not intend to suggest that gay choruses intentionally position themselves in opposition to heterosexual cis-gender people. I would argue that by embracing an openly queer identity, choruses are more concerned with breaking down the notion of queer as non-normative. As such, they sing music about the impact of heteronormativity that often results in discrimination and acts of violence. The music performed by gay choruses signifies experiences and stories that come from an expressly queer perspective. Gay choruses provide a sense of community informed, but arguably not constrained by, these notions of gay/queer shame. In his work with the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus, Gurlly (2014) examines affect and how shame and pride in the history of the queer rights movement serve as utilities that inform non-heteronormative identity. Essentially, Gurlly (2014: ix) uncovers what he calls a
‘rift in thinking between members of the group’, between generations of queer singers who have experienced society, social change, expanded legal rights for, and acceptance of, queer people in different ways (such as, older singers who lived through the AIDS epidemic and shaming of gay men in the 1980s, versus younger singers who feel ‘coming out’ in contemporary US culture is easier than in the past). Gurlly (2014) reveals that such a ‘rift’ often leads to singers identifying with one another and stronger ensemble cohesion, instead of isolation and fragmentation. As I will discuss later in this project, I find that through the shared experiences reflected in the stories of the music examined in this work, choruses strengthen their respective communities and sense of purpose.
While gay choruses provide singers with a safe space to congregate as a community of people who share non-heteronormative identities, Fraser (1997: 82) draws attention to the fact that these types of communities ‘also function as bases and training grounds for
29 agitational activities directed toward wider publics. It is precisely in the dialectic between these two functions that their emancipatory potential resides’. Fraser’s (1997) description here applies more to direct action social movements, such as ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to
Unleash Power) and Black Lives Matter, that regularly engage in sit-ins, protests, occupation, and blockades.13 But where this project is concerned, the type of activism choruses engage in does not risk alienating audiences. Confrontation in gay chorus music is generally not provocative, nor designed to upset – this would be antithetical to the outreach mission statements of GALA and the individual gay choruses. However, two aspects from Fraser’s work are significant to this project. First, gay choruses cultivate a sense of community through shared queer identity, common history, and through unique but shared experiences.
Second, the ‘agitational activities’ gay choruses engage in is the continued sharing of queer people’s experiences and stories through the regular commissioning of songs and multi- movement works for performance.
Brett and Wood (2013) highlight the significance of commissioned music to GALA and how the organization has supported gay and lesbian composers who have given voice to the larger queer experience through song. The music in this project can certainly be characterised as sympathetic to the queer movement, in that it addresses the influence of heteronormativity on acts of discrimination and violence against queer people in the US. In his entry for the GLBTQ Encyclopedia, Attinello (2002) summarizes the history and activity of gay choruses and bands.14 Attinello (2002) states that in addition to the significant support
GALA provides for gay and lesbian composers, these commissioned works ‘incorporate gay or lesbian issues and concerns, especially the creation of “family” within the community or,
13 As a recent example of the ways in which direct action movement think about agitational activities, see: Handler, Evan. 2017. Get Up, Stand Up: The “resistance” so far is woefully inadequate. Huffington Post [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/get-up-stand- up_us_5a270e9ae4b0f3c1632e617d 14 Attinello, Paul. 2002. Choruses and Bands. GLBTQ Encyclopedia [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.glbtqarchive.com/arts/choruses_bands_A.pdf
30 less often, specific political issues’.15 The reference to creating ‘family’ reflects the ways in which the repertoire both reflects and cultivates a sense of community through shared experience. The repertoire reflects the shared experiences of singers, where their unique stories overlap; and this is where the repertoire assists and cultivating a sense of community between singers. As Chapter 3 will specifically examine, the commissioned music of gay choruses does broach political issues surrounding social and legislative progress on behalf of the queer community – as seen most directly in two multi-movement works here: A Whitman
Oratorio and I Am Harvey Milk.
With regard to how gay choruses select such music, in his research on choral conducting, Coyle (2006) examines the value GALA Choruses places in commissioning new works from both emerging and already established, largely queer-identifying, composers.
Coyle’s work (2006) analyses three specific pieces of commissioned music from the perspective of a conductor (or artistic director, the common term used by choruses in
GALA). Coyle (2006) investigates the compositional elements of style in order to determine their overall quality and place in the gay choral repertoire, and how ensembles can select music for their own purposes. (For more on artistic directors in choosing music that is appropriate to a given chorus’ abilities and yet challenges singers aesthetically, see Apfelstadt
2000). In his study of gay choral repertoire, Mensel (2007) analyses a specific body of gay chorus music by male and female queer-identifying composers containing queer-centric messages. In conducting such analysis, Mensel (2007) then proposes a new genre, ‘affinity music’, by which all such music can potentially be classified. Wahl’s (2009) study goes one step further than Mensel’s by focusing specifically on women’s choral ensembles commissioning and performing music specifically by female composers, with the intent of presenting and foregrounding an expressly feminine perspective on issues of concern – music
15 Attinello, Paul. 2002. Choruses and Bands. GLBTQ Encyclopedia [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.glbtqarchive.com/arts/choruses_bands_A.pdf
31 composed by and for women. While Wahl’s is certainly a significant undertaking, this work examines the use of music about heteronormativity, homophobia and anti-queer violence by songwriters and composers regardless of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity (or non-conformity).
In her study of the gay choral repertoire, MacLachlan (2015: 97) explains that, in general, much of the music performed by these ensembles reflect and express myriad ‘painful aspects’ of life for many queer people. In her analysis, MacLachlan (2015) examines the use of three specific devices in gay chorus repertoire: sincerity (such as, ‘What Matters’ which will be addressed later in this work), irony and humour (such as, the camp in gay men’s choruses singing ‘It’s Raining Men’), and contrafacta (such as, gay male choruses singing ‘I
Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus’). The music examined in this project is best characterized by its sincerity in addressing and confronting heteronormativity, cultural and institutional homophobia and anti-queer violence. Furthermore, the lyrical content in these pieces of music is in the first-person, which facilitates the expression of shared experience between the queer-identifying singers on stage. The overall intent is to compel reflection in the audience on the impact of heteronormativity on continued acts of discrimination and violence. Scholars such as MacLachlan (2015) and Davis (1999) have examined the use of rhetorical devices as a means of communicating a specific message in socio-political and protest music. I find the
‘painful aspects’ to which MacLachlan (2015) refers is reflected in direct and unambiguous lyrics set to music intended to be highly affective, allowing choruses to communicate their stories and experiences clearly. This will be explored more fully in Chapters 3, 4 and 5 of this work.
Aside from the intended impact on audiences, the emotional impact of this music on singers in gay choruses embodies what Gurlly (201:83) describes as the ability of queer people to ‘participate freely, fully, and equally in public life’. As singers in this project
32 expressed time and again, performing as part of an openly gay chorus provides a sense of visibility and community. As a result, the repertoire not only makes visible, but also validates, their stories and experiences. Through the openness and vulnerability in the repertoire, gay choruses attempt to confront the stigmas and shame still often attached to queer identity. Gurlly (2014: 83-84) explains that the shame often thrust upon queer social justice entities by heteronormative society is because ‘the private realities of our sexual choices are understood to be illegitimate barriers to our participation in civic and social life, as well as in our institutional and economic lives’. Consequently, the ramifications of such shame can lead the queer person to feel that their lives have no meaning to larger society, and engage in acts of self-harm and either consider or attempt suicide. The music in this project attempts to break such barriers – whether confronting queer subordination in heteronormative culture, anti-queer violence, or attempting to mitigate acts of self-destruction – by humanizing the stories of the singers on stage. By challenging these ‘illegitimate barriers’
(Gurlly 2014: 83-84), gay choruses legitimize their participation in larger society by presenting audiences with music about the very real impact of heteronormativity, cultural and institutional homophobia and anti-queer violence.
By confronting queer shame in a way that aligns with choruses’ mission statements for outreach, Moy (2015: 9) examines ‘the role of repertoire and performance in building social capital’. In general, gay chorus concerts are largely designed to entertain, and are multi-dimensional in their aesthetics – performing a variety of songs from eclectic genres, with various affects and moods, and including choreography, costumes, lighting effects, and sets. Regarding performative aesthetics, Moy (2015, 46) addresses the vast repertoire from which gay choruses draw and how music selections in general reflect their mission for outreach and social change. Adhering to their mission also guides choruses in the commissioning of new music and how it is premiered for audiences. SMC artistic director
33 Dennis Coleman explains to MacLachlan (2014) that he would never have SMC perform something that does not align with their mission for outreach. Consequently, this allows choruses to build trust with their audiences. This type of social capital informs the ways in which choruses couch serious message music in the context of a multi-dimensional concert.
The impact of such social capital is beyond the scope of this project but must be mentioned because of the ways it informs gay choruses in programming serious and intentionally affective – emotionally moving – message music.
Music in this project often represents for singers the profound impact of anti-queer violence (such as the Shepard murder, or the queer person contemplating suicide), and in many cases compelled some to join their respective chorus communities. Wenger (2004: 51) discusses communities of practice – a term that aptly describes the gay choruses in this project – as avenues by which people can convene and make meaning of how they
‘experience the world.’ In summary, meaning is negotiated by the players in a social community, usually produced and shaped by social dynamics and informed by history
(Wenger 2004: 52-55). The gay chorus as a community of practice makes meaning through shared queer identity subordinated in a heteronormative culture, and the desire to further societal and legal progress on behalf of the queer community (see also Finnegan 2007;
Hannerz 1980). In earlier work, Lave and Wenger (1991) examine learning within communities of practice, in that the participants of a given community can potentially be transformed through their interactions with one another. The changes and transformations that take place in gay choruses is at the heart of this current work (see also Anderson 2006;
Cohen 2001; Mendonça 2002; Turner 1982; Woolwine 2000).
Wrazen (2013) examines the profound relationship between performer, context and music and how all three in combination create intensely personal feelings. The ‘emotional resonance’ Wrazen (2013: 133) describes often derives from music in a ‘first-person voice’
34 that allows singers to be vulnerable and open in ways that might not otherwise feel possible outside of music. In relation, Turino (2008) examines the question of why music informs the most profound ways in which people experience the world. Turino (2008: 1) states, ‘music is not a unitary art form, but rather that this term refers to fundamentally distinct types of activities that fulfill different needs and ways of being human’. Turino (2008: 1) argues that
‘musical participation and experience are valuable for the processes of personal and social integration that make us whole’. Ruskin and Rice (2012: 303) find that some studies ‘treat individuals more often as members of communities than as autonomous actors’ while other studies ‘focus solely on communities without considering individuals’. This project examines the role of individual singers as members of the larger gay chorus communities, and how their roles (as individuals and as communities) inform, challenge and transform one another.
A wealth of scholarship examines social movement organizations and the socio- political issues they work toward (see Ahlquist 2006; Attinello 2002; Balen 2009; Cain 2005;
Eyerman and Jamison 1998; Fine 1995; Henderson and Hodges 2007; Hilliard 2002; Hilliard
2008; Jones 2016; Latimer 2008; Mattern 1998; Miyake 2016; Moro 2006; Moy 2015;
Pendleton 2005; Reed 1992; Reed 2005; Roma 1992; Silverman 2009; Strachan 2006;
Sturgeon 1995; Tilly and Wood 2013; Tobias and Leader 1999). In the last half of her article on experiencing queer public spaces, Miyake (2013: 9) examines the role of the ethnographer engaging in participant observation in a gay and lesbian mixed chorus, and specifically the role of music-making as a social practice. Miyake (2013: 10-11) examines the social and political significance of queer singers openly taking part in gay and lesbian identified choruses. A sense of community results from the kinship that queer-identifying singers feel with one another (Mensel 2007; Miyake 2013; Gurlly 2014). I contend that such strengthened sense of community derives from singers performing music that is at once socio-political, highly personal and vulnerable – music that reproduces the conflict of being queer in a
35 heteronormative society, anxiety over what to do about it, and resolution in coming out. Of course, every singer’s experience with heteronormativity, homophobia and anti-queer violence is unique – but these experiences often overlap in common ways. The process of learning, rehearsing and performing music about these shared but unique experiences within a community of people who share a common identity is conducive to profound bonding.
Appropriate to such discussions of community and bonding, Rice (2014: 6-7) discusses the term ‘musicking’ as a way of describing not an object (a song or piece of music), but rather an activity in which participants are engaged. As a verb, ‘musicking’ defines the practice and process of making music (see Small 1998; Rice 2014). In his work on musicking, Small (1998: 8) contends that an overall musical performance is ‘much richer and more complex’ than the impact of a specific piece of music and its impact on the listener.
As a result, Small (1998: 8) suggests that through examining ‘the entire set of relationships that constitute a performance, we shall see that the music’s primary meanings are not individual at all but social’. Where this project is concerned, this entails the singers’ relationships to one another, to the greater good and purpose of the chorus (as both an entertainment organization and a queer-identifying social movement), to the larger gay choral movement and its place in the history of the queer rights movement, to the impact on their audiences and larger society (on local, national and sometimes even international levels).
Thus, the meaning of a song about queer youth suicide, as performed by a gay men’s chorus with 250-300 singers, becomes complex in terms of how singers relate to the song individually and collectively. This raise questions on how singers’ experiences with the song’s meaning overlap into shared experience, and whether such knowledge informs the emotional impact and vulnerability of performing the song for an audience. Thus, as Small
(1998) contends, this music exists as a means for choruses to give voice to their concerns through performance. Furthermore, the impact of such serious message music is also
36 contingent upon where it is situated in the context of a multi-dimensional gay chorus concert containing songs in eclectic genres (such as pop, jazz, show tunes, folk and classical) with a variety of affects (such as humour, seriousness and reflection). All of this in combination also embodies musicking in that the careful framing of serious message music is often designed by choruses to represent the complex humanity and rich experiences of their singers.
Consequently, through the process of musicking (Small 1998; Rice 2014), gay choruses become social texts (Reed 2005; Sturgeon 1995) unto themselves, representing the contemporary needs and concerns of the larger queer community. With the music in this current work, choruses are social texts that speak to heteronormativity and mitigating cultural homophobia and acts of anti-queer violence. As social texts armed with the music in this project, choruses tell their stories – individually and collectively – in a way that, as mentioned above, reproduces conflict in being a queer person in a heteronormative society, the anxiety of what to do about it, and resolution in coming out. Much scholarship examines the use of rhetorical devices and affect (Becker 2004; Cvetkovich 2003; Davis 1998;
Gabrielsson and Juslin 1996; Hemmings 2005; MacLachlan 2015; Mensel 2007; Milton and
Svasek 2005; San Cassia 2005; Sedgwick 2003). Gay chorus music largely makes use of the type of first-person accounts Wrazen (2013) describes in her work. The lyrical content is largely direct and unambiguous, and often set to music designed to be highly affective in its appeal to the emotional responses of the audience. Through the process of musicking – from the rehearsal space to the concert stage – the songs and multi-movement works in this project also become sites for sharing, healing and building community within the chorus.
Methodological Approaches
This work employs a variety of methodological approaches, with data deriving from (1) musicological analysis, (2) research interviews, (3) participant observation, and (4) the perspective of the performer as researcher. The use of these methodological approaches is
37 important to understanding how music and performance function as a platform for gay chorus singers to tell their stories, engage in activism, and strengthen a sense of community both within their ensembles and as part of a larger gay choral movement. In considering my role as a researcher, and how being an openly gay man and chorus singer establishes a level of trust between myself and the singers who participated in this project, I would characterize this as a work of intimate ethnography, which will be discussed later in this section.
For this work, I spent approximately one month with each of the three choruses between 2013-14, observing and participating in rehearsals and conducting research interviews, with additional work in Boston during the first quarter of 2015. Aside from rehearsals and research interviews, I attended concert performances of Totally Wicked by
SMC (on 22 March 2014 in Renton, Washington) and Tyler’s Suite by SFGMC (on 25 March
2014 in San Francisco, California), as well as BGMC’s annual Cabaret fundraising performance (as a guest of Artistic Director Reuben Reynolds, on 23 February 2014 in
Boston, Massachusetts). No data was collected and analysed from the BGMC Cabaret performance. I attended in good faith, to underscore that I was trustworthy as an ‘outsider’ and to see BGMC’s extracurricular activity in which many of the singer I interviewed took part – their enthusiasm and urging me to attend appeared to collapse the distance between my
‘outsider’ and ‘insider’ status, as many also inquired whether SMC also held similar performances (from my time with SMC prior to commencing work on this project).
Overall, 34 participants took part in research interviews, each lasting approximately an hour on average. Broken down by ensemble, 8 singers and Dennis Coleman (emeritus
Artistic Director) from SMC chose to participate; 11 singers and Dr. Tim Seelig (Artistic
Director) from SFGMC; and 8 singers plus Craig Coogan (Executive Director) and Reuben
Reynolds (Artistic Director) from BGMC. In addition, I interviewed Dr. Kathleen McGuire
(former Artistic Director of SFGMC, 2000-10) in Melbourne, Australia; singer/songwriter
38 Thea Hopkins (her song ‘Jesus is on the Wire’ is a response to the Shepard murder but not addressed in this thesis) in Boston, Massachusetts; and Dr. Bob Mensel (Artistic Director of
Portland Gay Men’s Chorus) in Portland, Oregon, all in early 2014.
Prior to my arrival in Seattle, San Francisco, and Boston, announcements of this work and the potential for singers to be interviewed were emailed to each chorus’ membership.
Upon my arrival in all locations, about halfway through the first rehearsal I attended for each chorus, I was asked to briefly describe my project to the ensemble and my interest in speaking with singers at the announcements portion just before a 15-minute break. Usually at this break, singers would approach me to set up a time either at or outside of the rehearsal space. With a few exceptions, most interviews took place outside rehearsal, on another day of the week most convenient to the singers. All research interviews with singers were conducted individually, with the exception of one session in March 2014 in which two SFGMC singers participated. Interviews with the three Artistic Directors, BGMC’s Executive Director, Dr.
McGuire, Dr. Mensel, and Ms. Hopkins were solicited by myself via email prior to my arrival in each city.
Because my approach was to cast a wide net, so to speak, and hear as many stories as possible, it only occurred to me during my 2014 research visit with SFGMC that I had acquired more data than would probably be needed for this project. After concluding my research visits, during the transcription and analysis process, I made note of common themes that emerged from the interviews. The coding process at this stage allowed for me to determine which singers to directly include in this project, citing specific quotes from their interviews that represent sentiments expressed by the other singers not directly included in this project.
Most interviews were scheduled at times where singers were not necessarily concerned with time, had no other obligations. Of course, in some instances, time constraints
39 did apply (such as meeting during singers’ hour-long lunch break at work, of which there are four singers total; or interviewing singers at rehearsal, of which there are three singers total).
Otherwise, interviews outside the rehearsal space allowed singers the time, space and comfort to relax, reflect on their experiences and stories, and speak freely about the music and without pressure to express anything other than what they wanted to express.
Of the few instances in which a participant may have contradicted the overall findings, one subject directly stated they do not like “Testimony” at all, they find the song ‘creepy’, and particularly the opening half in which the lyrics convey the experiences of queer youth. They did not like that this was to be voiced by grown adults (it must be noted here that both SMC and BGMC have performed “Testimony” with youth choruses singing the solos and small ensemble parts of the opening half). Another subject expressed dissatisfaction with A
Whitman Oratorio, in that the ‘classical’ nature of the piece deviated from what BGMC typically performs, and that it might have also posed a challenge to the audience. This subject also did not like other similarly-themed pieces considered for, but not addressed in, this project. These opinions, however, are unique, certainly in the minority and do not represent those of the other participants, whose reflections, thoughts and feelings largely intersect, as this thesis will demonstrate in subsequent pages.
An early study by Herndon (1974) addresses the significance of musicological analysis to ethnographic work, understanding the music of the communities of practice with whom the ethnographer works. Herndon (1974: 220) explains that the difference between analysis, as a means of understanding the individual components that make up a composition, and synthesis is that the latter is ‘the combining of separate elements or minor wholes into an inclusive entity’. A question posed by Herndon (1974: 220) as to the value of analysis (of the details of a given song or composition) and synthesis (the entire composition and how it is employed by performing ensembles) is important here because of the ways in which the
40 following pages in this work probe individual singers’ stories, how they are reflected in the music, the emotions they attempt to induce in audiences, and how this contributes to these choruses’ overall approach to performance. Herndon (1974) advocates for a study of structure
– the form of a piece, how it is scored (the arrangement of instruments and/or voices), timbre, use of rhythm, harmonic language, melody and melodic contour, dynamic contrast, interplay between instruments and/or voice parts, and use of text (its meaning and significance to both the ensemble and the audience). The intent is to lend more description to the ethnographer’s work, which is especially helpful when observing the performance of a given piece of music.
In a related approach, Qureshi (1987: 57) poses questions regarding music analysis and performance contexts:
…what analysing music in purely abstract structural terms does not provide, is an understanding of the dynamic that motivates the production of music, i.e., the meaning or significance of the sound system in terms of social use and cultural context – referential meaning in the widest sense of the word. Yet much musical experience does raise this fundamental question about the nature of music: how does musical sound become meaningful outside of itself?
As a starting point, it is necessary to examine the music in gay choral repertoire as utilities in confronting discrimination and violence – what, and how, these songs and multi-movement works attempt to communicate. As previously discussed, GALA Choruses are responsible for commissioning new songs and multi-movement works primarily from queer-identifying composers (Attinello 2002; Mensel 2007; Brett and Wood 2013; MacLachlan 2015). Mensel
(2007) characterizes this – queer-centric music by queer composers and specifically performed by queer-identifying choruses – as ‘affinity’ music (Mensel 2007). Music addressing heteronormativity, cultural and institutional homophobia and anti-queer violence is of primary concern in this project. The use of rhetorical devices and how they are framed musically provide a platform for gay choruses to address these issues in performance – musicking (Small 1998; Rice 2014). The use of rhetorical devices in musical settings is particularly pertinent to the ways in which gay choruses communicate messages that align
41 with their mission statements (see Davis 1999 for a thorough study of how rhetoric is used to communicate socio-political concerns in blues music).
In a study of gay choral repertoire, MacLachlan (2015) determines that there are three different approaches to framing messages: sincerity, irony and contrafacta (or, changing gender pronouns in well-known songs to reflect same-sex desire). Overall, this ties in with an earlier study by Fine (1995), which characterizes the works of social movements as symbolic productions of their values – such as the music of gay choruses as examined in this work. In rehearsing this music, artistic directors talk with their choruses in specific terms about what their scores indicate (for example, phrasing and dynamic levels) and how to translate this into musical performance. Thus, musicological analysis in this work not only examines the musical scores and lyrical content of this particular body of work in gay choral repertoire, but also how gay choruses contend with this music in the rehearsal process.
In order to understand how this music impacts these ensembles, research interviews
(Schensul, Schensul and LeCompte 1999; Leech 2003; Longhurst 2003; DiCicco-Bloom and
Crabtree 2006; Mensel 2007; Rabionet 2011; Creswell 2013; Brinkman 2014; Gurlly 2014;
MacLachlan 2015) were conducted both inside and outside of the rehearsal space. Interviews outside of rehearsals were scheduled at times and locations most convenient for the participants. From the outset of my work with singers from SFGMC in 2013, the unique experiences and stories of the individual participants made it quickly apparent that adhering to strict interview techniques might not yield the best results (for more on qualitative interviewing, see Creswell 2013: 163-166). Rather, interview questions might better serve as guideposts. Thus, in this work, research interviews are semi-structured (Schensul, Schensul and LeCompte 1999; Leech 2003; Longhurst 2003; DiCicco-Bloom and Crabtree 2006;
Rabionet 2011; Brinkman 2014). Interview questions are designed to be relevant to the singers’ biographies, the music of study in this project, performances and how all of this
42 contributes to a sense of community within their respective choruses. I used a similar approach to work with singers in BGMC and SMC as well. The stories and experiences of the participants who agreed to interviews were vast and unique, and I realized this project would benefit from allowing deviations from a strict line of inquiry. With the exception of two singers who emailed responses to my interview questions, all other research interviews were conducted face-to-face, and in locations suggested by participants. Because singers were generally aware of the research topic prior to their respective interviews, the purpose behind allowing singers to suggest the interview location was to instil a level of comfort and trust
(Creswell 2013; Gurlly 2014). In nearly every instance, singers appeared relaxed and willing to share. In many instances, specific questions, topics or lines of conversation would become emotional for the singer, brief pauses were necessary so that the singer could collect themselves.
Interviews with singers focused on questions pertaining to their unique stories, why they joined the chorus (or where applicable, another GALA chorus prior to their current ensemble), their recollections, feelings about, and experiences with homophobia and violence, and how all of this informs both their experience within the chorus and the music they perform (about homophobia, violence, and self-destruction/suicide). Interviews with administrative staff (artistic and executive directors) largely focuses on the value of commissioned music, the contexts from which these pieces emerged and what they attempt to respond to culturally and politically, and the continued need to creatively address cultural and institutional homophobia and anti-queer violence through commissioned music. Questions pertaining to historical events of the chorus, such as SMC’s 1998 vigil after Matthew Shepard died, are designed to elicit reflection and then confirmed and augmented as necessary by information made publicly available (through newspaper articles, reviews, and publicity material).
43 With regard to audio recording of interviews, no participant expressed concerns – which seems to validate my perceptions of singers’ high level of comfort and trust. Gurlly
(2015: 63) discusses some issues of concern around recording research interviews and the pressure it can induce in participants to ‘say the right things’. This can also lead to a distortion or romanticizing of the past, which can change from one interview to the next.
However, Gurlly (2015: 63) cites Thompson’s work (2000) on the usefulness of collecting oral histories, and the need to be flexible in approaches to interviewing. However, any historical information acquired in research interviews pertain to singers’ feelings about their own experiences, and how their stories relate to the music and performances they have undertaken (for more on oral history, see Di Leonardo 1987; Perks and Thompson 2006;
Power 1995; Shopes 2013).16
With regard to participant observation, only a few interviews took place in the rehearsal space, as most singers were focused on learning their music and elected instead to speak with me outside of rehearsal. In instances where conversations did take place at rehearsals, the subject and I would talk in a room just off to the side of the rehearsal space.
Conducting in-depth interviews outside of the rehearsal space allowed for singers to engage in reflective, in depth conversations about how their stories inform both performance of this music and their experience with others in the chorus. At rehearsals, singers would often make comments that would provide insights into their feelings and responses to the music in that particular moment. Overall, I would characterize my approach to work on this project as moderate participation, striking a balance between my roles as ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’
(DeWalt and DeWalt 2011: 23; Spradley 2016: 60). To illustrate, at the first rehearsals I attended for all three choruses in this project, I was introduced as a former GALA singer
(with SMC prior to beginning work on this project). This suggests that as a former GALA
16 Shopes, Linda. 2017. Oral History, Human Subjects, and Institutional Review Boards. Oral History Association [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: www.oralhistory.org/about/do-oral-history/oral- history-and-irb-review
44 singer I am a trusted ‘insider’ aware of the workings of gay choruses. This also implies something about my sexual orientation – I am, in fact, an openly gay man. Thus, singers could see me as a ‘native’ (see Kuper 1994; Reed-Danahay 1997; Motzafi-Haller 1997; Ellis and Bochner 2006; Ellis, Adams and Bochner 2011).17 On the other hand, my status as an
‘outsider’ is marked by the fact that, at the start of this project, I was not a singing member of a GALA chorus. It would appear that these factors contribute to the ways in which singers bestow a level of trust in sharing their stories and experiences – I am ‘one of them’, so to speak. Furthermore, singers’ desire to share and be as helpful as possible might also suggest that they did not view me as an ‘outsider’.
Toro-Pérez (2010: 33) explicitly urges researchers to consider that artistic practice and research are two entities unto themselves: ‘artistic practice does not thereby become research, just as research does not become artistic practice’. However, I would argue that because of my familiarity and participation as a gay chorus singer, this current work draws to a certain extent from the idea of artistic practice as research (Brubaker 2007; Schippers and
Flenady 2010). Balosso-Bardin (2016) reflects on negotiating her roles as practitioner and researcher, and that artistic practice is necessary in establishing credibility and trust with musicians as a researcher. Emmerson (2017) contends that the intellectual rigor that can result from practice as research is dependent upon carefully negotiating a given performance with how exactly it will be assessed. On a similar note, Vincs (2017: 47) warns that the primary pitfall of practice as research is the absence of explicit research questions. As such, in my work with each of the three choruses, it was essential to enter into the rehearsal space and research interviews with specific research questions, and with the expectation that specific themes would emerge.
17 Ellis, Carolyn S., Tony E. Adams and Arthur P. Bochner. 2011. Autoethnography: An Overview. Forum: Qualitative Social Research 12(1) [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1101108
45 Keenly aware of my commonalities with these singers, reflective practice became important. Shifting from observer (‘outsider’) to my position as a performer, reflective practice provides the opportunity to consider how my story informs my experience with this same music, how I relate to my fellow singers, and the ways in which I am impacted by music addressing heteronormativity, homophobia and anti-queer violence. In combination, the aforementioned methodological approaches constitute what could be termed a work of intimate ethnography (Rosaldo 1993; Lerum 2001; Waterston and Rylko-Bauer 2006; Banerji and Distante 2009). The personal and sometimes vulnerable stories of the participants are key to this project’s focus. Banerji and Distante (2009: 38) discuss the collapsing of ‘the distance between subject and object, between an etic perspective and an emic one, disrupts power relations inflecting the typical ethnographic event, and produces a different epistemology’.
By contrast, Beatty (2010) warns against conflating emotion, reminding that intellectual rigor, backstory and narrative are essential to the understanding of affect in our subjects, and also to how ethnographers situate themselves in the field. While Beatty’s (2010) warning is certainly important, it would also suggest a distance between the researcher and the subjects that simply does not exist in this project. As stated earlier, I am an openly gay man and a
GALA singer. Though I had never met the vast majority of participants in this project (with the exception of a few SMC singers, as I was an active singing member from 2008-10, prior to beginning work on this project), that we identify as queer and as singers in queer-identified choruses in enough to, as Banerji and Distante (2009) suggest, collapse any distance that might otherwise exist between researcher and subject. Also, the questions posed to singers reflect many of my own values, and their responses are often inflected with the same types of emotions I might feel when considering the issues presented in this work.
Because I did not enter into work on this project from a grounded theory paradigm
(see Creswell 2013: 85-90), coding of data resulted from expected themes that emerged in
46 research interviews (such as the personal impact of homophobic violence on participants, and the necessity of performing music about this topic), and that of my own personal observations, experiences and values (such as the notion of using music and performance to tell the singers’ stories). Significant here are themes from the literature (such as repertoire studies and community music making) and my intimate understandings of what I might expect to find (such as my knowledge of the music in this project). Themes that resonate with my values as a performer, researcher, and activist (such as socio-political music and social movement theory) also informed coding of the data. As such, I made no attempt at idealized objectivity. I recognize that another researcher coming up with the same data might have emerged with different themes and coding protocols. Though the results and conclusions may vary, adequate transparency is provided here for fellow researchers to assess the conclusions
I offer.
Chapter Summaries
In the following chapters, this project will examine the songs and multi-movement works commissioned and performed by gay choruses and addressing heteronormativity, cultural and institutional homophobia and anti-queer violence. Chapter 2 will outline the history of the gay choral movement from the emergence of SFGMC in late 1978, inspired by the politician and activist Harvey Milk and his work in the gay rights movement at that time. Under the influence of SFGMC, several gay choruses formed throughout the US, including SMC in
1979 and BGMC in 1982. The social and political contexts from which these choruses emerged significantly informs their continued approaches to outreach and social action through performance. Also, in surveying the history of the gay choral movement, it is necessary to discuss how they have valued commissioning new music from their outset.
Regarding commissioned music, Chapter 3 will provide background and musicological analysis on songs and multi-movement works in the gay choral repertoire
47 confronting heteronormativity, homophobia and anti-queer violence. Among the most significant are commissioned pieces of music about the Shepard murder. Historically, this music represents a shift from the decimation of the AIDS epidemic – with the development of drugs to keep people with HIV and AIDS alive longer – to the atrocity of such a tragic act of homophobic violence. Commemorative music about Shepard, as well as Milk, will examine the impact of heteronormativity and homophobia on acts of anti-queer violence. Addressing these issues from a different angle, music about the epidemic of queer youth suicide will also be examined. All of these pieces of music function as utilities for gay choruses in telling their stories and making social commentary.
Chapter 4 focuses on singers’ stories, and where individual and shared collective experiences overlap. Drawing specifically from my work with SFGMC in 2013-14, this chapter centers on the question of why singers join the chorus, how their stories contribute to the overall story of SFGMC, and how all of this is reflected in the music they perform.
Singers explore the ways that telling stories through music functions as a form of resistance, the belief to which they subscribe about how performance can effect social change, even if just with one audience member at a time. Also, singers reflect on their experience of performing in Laramie, Wyoming in July 2012, and how this performance informs their approach to telling their stories for audiences in politically, socially and religiously conservative locales. Expanding upon my work with SFGMC, Chapter 5 turns attention to
SMC as they prepare their Totally Wicked concert in Winter 2014. Drawing from rehearsal observations and semi-structured research interviews, I engage with singers in their process of rehearsing and performing ‘Testimony’, a song about a recent epidemic of suicide and the impact of heteronormative bullying on queer youth. Singers engage with the song on an intimate and vulnerable level, as it reproduces their individual stories of conflict, anxiety and resolution, becoming a site for healing and strengthened community. Finally, Chapter 6
48 summarizes the findings and overall argument of this project, proposing avenues for future research related to the work undertaken here.
49 Chapter 2 The Origins, Development and Politics of the Gay Choral Movement
This chapter will outline the histories of the choruses in this project – San Francisco Gay
Men’s Chorus (SFGMC), Seattle Men’s Chorus (SMC) and Boston Gay Men’s Chorus
(BGMC). These histories will provide context in examining the time and space in which these choruses emerged, and how they have continued to operate since their inceptions.
Significant to this work is how these ensembles have continually responded to heteronormativity, cultural and institutional homophobia and anti-queer violence, among other issues of concern, in their local communities throughout their tenure as a movement
(Attinello 2002). In 1982, SFGMC led other choruses, such as SMC, BGMC and others that existed at the time, in the formation of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (often referred to as GALA Choruses, or more simply as GALA).18 In the years since its formation,
GALA has greatly expanded the gay choral movement in the US and abroad, with a growing diversity of member choruses, signifying a deeper and more multi-dimensional representation of the international queer community.19 Another GALA value is reflected in an extensive program of commissioning new music that responds to the contemporary needs and concerns of the queer community (Attinello 2002; Coyle 2006; Mensel 2007; Brett and Wood 2013;
MacLachlan 2015). Commissioned music will be introduced later in this chapter, with greater discussion of specific pieces of commissioned music in Chapter 3. Consequently, GALA ensembles have greatly expanded the gay choral repertoire through the commissioning of new music that reflects queer history and contains messages that can be performed well into the future. A discussion of specific parts of the gay choral repertoire addressing heteronormativity, homophobia and anti-queer violence will take place in Chapter 3. The
18 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/history 19 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/history
50 following section will review literature pertinent to the history of the gay choral movement, then a discussion of SFGMC’s formation in 1978 will serve to illustrate the point from which
SMC, BGMC and GALA Choruses emerged.
Gay Choral Movement and Activism
As discussed in Chapter 1, much work in the fields of ethnomusicology, music history, choral studies and sociology examines the history of the gay choral movement (Attinello 2006a;
Brett and Wood 2001; Coyle 2006; Gurlly 2014; McLachlan 2015; Mensel 2007; Moy 2015).
