Queer Theory and Third-Wave Feminism in Pauline Oliveros's Meditative Works Item Type text; Electronic Thesis Authors Ramirez, Eloy Fidel Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction, presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 04/10/2021 17:51:02 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/642101 QUEER THEORY AND THIRD-WAVE FEMINISM IN PAULINE OLIVEROS’S MEDITATIVE WORKS by Eloy Ramirez ____________________________ Copyright © Eloy Ramirez 2020 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the FRED FOX SCHOOL OF MUSIC In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF MUSIC In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2020 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Master’s Committee, we certify that we have read the thesis prepared by: Eloy Ramirez titled: Queer Theory and Third-Wave Feminism in Pauline Oliveros’s Meditative Works and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the thesis requirement for the Master’s Degree. Matthew Mugmon _________________________________________________________________ Date: ____________Jun 30, 2020 Matthew Mugmon Jay Rosenblatt _________________________________________________________________ Date: ____________Jul 2, 2020 Jay Rosenblatt Jennifer C Post _________________________________________________________________ Date: ____________Jul 6, 2020 Jennifer C Post John T. Brobeck _________________________________________________________________ Date: ____________Jul 6, 2020 John T. Brobeck Final approval and acceptance of this thesis is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the thesis to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this thesis prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the Master’s requirement. Matthew Mugmon _________________________________________________________________ Date: ____________Jun 30, 2020 Matthew Mugmon Fred Fox School of Music 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................4 ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................................5 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................................6 CHAPTER 1: REJECTION OF NORMATIVE PRACTICES THROUGH MEDITATIVE SHIFT ..........................................................................................16 Mandala and the Embracing of Pleasure .................................................................................19 MMM, a Lullaby for Daisy Pauline .........................................................................................23 CHAPTER 2: PERFORMANCE AND COUNTERCULTURE .............................................28 Crow .........................................................................................................................................30 Crow Two: A Ceremonial Opera .............................................................................................39 CHAPTER 3: INTERSECTIONAL APPROACHES TO ACTIVIST MUSIC ....................54 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................63 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................65 4 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1. Pauline Oliveros, MMM, Lullaby for Daisy Pauline: A Meditation for Daisy Pauline Oliveros ..........................................................................................................................................25 Figure 2.1. Pauline Oliveros, Crow, Pauline Oliveros Papers, University of California San Diego Special Collections, San Diego, CA. Box 2, Folder 9 ...................................................................32 Figure 2.2. Pauline Oliveros’s triangular diagram of awareness, attention, and observation ........33 Figure 2.3. Pauline Oliveros’s cross diagram of attention, awareness, conscious observation, unconscious observation ................................................................................................................34 Figure 2.4. Pauline Oliveros, Crow, Pauline Oliveros Papers, University of California San Diego Special Collections, San Diego, CA. Box 2, Folder 9 ...................................................................39 Figure 2.5. Pauline Oliveros, Crow Two: A Ceremonial Opera, Pauline Oliveros Papers, University of California San Diego Special Collections, San Diego, CA, Box 2, Folder 13 ........43 Figure 2.6. Pauline Oliveros, “Crow Two,” Pauline Oliveros Papers, University of California San Diego Special Collections, San Diego, CA. Box 2, Folder 13 ..............................................55 Figure 3.1. Pauline Oliveros, El Relicario de los Animales (Kingston, NY: Deep Listening Publications, 1990), 3 ....................................................................................................................62 5 ABSTRACT Pauline Oliveros’s (1932–2016) work is characterized by its activist influences. With compositions such as Sonic Meditations, Deep Listening, and Crow’s Nest, it seems clear that her experiences as a queer and feminist woman were integral influences in her work. Oliveros flourished in the 1980s and witnessed major changes in the feminist and LGBT movements. Her output reveals an early transition from a second- to third-wave feminist mentality. Through archival research and in-depth analysis of pieces such as MMM, a Lullaby for Daisy Pauline, this thesis will demonstrate how Oliveros’s relationship with third-wave feminism and queer theory shaped her musical aesthetic. Oliveros’s oeuvre reveals parallels to third-wave feminism before its formal conception. I will demonstrate the significance of her collaborations with political activists, her intentions behind select compositions, and how her compositional trends mirror third-wave and queer ideas not yet widely adopted by advocacy groups of the era. 6 INTRODUCTION Shifts in the feminist and queer movements during the late twentieth and early twenty- first centuries in the United States prompted scholarly discourse on the intersections between composers’ music and their experiences as members of underrepresented communities.1 Pauline Oliveros’s (1932–2016) work in the field of avant-garde music is a powerful case study in this discussion. In a version of Sonic Meditations (a series of works published in 1971) featured in Source Magazine, Oliveros described herself as “a two-legged human being, a female, lesbian, musician, composer among other things which contribute to her identity.”2 Her application of meditation, electronics, and improvisation in compositions such as Sonic Meditations, Deep Listening, and Bye Bye Butterfly earned her widespread recognition and established her as one of the most influential and thought-provoking composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A lesbian and an activist, Oliveros was witness to major changes in the feminist and LGBTQ+ movements as well as to the conception of queer theory. The turn of the century became a critical juncture for groups advocating for social equality and emphasized the unification of individual efforts to strengthen the fight for all. By participating in these movements, Oliveros’s music began to exemplify queer and feminist traits, many of which were not yet embraced by those advocacy groups until years later. Oliveros’s implementation of deep 1 Judith Ann Peraino, Listening to the Sirens: Musical Technologies of Queer Identity from Homer to Hedwig (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005); Suzanne G Cusick, “Gendering Modern Music: Thoughts on the Monteverdi-Artusi Controversy,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 46, no. 1 (Oakland: Spring 1993): 1-25; Gary C Thomas, Elizabeth Wood and Philip Brett, Queering the Pitch: The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology (New York: Routledge, 2006). 2 Pauline Oliveros, “Sonic Meditations,” in Source: Music of the Avant-Garde, 1966– 1973, ed. Nilendra Gurusinghe, Douglas Kahn, and Larry Austin (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2011), 342. 7 listening and meditation, her desire to gain authenticity through a back-to-nature mindset, her deconstruction of traditional performance practices, and her interdisciplinary artistic approaches all reflect queer and feminist ideas. Her application of precursory practices and trends establish her as a forerunner for both the queer and feminist movements. Details of her life and the presence of activist and countercultural themes in her music illustrate how bridging major evolutions in these critical perspectives played a vital role in her musical aesthetic. This thesis will describe how Oliveros preceded many third-wave and queer practices, and how compositions such as MMM, a Lullaby for Daisy Pauline (1980), her Crow series (1974–1980), and El Relicario de los Animales (1979) incorporated those same views years before the formal labeling of queer theory and third-wave feminism. Through collaborations with various interdisciplinary artists including John Luther Adams, Annie Sprinkle, Elaine