Cusick and her lesbian marriage with music essay

In the essay “On a Lesbian Marriage with Music: A Serious Hard work Not to Believe Straight” by Suzanne G. Cusick, the lady brings up a unique topic about the connection among her as being a lesbian and her like a musician, a musicologist, if there exists any.

I’m especially interested in the “power system” and the link between musicality and lesbianism she describes in this article. Below, I’ll make an effort to analysis them in detail and relate these other concerns in music and libido, exploring them in a more standard picture.

Cusick redefines the idea of sexuality in her dissertation, as the pattern of “expressing and/or enacting interactions of intimacy through physical pleasure shared, accepted, or given. ” According to her, this process of expressing and enacting can be found in our audio activities, in which the circulation of physical delight can be experienced as well. As a result, she says that our musicalities and our sexualities are “psychically next-door neighbours. ” (70) I need to claim that this concept of her amazes me.

From my past musical knowledge, I’m convinced that music is known as a subject extremely intimate to me.

For instance, I usually have reluctance when Now i am asked to sing or perform a tune written by myself, even if I think it is a excellent one. Which won’t happen if the tune is someone else’s. In my opinion, music, especially my music which will I’m personally attached to, is definitely an expression of my true self, and that identity and private characteristics a part of it can make it so special that I defintely won’t be willing to reveal it with others, except if it’s someone really near to me. One other fact that I do think will support Cusick’s thought is that each person always have distinct opinions for the same item of music. No matter how the fonder perceives this, the listener usually gets the tendency to relate it to his or her own personal activities, which differ from person to person. It truly is reasonable to believe that music is short for someone’s individuality and characteristics, because of the closeness the music produces.

Therefore , I believe that we have a connection between musicality and the sexuality of a certain person, seeing that both of them are revelations of his/her authentic identity, and can analyze our own behaviours on they are all. In other words, both of these factors will be connected due to person who they will belong to, and they are generally contained in the approach to his/her views. Cusick as well explains in her document what does this mean as a “lesbian” and how to define libido, which are vital questions if we want to associate it to music. Coming from her perspective, the essence of one’s libido and the element of all human relationships is the electricity system. An example that can make clear this is what musicologists say regarding the masculinity in Mozart. In Leslie McClary’s judgment, there are present musical buildings of gender and sexuality.

She relation the field of music and musicology as male-dominated, since the manly norm and the distinction between genders happen to be deeply grounded in music, such as masculine and feminine mesure, rhythms, gendered major and minor triads, etc . (7) She also analyzes Beethoven’s music, which to her contains “pounding”, “thrusting” signals that signify masculinity. (75) On the contrary, in Sanna Pederson’s article “Beethoven and Masculinity, ” the lady redefines the concept of masculinity as well as the link among it with Beethoven. The lady states that individuals can find an alternative approach, fighting that we consider Beethoven since symbol of masculinity as a result of overwhelming proven fact that viewing girl as “as unchanging, eternal essence, as the opposite with the dynamically aiming and achieving guy. ” (326) Matthew Head also techniques this coming from another point of view by reviewing the heroic in Beethoven’s works, finding many cross-dressed heroines. (132) It’s distinctive that while there is importance place on female personas, women generally need to hide their sexuality and transgress the gendered norms to be able to serve as the epitomes in the aesthetic ball.

This demonstrates, no matter what sort of connection there is certainly between Mozart and masculinity, there does exist a power system that emphasis on the inequality between people, where ladies as much less – well worth less, electricity less – man, in both each of our society in addition to music. Whichever argument we believe, we should acknowledge the extensive presence of the power system in our world, and in practice, it can be found both in music and in various relationships between people, specifically heterosexual ones. The most significant point of view of her in this dissertation, I think, is that she believes being a lesbian is an escape from this power system: As being a woman, as being a non-dominating and non-power girl who loves another female in her relationship, the flow of power can easily exist in both guidelines, as opposed to a heterosexual romantic relationship where a guy typically plays the prominent and highly effective part.

And Cusick believes that this may be the beauty of a lesbian romance: it’s about “organizing the force field of electrical power, pleasure, and intimacy that refuses the easy binary competitors male and female”. The lack of opposition creates a world that scrambles the most common components of “man” and “woman”, and a global “free of fixed classes. ” (73) This reminds me of the documentary “Paris is definitely Burning”, which in turn stunned me with its notion of celebrations of a powerful expression of people, without any limitation of limitations. There, what is important is the personal prides, which can be fully demonstrated in the “drag nights” in New York. Cusick further clarifies the factors in a saphic girls relationship because the “power/pleasure/intimacy” triad. (71) From my personal understanding, this is certainly indeed the right way to see a marriage.

As I mentioned before, power is a crucial factor that circulates within the relationship. What’s more, pleasure and intimacy will be objectives that we usually wish to achieve when we are involved somebody we love, and thus they may be essential improves of a relationship. As Cusick says, this triad can be experienced more widely in saphic girls relationships, because without the electric power flowing just in one way, the equality and harmony between the two lovers can provide them even more intimacy and pleasure, both equally physically and psychically, using their relationship. Consequently, in Cusick’s article, becoming a lesbian can be not merely a sexual positioning; it is also how one prefers to behave, to arrange the relationship for the world in a “power/pleasure/intimacy” triad. It’s a method of refusing, disregarding, and creating, and to cope with the world in a manner that she likes. And these types of behaviors can be detected within a person’s musicality, which is also integrated his/her identification.