With the emergence of what would eventually become GALA Choruses in the early 1980s, musical performance would serve a key element to raising questions and making critiques of how the queer community is received by larger US society (Brett and Wood 2013: 361). As will be illustrated, the formation of ensembles and their concern with responding to social issues through music and performance render them communities of practice (Lave and
Wenger 1991; Wenger 2004). The music itself represents the history of not just the gay choral movement, but also that of the larger queer community. Since their inception, gay choruses have been telling their stories through musical performance, a concept referred to as musicking (Small 1998). The result resembles what Turino (2008) examines, in the sense that the process of joining, rehearsing and performing with an ensemble of like-minded people who share a common identity (gay and male) profoundly impacts the ways in which chorus singer experience the world.
As ‘counterpublics’ of non-heteronormative and queer-identifying people, (see
Berlant and Freeman 1992; Butler 1993; D’Emilio 1992; D’Emilio 1998; Desmond 2001;
Fisher 2006; Foucault 1990; Fox 2010; Fraser 1997; Giffney 2008; Grace, Hill, Johnson and
Lewis 2004; Gray 2009; Gurlly 2014; Halberstam 2011; Halperin 2012; Holt 2011; Love
2007; McGlotten 2005; McGlotten 2013; Moore 2004; Muñoz 1999; Munt 2008; Nardi 1994;
Padgug 1989; Renna 2008; Sedgwick 2008; Warner 1993; Warner 1999; Warner 2002), gay
51 choruses perform for dominant ‘publics’ (or, heteronormative culture), with the intent of engaging in discourse on how heteronormativity manifests through queer shame, discrimination and acts of violence (Fraser 1997; Gurlly 2014; Halperin 2012; Warner 1993).
The intent behind engaging in discourse through music and performance is ultimately to break down stereotypes of queer people and to achieve full integration into US society. Anti- queer discrimination and violence seek to reinforce shame (Gurlly 2014) by perpetuating notions of heterosexuality as ‘normal’ (see Giffney 2008; Grace, Hill, Johnson and Lewis
2004; Gray 2009; Gurlly 2014; Halberstam 2011; Halperin 2012; Holt 2011; Love 2007;
Moore 2004; Munt 2008; Nardi 1994; Sedgwick 2008; Warner 1993; Warner 1999; Warner
2002).
In his work on shame, Gurlly (2014) examines the ways in which gay choruses reflect the changing needs of the larger queer community. The most notable example would be how younger singers are not as impacted by AIDS as older singers were in the 1980s and 90s when the epidemic profoundly decimated the queer community. Gurlly (2014) finds that the ways in which different generations of singers have experienced life as queer people in the
US is often a catalyst for creating stronger ensemble cohesion – even when older and younger generations have much to learn about one another’s experiences. I contend that this in large part underscores a sense of purpose within gay choruses. In addition, Fraser’s (1997: 82) description of agitational activities largely applies to the work of gay choruses. While the singers with whom I spoke do not characterize their work as agitational in a provocative, upsetting and confrontational manner – that would be antithetical to their mission statements for outreach – what gay choruses largely do is challenge heteronormativity and how it influences homophobia, on cultural and institutional levels, and acts of anti-queer violence.
These politics are at the centre of gay choruses’ origins in the late 1970s, and explicitly so with SFGMC’s emergence.
52
San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and Harvey Milk (1978)
When SFGMC formed in late 1978, it was the height of the gay rights movement (as it was referred to at that time). SFGMC is the first known chorus to use the word ‘Gay’ in their name.20 However, it must be mentioned that two other queer identifying ensembles predate
SFGMC by a few years. Anna Crusis Women’s Choir formed in 1975 by Dr. Catherine Roma in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, considered one of the first feminist and queer ensembles in the
US.21 The Gotham Male Chorus formed in 1977 in New York City (approximately a year prior to SFGMC), before changing their name to The Stonewall Chorale in 1979 and becoming a mixed-gender ensemble.22 The Stonewall Chorale is considered to be one of the first gay and lesbian choruses in the gay choral movement.23 In the context of SFGMC’s late-
1978 formation, a leading figure in the movement was the openly gay activist and politician
Harvey Milk.
Here I present a broad summary of Milk’s story, which is introduced in Chapter 1 and discussed in relation to I Am Harvey Milk in Chapter 3. Milk was born on 22 May 1930 in
New York, where he lived a majority of his life until relocating to San Francisco in 1972
(Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). Serving in the US Navy during the Korean War, Milk lived briefly in San Diego, California and Dallas, Texas (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). When he was a teenager, Milk accepted his homosexuality but chose to remain closeted (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). He was known to have pursued romantic relationships and sexual encounters in secrecy, until he met his final romantic partner Scott Smith (Schmiechen and
20 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/history 21 Anna Crusis Women’s Choir. 2017. About ANNA. Annacrusis.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.annacrusis.org/page/about-anna 22 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/history 23 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/history
53 Epstein 2011). Milk and Smith moved to San Francisco, opening a camera shop in the Castro
District in March 1973 (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011).
Between 1973 and 1978, Milk had campaigned unsuccessfully for various city and state offices (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). In early 1978, Milk campaigned and won a seat on the San Francisco City Board of Supervisors, representing District 5 (of 11 districts in the city) (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). Most significantly, Milk became one of the first openly gay and influential politicians to hold public office in the US. Milk quickly earned a reputation for being able to work effectively with other Supervisors on the Board, and particularly where legislation impacting the lives of the gay and lesbian community is concerned (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). For example, in 1978, California state legislator
John Briggs brought forward Proposition 6, more commonly known as the Briggs Initiative
(Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). In its language, the Briggs Initiative sought to ban gay, lesbian, and allied teachers from working in the public-school system.24 Milk vigorously fought the legislation alongside allies from both sides of the political spectrum, with individuals as diverse as US Democratic President Jimmy Carter (at that time) and Ronald
Reagan (then Republican Governor of California). Approximately 58% of California voters who turned out voted against the Initiative on 7 November 1978 (Schmiechen and Epstein
2011). As such, history has tended to regard Milk as one of the heroes in the defeat of the
Briggs Initiative (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011).
Prior to his tenure on the Board of Supervisors, Milk had partnered with the workers union for six different beer companies, seeking better contracts and support for employees
(Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). The workers union led a strike, and Milk supported them in a very public way until five of the beer companies agreed to better contract terms for their employees (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). Coors Beer was the only company to not yield to
24 University of California Hastings, College of the Law Research Repository. 2017. School Employees. Homosexuality. Proposition 6. Repository.uchastings.edu [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/ca_ballot_props/838/
54 better contracts for their workers, and Milk led a boycott of their product from gay bars in
San Francisco (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). As a condition of his support, Milk stipulated that the union accept openly gay and lesbian workers as members (Schmiechen and Epstein
2011). This is only one of many examples to illustrate the ways in which Milk saw integration as a key factor in changing public perceptions and constructions of queer people.
In addition to his partnership with the workers’ union and his leadership in defeating the Briggs initiative, Milk was a big proponent of the notion that coming out and living openly creates societal change for queer people (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). The act of coming out functions as an act of social and political change. On many occasions, Milk publicly encouraged all gay people to come out, most notably in his ‘That’s What America
Is’ speech at Gay Freedom Day on 25 June 1978 (see Appendices, pp. 175). Milk’s speech will be discussed in greater depth in Chapter 3, as Andrew Lippa’s I Am Harvey Milk draws heavily from the speech for the final movement of the work.
Throughout Milk’s career as a politician and activist, he gave variations on this particular speech. The takeaway point – ‘coming out’ creates social change – encapsulates the driving purpose behind Milk’s life and work. Because of Milk’s influence, and certainly because of the momentum of the gay rights movement in fighting cultural and institutional homophobia as both an activist and a politician, Jon Sims had the idea to form the chorus.25
On 30 October 1978, SFGMC held their first rehearsal.26 During the first month of rehearsals, the fledgling SFGMC could not have anticipated the profound impact Milk would have on their future. On 27 November, slightly less than a month into SFGMC’s existence, former
25 San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. About. Our Story. Sfgmc.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.sfgmc.org/about-sfgmc/ 26 San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. About. Our Story. Sfgmc.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.sfgmc.org/about-sfgmc/
55 Board Supervisor Dan White assassinated both Milk and San Francisco City Mayor George
Moscone.27 The murders of Milk and Moscone would devastate the city.
The events that led to Milk’s and Moscone’s deaths were unrelated to the defeat of
Proposition 6 (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). In fact, Milk, Moscone and White were known to have gotten along and work well together (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). Before assassinating Milk and Moscone, White surprisingly and suddenly resigned four days after
Proposition 6 was defeated (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). Allegedly, White was never really comfortable with the political atmosphere in city government, never learned to negotiate and ‘back-scratch’ and, consequently, did not achieve much success (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). But only a few days after resigning, on 14 November 1978, White then wanted to rescind his resignation and return to the Board of Supervisors (Schmiechen and
Epstein 2011). By law, Moscone was not required to reappoint White, and therefore elected not to do so (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). Instead, Moscone decided to search for a replacement to represent White’s district (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011).
Milk, along with others on the Board of Supervisors, had also lobbied against White’s reappointment because of the animosity it might cause (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). More significantly, Milk, who greatly understood how political bodies function, allegedly lobbied against White’s reappointment for the sake of filling his seat on the Board with someone who might regularly vote along the same lines (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). Moscone’s public statement focused on the rash decision of White to resign without consulting other supervisors or members of the public in the district he represented (Schmiechen and Epstein
2011). While Moscone agreed that White could be excused for political naiveté because of his lack of political experience, he also stated that the people of District 8 deserve ‘what’s fair, right and just’ (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). Essentially, White had killed Milk and
27 San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. About. Our Story. Sfgmc.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.sfgmc.org/about-sfgmc/
56 Moscone over what he saw as a plot to keep him from resuming his role on the City Board of
Supervisors (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011).
On 27 November 1978, Dan White, a former colleague on the City Board of
Supervisors, assassinated Milk and Mayor George Moscone. Interestingly, the murders were not driven by homophobia. In fact, White, a 32-year old Caucasian and heterosexual man, was known to have gotten along quite well with Milk. The relationship between Milk and
White only became tense after Milk voted for a mental health facility in White’s district.
Many of White’s colleagues expressed that his relationships with other officials on the Board were not particularly good, and that he often held grudges. On 10 November, White resigned from the Board only to rescind his resignation four days later. Initially, Mayor Moscone had agreed to let White return. However, shortly thereafter, Mayor Moscone decided instead to replace White in favour of a candidate who could better represent the increasing diversity of the city. The news upset White, who shot and killed Moscone. While walking to his office to reload his gun, White asked Milk to follow him. Upon entering the office, White shot Milk five times, twice in the head. White turned himself in to police and confessed to killing both men.
SFGMC joined a mourning public and gave their first performance on the steps of
City Hall on 27 November.28 In a candlelight vigil, the chorus performed Mendelsohn’s
‘Thou, Lord Our Refuge’ to pay their respects and memorialize Milk and Moscone.29
Astonishingly, White was only convicted of manslaughter, serving five years of a seven-year sentence before he was released. This was particularly controversial, with accusations of homophobia levelled at the American justice system in the lenient sentencing White. The
SFGMC singers could not have known that they were taking part in one of the most pivotal
28 San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. About. Our Story. Sfgmc.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.sfgmc.org/about-sfgmc/ 29 San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. About. Our Story. Sfgmc.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.sfgmc.org/about-sfgmc/
57 moments in queer history, and its specific impact upon the gay choral movement in confronting homophobia in the decades to follow. As this project will examine later, SFGMC still feels the profound impact of Milk’s life and work as an openly gay activist and politician who changed the socio-political landscape for queer rights. As such, SFGMC’s and Milk’s stories are inextricably linked, a relationship the chorus openly embraces as a means of illustrating their roots as an activist organization. Furthermore, SFGMC’s profound influence quickly instigated the formation of other similar ensembles throughout the US, especially in the time period of 1979-83 – New York City Gay Men’s Chorus, Turtle Creek Chorale
(Dallas, Texas), Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles (California), and Chicago Gay Men’s
Chorus (Illinois) formed and became pillars of the emerging gay choral movement.30 Within a year of SFGMC’s formation, and because of their influence, a group of men in the Pacific
Northwest would form what would become another influential and historically significant chorus.
Seattle Men’s Chorus (1979)
Moy (2015: 28-33) details the formation of SMC and its place in the gay choral movement since their formation. Essentially, SMC formed in 1979, lead by C. David George with logistical assistance from Jay Davidson (then SFGMC manager) and Dick Kramer (then
SFGMC artistic director) (Moy 2015: 28-33). After hiring Richard Dollarhide as their first artistic director, ads were placed in local gay newspapers advertising the fledgling chorus’ first rehearsal, to take place on 9 September 1979 (Moy 2015: 28-33). The influence of
SFGMC extended beyond the logistics of formation and day-to-day business, and into performative aesthetics as well. Moy (2015: 31) conveys how early SMC singers were so inspired by SFGMC and what they had achieved in such a short period of time, and wanted to
30 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/history
58 be a similar force for good in the Seattle area. Because of various power struggles and discontent, Dollarhide left and was briefly replaced by Edward M. Pounds before SMC offered Dennis Coleman the artistic director position (Moy, 2015: 31).
Coleman’s 35-years tenure as artistic director (from 1981-2016) is significant for many reasons. Similar to SFGMC, the high profile of SMC has consistently found the chorus sharing a stage with guest artists as diverse as jazz vocalist Diane Schuur, Ann Wilson (of the legendary Seattle rock band Heart), Bobby McFerrin, Rosemary Clooney, and Debbie
Reynolds, among many other high-profile performers. But Coleman’s longevity as artistic director is most significant for his role in shaping the chorus as leaders in advancing queer rights in the Pacific Northwest. Coleman’s and SMC’s influence on other gay choruses is undeniable, as I discovered in my conversations with singers in San Francisco and Boston.
Under Coleman’s direction, SMC has either co-organized or taken part in a number of local and national queer-related events.
As mentioned earlier, the chorus was among the founding members of GALA
Choruses in 1982, which is detailed later in this chapter.31 SMC also took part in the first
West Coast Gay/Lesbian Choral Festival in 1982, which was held in conjunction with the first Gay Games in San Francisco.32 The chorus’ Spring 1990 concert Radio Craze was recorded and broadcast on PBS nationally, with strong reception particularly in the Pacific
Northwest.33 SMC has also partnered with other organizations, and this is emblematic of their approaches to community outreach. For instance, in June 2001, singer Kristin Chenoweth performed in SMC’s Sing for the Cure concert, celebrating survivors of breast cancer and raising awareness of the disease (for more on these types of spectacle events, see Moro
31 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/history 32 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/history 33 Seattle Men’s Chorus. 2017. Historical Timeline. Seattlechoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Avaliable at: http://www.seattlechoruses.org/learn/history/
59 2006).34 Later in the year, the chorus would perform at a memorial service for those who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.35 A few years prior to this, in
October 1998, SMC would take part in a memorial for one of the most tragic events to take place in recent queer history.
Later in the afternoon of 12 October 1998, Washington state legislator Ed Murray and pastor Craig R. J. Darling quickly organized a vigil for Shepard to take place a few hours later at Seattle First Baptist Church, a queer-welcoming parish in the city of Seattle.36 Darling had contacted Coleman about having the ensemble perform a few songs at the vigil.37 In a research interview in March 2014, Coleman recalled that administrative staff and section leaders attempted to contact as many singers as possible by phone and through email with instructions for the vigil performance. Some singers arrived at the rehearsal space to find a note on the door directing them to go to Seattle First Baptist Church. Far exceeding Murray’s and Darling’s expectations, Seattle First Baptist Church attempted to accommodate 1400 vigil attendees into its 800-person capacity space.38 While Seattle’s was among the largest, vigils and memorials for Shepard took place in other cities around the US. These vigils, usually located in traditionally gay neighbourhoods, represent a sense of community solidarity in ‘safe’ spaces that preceded further and more extensive action by gay choruses.
Aside from addressing acts of homophobic violence, SMC has also countered the negative impact of heteronormativity and discrimination in other parts of US culture. SMC
34 Seattle Men’s Chorus. 2017. Historical Timeline. Seattlechoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Avaliable at: http://www.seattlechoruses.org/learn/history/ 35 Seattle Men’s Chorus. 2017. Historical Timeline. Seattlechoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Avaliable at: http://www.seattlechoruses.org/learn/history/ 36 Seattle First Baptist Church. 2014. If These Walls Could Speak: A Sermon by Craig R. J. Darling. Seattlefirstbaptist.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.seattlefirstbaptist.org/uploads/2/6/4/3/26431234/if_these_walls_could_speak.pdf 37 Seattle First Baptist Church. 2014. If These Walls Could Speak: A Sermon by Craig R. J. Darling. Seattlefirstbaptist.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.seattlefirstbaptist.org/uploads/2/6/4/3/26431234/if_these_walls_could_speak.pdf 38 Seattle First Baptist Church. 2014. If These Walls Could Speak: A Sermon by Craig R. J. Darling. Seattlefirstbaptist.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.seattlefirstbaptist.org/uploads/2/6/4/3/26431234/if_these_walls_could_speak.pdf
60 played an active role in working toward marriage equality in the state of Washington.39 In
2012, SMC embarked on the Voices United for Marriage tour of Washington state with their sister ensemble Seattle Women’s Chorus in an effort to promote Referendum 74, a measure for marriage equality in the start of Washington.40 In the November 2012 Washington state election, Referendum 74 passed and same-sex couples were legally allowed to marry. On a more painful level, and certainly similar to SFGMC and BGMC, SMC also actively confronts homophobic violence as it manifests through self-destructive behaviours and suicide among queer youth. In 2010, singers contributed their stories to a video SMC produced for the It
Gets Better project.41 Along with SFGMC and BGMC, SMC has also performer Stephen
Schwartz’s song ‘Testimony’, the lyrics of which draw from It Gets Better videos.
‘Testimony’ will be analysed and discussed further in Chapter 3.
Boston Gay Men’s Chorus (1982)
The formation of BGMC shares much in common with SMC’s story. In late 1981, SFGMC had toured and performed in a number of US cities, one stop included Boston.42 Inspired by
SFGMC’s performance and their openness as an ‘out’ gay group, a man named Josef Bevins attempted to convene a group of gay and lesbian men and women to form a mixed chorus.43
While there were problems in bringing the mixed chorus to fruition, what did emerge was the fledgling, all-gay male BGMC.44 As with SFGMC and SMC, the values of outreach and representing the concerns of the larger queer community, working toward expanded rights
39 Seattle Men’s Chorus. 2017. Historical Timeline. Seattlechoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Avaliable at: http://www.seattlechoruses.org/learn/history/ 40 Seattle Men’s Chorus. 2017. Historical Timeline. Seattlechoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Avaliable at: http://www.seattlechoruses.org/learn/history/ 41 Seattle Men’s Chorus. 2017. Historical Timeline. Seattlechoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Avaliable at: http://www.seattlechoruses.org/learn/history/ 42 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 43 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 44 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu
61 and breaking down stigmas of non-heteronormative people became central tenets of the
BGMC organization. The chorus’ first performance took place on 20 June 1982 at Arlington
Street Church, which was filled to capacity by the time BGMC took to the stage.45 Preceding this performance, Boston Pride showcased BGMC the day before at a gay pride rally in
Boston Common.46
Because BGMC formed only a few years later than SFGMC and SMC, from their inception these choruses were immediately impacted by the devastation of the AIDS epidemic, which decimated choruses and, of course, the larger queer community. This shared experience with SFGMC and SMC – and, of course, the many other gay choruses that had emerged prior to and around the same time as BGMC – had a severe and profound impact that these ensembles still feel today. As will be detailed later in this chapter, AIDS was one more force working against the queer community and choruses responded with new musical statements well into the late 1990s. Commissioned songs and multi-movement works addressed the epidemic, simultaneously attempting to break down stigmas surrounding AIDS and queer people – and specifically the stigmas attached to HIV/AIDS and gay and bisexual men who engage in same-sex relations. The impact was severe, with BGMC dropping to just below 70 members in the late 1990s and building back up to 170 by the start of the 2000s.47
Among the first gay choruses to actively broach the subject in public discourse,
BGMC worked toward marriage equality for same-sex couples in the state of Massachusetts in 2003.48 A court case had been filed on behalf of same-sex couples who argued that it was
45 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 46 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 47 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 48 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu
62 their legal right to marry.49 The local court had ruled against the couple and in favour of the state.50 After appealing the ruling to the higher Supreme Judicial Court, on 18 November
2003 the court ruled that marriage licenses must be granted to same-sex couples who wished to marry.51 However, conservative forces in Massachusetts state government worked to delay this so they could pass an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman.52 In response, BGMC recorded a version of Robert Seeley’s song
‘Marry Us’, and gave complimentary copies of the compact disc to legislators at the
Massachusetts State House.53 In research interviews with BGMC singers, many recalled that the intent was to change the minds of state representatives who favoured the proposed amendment in opposition to marriage equality. While the impact of this specific gesture by
BGMC is anecdotal and speculative, it must be mentioned that the amendment was never passed and marriage licenses were issued to same-sex couples shortly thereafter.
While choruses have seen victories such as marriage equality, and the development of medications that could keep singers with HIV+/AIDS diagnoses alive longer, even halting the progression of HIV to AIDS, the impact of cultural and institutional homophobia and violence still presents these ensembles with challenges to confront. In 2008, BGMC commissioned A Whitman Oratorio, by openly gay composer Lowell Liebermann, as a means of assessing the state of queer life and civil rights in the US ten years after the Shepard murder.54 Just as SFGMC and SMC have done in recent years, BGMC has also addressed the impact of heteronormativity on self-destructive behaviours and suicide through performances
49 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 50 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 51 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 52 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 53 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 54 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu
63 of Schwartz’s song ‘Testimony’ in 2013 and 2015. Both pieces of music will be further discussed in Chapter 3. While SFGMC and SMC have toured more regularly in ‘red’ areas of the US, BGMC has tended to focus on touring abroad and performing outreach to people in countries such as Poland and Turkey.55 The intent is the same, however: Confronting stereotypes, stigmas and negative social constructions that adversely impact – and even threaten – the lives of queer people in these locales.
Actively and regularly engaging in outreach is an attempt to extend a hand to heterosexual and cis-gender audience members, as well as connecting with queer and allied people in attendance. Upon arriving in Poland in 2005, BGMC singers were escorted by armed guards to the performance venue just a few blocks from their hotel because of protesters and threats the chorus had received.56 After what singers regard as an incredibly successful concert, local newspapers declared the performance a triumph over the protests.57
The chorus faced similar instances of success in overcoming adversity on their Middle East tour in 2015, where they were the first queer chorus to tour the Middle East.58 Their performance in Istanbul, Turkey, initially proved problematic when promoters asked the chorus to drop ‘Gay’ from their name.59 This would allow promoters to market the group as
Boston Men’s Chorus, thereby compelling the group to conform to heteronormative standards in Turkey.60 Theoretically, the chorus could ‘pass’ without advertising their homosexuality in the ensemble’s name – though the presence of music expressing same-sex desire would arguably ‘out’ the chorus to the audience. But BGMC refused, and the concert
55 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 56 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 57 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 58 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 59 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 60 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu
64 had been cancelled briefly before it was eventually rescheduled.61 Documenting their tour of the Middle East in 2015, it was revealed that the most resistance to BGMC as a group of openly queer performers came directly from the Turkish government.62 However, the Turkish audience received the chorus’ performance quite well.63 Usually, outreach performances provide an opportunity for choruses to partner with other queer and allied organizations in the locales they visit – whether in the US or abroad. BGMC’s commitment to outreach abroad will include a tour to South Africa in 2018, where they will partner with organizations that work with South African people who have been diagnosed with HIV or AIDS.64 Meanwhile, the chorus continues to respond to the needs of the queer community in the US through continued outreach performances, and by commissioning new music that addresses pertinent issues of concern.
Formation of Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA Choruses)
The approaches to outreach as outlined above reflect the mission, purpose and drive of the larger gay choral movement – locally, nationally, and internationally. In 1982, SFGMC led the way in the formation of GALA Choruses as an umbrella organization for the movement.
According to their website, GALA Choruses membership includes 180 ensembles.65 The formation of GALA coincided with the First West Coast Choral Festival, in which 14 choruses took part.66 The first GALA Choruses Festival, named COAST (‘Come Out And
61 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 62 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 63 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. BGMC 35th Anniversary Tribute Book. Issuu.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://issuu.com/bgmc1982/docs/bgmc_35thanniv_tribute_book_issu 64 Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. 2017. South Africa Tour. Bgmc.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://www.bgmc.org/2018-south-africa 65 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/history 66 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/history
65 Sing Together’) was held in New York City in 1983.67 In the time since, GALA Choruses
Festival is a regular occurrence, having taken place every three years between 1983-92, and every four years between 1992 and the current date.68 The Festival is essentially a conference, providing an opportunity for choruses from all over the world to congregate in one locale (for instance, the 2012 Festival took place in Denver, Colorado), and perform for one another over the course of a week. Veteran choruses such as SFGMC, SMC and BGMC
(among others) often showcase new music they have commissioned. For instance, SFGMC performed ‘Testimony’ at the July 2012 Festival in Denver, just a few short months after they premiered the song for their hometown audiences. After the 2012 Festival, several other
GALA ensembles would perform ‘Testimony’. This illustrates how the Festival provides choruses an opportunity to hear new music that they might consider adding to their repertoire.
Equally as important, the Festival is significant in that singers from a variety of ensembles in a variety of locales, urban and rural alike, can socialize on an informal level outside of the performance venues. This strengthens community bonds both within the respective choruses and on a larger scale within the GALA organization.
In the years since GALA Choruses formed in 1982, the organization has become increasingly more diverse in its membership. This diversity reflects the multi-dimensionality of the international queer community. Choruses have emerged in locales where the presence of queer organizations can be controversial, and even met with hostility, but also with the potential to have a positive impact. The Beijing Queer Chorus formed in 2008, the first open and out ensemble in China. More recently, Steel City Men’s Chorus formed in 2013 in the politically ‘red’ area of Birmingham, Alabama. In 2014, Butterfly Music Transgender Chorus formed in Boston as one of the first specifically trans ensembles in the US. These are just a
67 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/history 68 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/history
66 few examples of GALA’s growth. In recent years, membership in the individual choruses has also expanded with the inclusions of trans and gender non-conforming singers. The increasing diversity – singers of all ages, races and ethnicities, body shapes and sizes, sexual orientations and gender identities – is a factor that assists choruses in giving voice to the larger queer experience, challenging what ‘gay’ (or more broadly, ‘queer’) as a heteronormative construct looks like to heterosexual and cis-gender audiences (for more on the sociology of gay choruses, see Attinello 2006a).
On their website, GALA Choruses elaborates on the organization’s core values, vision, and mission.69 Variations on these three statements are often adapted by member choruses and found on their websites, and often included in the concert programs choruses hand out to audiences at their performances. The core values of GALA, as listed on their website (terms in all-caps and bold font emphasized by GALA):
• We are CATALYSTS. We provide enthusiasm, resources and tools to inspire our member choruses to use the power of music to create social change. • We are HARMONIZERS. We are diverse people who employ the power of song with respect and understanding. We bring our communities together to experience musical excellence, collaboration, cooperation, acceptance, transparency, and opportunities for all. • We are LISTENERS. We listen to our members, our colleagues, and each other in order to understand the issues, define our roles, and serve the common welfare of our movement. • We are LEADERS. We offer strategic direction to the movement we serve. We work effectively with partners around the world who seek to achieve complimentary goals. We strengthen our association by nurturing effective leadership and ensuring robust, sustainable financial resources.70
Essentially, the use of ‘we are…’ at the beginning of each point frames these core values in terms of a unified queer choral community – or, as communities of practice (see Lave and
Wenger 1991; Wenger 2004). Thus, each chorus in the GALA organization is simultaneously unique in their respective personality, yet uniform in adhering to these principles. As such, this frames the activist work in which the individual choruses and the larger GALA organization partake (for more on social movements and activism, see Reed 2005; and more
69 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/mission 70 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/mission
67 specifically on GALA, see Mensel 2007; Gurlly 2014; McLachlan 2015). Where the core values are more inward-looking in the standards to which GALA and its individual choruses adhere, the vision statement succinctly states the goal they hope to achieve in society: ‘A world where all voices are free’.71 Inclusion of the word ‘all’ in the GALA vision statement reflects not just the organization’s commitment to the queer community, but also to creating awareness of, and social justice for, allied people as well. The GALA mission statement expresses general sentiments about the organization’s overarching purpose: ‘empowering
LGBT Choruses as we change our world through song’. The first part of the mission statement obviously conveys the support GALA attempts to provide its member choruses
(‘empowering LGBT Choruses’), while emphasizing the intended power for social change and inclusivity (‘as we change our world’) that embodies their aesthetics (‘through song’).
While gay choruses are entertainment organizations that put on a show, the drive for social justice, as made explicit by the larger GALA organization, is embedded in every aspect of their existence: From song selections and their respective messages, to the interplay of choruses and their audiences, to the dialogue in the rehearsal space about history and purpose of the chorus and GALA as a whole. To ‘change our world through song’ is often underscored by general sentiments often reiterated by GALA singers: ‘changing hearts’,
‘changing minds’, and/or ‘changing lives’. Thus, through music and performances that tell stories of myriad experiences of queer people, GALA and its choruses act as social texts about justice, civil rights and social change for the queer community (for more on movements as social texts, see Reed 2005). In my work on this project, these catch phrases – ‘changing hearts/minds/lives’ – would frequently arise in conversation, in one-on-one interviews, and in rehearsals. The approach to compelling reflection in audiences that theoretically leads to
‘changing hearts/minds/lives’ is reflected in a valued performative aesthetic embedded in gay
71 GALA Choruses. 2017. About GALA Choruses. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/about/mission
68 chorus music, best described by Dana (a singer with BGMC): ‘we’re going to tell our stories’. This aesthetic value – ‘tell[ing] our stories’ – will be examined in depth throughout the remainder of this work. However, it is significant to mention here because of how gay chorus music – especially newly commissioned songs and multi-movement works – functions as a platform by which to give voice to singers’ personal, intimate and painful experiences as queer people in a heteronormative society.
Commissioned Music as an Aesthetic Value
While specific pieces of songs and multi-movement works will be discussed in depth in the next chapter, the value GALA Choruses and their member ensembles place on commissioning new music must be first addressed here. In their respective works on GALA repertoire, Coyle (2006) and Mensel (2007) focus on the history and significance of gay choruses commissioning new music. As Coyle (2006: 3) describes of the music, ‘the literature created by gay and lesbian choruses is wide-ranging and diverse, and often employs progressive compositional techniques, harmonic language and textual treatment’. Regarding the messages in these commissions, Coyle (2006: 3) explains that ‘the process is influenced first by choruses’ commitments to social change, documentation of current and historical events, and community building’. Mensel (2007: 60) claims that choruses in the GALA organization are ‘now one of the largest contributors of new choral commissions in the
United States’. Citing ‘thousands of new commissions’ in their 35 years as an organization,
GALA encourages its member choruses to commission songs and multi-movement works that will have ‘a life beyond the premiere’.72 The idea is to contribute new commissions to a repertoire from which choruses continually draw for relevant musical statements that address their concerns at any given time.
72 GALA Choruses. 2017. Resource Center. Galachoruses.org [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://galachoruses.org/resource-center/artistic-directors/commissions
69 Arguably, the first crisis to which choruses responded with newly commissioned music was the AIDS epidemic from the 1980s through the mid-to-late 1990s. Among the most prominent of these works is When We No Longer Touch: A Cycle of Songs for Survival, the poetry of Peter McWilliams set to music by composer Kristopher Jon Anthony, and commissioned and premiered by Turtle Creek Chorale on 20 October 1991. The work is a seven-song cycle based on the seven stages of grief: denial, isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance, and hope.73 The cycle never mentions AIDS specifically, but the emotions conveyed in the work reflect the devastation of the disease. As Dr. Tim Seelig
(artistic director of Turtle Creek Chorale at the time, and current artistic director of SFGMC) states in the liner notes for the chorus’ When We No Longer Touch album, ‘the text follows the stages of grief the chorus was experiencing at the beginning of the AIDS crisis’.74 Dr.
Seelig’s notes also poignantly indicate that from their inception to the time of this recording in 1993, Turtle Creek Chorale lost nearly 140 members ‘mostly due to complications of
HIV/AIDS’.75 Other GALA ensembles would also be decimated by such loss.
In addition to When We No Longer Touch, other significant songs and multi- movement works responding to the AIDS crisis would emerge through commissions. Similar to When We No Longer Touch, this music is largely centred on loss instead of naming the epidemic specifically. Predating Turtle Creek Chorale’s work by a few years, BGMC premiered You Shall Above All Things in 1989, in which composer Howard Rosner set to
73 For When We No Longer Touch, composer Kristopher Jon Anthony set to music poetry from a book titled How to Survive the Loss of a Love by Peter McWilliams, which explores the seven stages of grief listed above. Much work has been done on the stages of grief, notably by Kübler-Ross (1969), who details five stages experienced by those who suffer the loss of a loved one – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. For more information on the genesis of When We No Longer Touch, see the following footnote, which includes a link to the liner notes of Turtle Creek Chorale’s 1993 album recording of the work. 74 Seelig, Tim. 1993. Liner notes for When We No Longer Touch. Tresona Multimedia [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.tresonamultimedia.com/ckfinder/userfiles/files/TTC%20When%20We%20No%20Longer%20Touc h.pdf 75 Seelig, Tim. 1993. Liner notes for When We No Longer Touch. Tresona Multimedia [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.tresonamultimedia.com/ckfinder/userfiles/files/TTC%20When%20We%20No%20Longer%20Touc h.pdf
70 music poetry by e.e. cummings. As Mensel (2007: 66) explains, Rosner ‘found his inspiration for this piece while visiting a friend in the hospital who was being treated for pneumocystis pneumonia, a common complication of AIDS’. Much music about the AIDS epidemic would be inspired by, and dedicated to, those who lost their lives to the disease – Requiem for the
Victims of AIDS by composer Mark Copeland and commissioned by The New Orleans Gay
Men’s Chorus; Love Alone by composer Ned Rorem with text by poet Paul Monette, commissioned by New York City Gay Men’s Chorus (specifically dedicated to the memory of a friend of Monette’s who died from complications of AIDS). While the title Requiem for the Victims of AIDS does specifically name the disease, these works (and the many others not mentioned here) generally contain messages to which anyone experiencing loss can relate. In confronting crises like the AIDS epidemic, these texts are relevant in their universal expressions of mourning, grief and transcendence with highly affective musical settings designed to move audiences emotionally. The intent is to confront homophobia and break down the stigmas attached to homosexuality and HIV/AIDS, educating audiences on the impact the disease could have on their lives either directly or indirectly.
In addition to the commissioned works mentioned above, music about the AIDS epidemic is significant because the disease ravaged the gay choral community between the early 1980s and late 1990s – nearly two decades of choruses watching their singing members die. Stan Hill, artistic director for SFGMC between 1989-2000, explained to local San
Francisco publication SFGate (Whiting 2000: 1) the psychological ramifications of losing singers to the disease. Hill said, ‘every announcement was “memorial services this weekend include…” and “this guy’s sicker”. So, I tried to bring a positive energy to everything and give them hope, give them a future, give them something to aspire to’ (Whiting 2000: 1).
