You may have noticed that we have a new display up in the Music Library. We are so excited to feature some of the queer stories we have in our collection – including queer musicians, queer composers, and queer movements.
Queer is a term used by the 2SLGBTQIA+ community as a resistance to the binary of hetero/homosexual identities. Queer theory has grown to include an intersectional understanding of gender and sexuality, which also includes race, class, and ethnicity.
The book that inspired this display is Queer Opera by Andrew Sutherland. It emphasizes the role of opera as representing queer life experience and motivating change using examples from antiquity through to today.
As you dive into this display, you will see personal stories, like William Lee Adam’s journey to Eurovision and Billy Strayhorn’s legacy as an openly gay Black jazz musician.
You will also see the importance of queer identities within music throughout history, as traced by Judith Peraino in Listening to the Sirens: Musical Technologies of Queer Identity from Homer to Hedwig and Jodie Taylor in Playing it Queer: Popular Music, Identity and Queer World-making.
We have also featured scores and recordings by queer artists, including Dame Ethyl Smith, Wendy Carlos, and Samuel barber. You can also find the iconic original soundtrack to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (the precursor to the current Emmy Award winning Queer Eye).
With this display, we are hoping to show the breadth and depth of queer experiences within music and emphasize the importance of queer identities to the field.
If you haven’t already, stop by the Music Library to view the display today!