Cusick and Her Lesbian Relationship with Music
Cusick and Her Lesbian Relationship with Music In the essay “On a Lesbian Relationship with Music: A Serious Effort Not to Think Straight” by Suzanne G. Cusick, she brings up an interesting topic about the connection between her being a lesbian and her being a musician, a musicologist, if there exists any. I’m especially interested in the “power system” and the link between musicality and lesbianism she mentions in this article. Here, I’ll try to analysis them in detail and relate them with other issues in music and sexuality, exploring them in a more general picture.
Cusick redefines the concept of sexuality in her essay, as the way of “expressing and/or enacting relationships of intimacy through physical pleasure shared, accepted, or given.” According to her, this process of expressing and enacting can also be found in our musical activities, where the circulation of physical pleasure can be experienced as well. Thus, she says that our musicalities and our sexualities are “psychically next-door neighbors.” (70)
I need to claim that this idea of her amazes me. From my previous musical experience, I’m pretty sure that music is a subject highly intimate for me. For instance, I usually have reluctance when I’m asked to sing or perform a song written by myself, even if I think it is a brilliant one. And this won’t happen if the song is someone else’s. In my opinion, music, especially my own music which I’m personally attached to, is an expression of my true self, and that identity and personal characteristics contained in it makes it so special that I won’t be willing to share it with others, unless it’s someone really close to me.
Another fact that I think will support Cusick’s idea is that different people always have different opinions towards the same piece of music. No matter how the composer perceives it, the listener usually has the tendency to relate it to his/her own personal experiences, which differ from person to person. It is reasonable to think
Cusick redefines the concept of sexuality in her essay, as the way of “expressing and/or enacting relationships of intimacy through physical pleasure shared, accepted, or given.” According to her, this process of expressing and enacting can also be found in our musical activities, where the circulation of physical pleasure can be experienced as well. Thus, she says that our musicalities and our sexualities are “psychically next-door neighbors.” (70)
I need to claim that this idea of her amazes me. From my previous musical experience, I’m pretty sure that music is a subject highly intimate for me. For instance, I usually have reluctance when I’m asked to sing or perform a song written by myself, even if I think it is a brilliant one. And this won’t happen if the song is someone else’s. In my opinion, music, especially my own music which I’m personally attached to, is an expression of my true self, and that identity and personal characteristics contained in it makes it so special that I won’t be willing to share it with others, unless it’s someone really close to me.
Another fact that I think will support Cusick’s idea is that different people always have different opinions towards the same piece of music. No matter how the composer perceives it, the listener usually has the tendency to relate it to his/her own personal experiences, which differ from person to person. It is reasonable to think
Cited: Brett, Philip, Elizabeth Wood, and Gary Thomas. Queering the Pitch : the New Gay and Lesbian Musicology. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2006. McClary, Susan. Reading Music : Selected Essays. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2007. McClary, Susan. Feminine Endings : Music, Gender, and Sexuality. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991. Rentfrow, Peter J, and Samuel D Gosling. “The do re miʼs of everyday life: the structure and personality correlates of music preferences.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84.6 (2003) : 1236-1256. Frederick H. Martens. The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Apr., 1925), pp. 196-218 Burnham, Scott G, and Michael P Steinberg. Beethoven and His World. Princeton [N.J.]: Princeton University Press, 2000. Head, Matthew. “Beethoven Heroine: A Female Allegory of Music and Authorship in Egmont.” 19th-Century Music 30 (2006-07), 97-132.