When Hill departed to take the position of artistic director for Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus
(in Minneapolis) in 2000, SFGMC hired Dr. Kathleen McGuire to take his place. Dr.
71 McGuire, a native of Melbourne, Australia, had just completed work on a Doctorate of
Musical Arts at University of Colorado (in Boulder, Colorado).
I met with McGuire in Melbourne in early 2014. In our conversation, McGuire recalled that upon arriving in San Francisco in 2000, SFGMC resembled ‘an ocean liner that was floating out at sea…this great big entity that was pretty much just floating around, having been bombarded by the torpedoes of AIDS’. Attributing credit to her predecessor,
McGuire stated, ‘Stan Hill had worked really hard…to keep it together’. Through Hill’s efforts to help SFGMC survive, McGuire found early in her tenure with SFGMC that the chorus wanted to do more than just perform their concert seasons. SFGMC began re- examining their mission statement, purpose, and value as an organization. In doing so,
McGuire found that SFGMC singers ‘wanted to be in the community, they wanted to be giving back…“we want to give back to the community that has been helping us survive”’. As a result, the chorus broadened its scope and sang at events, LGBTQ-related and otherwise, around San Francisco.
Just as the medical field had started making progress with medications that could keep people with HIV+ and AIDS diagnoses alive for longer, the 1998 murder of Matthew
Shepard served as a stark reminder of the violent consequences of cultural and institutional homophobia. Music about the larger implications of the Shepard murder would emerge as another significant part of the gay chorus repertoire. While music about the AIDS epidemic has been examined in scholarly works (see McGuire 1998, and Moro 2006), Shepard-related music about homophobic violence is an area rife for examination – and an area this current work attempts to cover. Among the first commissioned songs to emerge include ‘Matthew’s
Lullaby’ by composer Craig Carnahan and poet Perry Brass, and ‘Elegy for Matthew’ by composer David Conte and poet John Stirling Walker. Both songs premiered in 1999,
‘Matthew’s Lullaby’ by Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus and ‘Elegy for Matthew’ by New
72 York City Gay Men’s Chorus. Textually, the lyrics to both songs convey the responses of the queer person to a profoundly tragic act of homophobic violence. The Shepard murder is not specifically named in either set of lyrics, with the only reference to Shepard in the songs’ titles. Another song with a similar approach to commentary, ‘What Matters’ by singer/songwriter Randi Driscoll premiered in 2002 by Vox Femina (women’s chorus arrangement) and in 2004 by Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles (men’s chorus arrangement).
‘What Matters’ has become a significant part of the gay choral repertoire. No royalties are charged for performance, and this encourages men’s and women’s choruses to continually perform the work. Assessing the state of queer rights in the US ten years after the Shepard murder, BGMC commissioned and premiered A Whitman Oratorio by composer Lowell
Liebermann in 2008. In five movements, A Whitman Oratorio casts a critical eye on US society and government, a lack of legal rights and protections for queer people, and notions of progress and acceptance. Both ‘What Matters’ and A Whitman Oratorio will be discussed in depth in Chapter 3.
Tackling the issue of cultural homophobia and anti-queer violence from a different angle, a few recent commissions address the epidemic of suicide among youth either queer- identifying or perceived to be queer. Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz composed the song ‘Testimony’ specifically for SFGMC, who premiered the song in March 2012.
Essentially, ‘Testimony’ presents a queer protagonist reflecting on how they transcended their experience as a closeted youth, and the impact of a heteronormative culture in their contemplating suicide. Like ‘What Matters’, many gay choruses have continued to perform
‘Testimony’ in the few short years since SFGMC premiered the song. Two years later,
SFGMC premiered Tyler’s Suite, a multi-movement work about the suicide of gay Rutgers
University student Tyler Clementi. Throughout the work’s nine movements, librettists
Pamela Stewart and Mark Adamo give voice to the experiences of Clementi and his family.
73 A unique work in the gay choral repertoire, the music for each movement of Tyler’s Suite is composed by a different composer. ‘Testimony’ and Tyler’s Suite represent a recent growing body of work in the gay choral repertoire to address self-destructive behaviours and suicide among queer youth. Like music about the Shepard murder, ‘Testimony’ and Tyler’s Suite address heteronormativity perpetuated through cultural homophobia, with anti-queer violence becoming manifest through self-destruction and suicide among queer youth.
Repurposing Songs for Social Commentary
Commissioned music in the repertoire of gay choral music is significant to making direct, relevant and timely social commentary on specific issues of concern to the queer community.
In addition to commissioned music, gay choruses often repurpose songs for similar reasons.
First, choruses often have a sort of ‘reserve’ body of songs from which they can draw immediately and as necessary, and the meanings of these songs are generally appropriate for most events. Second, choruses will sometimes decontextualize a song from its original source, such as a film or a piece of musical theatre, in order to repurpose the song’s meaning and express an intentional message in different contexts. An example of this would be
‘Defying Gravity’ by Stephen Schwartz, from the musical Wicked. In the musical, ‘Defying
Gravity’ represents a turning point at the end of Act I, where the protagonist Elphaba eludes the dictatorial villain. Removed from the context of Wicked and performed in a gay chorus concert, Schwartz’s lyrics for ‘Defying Gravity’ function as a statement of transcendence and transformation that is not specifically tied to the narrative on the musical. ‘Defying Gravity’ and the significance of its decontextualisation will be discussed in further depth in Chapter 5.
With regard to a ‘reserve’ body of songs, I refer to the aforementioned discussion of
SMC’s participation in the 1998 candlelight vigil for Shepard earlier in this chapter. In conversation, SMC’s former artistic director Dennis Coleman recalled that the chorus drew from this particular ‘reserve’ some songs that felt appropriate to mourning Shepard’s death.
74 The vigil took place later in the evening of the day Shepard died, and Coleman anticipated that the attendees might be in need of comfort. For the vigil, Coleman recalled that SMC performed two specific songs: ‘We Shall Overcome’, a key protest song during the US civil rights movement of the 1960s, and ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ from Carousel, a 1945 musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. For the Shepard vigil, ‘We Shall
Overcome’ is not necessarily decontextualized so much as repurposed by another group of oppressed people seeking transcendence – in this context, transcending heteronormativity, homophobia and a brutal act of anti-queer violence. Decontextualized from its place in
Carousel, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ becomes a statement of solidarity among the queer community and its allies. These are only a few examples of how gay choruses often repurpose music not typically associated with the queer community for performance in queer- related contexts.
Music is often repurposed to comment on situations and/or tragedies for which the lyrics of a given song might apply, such as mourning a loss. An example would include
‘Never More Will the Wind’, as performed by SFGMC in 2012 to commemorate Shepard’s death. In 1995, composer Shawn Kirchner set to music a poem by Hilda Doolittle, most commonly known as h.d. (intentionally lower case). In email correspondence, Kirchner explained that he chose to set h.d.’s poem to music because his sister was leaving home for university studies. With Kirchner having composed ‘Never More Will the Wind’ three years prior to Shepard’s death, the song obviously could not have been inspired by him. But this illustrates the purpose of having a gay chorus repertoire with songs and multi-movement works that are fluid in meaning and appropriate to any given scenario. SFGMC performed
‘Never More Will the Wind’ in Laramie in July 2012 and filmed a music video to honour
75 Shepard while they were in town.76 The use of this type of commemoration will be part of the discussion in Chapter 4.
Repurposed music can also be significant to the overall artistry of gay chorus concerts in the framing of more serious socio-political music. For instance, discussion later in this work will focus on ‘Testimony’ and its place in the context of a concert consisting entirely of songs by Stephen Schwartz – a tribute concert of sorts, drawing from his movie themes and musical theatre works. Two specific songs, ‘Beautiful City’ (from the musical Godspell) and
‘Defying Gravity’ (as previously discussed) are re-contextualized in this concert, and placed after ‘Testimony’ in the concert program. In combination, these three songs in this order –
‘Testimony’, ‘Beautiful City’ and ‘Defying Gravity’ – form a message-centred and highly emotional trio of songs with which to end the concert. Arguably, this is equally as affective as any single commissioned work discussed in this project. As previously mentioned, this particular trilogy of songs and their affective impact will be the focus of my work with SMC later in Chapter 5. The next chapter will focus specifically on the repertoire of commissioned music: songs and multi-movement works that function as utilities, tools at the disposal of gay choruses in confronting heteronormativity, homophobia and anti-queer violence.
76 Tribute to Matthew Shepard, from SF Gay Men’s Chorus. SFGMCVideo YouTube. 27 September 2012 [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg-vN7cHd38
76 Chapter 3 ‘We’re going to tell our stories’: Commissioned Music in the Gay Choral Repertoire
At 12:53am on Monday 12 October 1998, Matthew Shepard passed away after five days laying in a coma. Recalling discussion of the Shepard murder in Chapter 1, the cause of his death was blunt force trauma to the head, the consequence of the severe beating he suffered at the hands of Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. Throughout the day, the circumstances surrounding Shepard’s death would dominate much of the US news cycle. The implications of the Shepard murder – namely, the influence of heteronormativity and homophobia, on cultural and institutional levels, in the anti-queer rhetoric of social, political and religious discourses upon such horrific acts of anti-queer violence – hovered uncomfortably on the fringes of the story. Many scholars in media studies question whether deeper discourse on such a pertinent issue has ever really taken place in the time since (see
Loffreda 2000; Ott and Aoki 2002; Quist and Wiegand 2002; Petersen 2011). Frankly, debate on the influence of heteronormativity and cultural and institutional homophobia on acts of anti-queer violence never seems to extend beyond surface-level abdications of responsibility.
As scholars have examined (see Loffreda 2000; Ott and Aoki 2002; Quist and Wiegand 2002;
Petersen 2011), political, social and religious conservatives tend to cling to First Amendment rights to free speech and anti-queer rhetoric, while placing the blame for the Shepard murder squarely on McKinney and Henderson for their actions (for more on how this relates to discourse on the Shepard murder, see Loffreda 2000 and Petersen 2011). The logic of anti- queer conservatives suggests that even if McKinney and Henderson were influenced by anti- queer rhetoric, they still chose (emphasis mine) to act on their own accord. Just as these implications are central to the Shepard story, they are also pertinent to every act of anti-queer violence in the time since, as this project will discuss further.
77 Music about the Shepard murder occupies a fairly small but significant space in the gay choral repertoire, following the AIDS epidemic and related musical responses over the course of nearly two decades. Music about the AIDS epidemic often sought to educate audiences, destigmatize the disease and gay men, while simultaneously mourning the profound losses choruses suffered, where music about the Shepard murder directly confronts heteronormativity and its influence on homophobic violence. For Keith, a Caucasian male singer with Boston Gay Men’s Chorus (BGMC) in his mid-40s, despite the tragedy of
Shepard’s murder, ‘I also thought that it was good that it created some kind of consciousness’. That consciousness is reflected in the commissioning program with which
GALA ensembles engage. On a larger level, the relationship between heteronormativity, homophobia and anti-queer violence is addressed in the commissioned music of gay choruses. Whether it is music about Shepard or queer youth suicide and bullying, or commemorating Harvey Milk as a means of inspiring activism against discrimination and violence, this chapter will focus on a particular body of work in the gay choral repertoire that addresses these issues. Additionally, this chapter will also draw from the insights of singers and administrative staff in Boston and San Francisco, the two choruses responsible for commissioning the music discussed in the subsequent sections. This chapter utilises musical analysis and interview material in order to understand how these songs and multi-movement works give voice to the experiences and concerns of gay choruses.
Repertoire Studies
The music examined in this project represents only one part of the gay choral repertoire – songs and multi-movement works that address heteronormativity, homophobia and acts of anti-queer violence. This branch of the repertoire can also be characterized, as Brett and
Wood (2013) have discussed in relation to the larger commissioning program of GALA
Choruses, as sympathetic to the queer rights movement. This derives from the fact that, as
78 Attinello (2002) has addressed, GALA ensembles tend to favour supporting queer-identifying composers. While the sexual orientation and gender identity (or non-conformity) of the composers of music in this project is not relevant to the work undertaken here, the suggestion appears to be that such message music conveys a strong sense of affinity between queer- identifying composers and gay choruses. Regardless, work by Mensel (2007) examines the sense of affinity expressed in the content of music in the larger gay choral repertoire, and how various songs and multi-movement works give voice to myriad experiences of the queer community. This is also explored in work by Wahl (2009), in terms of how composers identify with, and then give voice to, the perspectives of the ensembles who will likely perform their music.
The songs and multi-movement works discussed in this chapter reflect what
MacLachlan (2015) describes as the ‘painful aspects’ of contemporary queer life. As the analysis in this chapter will evidence, a variety of rhetorical devices are used by composers of this music to allow gay chorus singers to interpret (see Davis 1999; MacLachlan 2015).
Generally, messages in gay chorus music are often presented in a direct and concise manner.
The intent is to communicate clearly, without being obscure or esoteric. Furthermore, while all music is meant to be affective to one extent or another, the music in this chapter is designed to specifically appeal to the emotional responses of the audience. By expressing the impact of heteronormativity and shame (see Gurlly 2014), and how both manifest in cultural and institutional homophobia (through social and legally codified discrimination) and acts of anti-queer violence, this music allows singers to claim their place as full and equal participants in public life. By appealing to the emotional responses of the audience, choruses attempt to elicit compassion and empathy for the negative thrust of heteronormativity. Rather than provoke and upset, the intent is to compel reflection in the audience – which aligns with choruses’ focus on outreach. Consequently, the first-person rhetorical devices in the lyrical
79 content, paired with often highly affective accompaniment, create space for singers to communicate their affinity with the subject matter (whether it is Shepard, Milk or the protagonist in ‘Testimony’) and the impact of heteronormativity, homophobia and violence in their own lives as well.
Commemorative music about Shepard and Milk in this thesis draws from the most well-known and substantiated stories. Where music about Shepard is specifically concerned, lyrical content is presented from the perspective of a protagonist responding to his murder and its larger implications. Analysis of ‘What Matters’ and A Whitman Oratorio below will discuss the significance of such an approach, in that the lyrical content is more universal without drawing from specific constructions of the Shepard story. (For scholarship on the public construction of Shepard’s memory, see Dunn 2010; Hurst 1999; Loffreda 2000; Lynch
2007; Mason 2011; Ott and Aoki 2002; Petersen 2011; Quist and Wiegand 2002; Renna
2008; Savin-Williams 1999). Lynch (2007: 226) contends that three components shaping stories such as Shepard’s are pertinent to the public’s construction of his memory: first, a one-dimensional depiction of Shepard as a gay man; second, a dominant ideology, such as socially progressive queer-allied people, to make judgments of those involved (for example,
McKinney and Henderson are bad because they murdered Shepard); and, finally, strict temporal limits (that is, a specific period of time) are pertinent in shaping the manner in which the large public constructs an overall narrative (for example, McKinney and
Henderson met and killed Shepard, a gay man, on the night of 6 October 1998).
Drawing from public construction of Shepard’s memory, Charles (2006: 229) examines the ways in which aesthetic forms such as the play The Laramie Project, by Moisés
Kaufman, uses the most well-known and substantiated version of the Shepard story (as a homophobic hate crime) to initiate discourse about ‘how we [US culture] think and talk about homosexuality, sexual politics, education, class [and] violence’. Lynch (2007) takes a similar
80 approach by comparing two dramatic interpretations of the same version of the Shepard murder, in the NBC television movie The Matthew Shepard Story and the HBO version of
Moisés Kaufman’s play The Laramie Project. Lynch (2007: 223), along with Stephen
Browne (1995), examines the ways in which public memory ‘exists only as it is expressed’
(see also Lipsitz 1990; Vivian 2002). Lynch contends that The Matthew Shepard Story is complicit in absolving US culture on a larger scale of any culpability, through homophobia on cultural and institutional levels, for influencing acts of violence against queer people – by attributing blame solely to McKinney and Henderson. In contrast, The Laramie Project, according to Lynch, presents the Shepard story as a means of furthering progressive dialogue on the influence of cultural homophobia on acts of violence against queer people. However, where American news media outlets and journalists rely on particular structural components, such as specific rhetorical devices, to shape and convey what they think is important in constructing the Shepard murder, music about Shepard places significance on the emotional responses of the queer people impacted by the tragedy. To a large extent, I Am Harvey Milk embodies the same approach in its attempt to not present a comprehensive version of Milk’s story, but rather use it as an allegory. The following sections will analyse this music and how it functions as a utility for gay choruses in making social commentary. Through the combination of music and lyrics, this music memorializes and commemorates, and also allows singers to recreate the conflict, anxiety and resolution of their own experiences as queer people with heteronormativity, homophobia and anti-queer violence.
Musical Responses to the Shepard Murder
In the year following Shepard’s death, several songs addressing the larger implications of his murder emerged in the contexts of popular music and gay chorus repertoire. One of the first to emerge in the context of popular music, singer/songwriter Randi Driscoll wrote, recorded and released ‘What Matters’ in the immediate aftermath of Shepard’s death. A few years
81 later, Kevin Robison (former artistic director for Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus) created two gay chorus arrangements for ‘What Matters’ – one for women’s choruses and another for men’s.
Vox Femina, a Los Angeles based ensemble, premiered the women’s arrangement in 2002, while the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles premiered the men’s arrangement two years later in 2004. In the time since, the song has continued to be performed by GALA ensembles since both arrangements premiered. Another Shepard-related song in popular music eventually arranged for gay choruses, singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith wrote, recorded and released ‘God Loves Everyone’ in 2002. An arrangement by Willi Zwozdesky was performed by Tone Cluster - Quite a Queer Choir at the 2012 GALA Choruses Festival in Denver,
Colorado.
In the context of gay choral repertoire, two significant pieces emerged in 1999. Twin
Cities Gay Men’s Chorus commissioned and premiered ‘Matthew’s Lullaby’ (by composer
Craig Carnahan, poetry by Perry Brass) while the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus commissioned and premiered ‘Elegy for Matthew’ (by composer David Conte, text by John
Stirling Walker).77 Ten years later in 2008, Boston Gay Men’s Chorus (BGMC) commissioned A Whitman Oratorio by composer Lowell Liebermann. The work commemorates Shepard while assessing the state of progress toward queer rights in the US since his death. Both ‘What Matters’ and A Whitman Oratorio will be discussed in the following sections.
77 In 1999, the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus, based in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota, commissioned and premiered the song ‘Matthew’s Lullaby’. For the song, composer Craig Carnahan (also the artistic director of the chorus at that time) set to music a poem by Perry Brass, a New York City-based poet and queer rights activist. Brass wrote the poem on 13 October 1998, the day after Shepard died (Letts and Sears 1999: xvii-xviii) and essentially functions as a response to the Shepard murder. In another early musical response to the Shepard murder, the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus premiered ‘Elegy for Matthew’, composed by David Conte with text by John Stirling Walker, on 17 June 1999 at Carnegie Hall in New York City. James Geiger, a member of the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus at that time, commissioned ‘Elegy for Matthew’ for the ensemble. Walker composed the text on 7 January 1999, three months to the day after Shepard was brutally beaten by McKinney and Henderson.
82 ‘What Matters’
In early 1999, Los Angeles based singer/songwriter Randi Driscoll wrote, recorded and released her song ‘What Matters’ (for full lyrics, see Appendices, pp. 179). Borne of her response to the Shepard murder, Driscoll constructs a set of lyrics based on questions pertaining to commonalities between heterosexual cis-gender people and queer people despite differences (‘didn’t we share the same sunrise? And didn’t we sleep in the same moonlight? Isn’t the air in my lungs the same air you breathe?’). Overall, the song is a plea for understanding and acceptance (‘so who cares whose arms I’m all wrapped up in? Who cares whose eyes I see myself in? Who cares how I’m different? Who cares who I love?’). In the time since its release, Driscoll has donated the proceeds from the sale of her single recording to the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Shortly after the release of her recording,
Craig Coogan, the current executive director of Boston Gay Men’s Chorus (BGMC), approached Driscoll with the proposal of commissioning an arrangement for gay choruses. In a conversation with Coogan at the BGMC office in February 2014, he explains that he was motivated to pursue an arrangement of ‘What Matters’ because its message is emblematic of the GALA mission for outreach.
After meeting with Driscoll and Judy Shepard, Matthew’s mother, Coogan set about commissioning the women’s and men’s chorus arrangements from Robison. Furthermore, after the premiers by Vox Femina and Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, Coogan and his colleagues believed so much in the message of Driscoll’s lyrics that ‘we made it available to the world. Any other chorus that wanted it – no fees, no charge. I mean, we’re all about getting the music out in the world’. As a result, many GALA ensembles have continued to perform the song up to the present day. The July 2004 GALA Choruses Festival in Montreal was profoundly moving for Coogan because of the immediate embrace of ‘What Matters’.
Coogan explains:
83
Every hall that I went into, I’d hear [‘What Matters’]. And then they had this huge sort of central gathering area where they were selling CDs, and there were these sort of pop-up concerts. I remember there was a chorus that just lined up on the stairs and they started singing that piece, and it sort of got me a little {pauses} until I then stopped and realized that hundreds of people in the hall, representing hundreds of different choruses. They didn’t just stop – they knew the piece and they all started singing it. It was sort of this total flash concert. At a time that we now do flash concerts and actually plan them, I mean it was this moment of spontaneity. And then you know [‘What Matters’] went on, it’s had a life and it’s been very important in the movement.
At the time of this writing, at least 15 GALA ensembles are known to have performed the song78 – most recently by Steel City Men’s Chorus in July 2016 at the GALA Choruses
Festival in Denver, Colorado.
The men’s arrangement for ‘What Matters’ is set in the key of G-flat Major, with the singers accompanied only by piano. The verses are generally built upon a tonic to 1st inversion tonic to subdominant chord progression, which is often emphasized by the left hand in the piano accompaniment. For the first verse, the piano accompaniment is austere with very few embellishments, focusing instead on the hymn-like opening verse:
You were the brightest angel heaven had ever seen You walked in with a story to tell and ten thousand tongues to scream And you said, ‘doesn’t your heart beat the same as mine? Haven’t I told you a thousand times Isn’t the air in my lungs the same air you breathe?
So, who cares whose arms I’m all wrapped up in? Who cares whose eyes I see myself in? Who cares who I dream of? Who cares who I love?’
The first two lines – specifically, ‘the brightest angel’ in ‘heaven’ with ‘ten thousand tongues to scream’ – would appear to refer to 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 in the King James Bible,
78 GALA does not keep a formal record of songs and performances, so this number is derived from Google and YouTube searches. All searches were verified by first confirming the GALA membership of the chorus. YouTube videos, obviously, confirm a given ensemble’s performance of the song. In cases where YouTube videos are not available, an ensemble’s performance of the song could be verified through inclusion in performance programs.
84 cultivating understanding through compassion and charity.79 As illustrated in the excerpt above, Driscoll uses rhetorical questions throughout the entire song to make inquiries about the universal feelings of love shared by all people regardless of sexual orientation and/or gender identity. This approach functions as a device designed to compel reflection in listeners on the similarities between heterosexual cis-gender and queer people, as the second verse indicates:
Heaven help me, for I am lost What a price my love did cost But here I am standing strong and I am free Didn’t we share the same sunrise? And sleep in the same moonlight? Isn’t the blood in my veins the same blood you bleed?
In the second verse specifically, the right-hand pattern in the piano accompaniment
(beginning at bb. 39) features a downward-moving pattern from A-flat to G-flat to D-flat, which moves in contrary motion to the upward-moving left hand pattern (tonic to first inversion tonic to subdominant). This contrary motion – the left and right hands moving toward each other harmonically, but not quite in resolution (the C-flat suspended 2nd on beat
1 of bb. 40 and 42 in the example below) – reflects a theme in Driscoll’s lyrics of dispelling the perceived disparity between heterosexual cis-gender and queer people (‘isn’t the blood in my veins the same blood you bleed?’), working toward acceptance and understanding despite difference:
79 The full passage of 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 in the King James Bible states: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2And though I have the gift of prophesy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 4Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 11When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
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37 b j & b bbbb œ. œ ˙ ˙ ‰ j œ œ œ. œ œ œ. œ œ . œ j œ œ. œ ˙ ˙ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ. œœ œ œ œ ˙. œ ˙ ? bb b b ˙. ˙. ‰ œ œ. ˙ ˙. œ b b œ J œ. œ 4 41 b j j j œ œ œ & b bbbb œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ Œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ in the same moon - light, Is-n't the blood in myœ veins the same J œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ? b b Œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ Œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ J b b bb J J J in the same moon - light, Is-n't the blood in my veins the same 41 b b œ œ & b b bb œ œ. œ œ œ. œ œ . œ j œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ. œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ? b b œ. œ ˙ œ œ. j œ. œ œ. œ œ œ b b bb œ. œ ˙ ˙. œ. œ J J Figure 4 - 'What Matters' by Randi Driscoll, arranged by Kevin Robison;C bb. 37-44 45 S P j j A bb b b ˙ œ. j j œ ˙ & b b œ. œ œ Œ œ œ œ œ˙. œ œ˙. ˙ ‰ œ œ œ ‘What Matters’blood doesyou not attemptbleed? to presentSoJ who acares comprehensiveJ J accounting of Shepard’sWho story.cares P InT fact,b b there œ are noœ œ specificœ or overt referencesj to Shepardœ and˙ the circumstances V b b bb Œ œ œ Œ j œ œ œ. œ œ. J ‰ œ œ blood you bleed? Soœ who cares J Whoœ cares surrounding his murder. Rather, Driscoll uses the song’s protagonist to address the cultural F œ œ œ œ œ B ? b œ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ J œ œ œ conditionsb bbbb ofŒ heteronormativityœ œ œ œ and Œ homophobia,J J through‰ a series of questions specificallyœ œ blood you bleed? So who cares whose arms I'm all wrapped up in,
45 designed to highlightj the commonalities between heterosexual cis-gender and queer people. b . & b bbbb œ ‰ œ œ œ ˙ . œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ. œœ ‰ œ For Michael, œ a Caucasianœ œ œ male singer˙˙. with œœ BGMCœ inœ œ hisœ early œ 50s, œ ‘What. Matters’œ oftenœ œ . compels? b bhim ˙to. reflect on ‰hisœ activist work with‰ j queerœ. youthœ œ in œ1998 at˙ the time of Shepard’s‰ œ j b b bb ˙. J ˙. œ J ˙ œ death.49 Michael explains, ‘we were trying to help kids to feel safe, and here this thing happens j F b b b œ ˙ j to basically& b b b aœ˙ .guy theirœ œ œage.. œIt was˙ very difficultÓ and Œchallenging.œ œ œ œ It was veryj scary‰ œ forœ manyœ œ œ .œ J J WhoJ cares who I dreamœ of,œ œ Who cares who I of them. Even though it happened so far away, it could happen anywhere’. Michael reiterates b œ ˙ F j V b bbbb œ. œ œ. J Ó Œ œ œ œ œ j‰ œ œ œ œ œ.œ J WhoJ cares who I dreamœ of,œ œ Who cares who I œ œ 86 ? b œ œ œ J œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ.œ b bbbb Œ J Œ J J œ œ œ ‰ Who cares whose eyes I see my-self in, Who cares who I dream of, J Who cares who I
49 b b œ . œ & b b bb œ œ œ œ œ œœ. œœ ‰ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ . œ œ œ œ œ œ . œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙˙. œœ œ. œ ˙ œ j ? bb b b œ. œ œ œ ˙ ‰ œ jœ œ. œ ˙. œ b b J œ. œ œ a sentiment many other BGMC singers shared about the continued relevance of music like
‘What Matters’, the impact on singers in engaging such heterosexual cis-gender audiences with such an emotional topic:
To be able to move people like that. To know that because of what we’re creating, we can move people like that. In times of problems and heartbreak like Matthew Shepard, that our music can bring that to the audiences, and move them [emotionally], and make them think and feel in ways that they may not have before, is just incredible and powerful.
The following section analyses a multi-movement work commissioned by BGMC designed to explore commonalities between heterosexual cis-gender and queer people in greater depth.
A Whitman Oratorio
In 2008, BGMC premiered A Whitman Oratorio by New York City based composer Lowell
Liebermann (for full text, see Appendices, pp. 182).80 The five-movement work is designed to commemorate Shepard while raising questions about the state of progress toward expanded queer rights in the US ten years after his death. At the time, the work specifically targeted the administration of US President George W. Bush (in office 2001-2008) for not pursuing a political agenda that worked toward expanding legal rights and protections for queer people. In fact, the Bush administration vowed to oppose progressive legislation that would eventually take place when his successor, President Barack Obama, took office in
January 2009. Such progressive legislation would eventually take the form of the Matthew
Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (signed into law 28 October 2009), the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell military policy (on 20 September 2011) and the
Supreme Court ruling on Obergefell vs. Hodges in favour of marriage equality for same-sex couples (on 26 June 2015). However, prior to President Obama and his relatively progressive social agenda, the state of queer rights in the US looked dire.
80 While gay choruses have released recordings of much of the music examined in this project, no recording of A Whitman Oratorio is commercially available to the public. However, BGMC’s Executive Director, Craig Coogan, graciously provided me with an archival recording of BGMC’s 2008 premier and a copy of the score for my analysis.
87 Rather than writing new lyrics for the work, Liebermann drew from poet Walt
Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (1855) and ‘Song of Myself’ (which originally appeared as part of Leaves of Grass) as the text. In some instances, Liebermann rearranges and restructures specific lines in order to construct the work’s overall message. This serves to illustrate the relevance of Whitman’s words to contemporary queer life, especially with regard to the political and societal discriminations queer people continue to face. The five movements are thematic, each focusing on a specific characteristic with the entire work representing the multidimensionality of queer people: ‘I: Pride’, ‘II: Love’, ‘III: Faith’, ‘IV: For Matthew’ and
‘V: Protest’. Such thematic material would appear to humanize queer people in a heteronormative society. Of particular concern to this project, ‘IV: For Matthew’ and ‘V:
Protest’ function as a manifesto, asserting the need for continued work toward expanded legal rights and societal acceptance.
Originating in the seventeenth century, oratorios are usually dramatic works in Latin or Italian, religious or Biblical in nature, combining narrative, dialogue and commentary
(Burkholder, Grout and Palisca 2006: 337). A Whitman Oratorio is set entirely in English, as
Liebermann derives and restructures the text from Whitman’s poems. BGMC singer Keith, also a Whitman aficionado, found this approach compelling:
Parts of ‘Song of Myself’ and a few other random Whitman poems from other books were kind of put together to create a completely and totally new message. I really enjoyed the way it was put together, and made [the oratorio] mean something that I don’t think I had gotten before out of [the poems].
Keith’s sentiments reflect one of the primary characteristics of oratorios that Burkholder,
Grout and Palisca (2006: 337) draw attention to, in that ‘rhetorical effectiveness was prized far above stylistic purity. In these works, the primacy of the text and its dramatic declamation was central’. Liebermann draws from Song of Myself and Leaves of Grass to construct the oratorio’s socio-political message. The first stanza of ‘IV: For Matthew’ derives from section
88 38 of Whitman’s Song of Myself and, in this musical setting, remembers Shepard tied to a fence, beaten by McKinney and Henderson:
That I could forget the mockers and insults! That I could forget the trickling tears and the blows of the bludgeons and hammers! That I could look with a separate look on my own crucifixion and bloody crowning!
Following this stanza, the remaining text of ‘IV: For Matthew’ comes from Whitman’s poem
‘204. To Him that was Crucified’ (from Leaves of Grass) in its original form and untouched by Liebermann. The following excerpt honours the loss of a ‘dear brother’ and ‘comrade’
(Shepard in this case) with the resolve to unite (as ‘compassionaters’, ‘brethren’ and ‘lovers’) and work for greater visibility and freedom (relevant to contemporary US, greater acceptance and expanded legal rights):
My spirit to yours, dear brother: Do not mind because many, sounding your name, do not understand you; I do not sound your name, but I understand you, (there are others also;) I specify you with joy, O my comrade, to salute you, and to salute those who are with you, before and since—and those to come also, That we all labor together, transmitting the same charge and succession We few, equals, indifferent of lands, indifferent of times; We, enclosers of all continents, all castes – Compassionaters, perceivers, rapport of men, We walk silent among disputes and assertions, but reject not the disputers, nor any thing that is asserted; We hear the bawling and din—we are reach’d at by divisions, jealousies, recriminations on every side, They close peremptorily upon us, to surround us, my comrade, Yet we walk unheld, free, the whole earth over, journeying up and down, till we make our ineffaceable mark upon time and the diverse eras, Till we saturate time and eras, that the men and women of races, ages to come, may prove brethren and lovers, as we are.
Throughout ‘IV: For Matthew’, unison passages emphasize memorial, remembrance and community/unity, with a sense of purpose in mobilization and action, and social change through greater visibility: ‘that we all labor together, transmitting the same charge and succession’ (bb. 27-31), ‘till we make our ineffaceable mark upon time’ (bb. 65-67, with
‘time’ sung in harmony) and ‘till we saturate time and eras’ (bb. 72-74). This provides a transition into the more pointedly political commentary of the final movement, ‘V: Protest’.
89 For ‘V: Protest’, Liebermann appropriates a segment of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass for the opening of this movement and draws from another of Whitman’s poems called
‘Faces’ to create the text. ‘V: Protest’ specifically targets the administrative and legislative bodies that halt progress for the queer community. This was especially relevant to the administration of President George W. Bush at the time of BGMC’s 2008 premiere of A
Whitman Oratorio: ‘remember, government is to subserve individuals; not any, not the
President, is to have one jot more than you or me’. In conversation, Keith describes ‘V:
Protest’ and the relevance of Liebermann’s construction of text and the feelings it compelled in him:
Keith: The movement I really like is ‘Protest’ actually, and part of it is because I could see the fact of the struggle, and how it works and who the players are. And what people think of [the struggle] hasn’t changed in a hundred years.
Me: That’s startling, isn’t it?
Keith: Yeah. The lyrics were completely and totally appropriate in 2008 when it was done – that everything [Whitman wrote] actually still had meaning, and the way that it was used [by Liebermann]. ‘Faces’ is exactly what I thought of the president at the time – it’s a protest poem. The politicians at the time, [Whitman] would go through and give each of them some kind of horrible, misshapen face, like snakes crawling out of the mouth of their face. And you can hear them hissing when they talked – that kind of imagery. And that was what Whitman thought of the politicians, and it still is [relevant]! It was stuck in the middle of [‘V: Protest’] saying, there’s no one person more equal than anyone else. Again, still a problem.
As the text is specific in its criticism of administrative bodies and the government,
Liebermann directs his criticism of President George W. Bush in a subtle way. Through his use of musical cryptograms, Liebermann spells out President George W. Bush’s name in the voice parts. This is not particularly significant to audiences who might not be musically inclined to detect such a musical device. But Liebermann did highlight this in an interview with Steve Smith, former executive director of BGMC, included in the concert program for the premier of the work (see Appendices, pp. 180). As a musical characteristic designed to specifically reference its target of critique, it is worth a brief look here. The following excerpt from the Presto section (bb. 3-7) specifically characterizes President Bush by decree that ‘this
90 now is too lamentable a face for a man’. The melodic content in the voice parts is jagged and modal, framing the cryptogram that translates to the German note names: G, E, G, E (with the
‘O’ and the ‘R’ omitted) for ‘George’ and B-flat, E-flat (S in German), and B-natural (H in Presto h=88 89 German)°1 for ‘Bush’ (with the ‘U’ omitted): f 2 ∑ ∑ bœ œ nœ œ T. 1 & 2 œ œ œ œ œ bœ œ œ ‹ This now is too la - men-ta - ble a face for a Presto h=88 f 89 1 2 ∑ ∑ bœ œ nœ œ T. 2 °& 2 œf œ œ 2 ∑ ∑ œ œ œ bœ œbœ œ nœ œ T. 1 ‹& 2 œ œ œ œ œ bœ œ œ ‹ This now is too la - men-ta - ble a face for a ? 2 ∑ ∑ This now is∑too la - men-ta - ble ∑a face for a B. 1 2 f 2 ∑ ∑ bœ œ nœ œ T. 2 & 2 œ œ œ œ œ bœ œ œ ?‹ 2 ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ B. 2 ¢ 2 This now is too la - men-ta - ble a face for a 2 ? 2Presto h=88∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ B. 1 2 & 2 ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ Pno. ? 2f ∑ ∑ p ∑ ∑ B. 2 ¢ 22 {? 2 Pœrestœo h=8œ8 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ #œ œ œ 2 œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ & 2œ. . ∑œ. . œ. . œ∑. . œ. . œ.∑ . #œ. . ∑œ. .