More curiously, Cusick talks about the “lesbian relationship” this lady has with music. She treats music as a woman, and a woman that could be a lover, plus the beloved – as in a lesbian romantic relationship where the power circulates both ways and cross with out boundaries. (78) In the content “Musicality, Essentialism, and the Closet” written by Philip Brett, this individual also examines music become perceived as womanly. Brett says that of all time, music features often been considered an unhealthy substance, “an agent of ethical ambiguity always in dander of bestowing deviant status after its practitioners. ” (11) By explaining music like a woman that “ravish” our sense or perhaps our spirit, people in the medieval and early modern days let us observe how close music and sexuality can be. This kind of also makes Cusick’s treating music like a female lover more sensible.

Another notion of her that interests me is that your woman thinks her choice of music can shows her sexuality. She says that her appreciate for concealed relationships plus the tension between ostensible framework, which signifies the tension between a sociable norm and “a quite high degree of mind, ” suggests her get away from the electrical power system. Likewise, she dis-prefers music hat upset this kind of power balance. (77) The lady explains this kind of by saying her “lesbian self” let her favor certain kinds of music and reject some other kinds. This makes me consider in general, just how people’s different types of music echo their libido and id, and to what degree. Certainly that the choices of music may reflect that person’s persona to some extent, although I likewise believe that the music he/she listens can condition that person into the qualities and personalities the music would like him/her to obtain. The same as Cusick’s relationship with her music, there is a counter-influence here as well.

Rentfrow and Gosling found in their research that householder’s music personal preferences are linked to a wide array of character dimensions and self-views. In the event the links between music choices and character do exist, we can easily infer which our choices of music reflect our identity, which will also backlinks to our libido. Besides, we can always view the influences of music upon people. It is shown simply by Frederick H. Martens that music exerts it is collective affect in the course of background. He as well says that as an individual influence, music is one of the factors in the your life of nobleman and rulers, which likewise “has applied a more or less direct influence around the destinies of countries and peoples. ” You observe clearly coming from his document that music may significantly influence one’s sights and ideas on this world, therefore it is an important aspect in directing someones personality and characteristics.

Consequently, the relationship among a person and the music he/she listens is a common one. Peoples’ preference of music chooses the music they will choose, and what they select can reversely change these people as well, directing them in to the qualities that can be defined through that music. This could also demonstrate Cusick’s level that her relationship with music is around the power energetic that comes up both techniques between music and her, and this romance highly resembles the one between lesbian fans. Thus, the web link between music and sexuality is apparent. Furthermore, Now i am wondering about how exactly the connection between identity and sexuality performs in other topics and fields of study. Cusick says in her article that she will not address the texts of music mainly because she considers that they are likely to trick us into staying in a “power-over paradigm that is mighty near to the regime of compulsory heterosexuality. “

Privately, I don’t entirely go along with her with this. In my opinion, different subjects such as literature and art also can illustrate a person’s identity, thus they can signify people’s features through the “”power/pleasure/intimacy” triad too, and so will texts in music. Exactly why Cusick thinks that centering on texts can easily deviates all of us is that her love and professional interests in music leave her simply looking at music as an intimate lover. However for people from the other fields and domains, their particular subjects can usually be treated as enthusiasts and precious as well. For instance , it is sensible to imagine a poet seems extreme closeness in his relationship with poetry. Cusick stated by herself in the records that the lady can also discover tremendous happiness from cooking food, and the lady loves to peel off fruits and vegetables with out a knife, mainly because she thinks it will produce wholly satisfying experiences. (83)

I would not really say Cusick is also fond of vegetables, but what she says may suggest that enjoyment and closeness do not only exist among people and music. Because Pygmalion can fall in love with the statue he carved, how come can’t a songwriter create a romantic tie with the text messages of music he composed? In other words, provided that we have enthusiasm, the relationship between people and his/her subject matter of study can be designed in any region, within which in turn we can find its reference to sexuality.

This kind of essay of Cusick is definitely not very lengthy, but the notions it contains, I believe, are really important sources of thoughts if we want to explore the relationship among music and sexuality, especially when we want to discover it from a perspective about our very own identity and personal characteristics. Cusick has properly shown that the boundary among music and sex can be a blurred one particular, where the two are means of discussing power and intimacy throughout the circulation of pleasure. Here, the main is the people that involves both with music and with sex, intimately experiencing them and totally mingling with them. Since Cusick says, what genuinely matters is definitely neither music nor sexual intercourse, but “the transcendent delight of being alive, not dead, and mindful of the existence. ” (69)

Works Reported:

Brett, Philip, Elizabeth Solid wood, and Whilst gary Thomas. Queering the Frequency: the New Lgbt Musicology. 2nd ed. Nyc: Routledge, 06\.

McClary, Susan. Reading Music: Selected Works. Aldershot, Britain: Ashgate, 3 years ago.

McClary, Leslie. Feminine Being: Music, Male or female, and Libido. Minneapolis: College or university of Mn Press, 1991.

Rentfrow, Peter J, and Samuel D Gosling. “The do lso are miʼs of everyday life: the structure and personality correlates of music preferences. ” Journal of Personality and Social Mindset 84. 6 (2003): 1236-1256.

Frederick H. Martens. The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 10, No . two (Apr., 1925), pp. 196-218

Burnham, Jeff G, and Michael P Steinberg. Mozart 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.

1

Tweet

Related essay