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Queer Performativity and Grieving Through Music in the Work of Rufus Wainwright

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Queer Performativity and Grieving Through Music in the Work of Rufus Wainwright TRUE LOVES, DARK NIGHTS: QUEER PERFORMATIVITY AND GRIEVING THROUGH MUSIC IN THE WORK OF RUFUS WAINWRIGHT Stephanie Salerno A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 2016 Committee: Jeremy Wallach, Advisor Christian Coons Graduate Faculty Representative Kimberly Coates Katherine Meizel © 2016 Stephanie Salerno All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Jeremy Wallach, Advisor This dissertation studies the cultural significance of Canadian-American singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright’s (b. 1973) album All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu (Decca, 2010). Lulu was written, recorded, and toured in the years surrounding the illness and eventual death of his mother, beloved Québécoise singer/songwriter Kate McGarrigle. The album, performed as a classical song cycle, stands out amongst Wainwright’s musical catalogue as a hybrid composition that mixes classical and popular musical forms and styles. More than merely a collection of songs about death, loss, and personal suffering, Lulu is a vehicle that enabled him to grieve through music. I argue that Wainwright’s performativity, as well as the music itself, can be understood as queer, or as that which transgresses traditional or expected boundaries. In this sense, Wainwright’s artistic identity and musical trajectory resemble a rhizome, extending in multiple directions and continually expanding to create new paths and outcomes. Instances of queerness reveal themselves in the genre hybridity of the Lulu song cycle, the emotional vulnerability of Wainwright’s vocal performance, the deconstruction of gender norms in live performance, and the circulation of affect within the performance space. In this study, I examine the song cycle form, Wainwright’s musical score and vocal performance, live performance videos, and fan reactions to live performances in order to identify meaningful moments where Wainwright’s musical and performative decisions queer audience expectations. While these musical moments contribute to the already rich and varied lineage of the gay male artist in both classical and popular music, I argue that Wainwright’s queer performativity and nontraditional musical choices speak to larger issues important to American culture in the iv contemporary moment. These issues include the visibility of male public mourning and the healing power of artistic expression in the face of traumatic loss. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To begin, I am incredibly grateful for Rufus Wainwright’s participation in this project. Special thanks to his staff who arranged the interview, and to Rufus for his time, energy, and eloquent answers to the personal questions I posed. Your work has been a true inspiration and I look forward to hearing what else you have up your sleeve! I must extend my deepest and most sincere gratitude to all of my professors at Bowling Green State University who were encouraging, positive, and supportive during the rollercoaster that is a doctoral degree program. I am humbled to have learned so much from our amazing American Culture Studies affiliated faculty! I am especially thankful for the mentoring that Ellen Berry has given me since my arrival at BGSU. Ellen, thank you for listening so carefully to my ideas and concerns, and nurturing my growth as a scholar and a woman. I can only hope to emulate your brilliance and compassion. Thank you also to the amazing support staff in the School of Cultural and Critical Studies for the important work you do to assist every student in succeeding. Special thanks to Beka Patterson, our ACS superstar admin! I am extremely privileged to have had Jeremy Wallach as my dissertation advisor, mentor, and guide throughout this intense intellectual process. Jeremy, your patience in allowing this work to develop and coalesce has kept me focused and excited about the project even when I was struggling. Thank you for pushing me to always be better and for committing your time and energy to my success. Your keen insight, vision, and curiosity are attributes I hope to further develop in myself as I go forward. To my other committee members -- Kim Coates, Kathy Meizel, and Christian Coons: thank you for your unwavering commitment to seeing me through this process. Kim, I am eternally grateful for your willingness to nurture my writing and help me grow as a scholar; you are a model professor and mentor, and I thank you for helping me work through some of the vi most difficult theory I encountered in this program. Kathy, thank you for taking an early interest in this project and helping me find my own voice among so many others; I admire your passion and work ethic to no end! Christian, I am grateful for your thoughts and suggestions that have encouraged me to see the project with fresh eyes. Thank you to my friends, especially Ryan Bigeck, Melissa Ostlund, and Kaitlyn Wauthier, for years of advice, commiseration, and unending emotional care – including all-night talks, making me laugh, or drinking like Draper. All my love and thanks to Tori Arthur, my dear friend and ACS colleague, for accompanying me through the dissertation process, providing eye- opening, critical, and exhaustive feedback, and teaching me so much through our writing partnership. Tori, we set a grueling writing pace and I am so thankful that we pushed (or sometimes dragged) one another to the finish line. Thank you for believing in me and helping me see a way forward when I felt blind and lost. My partner, Tony Eyer, has been a tremendous source of support throughout this process, whether that meant score studying with me, reading drafts, talking through theory, or putting out dozens of fires at home so I could focus on work. Tony, I cannot thank you enough for your compassion, empathy, and endless love. I love you with all my heart. Finally, thank you to my mom, Debbie Salerno. Mom, I never could have done any of this without your love, support, and constant presence in my life. Thank you for always encouraging me to follow my dreams and sacrificing so much so that I could find joy in life amidst pain. You taught me to persevere, and without that lesson I never could have gotten to this point. “I love you” doesn’t even begin to describe what you mean to me, but it’s a start. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………..... 1 Embracing the Unknown: Queer Definitions and Musical Performance .................. 6 Methodology…………………………………………. ............................................. 10 Chapter Overviews ................................... …………………………………………. 12 CHAPTER I. FORM, CONCEPT, AND PERFORMANCE PRACTICE: QUEERING THE ART SONG/POP DIVIDE IN ALL DAYS ARE NIGHTS: SONGS FOR LULU ………….. 16 Classical Art Song Traditions .................................................................................... 23 Lyrical Personas and Emotional States ..................................................................... 26 Popular Interpretations of the Concept Album .......................................................... 28 Unifying Text and Form in Popular Music ............................................................... 30 Visualizing Life After Death: the Lulu Concept ....................................................... 36 Curiosity, Speculation, and Expectation: Wainwright’s Fans Weigh In ................... 42 Conclusion….. ........................................................................................................... 47 CHAPTER II. QUEERING GENRE EXPECTATIONS: A SCORE ANALYSIS OF ALL DAYS ARE NIGHTS: SONGS FOR LULU………….. .................................................................... 49 Deconstructing Genre …………………………………………. .............................. 51 Genre Hybridity and Rhizomes ................................................................................. 56 “In-Between” the Score ............................................................................................. 58 The Sonnets and Breaking Form ............................................................................... 65 Trauma, Musical Repetition, and Grief ..................................................................... 68 Repetition and Working Through …………………………………………. 71 viii Repetition and Nostalgia....………………………………………… ........... 74 Never-ending Grief ……………………………………………………. ...... 76 Queer Collective Identity and American Popular Song ............................................ 78 Wallowing in Sorrow ……………………………………………………. .. 81 Ragtime and Rhumba: Dueling Styles, Dueling Emotions ……………… . 85 Conclusion….. ........................................................................................................... 89 CHAPTER III. QUEER VOCALITY AND BEAUTIFUL GRIEF: RUFUS WAINWRIGHT’S GRIEVING THROUGH SONG ………………………. ..................................................... 91 Theorizing the Queer Voice ...................................................................................... 93 Technology and the Voice …………………………………………. ........... 97 The Mourner’s Cries .................................................................................................. 99 “Call Me Back” …………………………………………. ........................... 103 “The Ice of Song”…………………………………………. ......................... 105 Vulnerability and the Vernacular .............................................................................. 109 The “Unhindered” Voice ........................................................................................... 114 The Crooner’s
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