Pno. f p 2 = {? 2 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ œ. . œ. . œ. . œ. . œ. . œ. . #œ. . œ. .
°5 = Œ Ó ∑ bœ nœ œ T. 1 & œ œ œ œ œ œ œ bœ œ ‹ man, Some ab-ject louse as-king leave to be, crin-ging Œ Ó ∑ bœ nœ œ T. 2 °&5 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ bœ œ ‹ Œ Ó ∑ bœ nœ œ œ T. 1 &maœn, Somœe abœ-jectœlousœe as-œkingœ leave tobœ be, crin-ging ‹ f bœ œ nœ œ œ ? mœan, œ œ œ œ bœ œ Sœome ab-ject louse as-king leave to be, crin-ging B. 1 Œ Ó ∑ &Thiœs nowŒ is tooÓ la - men-ta - ble a ∑face for a manœ, œ bœ nœ œ œ T. 2 f bœ œ nœ œ œ œ œ œ bœ ?‹ œ œ œ œ œ bœ œ œ œ Œ Ó ∑ B. 2 ¢ man, Some ab-ject louse as-king leave to be, crin-ging ? fœ œ œ œ œ bœ œ bœ œ nœ œ œ œ B. 1 This now is too la - men-ta - ble a face for a man, Œ Ó ∑ & ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ This now is too la - men-ta - ble a face for a man, f bœ œ nœ œ œ Pno. ? œ œ œ œ œ bœ œ œ Œ Ó ∑ B. 2 ¢? { œ œ œ œ Tœhis now is œtoo la -#œmen-ta#-œble a œface œfor a œman, œ #œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ & . . ∑. . #œ. . ∑œ. . . . ∑. . #œ. . œ. ∑ .
FigurePno. 5 - A Whitman Oratorio, by Lowell Liebermann; movement 'V: Protest', bb. 1-6 {? œ œ œ œ #œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ #œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ œ œ #œ œ œ. . œ. . #œ. . œ. . œ. . œ. . #œ. . œ. .
91 As ‘IV: For Matthew’ pays tribute to Shepard’s memory, ‘V: Protest’ vows to continue fighting for equality in his honour: ‘I chant this chant of my silent soul in the name of all dead soldiers…phantoms of countless lost, invisible to the rest henceforth become my companions’. Whitman’s poetry reminds the audience that ‘not any habitan of America is to have one jot less that you or me; the President is there in the White House for you, it is not you who are here for him’. The final movement concludes A Whitman Oratorio on a defiant, even angry, note as it condemns the inaction of the President George W. Bush administration in furthering protections and legal rights for the queer community. In part of our interview,
Dana and I discuss the significance of ‘V: Protest’ to the chorus in the context of 2008:
Me: What was it like singing that at the tail-end of the Bush administration?
Dana: {incredulous laughter} The Matthew Shepard part [‘IV: For Matthew’], I really don’t even equate that with President Bush in the oratorio. With [Bush], it’s ‘V: Protest’, the protest song about how angry we were at him in particular for doing everything he could to just hold back equality and hold back any advancement. And oh! I could not wait to see him go away! The frustration that just not enough was done!
In a separate conversation, Michael elaborates that in the context of BGMC’s March 2008 performance, ‘V: Protest’ posed a particularly sharp critique because of the Presidential election in the US. Michael sarcastically laughs, ‘really? I thought we hid it better than that.
{smiles}’. Michael continues to explains, ‘we had eight years [President George W. Bush] and [our performance] was before the election, so we didn’t know what was going to happen next’. While the election of President Barack Obama would become a reality later in 2008, it was not a certainty earlier in the year. As a candidate, President Obama’s stances on policies impacting queer people were considered progressive. By contrast, Republican Senator John
McCain, President Obama’s opponent in the 2008 election, was viewed as a hindrance to the expansion of queer rights. As a musical statement, A Whitman Oratorio – and ‘V: Protest’ more specifically – vigorously confronts the tenuous nature of queer rights and political and social progress. Aside from a scathing critique of President George W. Bush, the question
92 BGMC ultimately pose is whether the next incoming Presidential administration will effect progressive change for queer Americans.
As with ‘What Matters’, A Whitman Oratorio does not attempt to recreate the
Shepard story in a musical context. Rather, in remembering what happened to Shepard, the text seeks to address the larger implications of his murder: the influence of anti-queer sentiment and rhetoric on acts of homophobic violence. Furthermore, the work addresses the stagnation of the US government in legislation expanded equal rights for the larger queer community. By evoking Shepard’s memory, he becomes a representation of the consequences of cultural homophobia. The evocation of Shepard’s memory then becomes a sort of reference point for audiences, as they reflect on the socio-political message
Liebermann presents through Whitman’s text.
Community Memory in Music About Shepard
Neither ‘What Matters’ nor A Whitman Oratorio attempts to tell the story of Shepard’s murder directly. Rather, both pieces of music respond to the larger implications of his murder and seek resolution first through outreach to the audience. Shepard-related music in the gay chorus repertoire essentially represents community memory of such profoundly impacting tragedies. The term ‘community memory’ in this project refers to the ways in which gay choruses reproduce the Shepard story as a tragic act of homophobic violence. The term
‘public construction of memory’ refers to the ways in which larger US society negotiates the details of a story (such as Shepard’s), which is always subject to transformation based on new evidence (whether or not such evidence is legitimate). Regarding narrative framing in media news stories, research in media studies examines the impact of ideological beliefs (of the media and its readers), time (the socio-political context of the murder in 1998) and place
(conservative rural Wyoming) on the public construction of Shepard’s memory (Lynch 2007;
Ott and Aoki 2002; Petersen 2011). Lynch (2007: 226) contends that three components
93 shaping narratives are pertinent to the public’s construction of Shepard. First, a one- dimensional depiction of Shepard as a gay man makes use of homophobic stereotypes and stigmatizations. Second, a dominant ideology, such as socially progressive queer-allies, allows for judgment of those involved (for example, McKinney and Henderson are ‘bad’ because they murdered Shepard). Third, strict temporal limits (that is, a specific period of time) shape the manner in which the public constructs an overall narrative (for example,
McKinney and Henderson met and killed Shepard on the night of 8 October 1998).81
As a result of research pertaining to the media coverage of the Shepard murder,
Petersen (2011: 70-77) outlines how affect is used to frame Shepard as the victim, and
McKinney and Henderson as the perpetrators, in public discourse, and how this shapes public memory of the murder. According to Petersen (2011: 29-31), the personalized recollections of family, friends and those surrounding the murder are highly affective. Pairing such recollections of Shepard, with iconic photographs representing his likeness, are among some of the most important rhetorical and affective devices framing the media narrative of his murder (see also Loffreda 2000; Lynch 2007; Ott and Aoki 2002; Quist and Weigand 2002).
Shepard is often depicted as ‘the boy next door’, small in stature, and able to ‘pass’ as heterosexual. Shepard is also characterized as having come from an affluent family, an educated university student with an interest in activism and social justice. All of this frames
Shepard as innocent, intelligent and ambitious. In contrast, the same media reports generally depict McKinney and Henderson as poor, uneducated and ignorant and bigoted. The construction of such a dichotomy is also significant because it implies that Shepard epitomises urban political liberalism, whereas McKinney and Henderson represent conservative rural values. However, the above dichotomy does not take into account the role
81 Lynch (2007) outlines the manner in which biographical film adaptations of the Shepard murder, including The Matthew Shepard Story (2002) and The Laramie Project (2002), address public construction of Shepard’s memory. Furthermore, such films also attempt to negotiate whether blame for the crime lies solely with McKinney and Henderson, or if anti-gay expressions influenced their actions. Such dramatised, non- documentary style films attempt to address heteronormative rhetoric and culpability for the Shepard murder.
94 of social and religious conservatives in both rural and urban locales who voice anti-queer sentiment and homophobic rhetoric. As a result, political, social and religious conservativism often abdicates responsibility for the influence of anti-queer rhetoric and sentiment on acts of homophobic violence (see Loffreda 2000: 165-84; Ott and Aoki 2002: 490-93; Petersen
2011: 45-54 Quist and Weigand 2002: 102-04). Strangely, conservativism often tends to shame perpetrators of homophobic violence (see Loffreda 2000: 165-84; Ott and Aoki 2002:
490-93; Petersen 2011: 45-54; Quist and Weigand 2002: 102-04). The songs and multi- movement works in this project are rooted in these very implications: the influence of anti- queer sentiment and rhetoric on acts of homophobic violence.
With regard to public construction of memory, Petersen (2011) uses the term ‘cultural memory’ to describe the tacit ways in which the larger public agrees upon (and thus constructs) the characteristics that will make up the Shepard story. Cultural memory also allows for a wide swathe of people, regardless of sexual orientation and/or gender identity, to feel sympathy for Shepard as a symbol of the consequences of homophobia; or conversely, dispute the details of his story (see Jiminez 2013). In contrast, ‘community memory’ refers to how the Shepard story is more specifically remembered and expressed in queer history and by the queer community. In the case of this project, gay chorus music expresses community memory through commemorative music.
Raising Questions
Whether choruses perform commemorative music about Shepard, or Harvey Milk (as discussed later in this chapter), or any other key figure of the queer rights movement, the purpose is to raise questions about the nature of heteronormativity, cultural and institutional homophobia and acts of violence against queer people. As with much socio-political music in the gay choral repertoire, this music is highly affective in the way it addresses a queer history of pain, oppression and violence. Pieces of music such as ‘What Matters’ and A Whitman
95 Oratorio (among others examined later in this chapter) create space for singers to express their commonly shared but unique individual experiences with homophobia and violence.
With Shepard-related music in particular, these pieces are not simply about a young man who died. This music is also for and about those singers on stage, functioning as an avenue for autobiographical expression. As affective devices for social commentary, this music facilitates choruses’ ability to appeal to the emotional responses of the audience with lyrics that compel reflection on homophobia and anti-queer violence. Dana elaborates on the discourse that can often take place in the context of rehearsals, especially with new commissioned music: ‘[Reuben Reynolds, BGMC’s artistic director] will get feedback from the composer or the lyricist, where their head was at. He will also give us his spin on [the piece] and how he feels that it should be and what we’re trying to convey’. In the case of A
Whitman Oratorio, these questions also pertain to institutional homophobia and the government’s role in the continued oppression of queer people at both the state and federal levels.
Where A Whitman Oratorio addresses both the social and political, ‘What Matters’ raises specific questions about the impact of heteronormativity in everyday life – the ways in which heteronormativity specifically influences acts of anti-queer violence because of cultural homophobia. Coogan realized that because the song’s lyrics are less specific and more universal in their response to the Shepard murder, ‘What Matters’ would retain its relevance as a piece of commentary. In our 2014 interview, Coogan explains:
I do think it’s become more about the questions and the issue than what was originally a very intimate inquiry that Randi was making about what happened. The questions that it asks were born out of Matthew’s tragedy, but it isn’t Matthew-specific. That’s where it is applicable to these other things – now as we look at the last dozen years, or 15 years, and the violence continues to happen. Those of us who work in it every day, it’s like we’re doing this so those incidents will mitigate. As somebody who has now for several years run a variety of social change musical organizations, you’re trying to raise money from a foundation or from government. These are places that want to be able to say ‘if you do X, it will yield Y. So, if you put a concert on, show us how that is going to change hearts and minds. If you’re doing social change for the homeless – I know if we feed 50 people, that’s going to make X, Y and
96 Z changes in the world’. When you’re dealing with art, you can’t draw a linear line. But what you can do is say, without that line we know what will continue to happen.
As Coogan explains, music about heteronormativity, cultural homophobia and anti-queer violence in the repertoire essentially functions as a utility for choruses in engaging their audiences in discourse about these issues. The complexities of cultural homophobia extend beyond educating heterosexual and cis-gender Americans on the necessity of civil rights for queer people in a country that celebrates the virtues of liberty. The complexities of cultural homophobia also extend into issues pertaining to bullying, self-harm, suicide and conversion therapy, all of which directly impact the lives of queer people. Overall, the intent of performing music about Shepard is designed to compel audiences – including those in queer- friendly metropolitan areas that pride themselves on being progressive and accepting – to reflect on the conditions of cultural homophobia that propagate the acts of homophobic violence, whether fatal or not, that queer people continue to suffer. For example, in August of
2014, two gay men were attacked and beaten with a baseball bat on Capitol Hill, the traditionally ‘gay’ neighbourhood of Seattle.82 This tragic event is symptomatic of many bias attacks against queer people in 2014 throughout the US. As recently as early 2016, the governors of the states of North Carolina and Mississippi signed such legislation into law.83
The apparent acts of progress toward expanded rights for queer people stand in contrast to blatantly oppressive legislation. Most significantly, with the newly elected Republican president Donald J. Trump, and a Republican majority in the Senate and House of
Representative, all of whom have continually reiterated their opposition to many pieces of legislation protecting queer people, putting equal rights at risk. Because acts of violence – hate crimes based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender non-conformity – have
82 Cohen, Bryan. 2014. Two Capitol Hill anti-gay hate crime cases heading towards trial. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog (9 December) [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2014/12/two- capitol-hill-anti-gay-hate-crime-cases-heading-towards-trial/ 83 Katz, Jonathan M. and Erik Eckholm. 2016. Anti-Gay Laws Bring Backlash in Mississippi and North Carolina. The New York Times (5 April) [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/06/us/gay-rights-mississippi-north-carolina.html?_r=0
97 continued to happen, choruses feel the need to continue addressing these issues through music and performance.
While the movements ‘IV: For Matthew’ and ‘V: Protest’ in A Whitman Oratorio address the violent impact of cultural and institutional homophobia by figuratively raising questions, ‘What Matters’ does so literally. Without making specific reference to Shepard’s story, nor sounding esoteric, ‘What Matters’ maintains its relevance by creating space for chorus singers to interpret through the lens of their own experience. Thus, the song allows singers, as survivors of homophobia and sometimes even violence, to feel a sense of affinity with Shepard. These songs and multi-movement works are utilities of choruses to make statements, raise questions, intentionally appeal to the audience’s emotional response with highly affective music, engage in dialogue and, hopefully, compel reflection about pervasive homophobia, on both cultural and institutional levels, and its violent consequences.
Heteronormativity and Violence in ‘Testimony’
In March 2012, SFGMC premiered ‘Testimony’, a song specifically written for the chorus by
Broadway and film composer Stephen Schwartz, as Dr. Seelig explains to me one year later
(for full lyrics, see Appendices, pp. 186). For the lyrics, Schwartz drew from videos in the It
Gets Better Project with the permission of the organization’s founders Dan Savage and Terry
Miller. It Gets Better was formed in response to an epidemic of suicide among youth identifying as, or perceived to be, queer. Anyone can contribute a video to the campaign.
Essentially, the intent is to provide youth with stories from people who transcended bullying, self-destructive behaviours and contemplations of suicide to find a more fulfilling life in adulthood – the message summed up by the project’s name. Around the time of its premier,
SFGMC made a video for the song.84 A few months later, SFGMC included ‘Testimony’ in
84 SFGMCVideo. 2012. ‘It Gets Better: Testimony by SF Gay Men’s Chorus & Stephen Schwartz. Youtube.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XZRNL9ZnyM
98 their July 2012 performance at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, in a concert sponsored by the Matthew Shepard Foundation. This will be discussed in Chapter 4. In the time since SFGMC’s March 2012 premier, many gay choruses have performed ‘Testimony’, including SMC, which will be discussed in depth in Chapter 5. BGMC has performed the song twice, in 2013 and 2015. For their first performance of ‘Testimony’, a local youth choir performed parts of the song that underscore the impact of heteronormativity on young queer people. Michael explains:
We chose to do that with them as a generational thing – the older generation and the younger generation, which kind of pissed off some of the guys who are right between! {laughs} They didn’t like being called ‘elders’. It was like, ‘welcome to the club! Guess what? These kids are 10 years younger than you are.’ Our hearts bled for them, really. {smiles} This was our main concert [in March 2013 at Jordan Hall] and we brought [the high school chorus] into our ‘home’ to sing with us. And they sang their own pieces as well as [on] ours.
As an overview of the song, the structure of ‘Testimony’ consists of the following sections: A
(bb. 1-61); transition (bb. 62-76); B (bb. 77-95); and B(1) (bb. 95-116). The A section is set in the key of E-flat dorian, with tension poised on B-flat and gravitating toward E-flat by the end of the section. The lyrical content is rooted in conflict and turmoil, a closeted protagonist struggling with negative societal attitudes toward queer people. The musical setting for this section largely consists of passages sung by a small group ensemble, as soloists and in duets.
The texture is largely contrapuntal, with the small group ensemble (again, as soloists and in duets) exchanging lines and overlapping with the larger chorus. The overall effect is intended to represent several different voices, the shared but unique struggles among queer people with self-doubt and self-destructive thoughts and behaviours. The contrapuntal texture builds dynamically toward a unified expression as presented in the transition, and sections B and
B(1). The transition section modulates a whole step downward to A-flat Major, the lyrics revealing that the sentiments expressed in the first section are reflections on the past. The texture in the transition and B and B(1) sections is homophonic, representing the community expression of shared experience. The B(1) section modulates upward to B-flat Major (the
99 parallel major of the first section) and then to C Major (bb. 96), containing expressions of transcendence and resilience in overcoming societal adversity toward queer people.
The overall structure of the piece is that of an adult protagonist (as in the transition, B and B(1) sections) reflecting on their own past struggle with self-destructive thoughts and behaviours (in the opening A section). As discussed above, the opening A section consists of many voices (the small group ensemble and the larger chorus) expressing unique struggles in negotiating their sexual orientation and/or gender identity with the pressure to conform to heteronormative standards of society:
I don’t want to be like this I don’t want to be who I am Every day that I don’t change I blame myself I am not trying hard enough I don’t want to be like this I don’t want to be how I am
Social constructions of homosexuality have conditioned the voices in the A section to believe their sexual identity is unacceptable: ‘When they find out, no one will love me, I’ll lose my family and all of my friends’. Consequently, the need to adapt to and fit in with a heteronormative society feels disingenuous and hopelessly inevitable:
I’m trapped like a fish with a hook in its mouth I am impersonating the person I show as me I’m an imposter, I am a spy behind enemy lines I pack my feelings so deep inside me they turn to concrete
At this point in the first section, Schwartz’s lyrics emphasize the profound internalization of cultural homophobia: ‘I don’t want to be like this, I don’t want to be who I am, how I am, what I am’ (emphasis added). Lyrics that follow signify the complex intersection of social constructions of sexual orientation and/or gender identity and conservative religious beliefs:
Every night I ask God to end my life I am an abomination God take this away or take me away Today I’m going to hang myself Today I’m going to slit my wrists Today I’m going to jump off my building I don’t want to be anymore
100
The contemplations of suicide and ambivalence about living in section A are magnified by three desperate exhortations (by all voices) to a ‘God’ to ‘take me away, take me away, take me away’. Modulating from the dark poignancy centred on B-flat in the A section, the transition section modulates downward to A-flat Major signifying a musical and lyrical change. As the small ensemble is subsumed into the larger chorus, all voices sing consolingly, ‘hang in, hang on, wait just a little longer’. This passage indicates a change in perspective, revealing that section A was a reflection on the past by an ‘out’ adult (or adults, plural), of an indeterminate age, who chose to live: ‘I know it now, if I had made myself not exist, there is so much I would have missed’. Modulating to B-flat Major (and then eventually to C Major at bb. 96), ‘Testimony’ illustrates the universal experiences of building community with other queer people:
I would have missed so many travels and adventures More wonders than I knew could be So many friends with jokes and laughter Not to mention, the joy of living in authenticity Sometimes I cry, life can still be hard But there’s no part of me still crying “hide me”
Two significant moments happen at the end of bb. 90 when the chorus sings ‘I would have missed the chance to sing out like this with people I love beside me’. First, this line is homophonic and represents a community of voices singing together. Second, these particular lyrics suggest redemption and healing in coming out as queer, a shared experience amongst the singers. For the last stanza, the accompaniment modulates upward again, to C Major, and the lyrics shift to find the protagonist reflecting on their own resilience (with a reference to the It Gets Better project in the third line):
101 I have been brave, I grew and so did those around me And now look what a life I’ve earned It gets more than better, it gets amazing and astounding If I could reach my past I’d tell him what I’ve learned: I was more loved than I dared to know There were open arms I could not see And when I die, and when it’s my time to go I want to come back as me.
As the following chapters will probe in further depth, ‘Testimony’ functions as an avenue for intensely vulnerable and autobiographical expression in many singers – the experience of being closeted, struggling with self-destructive thoughts and, in some cases, having survived attempt(s) at suicide. In addition to having been performed by many gay choruses, SFGMC produced a music video for ‘Testimony’ and BGMC video recorded their performance of the song in 2013. These videos are available on the choruses’ respective YouTube channels. For their next project, SFGMC commissioned a multi-movement work addressing heteronormativity, cultural and institutional homophobia and anti-queer violence from yet another angle: Commemorating the life of Harvey Milk, and his work as an activist and politician in effecting expanded acceptance and rights for the queer community, in the 35th anniversary year of his death.
I Am Harvey Milk (2013) and Beyond
A month after BGMC first performed ‘Testimony’, on the other side of the country, SFGMC had just begun preparation of yet another newly commissioned work addressing heteronormativity, homophobia and anti-queer violence. A multi-movement work in 12 parts,
I Am Harvey Milk celebrates the life and work of its namesake (for full text, see Appendices, pp. 188). When I attended SFGMC’s 29 April 2013 rehearsal, the chorus was still in the early stages of rehearsing I Am Harvey Milk. Dr. Seelig (SFGMC’s artistic director) provided singers with some background on the larger work and some of the forthcoming movements
Lippa was in the process of finalizing. Essentially, Lippa draws from elements of Milk’s story, philosophy and work to create a contemporary oratorio that is really not meant to be
102 comprehensively biographical. Rather, the intent is to appeal to the audience’s potential feelings of affinity with Milk – or more directly, to inspire the audience to action. Thus, the
‘I’ in I Am Harvey Milk refers not to Milk, but to the singers on stage and to the audience; and Milk becomes a symbol of work toward greater social justice that the audience can enact in contemporary work toward great societal acceptance and expanded legal rights for the queer community in contemporary US life.
Situated between Japantown and the Tenderloin districts of San Francisco, I enter into the First Unitarian Universalist Church where SFGMC is holding their evening rehearsal.
Nob Hill, a rather affluent neighbourhood is situated just to the North, and the Financial
District to the northeast. From the street, the church is an ornate brick and stone structure, established in the city in 1850. The sanctuary, where the chorus will rehearse this evening, is massive, with open air ceilings, somewhat dim lighting and several rows of pews stretching from the altar to the back of the church. Approximately 20-30 minutes into the rehearsal, after vocal exercises and discussion of another song in SFGMC’s upcoming performances,
Dr. Seelig instructed the chorus to open to ‘Sticks and Stones’ in I Am Harvey Milk. ‘Sticks and Stones’ would eventually become movement seven, approximately halfway through the larger work. Taking a different angle from music about Shepard and ‘Testimony’, which raise questions about the impact of heteronormativity on discrimination and violence, ‘Sticks and
Stones’ points directly to the influence of rhetoric. Dr. Seelig suspended discussion of the specific intent of this movement, asking the singers to ‘focus on learning words and notes.
We’ll get to message and meaning later’. In the context of I Am Harvey Milk, ‘Sticks and
Stones’ is a brooding and dramatic protest song in the key of F minor and in 3/4 time. Lippa’s text contains absolutely no reference to Milk. Instead, the verses are direct, consisting entirely of homophobic and racial slurs while the recurring bridge section is a twist on a children’s playground song:
103 Gay, fairy, Nancy boy Limp wristed pansy, light in the loafers Fruit, Mary, Nellie, chi chi man Gay, homo, fairy (who ya callin’) Nancy boy (callin’ Nancy boy?), chi chi man
Sticks and stones can break my bones Names can really hurt me Stones and sticks can feel like bricks Names can really hurt me
(Gay) ‘God hates fags!’ (fairy) ‘turn and burn!’ (girly boy) ‘leave our children alone!’ Faggot, faggot, faggot, faggot (repeated over 5 measures) Girly boy! Girly boy!
Sticks and stones can break my bones Names can really hurt me Stones and sticks can feel like bricks Names can really hurt me
Gay, fairy, Nancy boy (Gay) kike, (fairy) jungle bunny, towel head (pansy), gook Faggot, camel jockey
Sticks and stones can break my bones Names can really hurt me Stones and sticks can feel like bricks Names can really hurt me
Nigger, faggot, chink.
As part of a larger commemorative work, ‘Sticks and Stones’ functions as a contextual piece, conveying the weight of slurs and epithets on groups of oppressed people. Ultimately, ‘Sticks and Stones’ addresses the violent emotional and psychological impact of hateful rhetoric and sentiment that so many people suffer because of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity. Listening to SFGMC rehearse this particular movement, singing through a text comprised of words that in any other setting would be regarded as offensive and not politically correct, was a profound moment. While Dr. Seelig had directed the chorus to focus on learning words and notes, and considering that this was the first time SFGMC had sung through the movement, I wondered how many singers might be feeling uncomfortable singing this text. As an observer to this rehearsal, those lyrics were uncomfortable to hear, even visceral and physically impacting. I wondered what the impact might be on audiences a few months later during performance. Essentially, ‘Sticks and Stones’ addresses the very
104 issue at the heart of the music in this project: The impact of oppressive rhetoric and sentiment on continued acts of violence against people who are neither heterosexual nor cis-gender (and in the case of ‘Sticks and Stones’ specifically, Caucasian). Incidentally, the message in
‘Sticks and Stones’ remains particularly relevant with the rise in rhetorical and physical violence against marginalized groups of people, from the 2015 Presidential primaries and into the tenure of the Administration of President Donald J. Trump.
Along with SFGMC, several other choruses in the GALA organization co- commissioned I Am Harvey Milk – Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus (Georgia), Dayton Gay Men’s
Chorus (Ohio), Denver Gay Men’s Chorus (Colorado), Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles
(California), Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus (Minnesota) and Heartland Men’s Chorus
(Kansas City, Missouri). In the time since SFGMC’s premier, all of these choruses have performed the oratorio – as well as SMC, who performed the work in 2014. In addition to performances by these choruses, I Am Harvey Milk was also staged in New York City at the
Avery Fisher Hall on 6 October 2014, directed by Noah Himmelstein and starring Lippa (as
Harvey Milk) and Broadway, film and television star Kristin Chenoweth.
As the basis for I Am Harvey Milk, Lippa drew from Milk’s life story and philosophies as an openly gay man, activist and politician. In Milk’s work as a leader in the gay rights movement (as it was referred to at the time), he frequently espoused his belief that greater visibility, ‘coming out’ and living openly, would impact social change for the queer community (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). Because of his high profile in the gay rights movement, Milk often encountered social and religious opposition from conservative celebrities such as Anita Bryant, a singer and 1958 Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner
(Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). At that time, Bryant was primarily based in Florida and used her celebrity to speak out against legal rights and protections for gay people on a national level (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). For purposes of context and clarity, the term ‘gay’ was
105 largely used at that time to reference what we currently refer to as the larger queer community. Bryant and other similarly conservative celebrities and public figures reiterated unfounded fears about gay people (as paedophiles converting young children to the ‘gay lifestyle’) in order to characterize the queer community in vampiric terms (gays ‘convert’ youth in order for their community to ‘survive’) and appeal to the fears of heterosexual cis- gender Americans (Schmiechen and Epstein 2011). Lippa makes reference to Bryant in the
‘Sticks and Stones’ excerpt above, with the line ‘leave our children alone!’. As discussed in
Chapter 2, Milk often spoke out against these perpetuated falsehoods, which served as the basis for Proposition 6 (the Briggs Initiative).
After the defeat of Proposition 6 in November 1978, Milk would reprise his speech
‘That’s What America Is’ from 25 June (of the same year) at the San Francisco Gay Freedom
Day Parade (see Appendices, pp. 175).85 This following segment of Milk’s speech best represents his work, serves as the basis for the finale of I Am Harvey Milk, and informs the work undertaken by gay choruses such as SFGMC:
I’m tired of the lies of the Anita Bryants and John Briggs. I’m tired of their myths. I’m tired of their distortions. I’m speaking out about it. Gay brothers and sisters, what are you going to do about it? You must come out. Come out to your parents. I know that is hard and will hurt them but think about how they will hurt you in the voting booth! Come out to your relatives. I know that is hard and will upset them but think of how they will upset you in the voting booth. Come out to your friends, if indeed they are your friends. Come out to your neighbors, to your fellow workers. To the people who work where you eat and shop. Come out only to the people you know, and who know you. Not to anyone else. But once and for all, break down the myths, destroy the lies and distortions. For your sake. For their sake. For the sake of youngsters who are becoming scared by the votes from Dade to Eugene. If Briggs wins he will not stop. They never do. Like all mad people, they are forced to go on, to prove they were right. There will be no safe “closet” for any gay person. So, break out of yours today – tear the damn thing down once and for all!
85 Friends of Harvey. 2015. Remembering #HarveyMilk: 1978 San Francisco Gay Freedom Rally Speech in Full. friendsofharvey.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://friendsofharvey.wordpress.com/2015/11/27/remembering-harveymilk-1978-san-francisco-gay-freedom- rally-speech-in-full/
106 On 26 June 2013, the day SFGMC premiered I Am Harvey Milk, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the state of California could no longer deny same-sex couples the right to marry in their state. This ruling would serve as one of many steps toward marriage equality at the federal level, as witnessed two years later on 26 June 2015 with the
Supreme Court’s ruling on Obergefell v. Hodges. In the original context of SFGMC’s June
2013 premier, and the celebration that ensued throughout San Francisco, I Am Harvey Milk was equally as celebratory and represented yet another milestone in work toward expanded rights for queer people. As recently as 3 July 2016, Seelig conducted a performance of I Am
Harvey Milk by a combination of ensembles at the GALA Choruses Festival in Denver,
Colorado. Before starting the performance, Seelig explained that the intent of the oratorio’s overall message is to ‘inspire’ audiences to action and work toward greater social justice. The twelfth and final movement, ‘Tired of the Silence’ directly draws from Milk’s ‘That’s What
America Is’ speech, as mentioned above.86 ‘Tired of the Silence’ not only illustrates Milk’s philosophies about ‘coming out’ as a catalyst for social change, the song also is a rallying cry for community. Living ‘out’ and openly as part of the larger queer community equals living
‘authentically’, a sentiment reiterated by the many singers who contributed to this project.
Lippa’s lyrics paraphrases Milk’s speech:
Who will stand beside me, who will take my hand? Whose will is greater than their fear? Our goal has been sighted, our passions ignited So now you’re invited to appear
Together is better than alone The hate won’t vanish on its own
Come out! Come out and believe in yourself, put faith in those who care Come out! Come out and conceive yourself as something you can share Come out! Come out and the day you do, the pain will soon let go of you
86 Friends of Harvey. 2015. Remembering #HarveyMilk: 1978 San Francisco Gay Freedom Rally Speech in Full. friendsofharvey.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://friendsofharvey.wordpress.com/2015/11/27/remembering-harveymilk-1978-san-francisco-gay-freedom- rally-speech-in-full/
107
Come out to your friends, to your parents, to your boss To your neighbors, to your sons To your daughters, out to all your fellow workers To your cops, to your doctors, to the shops where you spend your money To your god, to your teachers, to yourselves Come out to yourselves! Come out!
In ‘Tired of the Silence’, Lippa’s lyrics – and ultimately Milk’s sentiments – embody the quest for community with likeminded people who share a common identity. In drawing from both Milk’s story and the history of the gay rights movement, Lippa constructs a movement that, if decontextualized from the larger oratorio, becomes applicable to the history of the gay choral movement as well. ‘Tired of the Silence’ mirrors the uniquely individual reasons that guide singers to seek out their respective choruses. The following chapter will examine this in greater depth.
108 Chapter 4 Joining the Chorus, Biography and Experience: San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus as a Case Study
Work on this project began with inquiries into SFGMC’s 2012 performance at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. The chorus’ concert, Love Can Build a Bridge, was sponsored by the Matthew Shepard Foundation (MSF), an organization formed in 1999 by Shepard’s parents, Judy and Dennis, with a focus on social justice for the queer community (for full concert program, see Appendices, pp. 197). The partnership of SFGMC and MSF in this particular location prompts a few observations. First, Laramie is politically, socially and religiously conservative in its characterization as a ‘red’ area. Second, Laramie is also the site where Shepard lived and studied at the time of his murder. The Love Can Build a Bridge concert represents an attempt at outreach: SFGMC performing in a more rural locale for an audience that might not typically see an openly gay chorus perform. By the accounts of many
SFGMC singers I interviewed, the Laramie audience turned out to be considerably smaller than the chorus on stage. Some singers speculate that the audience consisted of queer and allied people of Laramie, and possibly others who might have been curious to see what
SFGMC is all about. In contrast, after interacting with audience members in the lobby after the concert, many singers also questioned: Where were the ‘gay’ people of Laramie? And what stigmas still exist in a place like Laramie that might keep queer people from attending
SFGMC’s concert? These are questions that this project does not attempt to answer, but they are necessary for understanding the drive and purpose behind gay chorus performances – especially when engaging in outreach in ‘red’ areas.
I met with Bruce at his home in the Castro District of San Francisco, conversing for a little over an hour on the balcony overlooking his back yard. Bruce is a Caucasian male singer with SFGMC in his 50s, an immigrant from the antipodes, who joined SFGMC after
109 coming out and moving to the US. Reflecting on his perceptions of Laramie as a small-town where most people know one another, Bruce contends:
The people [in Laramie] live much more close lives. I’d never really thought of it from a musical perspective. But if you think of the cultural opportunities that are available in a city like San Francisco, you would have thought that the arrival of an organisation as big as the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus in a town like Laramie would be regarded as being such a cultural opportunity. But I think that there’s this absolute stigma about having the word ‘Gay’ in [our] name. And if it had been the ‘San Francisco Men’s Chorus’ [with ‘Gay’ removed] in Laramie, the audience could have been a different picture.
Following a review of relevant literature, this chapter will draw from my work with SFGMC, research interviews with singers, former artistic director Dr. Kathleen McGuire (2000-10) and current artistic director Dr. Tim Seelig (since 2011). The purpose is to gain insight into the biographies of these participants, and how their stories weave into the form of social action in which they are engaged. Essentially, SFGMC’s performances of the music in this project are reproductions of the conflict of being queer in a heteronormative society, anxiety over what to do about it, and resolution in coming out. In reproducing conflict, anxiety and resolution, SFGMC tells their stories through music and performance. The unique but commonly shared experiences of the participants I interviewed for this project inform the message and meaning behind these performances.
