#smyth

I know I'm too late for Pride Month. And I wasn't planning on posting much this year related to Pride, mostly because the category of "queer composers" includes a large span of styles and eras where the sexuality or gender identity may not necessarily be relevant to the music.

However (at the very least here in America) the political atmosphere has made queerness "controversial" again, and whenever there's a vocal effort to erase queerness and insist upon a heteronormative view of culture, history, biology, psychology, morality, etc. it only ever leads to real world harm for all of us.

So I don't think Pride Month should end just because the corporate calendar is ready for the next marketable holiday or season; don't be afraid to say "Gay" or "Trans" or "Queer", we exist and have always existed and here are some contributions to classical music history (with a few significant Jazz composers).

This list is a mix, mostly music by LGBT composers (either those who self-identify, or those who were alive before the category was articulated but evidence shows they could be classified as "queer"), and some that are on queer subjects (i.e. the only Bach piece here is an aria he wrote for a cantata where the sun god Phoebus (Apollo) mourns the death of his lover Hyacinth, and accepts that through love he is never truly dead).

NOT MY PROBLEM

​by Ciara Smith

(HarperTeen, 5/25/21)

9780062957146

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