The Queer Composition of America's Sound: Gay Modernists, American Music, and National Identity

by Nadine Hubbs

In this vibrant and pioneering book, Nadine Hubbs shows how a gifted group of Manhattan-based gay composers were pivotal in creating a distinctive "American sound" and in the process served as architects of modern American identity. Focusing on a talented circle that included Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Leonard Bernstein, Marc Blitzstein, Paul Bowles, David Diamond, and Ned Rorem, The Queer Composition of America's Sound homes in on the role of these artists' self-identification―especially with tonal music, French culture, and homosexuality―in the creation of a musical idiom that even today signifies "America" in commercials, movies, radio and television, and the concert hall.

Genres: Music, History, LGBT, Queer

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book with some excellent passages (especially the part on Paul Bowles), but some of the methodology and justification made me really uncomfortable.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

they are all gay except ives. and he hates 'em fer pussifyin mericn music.

[Bill Hsu · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have preferred more documentation of personal and professional interactions, and less theorizing.