Communities of Practice and Music Making
The Shepard story impacted the lives of many singers who were already members of gay choruses or had considered joining a chorus (or even another queer-centred activist organization) because of the tragedy. This speaks to the need for community, and finding solace in an environment of people with a shared identity. Wenger (2004: 51) discusses the existence of communities of practice (for example, the gay choruses in this project) from which the practice emerges (such as, music-making), facilitating how members make meaning and ‘experience the world’, and can be used to inculcate new members into the group. In summary, meaning is negotiated by the players in a social community, usually
110 produced and shaped by social dynamics and informed by history (Wenger 2004: 52-55). The gay chorus as a community of practice makes meaning through shared queer identity subordinated in a heteronormative culture, and the desire to further societal and legal progress on behalf of the queer community. Lave and Wenger (1991) examine learning within communities of practice, in that the participants must be transformed through their interactions with one another.
The notions of community, working toward full integration through the continued negotiation with a heteronormative culture sums up the work of choruses – or, as Finnegan
(2007: 301) describes, ‘small-scale communities within larger urban settings’ (see Hannerz
1980 for more on studies of larger versus smaller scale community ensembles). Of course, not every GALA ensemble works within a larger urban setting, as there are many gay choruses in rural, politically, socially, and religiously conservative ‘red’ areas of the US. But the choruses of study for this project are ‘small-scale communities’ working within their
‘larger urban settings. As ‘small-scale communities’, to a certain extent, choruses’ memberships increasingly reflect the diversity of the larger queer community. Similar to the subject in Finnegan’s (2007: 314) work, each chorus is a ‘common-interest group’ working toward social change in the context of their hometowns. In this sense, Finnegan (2007: 329) also highlights the significance of music-making as an activity that ‘brings people together’ and ‘has certain wider implications for society more generally’ (for more on the emergence of communities through common interest in aesthetic forms, see Hast 1994 and Straw 1991).
Also, Finnegan (2007: 330) acknowledges the impact of musical ensembles on social cohesion. With regard to this project, this usually begins with the question of why singers, individually, are personally compelled to join gay choruses. As this chapter will explore, the
‘why’ can derive from the desire to make music, to feel part of a community of people with shared identity, and/or to engage in activism that aspires to compel social change locally,
111 nationally, and even internationally. As such, singing members often idealize their particular choruses, and the cultivation of a strong sense of community within the ensemble can compel pride and loyalty.
Similar to the findings of Mendonça (2002) in her work on the perceptions of performing ensemble, the idealizations, pride and loyalty of singing members to their choruses represents what Turner (1982) characterizes as a ‘utopian musical community’.
Mendonça (2002: 537) finds that participation in musical ensembles can often result in ‘an intense, powerful and even transformative communal feeling’. These sentiments characterize work on this project, as conversations and interviews with singers have revealed: Feelings of belonging to both a gay (or queer) identifying ensemble, a social movement and an organization that facilitates social interaction and the development of community. The individual choruses function as social movements unto themselves, and those choruses also function as part of a larger social movement organization – in the GALA Choruses organization. This ties in particularly with work by Anderson (2006), and the notion of separate (individual choruses) but interconnected communities (all part of the larger GALA
Choruses organization) working collectively for a greater common good.
As with Anderson (2006), Woolwine (2000: 11-12) examines the notion of an imagined gay community and what this signifies to those who would identify with such a community. Identification with such a community varies from person to person, often based on a shared sexual orientation, or involvement in community activities such as HIV and
AIDS organizations – or in the case of this work, gay men’s choruses. The notion of an imagined gay community is also informed by a sense of shared history, the impact of
112 homophobia and transphobia on acts of violence – from the Stonewall riot,87 to Harvey
Milk’s work as a gay rights activist, to brutal murders of Brandon Teena88 and Matthew
Shepard, and more – and how progress toward greater queer visibility, acceptance, legal rights and protections have impacted US culture over the years. This shared history among queer singers in gay men’s choruses – and certainly among queer people overall – facilitates a sense of imagined community that is not tied to a particular locale, but rather a global community of people connected through their non-heteronormative identities.
In Cohen’s (2001: 18) work, social movements are ‘invariably a coalition of interests’ in which a wide variety of people ‘can find their own meanings’ in the symbolism of that movement. Where this concerns my work, the word ‘gay’ functions as a symbol that often appears in the names of these ensembles, for example, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and
Boston Gay Men’s Chorus (emphasis mine). Though this is not always the case, as with
Seattle Men’s Chorus or Heartland Men’s Chorus (among others), these ensembles’ affiliations with the larger queer community are often made explicit – sometimes taking the form of partnership with other ‘gay’ (or queer) organizations. Or, even just the performative aesthetic of groups performing music expressing same-sex desire is often enough to signify queer identity. Furthermore, with the growing diversity of gay choruses in terms of age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and/or gender identity and non-conformity (for instance, many gay choruses include heterosexual, bisexual, and transgender singers) appears to foster
87 Davis and Heilbroner (2011) produced Stonewall Uprising, a documentary detailing the riot that essentially give rise to the gay pride movement. After continued police invasions of the New York City gay bar the Stonewall Inn, on 28 June 1969, patrons of the bar fought back against the police, who were overwhelmed by the crowd. The Stonewall riot stands as the most significant act of resistance to homophobia in recent queer history because, later that same day, the first gay pride parade took place in New York City. 88 Brandon Teena was a transgender man who was raped and murdered by two men, after they discovered Teena had been passing as male but was biologically and legally male. Teena’s story is significant to recent queer history, especially with regard to violence against trans people in the US. The story is represented in the documentary film The Brandon Teena Story (1998) as well as Boys Don’t Cry (1999), the latter starring Hillary Swank as Teena. Scholar Jack Halberstam also discusses Teena in In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives (2005).
113 community bonds, as singers recognize the vast experiences of their fellow choristers – the
‘coalition of interests’ of which Cohen (2001: 18) describes.
A Note on the Audition Process
Essentially, the three choruses of study in this project – SFGMC, BGMC and SMC – each have between 260-300 active singing members. They are among the largest in the GALA
Choruses organization. Aside from the commonalities between these choruses that this project examines, their histories (as outlined in Chapter 2) and legacies represent the potential for longevity and growth as individual organizations. Choruses within the GALA organization tend to operate in very similar ways, and their audition processes are multi- purposed. First, singers audition for a musical performance group that entertains audiences.
Singers can be turned away due to deficiencies in musical ability. An audition is not a guarantee for chorus membership. Second, and more significantly, choruses are aware of their role in the community – as entertainers, as activists for the queer community, and as entities that engage in outreach – and lack of musical ability is not necessarily a hard rule in turning potential singers away. Gay choruses do include singers who cannot read music, but often with the intention of teaching them how to do so. Whatever the reasons are for accepting or turning away those who audition, the decision ultimately lies with whomever is conducting the audition – whether it is the artistic director or assistant director, this can vary from chorus to chorus.
Depending on the chorus, auditions usually take place two times per year. The first audition is usually at the end of August or beginning of September, just prior to the start of rehearsals for the new concert season. A second audition usually takes place in early January, just prior to the start of rehearsals for the Spring concert (the second concert in most choruses’ concert seasons, which usually takes place in mid-to-late March or early April).
This can be a critical audition for capturing new members who had just attended a chorus’
114 holiday performances in mid-December, and interested in joining the chorus. Criteria can involve singing through scales and interval exercises, and preparing a short piece of music to demonstrate singing abilities (such as, singing the US national anthem). The audition process can be characterized as a semi-formal event, but often much more relaxed than most singers anticipate. This is due, in large part, to choruses recognizing the various reasons and needs of their potential new chorus mates: Some are rejected by family and friends and are looking for a place to belong; some want to feel part of a community; some want to create a ‘chosen family’ of friends who share both singing and queer-identity in common; and some want to be involved in a queer organization that engages in activism. Some singers also join for the sheer love of singing and entertaining. Whatever the reason, each singer brings to the chorus their own unique story.
Another formality of the audition process is perhaps more obviously focused on the musical abilities of the singer – how well they sing, read music and their overall musicianship. But then once a singer passes their audition and becomes an active singing member of the chorus, there are structures put in place to assist its members. For instance, section leaders are responsible for fast and efficient learning of the music. Small membership services committees handle full integration of new members, making sure they enjoy their experience with the chorus, dealing with any problems, issues and concerns as they arise.
With continued auditions, each choruses’ membership shifts, changes and alters. The participants in this project represent those changes. Some singers I conversed with have been with their respective choruses for several years, and some singers are new and often experiencing the working of such ensembles for the first time. With regard to the former, those veteran singers often share insights into the events (such as outreach concerts or tours) and music (such as A Whitman Oratorio) in which their choruses engage for purposes of outreach and activism. With regard to the latter, the insights of new singers result from
115 experiencing choruses’ work with ‘fresh eyes’, so to speak. How veteran and new singers experience the same concert and the same piece of music often overlaps, and this is evident in their reflections, recollections and insights. More significantly, and where this chapter is particularly concerned, is that singers’ unique stories not only overlap in many ways, but form the basis by which most choose to join their chorus. Those stories and how they inform the building of community will be further explored here.
SFGMC’s Stories
The personality of a given gay chorus is often informed by the artistic director. Not only in terms of the musical selections and how they run rehearsals, artistic directors are also the leaders of choruses that seek both to entertain and engage audiences with relevant social issues. SFGMC has had several artistic directors since their formation in 1978. However, the three most recent – Stan Hill (1989-2000), Dr. Kathleen McGuire (2000-10), and Dr. Tim
Seelig (since January 2011) – have led the chorus through recent periods of queer history profoundly riddled with both adversity and significant progress. Aside from the many interviews I held with singers, I also held extensive individual conversations with Dr.
McGuire and Dr. Seelig for this project. The experiences both Dr. McGuire and Dr. Seelig bring to the SFGMC organization provide insight not only into the ways in which both are revered and respected as artistic directors, but also in the ways they compel each singer to embrace their own story. The sense of kinship singers feel with one another (Woolwine 2000;
Mendonça 2002; Anderson 2006; Mensel 2007) informs their collective experience in musicking (Small 1998). In essence, the ways in which Dr. McGuire and Dr. Seelig reflect on their own experiences mirrors the same reflective processes of their singers.
Dr. McGuire’s approach to music as a form of social activism was heavily impacted by her arrival in the United States. Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Dr. McGuire interviewed for graduate studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1996.
116 Immediately after her interview, while exploring the college campus, she encountered a rally celebrating a ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States on Romer v. Evans, also known as Amendment 2 in the state of Colorado. Essentially, prior to the ruling, Amendment
2 prevented sexual orientation as a legally protected class. Thus, an employer could fire an openly gay employee because of their sexual orientation without recrimination. Six months later, Dr. McGuire took the position of artistic director of the Rainbow Chorus, an ensemble that had actively fought against Amendment 2. Only a few short years later, in October 1998, the Rainbow Chorus would sing for a vigil at the hospital where Shepard lay in a coma.
These two events and, more significantly, the Rainbow Chorus’ engagement with social justice on behalf of the local queer community, profoundly shaped Dr. McGuire’s approach to music and activism. Reflecting on her job offer in 2000 to take the role of artistic director of SFGMC, Dr. McGuire recalls:
I started that job having just finished my Doctorate, thinking ‘oh – I’m a conductor’. I don’t know when the turning point happened. But when I realized that, the work I was doing – the music was the means to the end. I was actually a social justice advocate and that my passion was for civil rights, and music was the means by which I did that. Then I really became an effective artistic director for the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, because that’s what’s required. And I realized that’s where my passion lay too. This is not something I did on my own. This is what the [SFGMC] guys wanted to do. And they’re still doing it in various ways.
Dr. McGuire arrived in San Francisco at a time when the medical field had made progress toward drugs and medications that could not only keep people with HIV+ diagnoses alive longer, but also prevent HIV from progressing into AIDS. Consequently, she encountered a chorus that had been profoundly impacted by the AIDS epidemic, having lost copious singing members over the course of a decade and a half. With SFGMC’s Board of Trustees, Dr.
McGuire sought to revitalize the chorus. At the same time, she also recognized the need and significance of preserving the story of the chorus as it battled and survived the AIDS epidemic – and ultimately, cultural homophobia based on misinformation and stigmatization about the disease – since the early 1980s. Dr. McGuire explains that in preserving this story,
117 ‘that was a very conscious thing, to try and do that. And to try and make sure that we could make everybody in the group feel valued and needed, and that their contribution was important to the group. It was very challenging. Those guys, they’re survivors. I think there’s a lot of survivor guilt in there, too’.
When Dr. McGuire stepped down in December 2010 to return to Melbourne, her successor, Dr. Seelig, brought with him the same type of understanding. I met with Dr. Seelig at SFGMC’s administrative office in April 2014. At the time, the office was located in the
SOMA (or more specifically, South of Market) neighbourhood and has since moved to the
Castro District. Dr. Seelig is an openly gay man with a long history as part of GALA
Choruses, having served as artistic director of Turtle Creek Chorale for two decades (from
1987-2007). In discussing his approach to artistic direction, Dr. Seelig explains the connection he feels with singers:
I don’t think I’m unique at all about my own path – being a church musician, being thrown out of the church, having kids, losing my family, being HIV-positive. When the [SFGMC] search committee called [in 2010] and said ‘you’ve made the finals’ – woohoo! I’m so excited! {dances in his chair and laughs} [They asked] ‘What are the three greatest attributes that you would bring to this position? So, what is it you would bring to the table if we hired you?’ I said, well number one is empathy. There’s very little that any chorus member has gone through that I haven’t been through – whether that’s rejection, losing family, being HIV- positive, there’s still the stigma. You can’t surprise me anymore. I’ve been there. So, it allows me a freedom, an emotional freedom.
Dr. Seelig’s statement embodies what the individual brings (Ruskin and Rice 2012) to communities of practice (Lave and Wenger 1991; Wenger 2004; Finnegan 2007), and the sense of kinship and affinity that choruses value (Woolwine 2000; Mendonça 2002;
Anderson 2006; Mensel 2007). In his time living in the US, Bruce has sung with SFGMC under both Dr. McGuire and Dr. Seelig. For Bruce, to tell stories through musical performance, whether through commemoration (of Milk, Shepard, or any other figure in queer history) or through intimate personal expression, the primary purpose is ‘to demonstrate good. Through either musical excellence, or the visibility of the good concerned, to tell and bring a message to the community’. Performing music about the homophobic
118 murder of Shepard in 1998, or the ways in which Milk worked as an openly gay politician and activist in a 1970s culture of homophobia, humanizes both men while giving voice to their experiences. Whether performing such message music for hometown audiences or in
‘red’ areas, for Bruce, ‘the most powerful part of being in the [San Francisco] Gay Men’s
Chorus is the ability to stand in front of absolutely anybody anywhere and know that you’re going to be doing some form of good’. That form of ‘good’, telling stories through music, also gives voice to the experiences of the singers on stage. With regard to music specifically about the Shepard murder, Bruce relates his own experience of having been brutally assaulted by a group of people at night:
I’m incredibly lucky that I wasn’t a Matthew Shepard. I’ve got four facial fractures in my face, and this whole side of my face (points to the left side of his face) has been completely reconstructed. I’ve got pieces of metal and stuff like that. So, I’m acutely aware. And that’s permanently numb as well, right down here (points to his left jaw). So, I’m acutely aware. My head was sort of like, that far away (hands spread about 1-2 feet) from a very solid brick wall. At any point, they could have done something that they didn’t intend to – or that they did intend to – and it would have been curtains for me. I’m very lucky that I didn’t get excessive bleeding into the brain.
While the severity of the near fatal attack Bruce suffered is uniquely violent, many other singers in this project have either experienced homophobic violence themselves, or know of fellow singers and/or friends outside their chorus who have been physically assaulted.
Biography, Experience and Musicking
The biographies of gay chorus singers inform the ways in which they relate to the music on a personal level. Those feelings of affinity with the message in a particular song or multi- movement work informs how singers think about making music in the context of the chorus, and how they relate to one another. As the previous chapter examines, each gay chorus ensemble has its own story of how it formed and the particular socio-political challenges it has faced. On a micro level, the music choruses commission and perform allow for singers to feel that their stories are also given voice. Through music that feels personal to a given singer, the potential exists for singers to feel affinity with one another based on their
119 experiences (see Lave and Wenger 1991; Woolwine 2000; Mendonça 2002; Wenger 2004;
Anderson 2006; Mensel 2007) and, consequently, develop a stronger sense of ensemble cohesion and community. Bruce explains that, because such stories can be difficult to hear:
The value of music in exploring sensitive subjects in an accessible way cannot ever be understated. And the use of musical harmony to convey a politically sensitive message, in a way that makes it more palatable to an otherwise sensitive audience is something that I think has been explored for centuries, but is entirely valuable and appropriate in this situation.
The impact of presenting their stories – through lyrics tailored specifically to reflect the experiences of gay, bisexual and queer men with homophobic violence, and set to music that is highly affective and intended to evoke an emotional response in audiences – is also of value to singers who might feel other avenues of expression are potentially more difficult.
Music has the potential to tap into the natural emotional response of the audience to what they are hearing (Sant Cassia 2005). Jim, a Caucasian man in his late 40s, approaches learning, understanding and interpreting music from an intensely personal perspective. As
Jim explains:
I try to take the lyrics out, and just read the lyrics on their own. I want to see what the lyrics are saying. And I think the smart musician takes his own experiences, applies them to the lyrics, adding his feelings about what has happened, and that’s when you make music, instead of singing notes.
Jim’s statement reflects a sense of affinity (Mensel 2007) with the protagonist in the lyrics, informing the song with his own experience of the world (Lave and Wenger 1991; Turino
1998; Wenger 2004). After inquiring about the ability of singers applying their own personal meaning to a given piece of music, and how this translates to the collective expression of the chorus, Jim explains ‘that’s why people need to be out of the book’. When singers learn and memorize music efficiently, they can focus attention on Dr. Seelig as he shapes SFGMC’s collective expression – making the music affective through collective interpretation.
The combination of expressive and meaningful messages in the lyrics (with which singers can feel affinity) with highly affective music carries the potential to ‘change lives’, a phrase many GALA Choruses singers reiterate when talking about their aesthetics and
120 mission for social change. I met with Sal, a Caucasian man in his late 50s, at the First
Universalist Unitarian Church in the hour prior to SFGMC’s 30 April 2013 rehears. For Sal, the potential to move audiences emotionally is commonly reiterated: ‘before we go on stage, they will usually say, “tonight we’re going to change somebody’s life. Somebody in that audience is going to hear us, whether it is a straight person or a gay person, and it’s going to change their lives. It may cause a gay person to come out to their families, or it may make a straight person realize that gay people are not evil”’.
In my conversation with Dr. McGuire, she elaborates on the impact she witnessed first-hand by using stories in music and performance – more in rural and ‘red’ areas than in urban and metropolitan centres – to challenge social constructions of ‘gay’, or on a broader level ‘queer’:
Dr. McGuire: I hear this so often from young people. Regardless of what their parents are telling them, or their preacher or their teacher, they’re getting bombarded with positive stuff [about LGBTQ people] from the media. But I think the gay choral movement has actually been a big part of that as well. In these little towns, it was like you were going back in time. They’ve got this preconceived idea, the sexy/scary stereotype [of queer people]. I think [touring ‘red’ areas] has been the thing that’s most effective [for outreach]. So, they’ve been sort of brought up to the present date: ‘no—gays look like this.’
Me: So, negotiating the whole construction of ‘this is what we’ve been told in our churches,’ and in homophobic sentiment, that ‘this is what gay people are: A, B, C, D, E…’
Dr. McGuire: ‘This is what we’re supposed to be afraid of, this is what’s going to infect us’.
Me: And then being confronted with the reality of it, and realizing that the reality doesn’t match up with…
Dr. McGuire: Right, and then they start questioning their belief system. They start to question what they’ve been told. And they start to see the reality. One of the things I saw repeatedly [in ‘red’ areas locales] was the number of people who had never actually met a gay person, or one gay person in a town who shows up [to the concert]. Especially the young people – there might be one person who comes along and they suddenly realize they’re not alone. That has been the most powerful thing I think, for them to realize, ‘wow, look at all those gay people on the stage! I’m not a freak! I’m not alone!’…But in a country town where they really haven’t met gay people, and they’ve only seen them on TV, to actually see real live ‘normal’ looking people, doing a ‘normal’ thing, is so empowering. That, I think, has been one of the most effective things that all of these choruses do when they go outside their comfort zones.
Aside from performing outreach in ‘red’ areas, SFGMC also address acts of anti-queer violence that have continued to happen in their hometown. In 2012, SFGMC performed
‘Never More Will the Wind’ by composer Shawn Kirchner. Composed in 1995, the song
121 predates the Shepard murder by three years. However, SFGMC repurposed ‘Never More Will the Wind’ as a tribute to Shepard, having also performed the song in Laramie a few months later as well as filming a music video while in town. Regarding SFGMC’s performance for their hometown audience, Sal recalls that this was meant specifically as a tribute to Shepard from the chorus. In the staging for the San Francisco performance, a light was raised on a replica of the fence to which Shepard was tied. The visual had a strong impact on the singers during performance, as Sal recalls: ‘you just couldn’t help but think of Matthew Shepard as we were singing this, having him tied to that thing and dying on it. Some people actually thought it was too much, “no, that’s just too visual.” And other people were like, “no, we need to have that there to remember that that’s how he died”’. Essentially, ‘Never More Will the Wind’ serves as a good example for how choruses tell a story through the combination of music and visuals. Without the fence replica specifically referencing and repurposing the song as a statement about and for Shepard, the audience would have rightly heard the text of h.d.’s poem as a general statement of mourning:
Never more will the wind cherish you again, never more will the rain.
Never more shall we find you bright in the snow and wind.
The snow is melted, the snow is gone, and you are flown:
Like a bird out of our hand, like a light out of our heart, you are gone.
Participants in this project continually express the pertinence of continually telling the
Shepard story because acts of anti-queer violence continue to happen. The reasoning, Paul contends, is ‘because it was so brutal and so hateful and so unnecessary. For me, the poignancy of Matthew and some of these other characters is that they represent just the tip of the iceberg of actually what happens’.
122
Premiering ‘Testimony’
When SFGMC began rehearsing ‘Testimony’ in early 2012, the song’s subject matter – an
‘out’ adult person reflecting on their struggle with being closeted and contemplating suicide as a youth – hit a little too close to home for several singers. A more detailed analysis of
‘Testimony’ will appear in the following chapter. But for purposes of the current analysis, discussion here will focus on the ways in which gay choruses present a piece of music in which the central issue of concern reflects the singers’ stories. ‘Testimony’ is one example of the ways in which singers’ biographies weave into the social action gay choruses undertake.
Reflecting on the song’s initial impact, Dr. Seelig explains:
We actually had a psychologist come to rehearsal [because] the singers were dropping out, saying ‘I can’t come to rehearsal – it’s too hard’. And he said, and I don’t know if this can be corroborated or not, that 9 out of 10 gay men consider suicide at some time in their path. I totally believe it. I don’t know if it’s the case, I haven’t seen the studies. But when he said that, everybody’s like ‘of course!’ At some point, of course you think, ‘hmm, it would be a lot easier if I just went away’. And [‘Testimony’] hit. So many singers know someone who has committed suicide. And here we’re singing this really hard music, really beautiful music with an incredible hope at the end. But you’ve got to get there. You have to be able to get through that sludge to find that hope.89
In conversations with singers in all three choruses of study for this project, not a single participant revealed specific details on how their own story is reflected in ‘Testimony’. More directly, no participant confided to me the ways in which they may have struggled with self- destructive and suicidal ideation. In a few instances, stories of so-and-so’s struggle would come through second-hand sources – needless to say, it would be unethical to probe such stories when, for all practical purposes, they might be informed by gossip, or simply that the finer nuances provided by first-hand accounts might be otherwise overlooked or unknown to second-hand source conveying someone else’s story. This would also violate a level of trust that I had established with participants, namely in my attempt to provide a safe space for
89 A recent study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that lesbian, gay and bisexual youth are at a higher risk for depression, suicide, drugs and alcohol use and abuse, and unsafe sex. The CDC also finds that nearly one-third of lesbian, gay and bisexual youth have attempted suicide, compared to that of 6% of heterosexual youth. This study can be found at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/lgbthealth/youth.htm
123 them to comfortably share their stories as they wished. But this is necessary to mention, as it illustrates the close-knit community of gay choruses and the ways in which singers are familiar with the more intimate details of one another’s experiences and stories.
On a warm San Francisco weekday afternoon, Jim and I meet in front of Peet’s
Coffee on Market Street. But we determine it was too noisy to focus on a fruitful conversation. So, at Jim’s suggestion, we walk a few blocks east to Sofia Café on 16th Street.
The atmosphere is warm and inviting, and much quieter and conducive to the intimate discussion we were about to have. Jim does not elaborate on how his story is reflected in
‘Testimony’ but he suspects that ‘everybody’s interpretation of it depends on their life experience’. Jim cites a specific line that he finds particularly affecting: ‘I would have missed so many travels and adventures, more wonders than I knew could be; so many friends with jokes and secrets, not to mention the joy of living in authenticity’. After tearing up and taking a moment to collect himself, Jim confides, ‘it must speak to something in my experience from way back. And the other [line] that nobody can hold back on – it’s the most brilliant line of [the song] – is, and when I come back, {looks and then points to the last line on the lyric sheet for ‘Testimony’} “I want to come back as me”’. This particular line is the last thing the chorus sings as ‘Testimony’ comes to a close. The emotional response this line compels in singers reiterates the song’s theme of transcending adversity – heteronormative bullying, cultural homophobia and anti-queer sentiment, self-doubt, worthlessness, contemplation of suicide – and finding self-acceptance, coming out, and living a fulfilling life.
For Dr. Seelig, that last line of ‘Testimony’, in particular, ‘is incredibly poignant. {he pauses for a few seconds} It depends on what day you ask! {smiles and pauses} Not every single day would I want to come back as me {laughs}, and not even part of every day. I mean, you have to spend some time with yourself to be able to sing that authentically. That’s hard’. Sal’s sentiments are similar to Dr. Seelig’s in his perception of how heteronormativity
124 has impacted many queer people who would ‘rather be like everybody else’. The ‘everybody else’ to whom Sal refers is heterosexual cis-gender people who are not subject to discrimination and violence based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and gender non-conformity. Like many other participants in this project, Sal hopes ‘Testimony’ will convey the singers’ stories enough to compel reflection in heterosexual cis-gender audiences on the impact of heteronormativity:
What I’m hoping is that the people – especially straight people – realize what so many gay people go through. I was talking to someone once about being gay, [they were] saying ‘it’s a choice as a lifestyle’. And I looked at him and said, ‘do you think I would pick this? Why would I choose this? To be discriminated against?’ And on and on. It kind of threw him back. And so, I think for straight people, to hear that ‘I want to kill myself’ – it affects people. It affects gay people that hear it because they’ve probably gone through that. And straight people, I think it makes them realize that, ‘oh my god! This is what these poor people are going through’.
In January 2014, SFGMC began rehearsals for their Luster: An American Songbook concert, to take place a few months later in April (for full concert program, see Appendices, pp. 199).
The chorus would premier their latest commission, Tyler’s Suite, a multi-movement work in honour of Tyler Clementi, the 18-year old gay Rutgers University student who committed suicide in 2010, the impact of the message on chorus singers was similar to ‘Testimony’. Dr.
Seelig explains:
One [singer] in particular said, ‘I can’t come to rehearsal. This is too hard for me to sing.’ He said, ‘I did lose a friend recently to suicide.’ But it’s not about suicide. So, what I said, and I maintain this – this is about our relationship to the world. That’s what Tyler’s Suite is about. It’s not about a boy who jumped off a bridge. It’s about our relationship to the world, and it’s about the world in which we live, and how did this happen? How did we…? {pause} We have to take responsibility for allowing a world to be created, and continue, where a boy would do that. So, it really is about relationships.
Such a statement – taking ‘responsibility’ for ‘a world’ where a queer person like Clementi would succumb to cultural homophobia and take his own life – is not just a commentary on the impact of heteronormativity, but also appears to be a statement on the queer community providing safe spaces for other at-risk queer people. The question Dr. Seelig’s statement suggests is how the queer community – and choruses as communities of practice (Lave and
Wenger 1991; Wenger 2004) – can help mitigate acts of self-harm and suicide among queer
125 people. Recalling my conversation with BGMC’s Craig Coogan in Chapter 3, the primary means of doing so for gay choruses is to commission new music addressing heteronormativity, cultural and institutional homophobia and anti-queer violence. Another means of confronting heteronormativity is to engage in outreach, performing in locales outside the comfort zone the chorus’ hometown audience provides, to tell their stories and engage in discourse with audiences through musical performance in with communities that are not necessarily queer-friendly.
Reflections on Performing in Laramie, July 2012
As with choruses in Seattle and Boston, and any other GALA ensemble with the financial means to do so, SFGMC always considers ways in which they can perform in locales outside of the comfort zone of their hometown. Of course, this is in keeping with their mission of outreach, and song selections are often tailored to such events. More importantly, and also mirroring their usual performative aesthetic, the concert program overall tends to represent contemporary issues of concern impacting the lives of queer people. Following their performance at the GALA Choruses Festival in July 2012 in Denver, Colorado, SFGMC performed a concert, Love Can Build a Bridge, in Laramie at the University of Wyoming.
The significance of this concert lies in the fact that SFGMC performed at the site where
Shepard lived and studied at the time of his death, and the concert was sponsored by the
Matthew Shepard Foundation, a queer social justice organization founded by his parents.
Essentially, it might have been difficult for audience members to escape the memory of
Shepard in this setting even if the chorus did not perform any music specifically about his murder. Rather, SFGMC addressed the issue of cultural homophobia and anti-queer violence with a performance of ‘Testimony’, which will be addressed later in this section. I met with
Paul, a Caucasian man in his mid-50s who has sung with the chorus for about 10 years, at
Squat & Gobble, a restaurant on Market Street just north of the Castro District. Having also
126 been a member of SFGMC’s Board of Directors, Paul explains the decision to perform in
Laramie:
We were going to maybe do a bus trip all the way to Denver, and we were going to sing along the way, even in Salt Lake City. But that just didn’t become feasible. But the one place that we absolutely insisted that we still include in our trip was Laramie, and it was in the spirit of: ‘we need to carry our message’. We can sing in San Francisco all day long in packed houses, [but] where we need to sing is where we can’t pack the house because people will not come to a ‘Gay Men’s [Chorus]’ concert.
Admittedly, Laramie is a unique
choice – it is generally
considered a ‘red’ area, but it
also the site of one of the most
notorious acts of homophobic
violence to take place in recent
US history. Discussion of
Laramie here is not meant to
critique this specific locale, nor Figure 6 - SFGMC performing their Love Can Build a Bridge concert on 12 July 2012, at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, WY. Photo by James Croft, used with permission. the cultural conditions that led to
the Shepard murder and the town’s response. Rather, the significance of this discussion is to
illustrate how singers reflect on performing outreach in ‘red’ areas. Choruses value such
outreach efforts because of the potential to share their experience of the world with
heterosexual cis-gender audiences (see Wenger 2004; Mensel 2007; Ruskin and Rice 2012;
MacLachlan 2015). The intention is to counter negative social constructions of queer people
through music that humanizes the performers on stage. Outreach is also pertinent for
connecting with queer people living, studying and working in conservative locales, such as
Laramie, that are still not necessarily queer-friendly. For Sal, ‘going [to Laramie] and singing
as an “out” gay person, my hope was that people would see the chorus and say “wow, they’re
not all the stereotype of what we’re thinking about”’. The Shepard story figures prominently
127 in Sal’s reasoning as to why this is important: ‘They tried to disparage Matthew Shepard too, for a while there, saying that he was hitting the bars all the time and taking anybody home.
And so, “it was his own fault.”’ Shaking his head in disbelief, Sal elaborates on the significance of SFGMC presenting a multi-dimensional image that the audience might not expect: ‘we’re professional people, and we can sing’. The hope is to present and give voice to the multi-dimensionality of the chorus, challenging the stereotypes (‘bar-hopping…having sex every chance we get’) that often derive from the social constructions of Shepard’s memory (see Hurst 1999; Savin-Williams 1999; Loffreda 2000; Ott and Aoki 2002; Quist and Wiegand 2002; Casey 2006; Lynch 2007; Renna 2008; Dunn 2010; Mason 2011;
Petersen 2012).
After the 2012 GALA Festival ended, James, a Caucasian man from the U.K. in his mid-30s and a singer with Boston Gay Men’s Chorus (BGMC), travelled from Denver to
Laramie to see SFGMC’s concert. Since having joined BGMC as a singer, James characterizes the gay choral community as ‘[having] become like a second family to me’.
Consequently, James passionately states, ‘thinking about these kids who are killing themselves, or something like Matthew Shepard, in some way it feels like an attack on my family. You know? Like what’s happening in Russia right now. It feels like an attack on my
[James’ emphasis] people. So, it hits me in a place that is very personal.’ Such sentiments are often reiterated in similar but varied language by other participants in this project, reflecting how they value the relationships they have cultivated through shared identity (queer) and struggle (as victims of discrimination, violence, and even actual or contemplated self-harm).
Choruses then become sites, as James states, for ‘the need to respond to the way society has categorized and dealt with our identity, [which] creates a sense of togetherness’. Brian, a
Caucasian man in his mid-30s and singer with SFGMC who performed with the chorus in
Laramie, shares similar sentiments to those of James. Referring specifically to the reassuring
128 message in ‘Testimony’, Brian elaborates on that ‘sense of togetherness’ that James attributes to choruses. It is this sense of community and kinship that choruses attempt to cultivate with the queer audience members as well (see Wenger 2004; Mensel 2007; Gurlly 2014;
MacLachlan 2015). As Brian explain, ‘that’s where the song had its impact. Not in how it related to Matthew Shepard – but insofar as how it related to the audience, who were living in a community where something like the tragedy of Matthew Shepard had taken place. So, it was more about letting them know that it does get better than what you’ve experienced’.
While using this opportunity to perform in Laramie to share their stories, SFGMC’s view of the audience from the stage, however, proved startling. As Paul recalls:
So, from [GALA Festival in Denver] we went to Laramie, and it was extremely different. First of all, we went from performing in front of maybe 3000 people90 to this very cold, sterile, plain building and it maybe sat 350 [people].91 And I think there was [sic] maybe 125 in the audience.92 So there were two or three times as many people on stage as there were in the audience. Luckily, we had experienced that before as a chorus, when we did some other outreach events. But I think it was still a little bit shocking. And I think for all of us, it made us sort of sit up straight, take notice. We can be doing this incredibly important [outreach] work in the one place where it needs to be performed, and it still doesn’t mean people will come.
In conversations with SFGMC singers, the small size of the audience would inevitably arise and serve as a point of reflection as to how the chorus engages with audiences that do not typically attend their concerts. As an audience member, James reflects on what he perceived to be ‘an intensity around this performance’ despite the small audience size. Even if SFGMC did not perform for a capacity crowd, the concert’s message still projected strongly for those in attendance. James interprets the Love Can Build a Bridge concert as ‘speaking truth to power. It was like, we refuse to be silent’. The conversation James and I have steers toward discussion of the ways in which some people who appear to be uncomfortable with viewing the Shepard murder as an act of homophobic violence have attempted, in the years since, to
90 Boettcher Hall, where SFGMC performed at GALA Festival 2012, holds a capacity of 2,679. This is similar to Davies Symphony Hall, SFGMC’s regular performance venue, which holds a capacity of 2,743 people. 91 When SFGMC performed in 2012 at the University of Wyoming, the Fine Arts Performing Hall held a capacity of 256 people. 92 The most common estimation among participants in this project is that the Laramie audience consisted of roughly 100-150 people.
129 reframe the story as a drug deal gone wrong. James refers to The Laramie Project: Ten Years
Later (2009), a theatrical sequel to The Laramie Project (1999) – both serve as docu- dramas93 that chronicle the ways in which the Shepard murder is viewed within the community. In referencing The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, James cites specific scenes in which the actors and actresses confront unsubstantiated stories that form the basis of historical revisions – Shepard as a crystal meth kingpin, who knew his murderers, was sexually involved with one (McKinney) and was killed in a drug deal gone wrong. James equates the ways in which the characters confront these allegations with how he interprets
SFGMC’s performance:
People are forgetting [what happened to Shepard], and it must not be forgotten. I felt more that this concert, particularly because the Matthew Shepard Foundation was hosting it, was about saying ‘thou shalt not forget’. And that is a much more confrontational message, because you’re not saying ‘we’re gays. We can be nice. We can be funny. We can be campy. We can make fun of being a bit feminine – haha! It’s guys singing!’ It was really about saying ‘we refuse to have our dignity reduced by this aspect of our history being erased’. That’s what I felt about it. And I felt it was kind of righteous in that respect, and it wasn’t safe. And I think that’s a super important part of the mission of gay choruses.
Whether it is music about tragedies that result from anti-queer violence (such as Shepard), or self-destruction and suicide in response to a heteronormative culture (such as ‘Testimony’ and Tyler Clementi), this music gives voice to the shared but unique experiences of queer people. Reflecting on the near-fatal beating he suffered and his affinity with Shepard, Bruce contends that ‘Matthew [Shepard] is a great example of why it’s necessary, and a very tragic example. I think it’s really critical that we really move society forward using music in this way, both to honour – part of it is a memorial – and to challenge. And sometimes even just to remind’. As acts of anti-queer violence continue to happen, in both rural and urban locales alike, at the hands of homophobic and transphobic perpetrators, and by queer people taking their own lives, the issue of presenting their stories as tales of transcendence becomes even more important for chorus singers. For James, the challenge is most rewarding for the chorus
93 Merriam-Webster defines ‘docudrama’ as ‘a drama (as for television) dealing freely with historical events especially of a recent and controversial nature’. [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/docudrama
130 and for the audience ‘when it’s not content to always go along with that safe, “normalizing” queer narrative of “these are beautifully turned out gay men singing beautiful happy music”.
When it has bite to it, and when it has a challenge to it, that’s when I think we’re doing really good, really important work’. The ‘bite’ in the work would appear to be the story and the ways in which it attempts to move the audience emotionally, and potentially compel reflection on the profound impact of heteronormativity, cultural and institutional homophobia, and violence on queer people.
As a homily for the significance of gay choruses’ work, Kathleen McGuire recalls an experience she had while visiting South Africa. McGuire recalls a discussion with two black
South African male singers who experience Apartheid: ‘I said to both of them, “isn’t it painful for you to come back to this place where you were oppressed?” And they said, “but that gives it meaning, otherwise there’s no point.” They said, “so many people have died, and
I ask myself, ‘why have I survived?’ And I’ve survived so I can keep telling everyone’s story.” And we, as musicians, are doing that by singing songs’. Telling stories about how they experience the world (Lave and Wenger 1991; Wenger 2004; Mensel 2007; Ruskin and
Rice 2012; MacLachlan 2015), both prior to joining the chorus and in the time since, is valued by singers as a means of compelling thought in heterosexual cis-gender audiences.
More importantly, the shared experiences in these stories strengthens chorus communities.
131 Chapter 5 ‘I’m actually, genuinely singing about myself’: Seattle Men’s Chorus as a Case Study
It is a relatively mild Winter in Seattle. Then again, this part of the Pacific Northwest, situated on the east bank of Puget Sound, is a convergence zone that is not often prone to extreme weather. Arriving in Seattle is a particularly nice change, after having just left the extreme cold and snow of Boston. A few days after settling into Seattle’s relatively mild climate, early in the evening of 3 March 2014, I drove from the northern suburbs into the city for the usual Monday evening rehearsals of Seattle Men’s Chorus (SMC) at Plymouth
Congregational Church (commonly referred to as Plymouth). Situated next to Interstate 5
(commonly referred to as I-5), the main highway that runs through the downtown area,
Plymouth is a queer-welcoming church where SMC has rehearsed for several years.
Plymouth is located within walking distance of Seattle’s central business district (the downtown area), the city’s legendary Pike Place Market, and reputable theatres such as the
5th Avenue and the Paramount, which regularly host popular and critically acclaimed musical theatre touring companies such as Wicked and Sunday in the Park with George. Benaroya
Hall, one of SMC’s regular performance venues, renowned for its size, beauty and excellent acoustics, is just a few blocks west of the church.
The location of Plymouth as a rehearsal space is also perfect for singers who live in the Capitol Hill and First Hill neighbourhoods. Capitol Hill, or ‘the Hill’ as locals often refer to it, is Seattle’s traditionally gay neighbourhood, with several queer-owned shops, clothing stores (Under-U for Men), wine bars (Poco Wine + Spirits), cafés (local favourite Caffé
Vita), and restaurants (dinner and drinks at Quinn’s). The Hill is also the longtime home of several favourite gay bars and dance clubs, such as R Place, Neighbors, Pony, and the Cuff.
Queer-centric organizations such as Gay City Health Project provide counseling services, safe sex information and walk-in STD testing, as do the two remaining bathhouses,
132 Steamworks and Club Z. The
Hill is also home to The
Stranger, a well-established
queer-friendly magazine, or
‘rag’, with a largely liberal
and queer-friendly bent,
whose editor in chief Dan
Savage is also one of the
founders of the recent video
campaign, the It Gets Better
Figure 7 - East Pike Street, a bustling area of the Capitol Hill neighbourhood in Project. Situated in the Seattle. Photo by Kevin Schattenkirk. middle of the Hill is Seattle
Central College, which transitioned in March 2014 from a community college to a four-year
institution offering baccalaureate degrees (or, Bachelor’s). The diversity of the college’s
student population, in terms of race, ethnicity, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, and
class status, generally reflects the diversity of the Hill – or at least, the diversity for which the
Hill had been celebrated up until recent years. With the recent tech-boom, the vast opening of
jobs in the science and technology industries, impacting Seattle, the character of the Hill is
rapidly shifting and changing. This will be briefly addressed later in this section.
First Hill extends south from the Hill and is, for all practical purposes, just as
welcoming and queer-friendly. Of course, not all SMC singers live on the Hill or in the First
Hill neighbourhood. In fact, as I have done on this particular evening, singers come to regular
Monday evening rehearsals from all over the region – from other neighbourhoods in the city
proper, such as Queen Anne Hill and the University District; from nearby large cities, such as
Kirkland, Redmond and Bellevue (all of which are a short trek east of Seattle, across Lake
133 Washington); and from the northern, eastern and southern suburbs. One couple I knew from my time as an SMC singer prior to this project (from 2008-10) would regularly commute from Bainbridge Island, which sits in the middle of Puget Sound, and the most convenient means of transportation into Seattle is by ferry boat. With SMC’s large 300+ membership, it is inevitable that singers would live all around the Pacific Northwest region. Of course, this is similar to the other choruses of study in this project, SFGMC and BGMC, all of which contain upwards of 300 active singing members.
Seattle is essentially the centre of a hub in the Pacific Northwest that renders
Washington a politically ‘blue’ state – or liberal, in US terms. The cultural makeup of Seattle is fairly diverse, and the region is generally considered safe and accepting of difference.
However, over the last decade as the city has gentrified, and especially with a boom in the science and technology industries, the population has rapidly grown, causing a severe and profound impact on real estate and rental markets in the city proper. More recently, the impact has extended into the suburbs as well. Homophobic hate crimes have regularly taken place on ‘the Hill’ and in the First Hill neighbourhood, areas that once were considered ‘safe’ for queer people, because of the changing demographics of these two areas specifically.
Journalist Zach Stafford (2016) reports that many Capitol Hill residents, in particular, speculate that the continued occurrence of anti-queer hate crimes is due to the spike in population of ‘tech bros’ – a term that has recently come to define and describe the hypermasculinity of heterosexual, cis-gender male programmers.94 Allegedly, ‘tech bros’ have acted aggressively toward single and coupled gay men, as well as trans women, not just on the streets of the Hill but also in the traditionally safe-spaces of gay bars and dance clubs.
This perhaps represents the cost of integration: Where neighbourhoods like the Hill once served as a refuge for queer people in a heteronormative culture, heterosexual cis-gender
94 Stafford, Zach. 2016. Violence in Capitol Hill: is this the end of the line for Seattle’s gay neighbourhood? The Guardian (23 February) [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/us- news/2016/feb/23/capitol-hill-seattle-gay-neighborhood-lgbt-hate-crimes-tech-sector
134 people have migrated into these locales and, consequently, there has been resurgence of incidents motivated by homophobia and transphobia. In August 2014, only five months after completing work with SMC for this project, an assailant attacked a gay couple with a baseball bat as they walked down a typically busy street on the Hill holding hands.95 With the regular occurrence of such acts of homophobic violence, local police and queer organizations have their work cut out for them.
Perhaps this best represents the ways in which gay choruses like SMC, and others in the GALA Choruses organization, especially those situated in the progressive ‘safety’ of urban and metropolitan locales, are still faced with the need to confront heteronormativity, cultural homophobia (and institutional to an arguably lesser extent because of the region’s politically liberal leanings) and anti-queer violence creatively through performance. Queer people in other ‘safe’ metropolitan locales such as San Francisco and Boston (among other major cities) have also suffered from acts of discrimination and violence in recent years, and choruses in those cities have responded as the need arises. Certainly, commissioned music addressing such issues is essential – songs and multi-movement works in a repertoire, a ‘tool chest’ of sorts, from which gay choruses can draw in order to make relevant commentary. As the previous chapters examine select songs and multi-movement works in the repertoire, discussion in this chapter will focus on how that music is put into practice, from the rehearsal space to the performance stage. Following a review of relevant literature, the following sections will examine SMC and their preparation of ‘Testimony’ for performances in March
2014. Their concert Totally Wicked consists entirely of music composed by Broadway and film composer Stephen Schwartz (for full concert program, see Appendices, pp. 201).
Included in this concert is ‘Testimony’, addressing a recent epidemic of suicide among queer youth. Interestingly, ‘Testimony’ is the only song in the concert that does not originally
95 KOMO News. 2014. Police: man harasses, attacks gay couple in Seattle. komonews.com [accessed 17 December 2017]. Available at: http://komonews.com/news/local/police-man-harasses-attacks-gay-couple-in- seattle
135 appear in a Schwartz musical or film score. The significance of this will be addressed later in this chapter.
Music Making and Identity
In part of her study on queer public spaces, Miyake (2013: 9) discusses the role of music- making as a practice – or, musicking (Small 1998) – in the context of a gay and lesbian mixed choir, and where the ethnographer is situated. Studies (Mensel 2007; Miyake 2013;
Gurlly 2014) examine the impact of queer singers participating in queer-identified choruses, sometimes resulting in feelings of affinity and kinship, a strengthened sense of community through common identity between individuals in the ensemble. As the previous chapter in this project outlines, this would suggest that shared experience can lead to feelings of kinship in communities of practice (Lave and Wenger 1991; Wenger 2004; Finnegan 2007), and result in a strengthened ensemble unity. These would appear to be key aspects to the behind- the-scenes functioning of gay choruses as social movements.
The sense of community tends to inform singers’ perceptions of how the chorus presents as a unified ensemble onstage, communicating that unity to the audience even before singers open their mouth to sing the first notes of their first song. In his book on social movements, Reed (2005) explores the notion of social movements as texts. Reed (2005: 307) contends that ‘all movements, even the most consensus-oriented ones in societies that legitimate certain kinds of protest, offer some degree of symbolic challenge to the dominant order just by their existence outside normalized political activity’. Reed (2005: 307) argues,
‘movements both create new “social texts” and are themselves “texts.” Movements are at once sites from which particular alternative stories about the culture emerge, and a kind of meta-narrative about an alternative way to live in the wider world’. With reference to
Sturgeon’s (1995) work, Reed (2005: 307) explains, ‘movement structures not only expressed movement values, but also embodied the movement’s theories about social change’. Taking
136 all of these points into consideration, the ‘social texts’ created by gay choruses are the songs and multi-movement works examined in this project, which make-up part of the complex story of the gay chorus as a larger ‘text’. Thus, individual choruses embody the theories of the GALA Choruses organization in creating social change: Telling the stories, sharing the experiences of queer people impacted by heteronormativity, cultural and institutional homophobia and anti-queer violence.
In her work on socio-political and protest music, Davis (1998: 101) explains,
‘“protest,” when expressed through aesthetic forms, is rarely a direct call to action.
Nevertheless, critical aesthetic representations of a social problem must be understood as constituting powerful social and political acts…a form of contestation of oppressive conditions, even when it lacks a dimension of organized political protest’. As Attinello
(2002), gay choruses ‘must target their communities carefully, presenting music that will appeal to a diverse audience and also further the communal and political aspirations of the
GLBTQ communities’. The purpose is to highlight the ways in which the music is contextualized in performance, and what overall purpose this may serve. With regard to the ways in which gay choruses program socially-conscious music, SMC’s placement of
‘Testimony’ in their Totally Wicked concert reflects the careful consideration for which such strong messages are presented. This will be discussed in depth in subsequent sections.
While the intent of outreach, and the purpose of performing ‘Testimony’ as a piece of socio-political music commenting on the impact of heteronormativity on queer people, is largely an attempt to compel reflection on heterosexual cis-gender audiences, gay choruses also focus on outreach to queer audience members as well. As Chapter 3 analyses, and this chapter will investigate further, ‘Testimony’ attempts to present a message of hope and transcendence. The song embodies the commonly shared but unique experiences of the singers on stage, all of whom have contended with heteronormativity and even violence to
137 various extents. Gay choruses hope to impact the audience, by appealing to listeners’ natural emotional responses to the music itself (for more on scholarship studying uses of affect, see
Becker, 2004; Cvetkovich, 2003; Gabrielsson and Juslin, 1996; Hemmings, 2005; Milton and
Svasek, 2005; San Cassia, 2005; Sedgwick, 2003). But as social movements that embody the values of their theories of social change (as per Sturgeon, 1995 and Reed, 2005), the process of rehearsing ‘Testimony’ first appeals to singers and their own experiences. Through
‘Testimony’, choruses reproduce conflict, anxiety and resolution. Then by listening to one another, singers feel a sense of compassion for the uniqueness of their fellow singers’ experiences while simultaneously empathizing with one another over the commonalities their stories share. Thus, ‘Testimony’ also becomes a site for healing and building community within the ensemble. This is how SMC embodies the gay choral movement’s theories about creating social change, from the rehearsal space to the concert stage.
In the Rehearsal Space
I have just parked in a downtown garage on the corner of University Street and 6th Avenue, across the street from Plymouth. I noticed some familiar faces of SMC singers as I walk down the block and enter into the church foyer. Many of those familiar faces include fellow choristers from my time as a singer with SMC from 2008-10. There is also a plethora of new singers who have joined since I left the chorus in late 2010 to move to Perth, Australia. In these initial moments of interaction, I quickly become aware of my role as both ‘insider’ and
‘outsider’ (Herndon 1993). As an ‘insider,’ I identify as a gay man and as a former singer with the chorus (from 2008-10, prior to work on this project). As an ‘outsider’, I am the researcher that has come to work with SMC, their rehearsal process and performative aesthetic. The atmosphere within the church is welcoming and warm, contrasting greatly with the overcast, grey late Winter evening sky outside. Singers hug and greet one another, and there is plenty of casual conversation as they stroll from the foyer into the venue. After
138 checking in with their barcoded name-badges, a means of keeping attendance, singers make their way to their seats in the designated areas for their sections. Artistic director Dennis
Coleman is seated at the front of the room on a stool atop a small platform, which makes it easier for the chorus singers to see his direction throughout rehearsal. At 6:30pm, Coleman instructs the singers to stand, and he works through a brief series of stretching exercises before leading the chorus through various vocal exercises (such as major scales modulating upward chromatically, arpeggiated major triads, and interval and ear-training exercises).
Usually on Monday afternoons, Coleman will email the singers a detailed agenda of what will be covered in that evening’s rehearsal – and often down to the exact minute each piece of music will be rehearsed. This is usually because there is little time to waste: From the first rehearsal for this concert on 6 January 2014, to the performances on 29 and 30
March, SMC will hold 12 regular Monday rehearsals. An all-day Saturday rehearsal is usually scheduled for late February, and this provides an opportunity for singers to really learn all of the music in-depth so that the remainder of rehearsals before performances can be devoted to memorization and staging. This particular concert, Totally Wicked, consists entirely of music by Stephen Schwartz and, with the exception of ‘Testimony’, draws from his film scores and Broadway musicals. For this concert cycle, actress Megan Hilty joins
SMC on stage. Hilty is most famous for her role as Glinda the Good Witch (from 2005-6) in
Schwartz’s musical Wicked (debuted in 2003). For SMC’s concert, Hilty will sing on five selections: ‘Stranger to the Rain’ (from Children of Eden), ‘Popular’ (her signature song from the musical Wicked), ‘Corner of the Sky’ (from Pippin), ‘For Good’ (her duet with the character of Elphaba from Wicked), and ‘Beautiful City’ (from Godspell). Even with Hilty’s performances, some of which include SMC singing in the background, there is still much
139 music to learn. Coleman’s agenda is usually devised to facilitate efficient learning of the music, and target problem spots as identified by section leaders.96
SMC had only recently begun rehearsing ‘Testimony’ by the time I arrived in Seattle.
Thus, the song was still fresh and new for most of the singers. Recalling analysis of
‘Testimony’ in Chapter 3, Coleman rehearsed the contrapuntal first half of the song. Before working through this particular portion of ‘Testimony’, Coleman told the chorus that the soloists and small group parts in the first half would be performed by singers from Diverse
Harmony, a local queer youth ensemble and member chorus of GALA. The inclusion of a youth chorus to sing the first half of the song – reflecting the struggles of queer youth in contending with their sexual orientation and/or gender identity (or non-conformity) and the anxiety of coming out – takes a cue from BGMC and their performance of ‘Testimony’ in
2013 with a local high school choir. Diverse Harmony singers would join SMC’s rehearsal the following week on 10 March, in preparation for an outreach performance on 22 March in
Renton, WA (a suburb approximately 13 miles southeast of Seattle). Details of the 10 March rehearsal with Diverse Harmony will be discussed later in this Chapter. On this particular evening of 3 March, as Coleman wrapped up the portion of ‘Testimony’ he wished to rehearse and switched to the next piece on the week’s agenda, I observed singers quietly wiping tears from their faces. One singer nearby, a Caucasian male who appears to be in his late 40s or early 50s, leaned in to his neighbour and quietly asked, ‘are you OK?’ The neighbouring singer gently nodded his head in affirmation without saying a word. I suspect he must have been moved by the lyrics for the climactic portion of the first half of
‘Testimony’, which the chorus had just sung through: ‘I don’t want to be like this, I don’t
96 There is usually one section leader appointed to each of the four sections – 1st Tenor, 2nd Tenor, Baritone, and Bass. The role of the section leader is to assist their section in learning the music quickly and efficiently, and by identifying problematic spots in the music so that the artistic director can rehearse those parts. Incidentally, each of the sections is subdivided into ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ and each singer is assigned one of these two designations. So, for example, if a given piece of music contains a harmonic split in the Tenor 2 line, the upper Tenor 2 singers would sing the higher part.
140 want to be who I am; God, take this away or take me away’. The natural emotional response of the singer to the music (see Becker, 2004; Cvetkovich, 2003; Gabrielsson and Juslin, 1996;
Hemmings, 2005; Milton and Svasek, 2005; San Cassia, 2005; Sedgwick, 2003) suggests the profound ways in which singers can either relate through their individual experiences (see
Ruskin and Rice 2012) and/or feel compassion and empathy for the experience of fellow queer people (Mensel 2007; Miyake 2013; Gurlly 2014; MacLachlan 2015).
Reflecting on Current Musical Practices: Singers in Conversation
Around 8pm, approximately mid-way through rehearsal, Coleman usually invites the executive director of the chorus to make announcements relevant to chorus activities, events, and performances. Following the announcements, the singers take a 15-minute break before resuming rehearsal until its completion at 9:30pm. During the announcements portion of this evening, Coleman introduced me to the chorus, my status as a former singing member and my current proximity to the ensemble. He allowed me to explain the nature of my work, and that I would be available for further in-depth conversations and interviews to take place either during subsequent rehearsals or outside of the rehearsal space, as it suits potential participants in this research. While some conversations took place during regular Monday evening rehearsals, most singers made appointments to speak with me at other times that were more convenient to their schedules. As detailed in Chapter 1, my approach to setting up research interviews with SMC singers was exactly the same as with SFGMC the year before, in that I allowed for singers to suggest a place to meet. This suggests casual and informal conversation, and helps to establish a sense of comfort and trust between individual singers and myself (see Edwards and Holland, 2013). The intent was not to deceive, as singers were aware of the discussion topics for this project before we would meet. With the exception of one fairly brief interview (which lasted 23 minutes and 37 seconds), interviews tended to run from 40 minutes to over an hour. As with SFGMC, interviews were semi-structured
141 (Schensul, Schensul and LeCompte 1999; Leech 2003; Longhurst 2003; DiCicco-Bloom and
Crabtree 2006; Rabionet 2011; Creswell 2013; Brinkman 2014; Gurlly 2014) for the purpose of allowing conversations to shift naturally, where necessary, to crucial and relevant lines of inquiry and thought. In most cases, this is dictated by the unique experiences of a given participant (see Edwards and Holland, 2013).
To hold conversations outside of the rehearsal space, I find, also allows singers to freely reflect on their performative aesthetic in an environment of their choosing where they are not necessarily constrained by time. Unlike Gurlly (2015), I did not encounter concerns from singers about pressures they may feel to say what they think I might want to hear.
Rather, I found that meeting in a location of their choosing further compelled a sense of openness in singers’ responses to lines of inquiry. As with SFGMC, in several instances, singers would often require a moment to collect themselves if a response to a question, or a train of thought, moved them emotionally. In many instances, these emotional moments are triggered by reflections that inform the ways in which singers relate to the message in the music, and to their fellow singers. Even still, this did not seem to hinder forthright, intimate, and even vulnerable, conversations from transpiring. Interview conversations tend to centre on discussion of how singers’ unique stories and backgrounds relate to ‘Testimony’, and how those stories inform their interpretations of the song. Furthermore, singers tend to observe and reflect on the impact of the song on fellow choristers. This, in turn, informs the ways in which they reflect on their role as agents of social change, and the ways in which all of this lends itself to a stronger sense of community and music-making within the chorus (for more on communities of practice and musicking, see Lave and Wenger 1991; Small 1998;
Mendonça 2002; Wenger 2004; Finnegan 2007; Rice 2014).
I met with David on the morning of Monday 10 March, at a coffee shop in the
University of Washington Medical Center, in the Montlake neighbourhood of Seattle. David
142 is an African-American man in his late 40s, and has sung with SMC for a few years at this point. Reflecting on his own experience, ‘Testimony’ resonates with David because he came out in his late 20s after contemplating suicide, losing a romantic partner to complications from AIDS while contending with his own sexual orientation. David explains how
‘Testimony’ presents a barrage of memories from his own experiences, and the emotions he feels when reflecting on his past, ‘now that I’m learning the words, it’s even more powerful for me – from this feeling of not wanting to be myself, scared of being bashed (for being gay), then my own mortality and wanting to take my own life. It’s still kind of raw’.
Anticipating this evening’s rehearsal with the soloists from Diverse Harmony, David explains that in the weeks prior, Coleman has sung the solo and small group parts in the first half of
‘Testimony’ in place of Diverse Harmony singers while they learn their parts separately from
SMC. For this evening, Diverse Harmony singers will join SMC for ‘Testimony’ during rehearsal, and everyone will begin to more fully realize the song as Coleman begins to shape the ensemble’s collective expression. David expects that in finally joining SMC with Diverse
Harmony, ‘Testimony’ will be ‘pretty powerful. When we finally put it together, there’s going to be a lot of weepy eyes – a lot’. Like David, many singers have tended to quietly observe the impact of the song on their fellow choristers during rehearsals. By responding emotionally to the song, and then observing fellow choristers’ natural emotional responses as well, singers appear to trust that the audience will be equally as affected by the song’s message in performance (for more on emotional response studies, see Becker, 2004;
Cvetkovich, 2003; Gabrielsson and Juslin, 1996; Hemmings, 2005; Milton and Svasek, 2005;
San Cassia, 2005; Sedgwick, 2003).
Later that same day, I spoke with Daniel at rehearsal. Daniel is a Caucasian man in his late 20s, joined SMC as a young man and has sung with the chorus for several years at this point. Between the ages of 14-17, Daniel was subjected to conversion therapy (also
143 commonly referred to as reparative therapy). Based in conservative Christian ideologies, conversion therapy is the practice of attempting to convert queer youth to heterosexuality.
The heteronormative basis of conversion therapy is explicit in its practice and intended outcome: ‘Repairing’ (or making heterosexual) what is regarded as ‘broken’ (non- heterosexual). The suggestion is that queer kids will be ‘cured’ and restored to the ‘normalcy’ of heterosexuality. The practice of conversion therapy been deemed ineffective, even fraudulent, and has been banned in several states throughout the US because of its severe and profoundly harmful impact on young queer people.97
Daniel and I move to a room just off to the side of the main rehearsal space in the church, the chorus still within earshot but quiet enough for us to concentrate on our discussion. Daniel often refers to the lyrical content of ‘Testimony’ as ‘authentic’ in its representation of the emotional trauma (in the song’s first half), and eventually the healing (in the second half), that survivors of conversion therapy experience. Daniel observes, ‘the first half of the song is so depressing. It’s such a terror, you really feel the crisis. Then you work through it – ‘hang in, hang on’. But the song still has kind of this undertone of sad[ness], you know?’ Like so many others who experience it, conversion therapy profoundly impacted
Daniel’s life as he struggled with self-doubt, self-destructive thoughts and contemplated suicide at such a young age. Now a prominent activist against the legal practice of conversion therapy, Daniel still identifies with the protagonist in ‘Testimony’, as he explains, ‘thinking about the lyrics, “when they find out, no one will love me, I’ll lose my family and all of my friends,” I think it really speaks true that we’re still conversing about whether [conversion therapy] is an ethical practice or not’. While conversion therapy is not directly addressed in the lyrics for ‘Testimony’, Schwartz’s lyrics are open-ended enough to allow for people like
97 The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration published and distributed a scientifically- based report on the harmful impact of conversion therapy. Endorsed by the American Psychological Association, a free PDF copy can be downloaded at the following link [accessed 17 December 2017]: https://store.samhsa.gov/product/Ending-Conversion-Therapy-Supporting-and-Affirming-LGBTQ- Youth/SMA15-4928
144 Daniel to relate to the song through the lens of his own individual experience (Ruskin and
Rice 2012). Thus, ‘Testimony’ represents yet another dimension of choruses’ commentary on culturally pervasive homophobia and anti-queer violence: the impact of heteronormative culture in creating internalized homophobia and self-loathing within queer youth.
The next day, on Tuesday 11 March, I met with Chris, a Caucasian man in his mid-
30s who had just moved to Seattle and joined SMC for this particular concert cycle. We met at a coffee shop in the Alki neighbourhood of West Seattle. Primarily accessed by bridge from the downtown area, Alki is situated on Puget Sound and looks north across the water toward Queen Anne Hill and east toward the central business district. Raised in Utah, Chris explains that ‘I’d spent a majority of my life very bullied, very picked on. I was a femme-y kid, shoved into lockers, into trash-cans, was doused in lighter fluid, lit on fire, beat with a baseball bat’. Common among singers from all of the choruses of study for this project, many have been verbally and physically accosted for not embodying heteronormative and socially constructed ideas of masculinity (as Chris describes of himself, a ‘femme-y kid’). This is a central theme in ‘Testimony’, which Chris relates to: ‘it’s the first piece where I’m actually, genuinely singing about myself, because it is my story from childhood to right now’.
Reflecting on the inclusion of Diverse Harmony in last night’s rehearsal, for Chris, ‘it absolutely clicked, and it triggered a lot of different emotions in me. Looking at these young kids up there, singing these solos, as openly gay youth, that’s something I would have never dreamed of as a child’. Chris, David and Daniel all feel emotionally moved by the inclusion of Diverse Harmony in this particular rehearsal, as the youth choir joined SMC’s rehearsal. It would appear that their natural affective response is partly in how they as adults relate to the song’s message of overcoming suicidal thoughts but also from feelings of compassion and empathy for queer youth going through similar experiences (on emotional response studies,
145 see Becker, 2004; Cvetkovich, 2003; Gabrielsson and Juslin, 1996; Hemmings, 2005; Milton and Svasek, 2005; San Cassia, 2005; Sedgwick, 2003).
Where individual and shared experiences and stories overlap, ‘Testimony’ serves as an example of how music, with such relatable personal messages, can unify a chorus on an emotional level, even if they are not overtly aware in the immediate moment that deeper cohesion is taking place. David often reflects on the rehearsal process and its impact, and what ‘Testimony’ in its two sections represents: ‘there’s a lot of that “shared oneness” that you get when you sing some of those songs. These young people struggling to be who they are, and then the chorus of these sage wise ones that [tell them], “oh my god! I went through that! And it’s going to get so much sweeter if you hold on”’. Through musicking (Small
1998; Rice 2014), ‘Testimony’ initiates reflection in the singers, on their own stories and on those of their fellow singers. By presenting the music in performance, choruses attempt to engage in discourse with audiences and begin making inquiry into the nature of culturally pervasive homophobia and its violent consequences. Sharing stories within the ensemble during rehearsal is not a particularly common occurrence. Rather, this usually takes place in conversations singers have either during break, outside the rehearsal space, or backstage during performances. The ways in which singers engage with one another through social media (such as Facebook or twitter) has facilitated interpersonal relationships and fostered dialogue, in a way that deeper discussion at rehearsals of the music and its meaning could possibly have. On the whole, singers are largely aware of the impact music can have on their lives, individually and as an ensemble, and that the potential exists to create the same impact for audiences.
With ‘Testimony’, Coleman only presented the song to the chorus on Monday 10
February. By this point, on 17 March, SMC has only rehearsed ‘Testimony’ for six weeks.
Recalling that the chorus is preparing a vast array of music for Totally Wicked, time allotted
146 to rehearsing ‘Testimony’ each week is precious. Overall, this timeframe appears to render the singers familiar with the ways in which Schwartz’s composition, in its structure and complexity, frames the poignant lyrical content. This timeframe also appears to stave off any overfamiliarity with the song, and it appears to remain a fresh experience each week. Some singers I spoke with wonder if there is a specific purpose behind Coleman’s approach here.
Chris’ speculation one week earlier (on 10 March) consolidates much of what the singers had shared with me up to this point:
Chris: I think that maybe Dennis [Coleman] doesn’t really talk a lot about ‘Testimony’ because, in his head, he’s trying to create this moment on stage. That way the raw, genuine emotion of the piece will come out in a performance rather than in rehearsal. Because I think he wants it to be a very first-time experience for absolutely everyone on stage, that way it’s a first-time experience for everyone in the audience. So, I think there’s some method to his madness, piecing [‘Testimony’] all together 2-3 weeks out because he wants it to be as genuine as possible
Me: Instead of talking about it, and talking about the meaning, and talking about this, and talking about that…
Chris: There’s been none of that.
But this was about to change. In the next week’s rehearsal, on 24 March, singers would experience dialogue with one another on a larger ensemble-wide level. The opportunity would arise for the chorus to gain a fuller understanding of the impact a song like
‘Testimony’ has had on individual singers, and in those quiet moments between songs in rehearsal. Focus on the individual (Ruskin and Rice 2012; Rice 2014) would be the subject of discussion, informing and transforming the chorus as a community of practice (Lave and
Wenger 1991; Wenger 2004).
Passing the Mic: Singers Sharing Stories at the 24 March 2014 Rehearsal
During the 24 March rehearsal, after running through ‘Testimony’ in full, Coleman decided to pass a microphone around the room, and anyone who wished to do so could share with the chorus their thoughts, feelings, stories, and insights into how they relate to the song. With the choruses of study in this project, this seemed to be a relatively unusual move for typical gay
147 chorus rehearsals. Given that rehearsals are once per week and require focus in order to cover as much music as possible (and in the case of SMC, Coleman’s carefully crafted rehearsal agenda), to allocate approximately 20 minutes to such discussion is not particularly common.
Despite the logistical similarities between the workings of GALA ensembles, each chorus is an entity unto itself, the personalities of which are often shaped and informed by their artistic directors. Coleman had a purpose here, and before rehearsal began I was already aware that this moment was coming. At the end of an extensive interview the day before, on Sunday 23
March, Coleman smiled as I left and hinted that during the chorus’ rehearsal of ‘Testimony’ the next day, he was going to ‘give me something’. Of course, these 20 minutes of singers sharing their stories is insightful and provides singers with an opportunity to further bond over ‘Testimony’. These stories bring to light the ways in which individual singers’ experiences, unique as they are, overlap and share commonalities. Furthermore, through deeper understanding of their fellow singers’ experiences, the opportunity also exists for the chorus as a collective whole to tap even deeper into the song’s emotional current.
Given the aforementioned conversations I had with singers over the previous weeks, especially with regard to the freshness of ‘Testimony’ and its ability to induce emotional responses during the rehearsal process, this seems to be a particularly opportune moment for the singers present at this rehearsal – to reinforce and build a stronger sense of community by learning from, and about, one another. After weeks of rehearsing the song with almost no discussion of its meaning, I suspect Coleman might have passed the microphone around the room to allow for greater ensemble cohesion – as if to allow singers to remind one another of where their own unique experiences with the sentiments in ‘Testimony’ overlap with one another. Even more directly, to share stories with the chorus in the rehearsal space carries the potential to remind one another, as they would with audiences just a few weeks later, ‘you are not alone’. The stories of these individuals (Ruskin and Rice 2012; Rice 2014) contribute to a
148 sense of strengthened community (Lave and Wenger 1991; Mendonça 2002; Wenger 2004;
Finnegan 2007; Mensel 2007; Gurlly 2014; MacLachlan 2015)
Because the process was spontaneous, the singers who chose to share their stories did not always self-identify. However, one singer I interviewed early in my work with SMC did choose to share his thoughts with the chorus and his story will be presented in the following discussion. Furthermore, those who did speak tended to share just a few brief thoughts instead of longer stories. However, this did not diminish the emotional impact on other singers in the ensemble. The first three singers who spoke all appeared to be somewhere between the ages 40-50. The first singer succinctly sums up the song’s emotional impact: ‘I can’t sing [‘Testimony’] without crying’. After a round of applause, the second singer shares that the lyrical content brings back painful memories of being closeted in high school.
Furthermore, he was also ‘proud of It Gets Better for extending a hand to subsequent generations’. The third singer shares that a heterosexual cis-gender male friend he had known since age 5, whose perspective on the queer community has evolved over time, recently confided, ‘you are the greatest guy I know’.
A young man, who appears to be in his late 20s, shares that he was raised in Utah as part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – or more commonly referred to as the
Mormon Church. He had recently ‘come out’, and was surprised by how positively his loved one received him, that they ‘loved him no matter what’. Another young man, appearing to be in his later 20s, discovered that, because of his struggles with being bullied in high school, a group of people created a Gay-Straight Alliance support group for queer youth and their allies in his conservative hometown of Wenatchee, Washington. An older gentleman, appearing to be in his late-50s or early-60s, observed that the ‘survivors from the early days envy young guys’ because of the progress that has been made toward greater acceptance and expanded queer rights. Rather than being upset or ‘taking credit’ for the ways in which social
149 change has transpired because of his generation, he shared that, because of such societal progress, he is ‘just happy’ for younger generations. The final two singers to share both appear to be in their late 30s or early 40s, and both discuss the notion of ‘Testimony’ drawing attention to the loneliness and isolation that many queer people experience when struggling with self-destruction and suicide. The first singer could relate to the first half of ‘Testimony’ on an intensely personal level, as he felt ‘voiceless’ as a closeted youth. The final singer to speak, Jimmy, a Latinx98 man in his late 30s that I had also interviewed a couple weeks earlier, believes that the significance of the chorus’ performance of ‘Testimony’ is largely because it speaks ‘a truth to people who need to hear it, especially straight people who need to understand what gay people go through’. In many ways, Jimmy’s sentiments are similar to those of James (of BGMC) and his reflections on seeing SFGMC perform ‘Testimony’ in
Laramie in July 2012. Through his lyrics, Schwartz tells the stories of people who contributed videos to It Gets Better; and through their performance, SMC not only gives voice to those stories, but to theirs as well. ‘Testimony’, as James contends, is a means of
‘speaking truth to power’. In performance, the song is a statement on the impact of heteronormativity, cultural homophobia and anti-queer violence. By giving voice to these stories, SMC also makes a statement on the ways queer people transcend heteronormativity every day.
Observing these moments of SMC singers sharing their stories with the rest of the chorus raises some compelling observations about gay choruses on a general level. First, as entertainment organizations that also function as social movements, choruses are ‘safe’ places, providing a sense of community for queer-identifying people (for more on communities of practice, see Lave and Wenger 1991; Wenger 2004; Finnegan 2007; Miyake
2013). The safe space of the chorus allows for singers to share these experiences, thoughts
98 Latinx is a relatively new term, commonly used as a gender-neutral reference to people with Latin-American heritage.
150 and feelings with one another – how they may cope with their own unique experiences through the process of singing and performing. Furthermore, songs such as ‘Testimony’, as well as the other pieces of music in this project, express ‘truth’, as Jimmy characterizes, in how it addresses the impact of self-destruction and suicide on many queer people. I would also posit that in addition to creating a sense of cohesion within the chorus as a community of practice, allowing singers to share their experiences, thoughts and feelings with the entire ensemble can inform the way in which the chorus makes meaning of the song. By understanding how their fellow singers relate to ‘Testimony’, the song holds the potential to reproduce the conflict and anxiety of being closeted and contending with a heteronormative society while contemplating suicide; and the song becomes a site for resolution and healing through its expression of transcendence and coming out. Throughout work on this project, singers in all three choruses (SMC, BGMC and SFGMC) expressed the high value they place on feeling part of their respective chorus communities. To allow themselves to be affected by their stories strengthens the beliefs singers hold of their ability to impact audiences with this music as well.
In experiencing such a profound moment of sharing stories, reflections and insights, I am compelled to consider the ways in which choruses cultivate a sense of community between new and longer-term singing members. Also, these moments are rare, as limited rehearsal time does not often allow for choruses to engage in twenty minutes of sharing stories. This is also underscored by the fact that SMC had only been rehearsing ‘Testimony’ for about 6 weeks by this point in their concert cycle. While listening to singers share their stories with the chorus, and certainly in the days that followed, a few thoughts occurred to me. First, the quick rate at which SMC has learned ‘Testimony’ allows for such discussion to take place. At this point, the chorus is confident in their performance of the song even in the rehearsal space. Second, I suspect that Coleman might have allowed such sharing to take
151 place in order to retain the freshness, intimacy and vulnerability of the song’s impact. This is a particularly shrewd and insightful thing to do just before SMC’s hometown performances.
If singers understand the impact of ‘Testimony’ on their fellow choristers, this could very well inform the affective impact of the song on audiences.
Crisis, Scars and Self-Acceptance
In the days immediately following the 24 March rehearsal, I found myself reflecting not only on the insights singers shared with the chorus that evening, but also on recurring themes in one-on-one conversations with singers over the last month – themes of conflict, anxiety and resolution. ‘Testimony’ embodies these themes, in that the conflict of closeted queer people contending with heteronormativity, and the anxiety of how to respond – come out, or engage in self-destructive behaviour – eventually (or, hopefully) leads to the resolution of coming out and working toward a fulfilling life as a queer-identifying person. Of course, this summary betrays the complexity of the song’s message, the real-life people in It Gets Better videos from which Schwartz drew his lyrics, and the stories of the singers on stage. The impact of heteronormativity, cultural homophobia and anti-queer violence is profound, a
‘crisis’ of sorts that queer people contend with, in uniquely individual ways, on a daily basis.
In our conversation the week prior to the 24 March rehearsal, Daniel explains the need for individual singers to acknowledge their painful experience (their crisis) and how it shapes their present moment, and how doing so can inform musical interpretation:
If you have crisis, you can’t bypass it. I’ve never fully left my past [in] conversion therapy, I keep a part of it within me. Those scars that you have from your past, they remain, and yet I think part of that is important – it brings an awareness [to singers]. So, singing [‘Testimony’], it was not surprising, it was just acknowledging fact, acknowledging reality. Yes, it’s emotional. But it also is reality, and so you work through it and you experience it.
152 To elaborate even further, Daniel refers to his experience in conversion therapy as a teenager, which he characterizes as ‘a critical time for human development and, unfortunately, that’s the prime time for conversion therapy’. Daniel explains that he did not feel he was in control of his own life until his early to mid-twenties. Despite differences between singers’ individual experiences, Daniel feels a sense of affinity and kinship within the chorus. He draws parallels between singers and the similar ways in which their experiences inform their present, with a specific and intimate statement that also reflects a universal sentiment in the chorus: ‘so those are [my] scars and they’re kind of built into my development, you know?’
Daniel is not the only singer with whom I have spoken to talk about ‘scars’ as a representation of the painful and profound impact of heteronormativity, cultural homophobia and violence – emotionally, psychologically and, in some cases, physically (as with Bruce of
SFGMC in Chapter 4).
Over the last few weeks, it became quickly and abundantly clear that ‘Testimony’ compels SMC singers to reflect on those painful individual experiences. In turn, those experiences inform the chorus’ intimate, vulnerable and, ultimately, empowered interpretation of the song. Consequently, in this chapter, and in my work with SMC,
‘Testimony’ tends to dominate much discussion because of its message and meaning, and the intended impact upon audiences. However, an examination of the song selections and running order of the concert program reveals some interesting observations. Prior to
‘Testimony’, which is situated as the third to last song in the concert, Totally Wicked would appear to be purely a tribute to the music of Stephen Schwartz – the chorus performing classics from his film scores and Broadway musicals. Included in the notes of the concert program is an explanation of Schwartz’s inspiration behind writing ‘Testimony’. Of significant note, ‘Testimony’ is the only piece of music in the concert that does not derive from a film score or a musical. The song is not affiliated with a work of fictional
153 entertainment. Unlike the other song selection in the program, ‘Testimony’ is associated with
– and more importantly, expresses – the real-life stories of queer people who survived contemplations and attempts at suicide. What is significant to note here is the song selections that follow ‘Testimony’ in closing SMC’s Totally Wicked concert: ‘Beautiful City’ (as performed with guest artist Megan Hilty) and the finale ‘Defying Gravity’.99 This trilogy of songs appears to form an affective arc of sorts, with a combined message of self-acceptance, overcoming adversity, and transcendence through building community. For example, following ‘Testimony’, consider the impact of the message in ‘Beautiful City’ in the song’s first half:
Out of the ruin and rubble Out of the smoke Out of our night of struggle Can we see a ray of hope? One pale thin ray, reaching for the day
We can build a beautiful city Yes we can, yes we can We can build a beautiful city Not a city of angels, but we can build a city of man
Following a second verse and chorus section, the bridge section before the final chorus provides reassurance in the face of adversity:
When your trust is all but shattered When your faith is all but killed You can give up, bitter and battered Or you can slowly start to build A beautiful city
Following ‘Beautiful City’ and its message of building community and solidarity, ‘Defying
Gravity’ is a song of transcendence and resilience. In the context of its parent musical
Wicked, ‘Defying Gravity’ is performed by the character of Elphaba at the end of the first act and a centrepiece of the show. Elphaba is vilified because of her physical differences
99 Usually because of fees associated with the guest artist, the performance venue, and licensing (among others), choruses do not always audio and video record every performance they give. A recording of SMC performing ‘Beautiful City’ with Megan Hilty is not available. However, the following link is a clip of SMC’s performance of ‘Defying Gravity’ in 2014. The video clip was added to FlyingHouseSeattle on YouTube, run by Flying House Productions, SMC’s parent organization [accessed 17 December 2017]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuoYr5IWL_g
154 (elongated nose, long straight black hair, and green skin), perceived by others as deficiencies that indicate her evil nature (Elphaba becomes the Wicked Witch of the West in Wicked, the musical based on Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which derives from the film The Wizard of Oz). In the musical, ‘Defying
Gravity’ represents a turning point for Elphaba, where she decides that she will no longer base her self-worth on seeking affirmation from others who are not likely to approve of her anyway. In decontextualizing ‘Defying Gravity’ from Wicked and performing the song in a gay chorus concert, the message and meaning still translate because the lyrics are not tethered tightly to the story of the musical. Thus, following ‘Beautiful City’ and its expression of solidarity, ‘Defying Gravity’ ends SMC’s concert by underscoring the power of community, transcendence and resilience:
Unlimited, together we’re unlimited Together we’ll be the greatest team there’s ever been Dreams the way we planned ‘em There’s no fight we cannot win Just you and I, defying gravity With you and I, defying gravity They’ll never bring us down!
While the messages presented especially in ‘Testimony’, ‘Beautiful City’ and ‘Defying
Gravity’ are meant to compel reflection in the audience on the impact of heteronormativity and homophobia, the themes in these songs also reflect the needs of singers in finding the safe space of community. The chorus represents the sanctuary of community through shared queer identity, in all of its diversity. For many singers, especially those who have been rejected and alienated by loved ones, the chorus also represents a ‘chosen family’ of sorts – and this is represented in the familial terminology so many chorus singers use to refer to the ensemble as a collective whole (such as ‘chorus family’) and to the singers (such as ‘chorus brothers’). As a new member of SMC, Chris reflects on the impact of message music like
155 ‘Testimony’, and one particularly poignant moment in the rehearsal process during this concert cycle:
[In the past] I resigned myself to the point that, ‘you don’t need to belong, you’ve been a loner your whole life. Just own it, embrace it. Everything’s going to be fine’. And all of the sudden, here I am singing this song in this chorus and I felt a part of something. You know? I don’t need to be angry anymore. I don’t need to be angry at my past, or the people for what they did to me; or be angry at myself for allowing it, and for allowing myself to feel unloved. I don’t need to be the same way with my emotional scars [as I was in the past] – wear them with pride, they’re part of who I am. It is probably the most profound moment I have ever had in music in my entire life.
After reflecting on the impact of ‘Testimony’ and how it relates to his own experience, Chris looks outward to the audience and expresses the hope that ‘people take away with them enough awareness to start being proactive’. We discuss how music like this can reflect that lives of queer youth – and even youth perceived to be queer because they do not appear to embody heteronormative standards – and Chris becomes slightly agitated at the thought that
‘so many people just sit on their asses and they don’t do anything’. The hope, ultimately, is that the message in ‘Testimony’ will reach not only those who have been bullied, but those who have also suffered from spousal or child abuse, or self-inflicted violence.
Chris hopes that those audience members in need of hearing ‘Testimony’ because of their own experiences will feel a sense of affinity with the chorus: ‘it is possible to go from feeling like the most worthless, unloved, unwanted person on the planet to accepting themselves’. In carefully targeting their audience (Attinello 2002), SMC capitalize on the social capital they have built with their audience (Moy 2015) by presenting the message of
‘Testimony’ in the context of a multi-dimensional concert. Whether or not the song compels reflection in the audience, the singers of SMC have found a strengthened sense of community
(Lave and Wenger 1991; Woolwine 2000; Wenger 2004; Anderson 2006; Finnegan 2007;
Mensel 2007; Miyake 2013; Gurlly 2014) within their chorus through musicking together
(Small 1998; Mendonça 2002; Ruskin and Rice 2012; Rice 2014) – through the experience of
156 rehearsing and performing ‘Testimony’ as a representation of their individual and collective stories.
157 Chapter 6 Conclusion
In this work, I have argued that the process of rehearsing and performing commissioned music addressing heteronormativity, cultural and institutional homophobia and anti-queer violence strengthens community bonds within gay choruses. I have specifically examined the use of commissioned songs and multi-movement works as avenue for the expression of
‘some of the painful aspects’ (MacLachlan 2015: 97) of queer life. Such music includes songs and multi-movement works that commemorate Matthew Shepard and Harvey Milk, as well as address an epidemic of self-destruction and suicide among queer people. As intimate and vulnerable expressions, I find the rehearsal and performance of this music cultivates and strengthens a sense of cohesion within choruses as communities of practice (Lave and
Wenger 1991; Wenger 2004; Finnegan 2007) through the process of musicking (Small 1998;
Mendoça 2002; Rice 2014). I find that the primary means of both confronting heteronormativity and strengthening choruses as communities of practice is in the way commissioned music reproduces conflict, anxiety and resolution – the conflict of being queer in a heteronormative society, anxiety over what to do about it, and resolution in coming out.
Through such reproductions, choruses tell their stories, find healing, and develop a stronger sense of purpose in continually working toward greater social justice for the queer community.
The findings in this project derive from data collected in musicological analysis, semi-structured research interviews, participant observation and the perspective of the performer as researcher. In its history, the gay choral movement has valued commissioned music as new statements responding to issues of concern to the queer community.
Musicological analysis (Herndon 1974; Qurershi 1987; Attinello 2002; Mensel 2007; Brett and Wood 2013; MacLachlan 2015) is essential for understanding how the workings of
158 commissioned songs and multi-movement works become utilities for choruses in addressing heteronormativity, homophobia and anti-queer violence.
While interview questions were constructed at the outset of this work, it quickly became apparent in my work with SFGMC in 2013 that the stories of the individual singers would best be served by not adhering to a rigid line of inquiry. More directly, each participant’s story yielded interesting insights that informed the questions at the centre of this work. Taking a more spontaneous approach to interviews became necessary, and the constructed set of questions were used as a guide. Thus, research interviews were semi- structured interviews (Schensul, Schensul and LeCompte 1999; Leech 2003; Longhurst 2003;
DiCicco-Bloom and Crabtree 2006; Rabionet 2011; Creswell 2013; Brinkman 2014; Gurlly
2014).
With regard to participant observation, I characterized my approach at the beginning of this work as moderate participation (DeWalt and DeWalt 2011; Spradley 2016). As an openly gay man and a chorus singer, I occupied the role of ‘native’ (Kuper 1994; Reed-
Danahay 1997; Motzafi-Haller 1997; Ellis and Bochner 2006; Ellis, Adams and Bochner
2011). As a researcher, one could contend I was an ‘ousider’ (DeWalt and DeWalt 2011;
Spradley 2016). Throughout my work, I carefully considered the ways in which I might negotiate my ‘native’ and ‘outsider’ status. However, upon reflection, it appears as if singers had no issue in responding to me as an ‘insider’ – especially considering the wealth of profoundly emotional data collected for this work. This alone would suggest a level of trust between subject and researcher.
Finally, because of my familiarity with the gay choral movement as a singer, understanding the inner workings of a gay chorus, this work also draws judiciously from the perspective of the performer as researcher, or artistic practice as research (Brubaker 2007;
Schippers and Flenady 2010; Toro-Pérez 2010; Balosso-Bardin 2016; Emmerson 2017;
159 Vincs 2017). While this particular field of study has sparked dialogue and questions about the nature of rigor in artistic practice (Toro-Pérez 2010; Emmerson 2017; Vincs 2017), I point to the aforementioned discussion of participant observation and building trust with chorus singers. As Balosso-Bardin (2016) contends, taking on the role of practitioner can assist in establishing credibility with the musicians of study. I do acknowledge, however, that this might have played less of a role in building trust with singers than their understanding that I am ‘one of them’ – an openly gay man and chorus singer.
The resulting work can be characterized as intimate ethnography (Rosaldo 1993;
Lerum 2001; Waterston and Rylko-Bauer 2006; Banerji and Distante 2009) in that the participants in this project allowed themselves to share intimate and vulnerable stories of the
‘painful realities’ (MacLachlan 2015) of contemporary queer life. The intent in collecting and analysing these stories – the profoundly transformative experiences of these subjects – is to understand the ways in which they contribute to the process of making music (whether in rehearsal or in concert), and how that process strengthens choruses as communities of practice.
This Work in Summary
This work begins by summarizing the history of the gay choral movement in the late 1970s.
The formation of San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus in 1978 as the first openly gay ensemble
(with ‘Gay’ in their name) was during a critical moment in the gay rights movement. A leading figure of the gay rights movement, politician and activist Harvey Milk was – and continues to be – an influence on the chorus. With the gay choral movement, San Francisco
Gay Men’s Chorus quickly became a leader and influenced the formation of a number of choruses throughout the US. These choruses include the other two ensembles of study in this work, the Seattle Men’s Chorus (formed in 1979) and Boston Gay Men’s Chorus (formed in
1982). Led by San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, the larger Gay and Lesbian Association of
160 Choruses – GALA Choruses – was formed as an umbrella organization for the national, and eventually international, movement. Surveying the histories of these three choruses, and
GALA’s history as well, provides some understanding of the contexts from which they emerged, and the socio-political issues to which they would respond: from the assassination of gay icon Harvey Milk in November 1978, through two decades of being ravaged by the
AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 90s, to the brutal acts of violence against queer people such as Matthew Shepard, and up through a recent epidemic of queer youth suicide in response to heteronormative culture.
As such, the emergence of the gay choral movement in response to larger society reflects Sedgwick’s (2008) definitions of identity – in the case of the movement, ‘gay’ has increasingly come to represent ‘queer’, in opposition to ‘heteronormativity’, discrimination and violence against queer identifying people. As a counterpublic (Warner 2002), gay choruses are often situated in opposition to a public that renders heterosexual cis-gender people as the social norm. Gurlly (2014) examines gay shame, a consequence of heteronormativity, that serves as both a marker of identity and a springboard for queer people in developing pride in their non-heteronormative identities. In examining gay choruses, these markers of queer identity contribute greatly to a shared sense of community that engage in what Fraser (1997) refers to as ‘agitational activities’ that seek to create social change for the queer community. Of course, as this project examines, such activities are centred on the idea of outreach and creating positive social change through the utilities of commissioned music and performance.
In summarizing this history, it is essential to understand the role and value of commissioned music in the gay choral movement. GALA and their member choruses have actively encouraged and engaged in a regular program of commissioning music (Attinello
2002; Attinello 2006a; Brett and Wood 2013; Coyle 2006; Gurlly 2014; McLachlan 2015;
161 Mensel 2007; Moy 2015). GALA ensembles are the largest contributors of new music to the larger choral repertoire (Mensel 2007; MacLachlan 2015). Recalling earlier in this work,
Coyle explains to MacLachlan (2015: 87) that gay chorus music ‘exists to serve the singers’.
Commissioned music serves the singers in conveying a sense of queer history, mourning the murder of Shepard, commemorating Milk’s life and legacy, and drawing attention to the heteronormative conditions that contribute to an epidemic of suicide among queer youth. All of this music serves as a utility for choruses in countering heteronormativity, cultural and institutional homophobia and anti-queer violence. Furthermore, these pieces of music are generally written in first-person, and thus functioning as an avenue for autobiographical expression. Gay chorus singers tell their stories. In the interview process, insights gathered from participants in this work illuminate how choruses think and feel about this music – the utilities that serve as the ‘tools’ of their trade.
While music about homophobia and anti-queer violence, as examined in this project, make up only one part of the gay choral repertoire, this particular group of music represents the ways in which choruses continue to confront heteronormativity from an expressly queer and male voice. MacLachlan (2015) contends that gay chorus music makes use of three stylistic elements: sincerity, humour/irony and contrafacta. The music in this project makes use of sincerity as a device for framing the stories presented in the music – whether commemorating Shepard or Milk, or addressing self-destruction, suicide or the bullying of queer youth. The repertoire builds what Moy (2015) terms ‘social capital’, an unspoken negotiation in which audiences permit such message music as it is presented in the context of an entertaining gay chorus concert. This is largely due to the fact that the music is centred on the idea of outreach and positive social change and is not designed to alienate or provoke audiences. Rather, the music tells the varied stories of a larger and diverse queer community
162 and is intended to compel reflection in the audience on issues pertaining to the impact of heteronormativity, homophobia and anti-queer violence on queer people.
After examining the role of commissioned music as a utility for gay choruses, this work examines the ways in which singers’ biographies inform their experience of joining their ensembles. As a case study, this specific part of this work focuses on San Francisco Gay
Men’s Chorus, their role in commissioning key pieces of music for analysis here –
‘Testimony’ and I Am Harvey Milk – engaging with this music in rehearsal and performance, or musicking (Small 1998; Rice 2014). The experience of joining a community of practice, and then putting into practice the chorus’ mission for outreach and performing in ‘red’ areas.
From the experience of the chorus’ two most recent (and among their most significant) artistic directors in joining San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, this work probes the reflections, thoughts and feelings of singers as they enact their mission. Joining the chorus at a significant performance – their July 2012 concert in Laramie, Wyoming, the site where
Shepard lived and studied at the time of his death – this interpolates the observations of a fellow GALA singer from another chorus who attended this performance. These observations seem to reiterate the impact of outreach performances, and why singers joined their respective choruses in the first place.
Finally, this project examines Seattle Men’s Chorus as they rehearse for their March
2014 concert Totally Wicked. As part of this concert program, the chorus performed
‘Testimony’. Drawing from observations of rehearsals and from research interviews conducted outside of the rehearsal space, this work synthesizes the insights gleaned from interactions between singers and from the quiet moments of reflection singers engage in between weekly rehearsals. A significant moment in my work with Seattle Men’s Chorus came when artistic director emeritus (as of July 2016) Dennis Coleman set up a microphone and allowed singers to spontaneously share their feelings about ‘Testimony’ with the chorus.
163 Given my history as a GALA singer, I can attest to the fact that these moments in chorus rehearsals are not common – especially considering these ensembles rehearse once a week for three hours, 11-12 weeks prior to giving a performance. Such a tight schedule leaves little room for any non-performance distractions. This was a key moment because, recalling interviews in Chapter 4, prior to this rehearsal singers had speculated as to why Coleman had introduced the song so late in the rehearsal cycle and why there had been almost no discussion of its meaning. Yet, ‘Testimony’ was profoundly affecting on many singers in the room. I observed many quiet moments of care and concern between singers emotionally impacted by the song’s lyrics (‘are you OK?’), reiterated in research interviews outside rehearsal, as well as in the reflections of singers in San Francisco and Boston who had already performed the song in the few years prior to Seattle Men’s Chorus. These moments in combination appear to summarize the undertaking of this work as a whole: the impact of music in reproducing conflict (of being queer in a heteronormative society), anxiety (of what to do about it) and resolution (in coming out) in strengthening choruses as communities of practice.
Avenues for future research
Expanding upon this current work, a few specific areas present opportunities rife for investigation. One study might expand upon this project to examine the impact of commissioned music and gay chorus performances on the audience itself, with a focus on how choruses effect social change. Such a study would require a key element missing from this current work: the inclusion of audience members as subjects of study. Even with a study such as this, two different approaches could be taken. The first approach could embark upon a similar study to this work, by engaging with chorus singers and the audience, synthesizing data from both participant populations in order to understand the impact of a given piece (or pieces) of music. Regarding music in this current work, a song such as ‘Testimony’ might be
164 a powerful piece to study in terms of the impact on singers (as I have attempted to demonstrate in this work) and the audience as well. Broadly speaking, questions for the audience might centre on their perceptions of the larger queer experience in a heteronormative society. A second approach might focus purely on the audience, and their response to a given piece of music addressing issues of concern to the queer community. The focus of such a study might centre on how the music compels audience members to reflect on the ways queer people are impacted by heteronormativity on a daily basis.
Because of time constraints, budget and the logistics, engaging in such an endeavour was not possible for this project. However, a line of inquiry as such could be undertaken in a few different ways. To approach such a project with the express intent of capturing the audiences’ thoughts, feelings and insights on the impact of such socio-political music would be a worthwhile study. As an alternative to the proposed studies above, a similar endeavour might pursue a quantitative line of inquiry in studying the impact of the music on the audience. The central question could still pertain to the ways in which gay choruses attempt to create social change, and how the messages in the music either align with or challenge the values of the audience. The most obvious means of measuring this would be to devise a survey of relevant questions to disperse to a sample of audience members. Survey questions might first inquire about audience members’ experiences with heteronormativity, homophobia and anti-queer violence. Following this line of inquiry, further questions might specifically target messages in the music the chorus performs, how the audience feels about those messages, and the larger implications of these songs about continued oppression of queer people in the US. Statistical methods would then be used to analyse survey data for the purpose of making a more definitive, and less anecdotal, statement about the ways gay choruses create social change. Such a study would also be a significant expansion of the
165 current project because social change is only mentioned in this previous chapters as a means of illustrating its priority in the minds of the gay choral movement.
Another possible study might examine the ways in which commissioned music borne specifically of queer experiences (such as the Shepard murder, or commemorating Milk) compels younger generations of singers to learn about this history. Since much of the music examined in this project is composed in the first-person, it is not essential to know that a song such as ‘What Matters’ was borne of the Shepard murder. The lyrics are neither specifically tied to the murder, nor are they esoteric – rather, the lyrical content stands as a complete statement unto itself without any listener needing to know the song is about Shepard.
Questions might focus on whether such knowledge informs musicking, as well as the significance of reminding audiences of this history. Such a line of inquiry might also illuminate the ways in which progress has been made on behalf of the queer community, and the areas where queer rights are still deficient.
A third study, and arguably the most practical and natural extension of this work, might follow the trajectory of commissioned music by a variety of ensembles in the GALA
Choruses organization. Such a study might consider the ways in which new songs and multi- movement works continue to address issues pertaining to heteronormativity, cultural and institutional homophobia and anti-queer violence from different angles. More importantly, an examination of possible emerging commissioned music to more directly address the violent consequences of transphobia, and issues pertaining to intersectionality – where gender identity (or non-conformity), sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity are specifically concerned. As the larger queer community contends with issues pertaining to intersectionality, it would only be appropriate for gay choruses to address those issues as well. At the present date, I am unaware of gay chorus music specifically about trans-related issues and intersectionality. But considering the value GALA Choruses places on
166 commissioning music – and especially those member choruses such as SFGMC, BGMC and
SMC who regularly commission new music – it is only a matter of time.
Toward the end of work on this project, and in the year following, some new pieces of commissioned work confronting heteronormativity, homophobia and anti-queer violence emerged. As Chapter 4 briefly discusses, in March 2014, SFGMC premiered Tyler’s Suite commemorating and honouring the life of the 18-year old, gay Rutgers University student
Tyler Clementi. On 22 September 2010, Clementi committed suicide. The events that led to
Clementi’s death were brief, and most attribute his suicide to having been bullied for being gay by his university dormitory roommate. SFGMC co-commissioned Tyler’s Suite with
GALA member choruses Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus, Flying House Productions (the umbrella organization for SMC and their sister ensemble Seattle Women’s Chorus), Gay
Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, New York City Gay Men’s Chorus, San Diego Gay Men’s
Chorus and Turtle Creek Chorale. At the present date, nearly all of these choruses have performed the work. Tyler’s Suite is also a unique commission in that it is comprised of eight songs strung together in a suite. Stephen Schwartz spearheaded the effort, with each song having been composed by a different composer, creating musical settings to lyrics primarily written by Pamela Stewart. Clementi’s family was also involved, through their work with the
Tyler Clementi Foundation.
In 2016, BGMC commissioned and premiered Capable of Anything, a four-movement work by openly gay composer Joshua Shank. The work addresses the contemporary concerns of queer life in the US. In June 2015, the chorus previewed Capable of Anything with a performance of the first movement, ‘Peace’. For the text, Shank solicited responses from chorus members, asking them to complete the phrase ‘I was at peace when ___’ and constructed the lyrics, and the overall structure of the movement, based on responses he received. ‘Peace’ addresses a wide array of concerns including heteronormativity,
167 homophobia, alienation, addiction, depression and spousal abuse between same-sex couples, alongside sentiments that reflect the everyday joys and fulfilments of life, humour tempering some of the more serious moments. When BGMC premiered the entire work in 2016, the other three movements presented an equally multi-dimensional depiction of being queer in the US.
The second movement in Capable of Anything, ‘Joy’, embodies a sense of community the BGMC singers felt as they toured the Middle East in June 2015. ‘Joy’ is an almost childlike reflection on the chorus’ excursion to the Dead Sea. While touring the Middle East,
BGMC learned of the Supreme Court ruling on Obergefell vs. Hodges, that same-sex marriages must be recognized in the US. The third movement, ‘Justice’, makes use of the actual language of the Supreme Court ruling with a musical setting recalling the emotional response of the singers to this act of progress. The final movement, ‘Tomorrow’, is reminiscent of Elton John styled piano pop, paired with rather meditative lyrics on being present in the moment. ‘Tomorrow’ also pays tribute to the many queer people like Tyler
Clementi, who succumbed to suicide. Both Tyler’s Suite and Capable of Anything are the most recent in the commissioning program of GALA, and certainly more songs and multi- movement works will follow.
With regard to Capable of Anything, and recalling discussion in Chapter 2 of
BGMC’s history of touring abroad, another viable avenue for future research might examine how gay choruses put their outreach mission into practice by performing in regions of the world that are unfriendly to, even hostile toward, queer people. In many cases, as with
BGMC’s 2018 tour of South Africa, the intent is to partner with local queer and allied organizations, to raise financial resources that might support the safety and well-being of local queer-identifying people. The issues a chorus like BGMC might face abroad are not necessarily the same issues they would confront at home in the US. It would be particularly
168 compelling to examine the experience of choruses being out and open, performing openly queer music in various cultural contexts, and specifically focusing on the reflections of singers in sharing this experience. Questions that arise might pertain to how performing outreach internationally informs choruses’ approaches to outreach at home in the US. The resulting data could be analysed from a number of different angles.
These proposed avenues for future research take cues from this current project, though other lines of inquiry surrounding gay choruses and/or their repertoire might be devised for a future study. In this work, I have also demonstrated that gay choruses continually prioritize the notions of social change – it is a central tenet of their work, providing the drive behind much of their activity from the rehearsal space to the concert stage. While social change and how choruses enact it have not been the focus of this project, it must be mentioned because of the ways it informs the music of study here. When choruses commission and perform music about issues of concern such as homophobic violence or suicide, it is not for wont: these are issues that impact the lives of queer people every day.
The role of this music is to compel reflection in the audience on the impact of heteronormativity in US culture.
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178 Appendices
‘That’s What America Is’ Speech by Harvey Milk San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade, 1978 My name is Harvey Milk-and I want to recruit you. I want to recruit you for the fight to preserve your democracy from the John Briggs and the Anita Bryants who are trying to constitutionalize bigotry.
We are not going to allow that to happen. We are not going to sit back in silence as 300,000 of our gay brothers and sisters did in Nazi Germany. We are not going to allow to be taken away and then march with bowed heads into gas chambers on this anniversary of Stonewall. I ask my gay brothers and sisters to make the commitment to fight for themselves. For their freedom. For their country.
Here, in San Francisco, we recently held an election for a judgeship. An anti-gay smear campaign was waged against a presiding judge because she was supported by lesbians and gay men. Here in so-called liberal San Francisco, an anti-gay smear campaign was waged by so called liberals.
And here, in so-called liberal San Francisco, we have a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner, a columnist called Kevin Starr, who has printed a number of columns containing distortions and lies about gays. He is getting away with it.
These anti-gay smear campaigns, these anti-gay columns, are laying the groundwork for the Briggs initiative. We had better be prepared for it.
In the Examiner, Kevin Starr defames and libels gays. In the San Francisco Chronicle, Charles McCabe warns us to be quiet, that talking about gay rights is counter-productive. To Mr McCabe I say that the day he stops talking about [about] the freedom of the press is the day he [no?] longer has it.
The blacks did not win their rights by sitting quietly [quietly] in the back of the bus. The [they] got off! Gay people, we will not win their rights by staying quietly in our closets… we are coming out! We are coming out to fight the lies, the myths, the distortions! We are coming out to tell the truth about gays!
For I’m tired of the conspiracy of silence. I’m tired of listening to the Anita Bryants twist the language and the meaning of the Bible to fit their own distorted outlook. But I’m even more tired of the silence of the religious leaders of this nation who know that she is playing fast and loose with the true meaning of the Bible. I’m tired of their silence more than her biblical gymnastics!
And I’m tired of John Briggs talking about false role models. He is lying in his teeth and he knows it. But I’m even more tired of the silence from educators and psychologists who know that Briggs is lying and yet say nothing. I’m tired of their silence more than Briggs lies!
I’m tired of the silence so I’m going to talk about it. And I want you to talk about it.
179 Gay people, we are painted as child molesters. I want to talk about that. I want to talk about the myth of child molestations by gays. I want to talk about the fact that in this state some 95 per cent of child molestations are heterosexual and usually the parent.
I want to talk about the fact that all child abandonments are heterosexual. I want to talk about the fact that some 98 percent of the six million rapes committed annually are heterosexual. I want to talk about the fact that one in every three women who will be murdered in this state this year will be murdered by their husbands. I want to talk about the fact that some 30 percent of all marriages contain domestic violence.
And finally, I want to tell the John Briggs and the Anita Bryants that you talk about the myths of gays but today I’m talking about the facts of heterosexual violence and what the hell are you going to do about that?
Clean up your own house before you start telling lies about gays. Don’t distort the Bible to hide your own sins. Don’t change facts to lies. Don’t look for cheap political advantage by playing on people’s fears! Judging by the latest polls, even the youth can tell you’re lying.
Anita Bryant, John Briggs: your unwillingness to face the truth, chills my blood. It reeks of madness! And like the rest of you, I’m tired of our so-called friends who tell us that we must set standards.
What standards?
The standards of the rapists? The wife beaters? The child abusers? The people who ordered the bomb to be built? The people who ordered it to be dropped? The people who pulled the trigger? The people who gave us Vietnam? The people who built the gas chambers? The people who built the concentration camps – right here, in California, and then herded all the Japanese-Americans into them during World War II. The Jew baiters? The Nigger knockers? The corporate thieves? The Nixons? The Hitlers?
What standards do you want us to set? Clean up your act, clean up your violence before you criticize lesbians and gay men because of their sexuality. It is madness to glorify the killing and violence on one hand and be ashamed of the sexual act, the act that conceived you on the other.
There is a difference between morality and murder. The fact that more people have been slaughtered in the name of religion than by any other single reason – that. That, my friends, is true perversion!
For the standards that we should set, should we read your next weeks headlines?
Well, I’m tired of the lies of the Anita Bryants and the John Briggs. I’m tired of their myths. I’m tired of their distortions. I’m speaking out about it.
Gay brothers and sisters, what are we going to do about it? You must come out. Come out to your parents. I know that is hard and will hurt them but think about how they will hurt you in the voting booth!
180 Come out to your relatives. I know that is hard and will upset them but think how they will upset you in the voting booth. Come out to your friends, if indeed they are your friends. Come out to your neighbors, to your fellow workers. To the people who work where you eat and shop. Come out only to the people you know, and who know you. Not to anyone else. But once and for all, break down the myths. Destroy the lies and distortions. For your sake. For their sake. For the sake of the youngsters who are becoming scared by the votes from Dade to Eugene.
If Briggs wins he will not stop. They never do. Like all mad people, they are forced to go on, to prove they were right. There will be no safe ‘closet’ for any gay person. So, break out of yours today-tear the damn thing down once and for all! And finally, most of all, I’m tired of the silence from the White House.
Jimmy Carter: You talked about human rights a lot. In fact, you want to be the world’s leader for human rights. Well, damn it, lead! There are some fifteen to twenty million lesbians and gay men in this nation listening very carefully.
Jimmy Carter: When are you going to talk about their rights? You talk a lot about the Bible. But when are you going to talk about that most important part: ‘Love thy neighbor’? After all, she may be gay.
Jimmy Carter: The time has come for lesbians and gay men to come out – and they are. Now the time has come for you to speak out. When are you?
Until you speak out against hatred, bigotry, madness, you are just Jimmy Carter. When you do, then and only then, will some twenty million lesbians and gay men be able to say ‘Jimmy Carter is our President too!’
Jimmy Carter, you have the choice: How many more years? How much more damage? How much more violence? How many more lives?
History says that, like all groups seeking their rights, sooner or later we will win. The question is: when?
Jimmy Carter, you have to make the choice – it’s in your hands: either years of violence, or you can help turn the pages of history that much faster. It is up to you. And now, before it becomes too late, come to California and speak out against Briggs. If you don’t then we will come to you! If you do not speak out, if you remain silent, if you do not lift your voice against Briggs, then I call upon lesbians and gay men from all over the nation, your nation, to gather in Washington one year from now, on that national day of freedom, the fourth of July 1979, to gather in Washington on that very same spot where over a decade ago Dr Martin Luther King spoke to a nation of his dreams – dreams that are fast fading, dreams that to many million in this nation have become nightmares rather than dreams.
I call upon all minorities especially lesbians and gay men to wake up from their dreams, to gather on Washington and tell Jimmy Carter and their nation: ‘Wake up, wake up America. No more racism, no more sexism, no more ageism, no more hatred. No more!’
It’s up to you, Jimmy Carter. Do you want to go down in history as a person who would not listen? Or do you want to go down in history as a leader, as a President?
181
Jimmy Carter: listen to us today, or you will have to listen to lesbians and gay men from all over this nation as they gather in Washington next year. For, we will gather there and we will tell you about America and what it really stands for.
And to the bigots, to the John Briggs, to the Anita Bryants, to the Kevin Starrs, and all their ilk: let me remind you what America is, listen carefully.
On the Statue of Liberty, it says ‘give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free’. In the Declaration of Independence, it is written: ‘all men are created equal and they are endowed with certain inalienable rights’. And in our National Anthem, it says ‘oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave o’er the land of the free’.
For Mr Briggs, and Mrs Bryant, and Mr Starr, and all the bigots out there: That’s what America is. No matter how hard you try, you cannot erase those words from the Declaration of Independence. No matter how hard you try, you cannot chip those words from off the base of the Statue of Liberty. And no matter how hard, you cannot sing the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ without those words.
That is what America is.
182 ‘What Matters’ Music and lyrics by Randi Driscoll Women’s chorus arrangement premiered in 2002 by Vox Femina (Los Angeles, CA) Men’s chorus arrangement premiered in 2004 by Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles Both arrangements by Kevin Robison Arrangements commissioned by Craig Coogan
You were the brightest angel heaven had ever seen You walked in with a story to tell And ten thousand tongues to scream And you said doesn't your heart beat the same as mine Haven't I told you a thousand times Isn't the air in my lungs the same air you breathe
So, who cares whose arms I'm all wrapped up in Who cares whose eyes I see myself in? Who cares who I dream of Who cares who I love
Heaven help me for I am lost What a price my love did cost But here I am standing strong and I am free And didn't we share the same sunrise And sleep in the same moonlight Isn't the blood in my veins the same blood you bleed
So, who cares whose arms I'm all wrapped up in Who cares whose eyes I see myself in? Who cares who I dream of Who cares who I love
So, when I die and they lay my body down The peace that I will find is the peace that brings you all around Brings you all around
Doesn't my mother cry like everyone My father grieve for his lonely son Isn't my rainbow a little brighter because
So, who cares whose arms I'm all wrapped up in Who cares whose eyes I see myself in? Who cares who I dream of No, it doesn't matter who I dream of 'Cause in the end it only matters that I was loved And am loved Love has no face
183 A Conversation With Composer Lowell Liebermann
Lowell Liebermann is one of the most exciting and most commissioned composers working in American today. He has been acclaimed for his work in multiple genres: opera, keyboard music, concertos, and orchestral works. Called by the New York Times "as much of a traditionalist as an innovator," Mr. Liebermann's music is known for its technical command and audience appeal. Liebermann’s works have been performed by many of the country’s top orchestras and he was previously composer-in-residence for the Dallas Symphony. He holds bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from the Juilliard School of Music. Among his many awards is a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
Lowell spoke with the BGMC’s Steve Smith about the creation of A Whitman Oratorio.
How did you come to Whitman as the choice for a text for this commission? Whitman was an early love of mine as a child. I recognized a gay voice there early on. He’s one of the first authors I read and thought “oh this is OK and there are other people like me.” Plus I grew up on Long Island where Whitman spent a lot of his life, so I grew up knowing the places he knew. I find Whitman still matters today because we are still dealing with the same pressures and societal ingnorance that he experienced in his day.
That seems to fit with what Reuben and Al Lovata were looking for – a piece that would speak to the challenges of a civil society that seems under attack. In looking for a text for this commission, I was struck by how contemporary and relevant Whitman’s writing was to the current political climate. I went through all of Leaves of Grass and jotted down every fragment or line that was interesting to me and ended up with 20-30 pages of material. I wanted to assemble my own text, adapting his words in a new way. So I went through the process of extracting and assmbling different voices, thoughts and messages in the texts and shuffled them around so I could arrange the text thematically around the big topics of love, faith, protest, politics.
You also set Whitman in your Second Symphony that was written for orchestra and chorus. Is Whitman easy to set musically? Actually, Whitman is rather difficult to set to music because there is a strong voice there already. He is very musical but he’s musically and rhythmically irregular and his poems tend to go on and on with lists of ideas so it was helpful to edit. As a composer, the fun of working with a text is to musically capture as accurately as possible the emotional climate of the text. In writing for men’s chorus you need to be very careful to avoid thick, muddy sounds because of the closeness of the vocal ranges. Writing for chorus changes the compositional pallette in that you can’t be as complex as you might in an orchestral piece. But it’s a great thing as a composer to work within limitations as it spurs you to be more creative. The orchestra part deliberately plays an accompanimental role so the focus is on the chorus.
The Oratorio seems to have dual personalities. It shifts between joyous and romantic section and other more somber and anxious sections,such as the middle part which is in honor of Matthew Shepard. The Matthew Shepard incident struck a deep chord with anyone gay and a lot of others as well. I had always wanted to treat it musically but hadn’t found the opportunity. This poem is the only one in the piece that I used in its entirety. The connection was immediate and though the Oratorio is a very positive work, this is a more somber moment, to serve as a memorial
184 and acknowledge the tragedy.
In the score, the section on romantic love has a little dedication “To William.” Can you tell us about that. Yes, it’s for my partner William who is a conductor, pianist and opera coach. We’ve been together for 9 years and its just a little part that expresses my feelings for him.
The finale of the work is very political. It uses some of Whitman’s angry writings about the president at the time. Did you put your own feelings into the musical themes? Yes, the theme for the text “this now is too lamentable a face for a man...” was written from the letters in George Bush’s name that have note-name equivalents – G, E, G, E, B, S, H (the German note names come in useful here, "es" for e-flat and "h" for b-natural). I guess the motivation in writing it was a feeling that it was high time that more people take off their kid gloves and really just come out and say that this guy is a despicable asshole. And you can quote me.
Anything else you would like the audience to know in advance about A Whitman Oratorio? Absolutely nothing. I’ve had a couple of other premieres recently and I didn’t want to put in program notes that told people what to think about the music. I’m not a composer whose music needs to be explained. I think music is a form of communication and my goal is to express complex emotions and ideas with clarity. Music should be a journey with surprises along the way, so just listen and take the work as it unfolds. I didn’t write the work with any expectations of who the listeners will be, but I hope they like it.
185 A Whitman Oratorio Composed by Lowell Liebermann Text adapted from the poems of Walt Whitman Commissioned by Boston Gay Men’s Chorus (2008)
I: Pride I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air, Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,
Welcome is every organ and attribute of me, and of any man hearty and clean, Not an inch nor a particle of an inch is vile, and none shall be less familiar than the rest.
I am satisfied--I see, dance, laugh, sing; As the hugging and loving bed-fellow sleeps at my side through the night,
Unscrew the locks from the doors! Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!
II: Love I am he that aches with amorous love; Does the earth gravitate? does not all matter, aching, attract all matter? So the body of me to all I meet or know.
Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me? And why should I not speak to you?
O you whom I often and silently come where you are that I may be with you, As I walk by your side or sit near, or remain in the same room with you, Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me.
As Adam early in the morning, Walking forth from the bower refresh'd with sleep, Behold me where I pass, hear my voice, approach, Touch me, touch the palm of your hand to my body as I pass, Be not afraid of my body.
This moment yearning and thoughtful sitting alone, It seems to me there are other men in other lands yearning and thoughtful, It seems to me I can look over and behold them in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Or far, far away, in China, or in Russia or talking other dialects, And it seems to me if I could know those men I should become attached to them as I do to men in my own lands, O I know we should be brethren and lovers, I know I should be happy with them.
III: Faith
186 Why should I pray? why should I venerate and be ceremonious?
In all people I see myself, none more and not one a barley-corn less, And the good or bad I say of myself I say of them.
I know I am solid and sound, To me the converging objects of the universe perpetually flow, All are written to me, and I must get what the writing means.
I know I am deathless, I know I am august, I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood,
I exist as I am, that is enough,
What do you suppose I would intimate to you in a hundred ways, but that man or woman is as good as God? And that there is no God any more divine than Yourself?
Lover divine and perfect Comrade, Waiting content, invisible yet, but certain, Be thou my God.
Thou, thou, the Ideal Man, Fair, able, beautiful, content, and loving, Complete in body and dilate in spirit, Be thou my God.
All great ideas, the races' aspirations, All heroisms, deeds of rapt enthusiasts, Be ye my Gods.
Or Time and Space, Or shape of Earth divine and wondrous, Or some fair shape I viewing, worship, Or lustrous orb of sun or star by night, Be ye my Gods.
IV: For Matthew Shepard That I could forget the mockers and insults! That I could forget the trickling tears and the blows of the bludgeons and hammers! That I could look with a separate look on my own crucifixion and bloody crowning.
(To Him that was Crucified) MY spirit to yours, dear brother; Do not mind because many, sounding your name, do not understand you; I do not sound your name, but I understand you, (there are others also;)
187 I specify you with joy, O my comrade, to salute you, and to salute those who are with you, before and since—and those to come also, That we all labor together, transmitting the same charge and succession; We few, equals, indifferent of lands, indifferent of times; We, enclosers of all continents, all castes— Compassionaters, perceivers, rapport of men, We walk silent among disputes and assertions, but reject not the disputers, nor any thing that is asserted; We hear the bawling and din—we are reach’d at by divisions, jealousies, recriminations on every side, They close peremptorily upon us, to surround us, my comrade, Yet we walk unheld, free, the whole earth over, journeying up and down, till we make our ineffaceable mark upon time and the diverse eras,
Till we saturate time and eras, that the men and women of races, ages to come, may prove brethren and lovers, as we are.
V: Protest Remember the organic compact of These States, Remember the pledge of the Old Thirteen thenceforward to the rights, life, liberty, equality of man,
Remember the hospitality that belongs to nations and men; (Cursed be nation, woman, man, without hospitality!) Remember, government is to subserve individuals, Not any, not the President, is to have one jot more than you or me, Not any habitan of America is to have one jot less than you or me.
The President is there in the White House for you, it is not you who are here for him,
I will make a song for the ears of the President, full of weapons with menacing points. And behind the weapons countless dissatisfied faces; And a song make I of the One form’d out of all’ The fang’d and glittering One including and over all, Resolute warlike One including and over all,
See then whether you shall be master!
This now is too lamentable a face for a man, Some abject louse asking leave to be, cringing for it, Some milk-nosed maggot blessing what lets it wrig to its hole. This face is a dog's snout sniffing for garbage, Snakes nest in that mouth, I hear the sibilant threat. This face is a haze more chill than the arctic sea, Its sleepy and wobbling icebergs crunch as they go. This face is bitten by vermin and worms, And this is some murderer's knife with a half-pull'd scabbard. This face owes to the sexton his dismalest fee, An unceasing death-bell tolls there.
188 I chant this chant of my silent soul in the name of all dead soldiers. Faces so pale with wondrous eyes, very dear, gather closer yet, Draw close, but speak not. Phantoms of countless lost, Invisible to the rest henceforth become my companions, Follow me ever--desert me not while I live. Dearest comrades, all is over and long gone, But love is not over--and what love, O comrades! Perfume from battle-fields rising, up from the foetor arising. Perfume therefore my chant, O love, immortal love, Give me to bathe the memories of all dead soldiers,
I know I am restless and make others so, I know my words are weapons full of danger, For I confront peace, and all the settled laws, to unsettle them, I am more resolute because all have denied me than I could ever have been had all accepted me,
I hear it was charged against me that I sought to destroy institutions, But really, I am neither for nor against institutions,
Only I will establish in every city of these States The institution of the dear love of comrades.
I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America, and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies, I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other's necks, By the love of comrades, By the manly love of comrades.
Come, I will make the continent indissoluble, I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon, I will make divine magnetic lands, With the love of comrades, With the life-long love of comrades.
For you these from me, O Democracy, For you, for you I am trilling these songs.
189 ‘Testimony’ Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz Written for, and premiered by, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus (2012)
I don't want to be like this I don't want to be who I am Every day that I don't change I blame myself I am not trying hard enough (I don't want to be like this) I am not trying hard enough (I don't want to be how I am)
When they find out No one will love me I'll lose my family And all of my friends (I'm trapped like a fish with a hook in its mouth)
I am impersonating the person I show as me I'm an imposter I am a spy behind enemy lines I pack my feelings so deep inside me They turn to concrete (I don't want to be like this I don't want to be who I, how I, what I am)
Every night I ask God to end my life (I am an abomination)
God take this away or take me away… I don't want to be like this … I don't want to be who I am, I don't want to be how I am, I don't want to be what I am, I don't want to be anymore… Today I'm going to hang myself, today I'm going to slit my wrists, Today I'm going to jump off my building … I'm trapped, I'm stuck, I'm trapped … Take me away, take me away, take me away …
Hang in, hang on Wait just a little longer Hang in, hang on I know it now, I know it now If I had made myself not exist There is so much that I would have missed …
I would have missed So many travels and adventures
190 More wonders than I knew could be So many friends With jokes and secrets, not to mention The joy of living in authenticity Sometimes I cry Life can still be hard But there's no part of me Still crying: "Hide me" I would have missed The chance to sing out like this With people I love beside me
I have been brave I grew, and so did those around me And now look what a life I've earned It gets more than better It gets amazing and astounding If I could reach my past, I'd tell him what I've learned: I was more loved Than I dared to know There were open arms I could not see And when I die And when it's my time to go I want to come back as me I want to come back as me.
191 I Am Harvey Milk Composed by Andrew Lippa Commissioned by San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, premiered 26 June 2013 With Andrew Lippa as Harvey Milk, Laura Benanti as the soprano soloist, and Noah Marlowe as young Harvey Milk
1: An Operatic Masterpiece Adult Harvey, young Harvey and Chorus I love the opera I want my life to be just like an opera at the Met Three hours in the dark where love is found in one duet True passion needn’t be concealed Dark secrets grandly get revealed It’s life and death with horns and drums My heart set free on one high C And when my life becomes an operatic masterpiece That’s when I’ll know that I’ve arrived On that defining day I’ll hear an angel say: You made it through and you survived. From song to song, my whole life long I’ll be like Violetta holding back a cough Or maybe Tosca on the edge of jumping off I could be Cinderella waiting for my prince And when he brings my shoe I’ll know exactly what to do I’ll run into his open arms repeating: I do! I do! I do! And when my life becomes an operatic masterpiece I’ll live forever and a day So when the end is near, there’ll be no need to fear I’ll only have to stand and say: My name is Harvey Milk, but they call me: a faggot.
2. I Am the Bullet Chorus I. I am. I am the bullet. I am the bullet that went through the brain of Harvey Milk. I have no opinion. I have no allegiance. I am just a bullet. I do what I’m told.
I. I am. I am the bullet. I am not a villain. I am not a hero. I am just a witness. And what did I see? What was he thinking? I’m the only one who knows.
Love. Harvey was thinking of love.
192 Harvey was thinking of music. Of music and love. And in that moment. That frozen moment. I saw the pain that I exacted. And all because I reacted! I reacted!
I. I am. I am the bullet. I have no opinion. I have no allegiance. I am the bullet.
3. You are Here Adult Harvey, Chorus First gay man elected to, first gay man elected to I’m that man elected to, gay and Jew and Jew and gay What will the Pope do? What would my mom say about the first gay man (You) elected to represent (True) expected to change and cope, climb a rope, face that slope, give them hope.
I’m the one they’ve trusted So I’ll just do what I told them I would do I’ll barrel through. And standing here in City Hall All dripping justice wall to wall I recall that sticker on the map that says, that screams, That calls out to everyone: You are here. You are here. You are standing when they told you you would fall You would fail, you would feel the crush But you’re here, you are here And the old you can’t believe it’s coming true But it’s you, and without a doubt you are here.
Here within these palace walls where we had once been barred Here within these hallowed halls we enter proud and scarred Some may threaten, some misquote Some may need to clear their throat But we won the final vote! So, cheer! This is our year! And you are here.
You are here You are walking when they told you you should crawl You should cry, you should be ashamed But you’re here, you are here You have triumphed through the fire and the cold So, behold, you are always this and only now You are why and you are how You are when and you are then and you are here!
193
4. Friday Night in the Castro Chorus Monday night, and I don’t know how I’m gonna make it through the day Tuesday night, and I might go insane Wednesday hits and still I know it’s oh, so very far away Thursday finds me on my knees and I pray One more day until I get to play!
Friday night in the Castro Friday night and the weekend saves me I’m all right if I get to dance ‘til the break of dawn with the music on Friday night in the Castro Dynamite on the floor Some may settle for less but I want more. More!
Six o’clock and I lock the door, I leave the office far behind Join the flock as I meet my weekend crowd (join my weekend, my weekend crowd) I’m spellbound when I hear the sound of Donna Summer fill the air (Diva!) Everything I need is waiting there!
Friday night in the Castro Friday night and the weekend saves me I’m all right if I get to dance ‘til the break of dawn with the music on Friday night in the Castro Dynamite on the floor Some may settle for less but I want more.
(I wanna go to the Castro, I wanna go to the Castro) Oh, take me to the Trocadero That’s the place I wanna go Out to the Castro Music, boys, and San Francisco!
Friday night in the Castro Friday night and the weekend saves me I’m all right if I get to dance ‘til the break of dawn with the music on Friday night in the Castro Dynamite on the floor Some may settle for less, they don’t have this address Some may settle for less, but I want more!
5. Was I Wrong? Soprano soloist Was I wrong when I said I was hoping you would change? Was I frightened, don’t know why, maybe frightened we would die Was I wrong when I said you were not what I had wished for Who gets what they wish for? If we did, life would be so boring
194 But look at you now All that you’ve achieved Why was I afraid? Why was I unmoved?
Was I wrong when I said you were never going to finish Was I selfish? Was I scared? Was I simply unprepared For what would happen, and look what happened
But I see you now, all you represent Time reveals what’s true So now should I say, thank you?
Was I wrong when I said this was not how God had planned it You were certain, you were brave Had no doubt that you could save the world before too long! So who was right? And who was wrong? Who was wrong?
6. A Decent Society Chorus People hurt themselves everyday People hurt themselves every way People smoke and people eat People cross a busy street Some mistrust and some mistreat Yes, people hurt themselves, very true People hurt themselves even me and you Taking chances, placing bets Smoking pot or cigarettes Living life with no regrets And what do we do with these kinds of people? Do we shame them? Do we blame them? Do we hide? What do we do with these kinds of people? Do we force them to pay? Do we push them away?
A decent society believes in you, believes in me A decent society says you can try, you can fly I want to be better than this impossible mess of a man A decent society says I can
Who will help me? Who will care? Who will hear me? Who’ll be there? Who will hold me through my haze? Who will judge me? Who will praise?
Who will help me? Help me! Help me!
A decent society believes in you, believes in me A decent society says you can try, you can fly I want to be better than this impossible mess of a man
195 A decent society, a decent society, a decent society says…:
7: Sticks and Stones Chorus Gay, fairy, Nancy boy Limp wristed pansy, light in the loafers Fruit, Mary, Nellie, chi chi man Gay, homo, fairy (who ya callin’?) Nancy boy (Callin’ Nancy boy), chi chi man
Sticks and stones can break my bones Names can really hurt me Stones and sticks can feel like bricks Names can really hurt me
(Gay) God hates fags, (fairy) turn and burn, (girly boy) leave our children alone Faggot, faggot, faggot (5 measures) Girly boy! Girly boy!
Sticks and stones can break my bones Names can really hurt me Stones and sticks can feel like bricks Names can really hurt me
Gay, fairy, Nancy boy (Gay) kike, (fairy) jungle bunny, towel head (pansy), gook Faggot, camel jockey
Sticks and stones can break my bones Names can really hurt me Stones and sticks can feel like bricks Names can really hurt me
Nigger, faggot, chink.
8. Lavender Pen Adult Harvey Take a breath, don’t you make a move Just watch George sign the bill, stay frozen still Still, deep inside, inside I’m running hot and wild A little like a big gay child, once reviled but now, now accepted.
Lavender pen, I handed him a lavender pen Now let him sign again and again with that lavender pen in George’s gorgeous fist No one knew when we’d walk in with a lavender pen But now we have, which proves that we exist
Look at that pen he’s holding, strong and able Yet it’s a color most don’t often see Look at these people gathered around this table One of them is: Lavender me!
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Lavender pen! He signed it with a lavender pen And suddenly I’m one of those men, those respectable men I learned about in school People will say, despite this unbelievable day That someone with a pen in a hand took a step, took a stand Gave us something all people should have And we did it with a lavender pen!
9. Thank You, Mrs. Rosenblat Young Harvey, soprano soloist, adult Harvey Thank you, Mrs. Rosenblat, for teaching me to read For giving me a hand, for helping me to grow I know, Mrs. Rosenblat, I wasn’t always good I wasn’t always nice, but you forgave me so I thought I’d say hello And also thank you, thank you, thank you
Thank you, Mr. Klein, you said you’d like to fill my brain With lots of math and stuff, yet that was not enough Even Mr. Klein, you knew, I had big things to do Though I was only ten, you saw it even then so let me say to you Another thank you, thank you, thank you
You, whoever you may be, you came and fought for me You seized the moment so we could start to rise George Moscone, Harry Hay, Barbara Gittings, here’s your day After all you’ve done, let me be the one to say: Thank you, thank you, thank you And you, and you, and you.
10. San Francisco Young Harvey, soprano soloist, chorus Tell me where to go, tell me what to do I don’t know a thing, I don’t know a soul Gotta get away, no one understands Where do I belong? I need to run from this Iowa town Vanish before they start pulling me down Some place that’s better, no matter the cost Some place where I can be found and be lost Some place that gets me, some place that lets me be me Just me!
San Francisco, I am calling I am hoping you’ll hold me secure in your arms San Francisco, I have no one So I’m hoping you’ll hold me, and I’m hoping you’ll help me San Francisco, I am broken But you welcome the broken to come and to heal San Francisco, be my lover Make me real
197
I am lonely and tired and frightened but you surround me Then I’m wanted and welcome and perfect with you around me City by the bay, let me hear you say you love me
San Francisco, I am calling I am hoping you’ll hold me secure in your arms San Francisco, I have no one So I’m hoping you’ll hold me, and I’m hoping you’ll help me San Francisco, I am broken But you welcome the broken to come and to heal San Francisco, be my lover Make me real
11. Leap Soprano soloist, chorus, adult Harvey Leap before you look, before you think, before you cry Jump though you don’t know how far you’ll go or if you’ll fly Why be imprisoned by this place, this time? Run toward the mountain, then go climb your climb
Leap before you love, before you live, before you lose (Why not leap before you lose?) Move, and when you soar, you’ll beg for more, and more you’ll choose Try leaving ordinary things behind Lose yourself and who knows what you’ll face or find
Leap, you may get wet, you may get lost, you may get high But leap and you never have to die
Leap before you look, before you ask, before you crawl Leap, and if you do, the leap that’s true will stop your fall Life has a way of favouring those who bet Men who take some chances are the men who get
Leap and you never have to die
Leap before you look, fly before you walk, dive before you swim Sing before you talk, run before you crawl, soar before you think Try before you fail, sail before you sink, start before you stop Skip before you step, wake before you sleep, rise before you drop
Leap before you look, fly before you walk, dive before you swim Sing before you talk, leap before you look.
12. Tired of the Silence Adult Harvey, chorus, soprano soloist, young Harvey Begins with a portion of Milk’s Gay Freedom Day speech Do you believe you’re not alone anymore and never have to be Do you believe that you belong to something bigger than yourself
198 You’re not alone anymore! You’re not alone! I’m tired of the silence so I’m speaking out I’m tired of the life I used to lead The walls I erected, the lies I perfected, the wounds I expected not to bleed I’m tired of the silence so I’m facing you And asking if you are tired too
The road that we’ve travelled is almost unravelled, so now we all have a job to do Our world is about to find its voice But everyone must make a choice! (Come out!)
Come out and become yourself, you’re not the one who’s wrong Come out and befriend yourself, now what took you so long? Come out and the day you do, perhaps one more will come with you Come out! Come out! Come out! Come out! Come out!
Who will stand beside me, who will take my hand? Whose will is greater than their fear? Our goal has been sighted, our passions ignited So now you’re invited to appear Together is better than alone, the hate won’t vanish on its own (Come out!)
Come out and believe yourself, put faith in those who care Come out and conceive yourself, as something you can share Come out and the day you do the pain will soon let go of you Come out! Come out! Come out! Come out!
To your friends, to your parents, to your boss To your neighbors, to your sons, to your daughters, out to all your fellow workers To your cops, to your doctors, to the shops where you spend money To your God, to your teachers, to yourselves Come out to yourselves!
Counterpoint section: Soprano soloist: But I see you now, all you represent, time reveals what’s true, what’s true! Harvey: I’m tired of the silence so I’m so I’m speaking out, I’m tired of the life I used to lead, the walls I erected, the lies I perfected, the wounds I expected not to bleed! Chorus: To your friends, to your parents, to your boss, to your neighbors, to your sons, to your daughters, out to all your fellow workers, to your cops, to your doctors, to the shops where you spend money, to your God, to your teachers, to yourselves!
Counterpoint section: Young Harvey, soprano soloist, adult Harvey in unison: I want my life to be just like an opera at the Met, three hours in the dark where love is found in one duet Chorus: To your friends, to your parents, to your boss, to your neighbors, to your sons, to your daughters, out to all your fellow workers, to your cops ALL:
199 To your doctors, to the shops where you spend money, to your God, to your teachers, to yourselves! To yourselves!
Come out! To your friends, to your parents, to your neighbors, to your sons, to your daughters, to yourselves Come out! (repeated multiple times, with increased dynamics until the end)
200 Love Can Build a Bridge Concert performance on 12 July 2012 At the Fine Arts Building, University of Wyoming (Laramie, Wyoming) In partnership with the Matthew Shepard Foundation All selections performed by San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, except where indicated
Medley from Godspell By Stephen Schwartz Arranged by Mac Huff Soloists: Steve Gallagher, Cyrus Malare, Cecil Johnson
‘Orange Colored Sky’ By Milton DeLugg and Willie Stein Arranged by Deke Sharon Performed by Vocal Minority Soloist: Carl Pantle
‘Popular’ (from Wicked) By Stephen Schwartz Arranged by Mac Huff Soloists: Sean Livingston and Shawn Ingram
‘The Ground’ (from Sunrise Mass) By Ola Gjeilo
‘Home on the Range’ Traditional Arranged by Greg Gilpin Soloist: F. Ross Woodall
‘Never More Will the Wind’ by Shawn Kirchner
‘True Colors’ By Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, additional lyrics by Cyndi Lauper Arranged by Deke Sharon Soloist: Steven Valdez
‘Too Straight Polka’ By Ross Maclean and Arthur Richardson, new lyrics by Paul Saccone Arranged by Deke Sharon Soloists: Brian Arbor, Jeffrey Benson, Scott O’Brien
‘Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now’ (from Hairspray) Music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman Arranged by Deke Sharon Soloists: Michael T. Nguyen, Timothy Koning, Steve Garber, Joel Villasenor, David Falzone, Guy Johnson, Tim McAdams, Edward ‘Moose’ Maravilla
‘Testimony’
201 By Stephen Schwartz, based on texts from the It Gets Better project Soloists: Kyle Fowler, Jesse Cortez, Angelo Cilia, Scott O’Brien, David M. Jenkins, Sam Bass, Rylan Carpena, Skip Leasure, F. Ross Woodall, Edward ‘Moose’ Maravilla, Carl Pantle
‘Beautiful City’ (from Godspell) By Stephen Schwartz Soloist: Jesse Cortez
‘Defying Gravity’ (from Wicked) By Stephen Schwartz Arranged by Mac Huff Soloist: Ryan Bobadilla
Encore: ‘Love Can Build a Bridge’ By Paul Overstreet, John Jarvis and Naomi Judd Performed with Denver Gay Men’s Chorus Soloist: Carl Pantle
202 Luster: An American Songbook Concert performances on 25 and 26 March 2014 With guest artist Ann Hampton Callaway Concert includes the premier of Tyler’s Suite in Act Two (see composer credits below) All selections performed by San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, except where indicated
ACT ONE – An American Songbook: ‘Get Happy’ By Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler Arranged by Bill Keck Soloists: Roy Eikleberry, Philip Calvin, Steve Gallagher, Scott Mills
‘Rhythm’ By George Gershwin Arranged by Terry LaBolt Performed by The Lollipop Guild and Vocal Minority
‘Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)’ By Irving Berlin Arranged by Craig Carnahan Featured artist: Ann Hampton Callaway
‘Handful of Keys’ By Fats Waller Arranged by Anne Albritton
‘For All We Know’ By J. Fred Coots and Sam M. Lewis Soloist: Oky Sulistio
‘I’ll Be Seeing You’ By Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal Arranged by Ann Albritton Soloist: Alex Goro
‘It Don’t Mean a Thing: The Music of Duke Ellington’ Arranged by Mark Riese Soloists: Jason Ayestas, Michael P. Monagle with SWAG
‘With a Song In My Heart’ By Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart Arranged by David Maddux Featured artist: Ann Hampton Callaway
‘Blow, Gabriel, Blow’ By Cole Porter Arranged by David Maddux Soloists: Ernie Tovar, Edward ‘Moose’ Maravilla
INTERMISSION
203
ACT TWO – Tyler’s Suite All lyrics by Pamela Stewart, except where indicated Featuring Kevin Rogers, violinist
‘I Have Songs You Haven’t Heard’ Music composed by Nolan Glasser Soloist: Michael Flynn (25 March), Andrew Caldwell (26 March)
‘A Wish” Music composed by Lance Horne
‘The Unicycle Song’ Music composed by Craig Carnelia Lyrics by Craig Carnelia and Pamela Stewart Soloist: Jesse Cortez
‘Brother, Because of You’ Music composed by Stephen Schwartz Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and Pamela Stewart Soloists: Mark Mezak, Logan Ahlgren, Raymond Mark Gonzales
‘Just a Boy’ Music composed by John Bucchino Lyrics by Joe Clementi and Pamela Stewart Arranger by Tim Sarsany Soloist: Steve Huffines
‘I Love You More’ Music composed by Ann Hampton Callaway Arranged by Tim Sarsany
‘Meditation’ Music composed by John Corigliano
‘The Narrow Bridge’ Music composed by Jake Heggie Soloists: Kellan Christopher, Scott O’Brien
ENCORE ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ By Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg Arranged by Mark Hayes
204 Totally Wicked Concert performances on 29 and 30 March 2014 With guest artist Megan Hilty All selections performed by Seattle Men’s Chorus, except where indicated All selections conducted by Dennis Coleman, except where indicated
ACT ONE Selections from Children of Eden (1986) Arrangements by Mac Huff, adapted by Kevin Robison ‘Let There Be’ ‘The Spark of Creation’ ‘Close to Home’ ‘Stranger to the Rain’ (performed by Megan Hilty)
‘Lion Tamer’ (The Magic Show, 1974) Performed by Diverse Harmony Jared Brayton Bollenbacher, conductor; John Sparkman, pianist Arrangement by John Sparkman
‘Meadowlark’ (The Baker’s Wife, 1989)
Schwartz at the Movies Arrangements by Kevin Robison, except as noted Music by Alan Menken, with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz Except Prince of Egypt, music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz ‘Deliver Us’ (The Prince of Egypt, 1998) ‘God Help the Outcasts’ (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1996) ‘True Love’s Kiss’ (Enchanted, 2007) Arrangement by Eric Lane Barnes Performed by Captain Smartypants ‘Colors of the Wind’ (Pocahontas, 1995) ‘Happy Working Song’ (Enchanted, 2007) Arrangement by Eric Lane Barnes Performed by Captain Smartypants ‘Through Heaven’s Eyes’ (The Prince of Egypt, 1998) ‘Just Around the River Bend’ (Pocahontas, 1995)
‘Popular’ (Wicked, 2003) Performed by Megan Hilty
‘That’s How You Know’ (Enchanted, 2007)
INTERMISSION
ACT TWO Selections from Wicked (2003) Performed by Seattle Women’s Chorus Arrangement by Roger Emerson ‘One Short Day’ ‘What is this Feeling’
205
Selections from Pippin (1972) Arrangement by Terry Dobson ‘Glory’ ‘Corner of the Sky’ (performed by Megan Hilty) ‘Magic to Do’ ‘Morning Glow’
Selections from Godspell (1971) Performed by SMC, except where indicated Arrangements by Mac Huff, except where indicated ‘Prepare Ye’ ‘Day by Day’ ‘All Good Gifts’ ‘All for the Best’ Arrangement by Eric Lane Barnes Performed by Captain Smartypants
Selections from Wicked (2003) ‘No One Mourns the Wicked’ Arrangement by Dave Volpe, conducted by Todd Mason ‘For Good’ (performed by Megan Hilty)
‘Testimony’ (2012)
‘Beautiful City’ (from Godspell, 1971) Performed with Megan Hilty
‘Defying Gravity’ (from Wicked, 2003)
206