List of gay composers and a representative work...

[KansDem]

In “honor” of the GOP's "marriage amendment" proposal, I offer a selective list of gay composers and a representative work

Samuel Barber—Adagio for Strings (used in the movie “Platoon”)
Leonard Bernstein—West Side Story
Benjamin Britten—The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
Aaron Copland—Fanfare for the Common Man, Lincoln Portrait, Rodeo, Billy the Kid, Appalachian Spring
Manuel de Falla—Noches in los jardines de España
Charles Tomlinson Griffes—White Peacock
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky—1812 Overture, Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Romeo & Juliet
Virgil Thomson—The Plow That Broke the Plains (film score), The River (film score)

Also, the modernists:
John Cage
Henry Cowell
Harry Partch
Cole Porter
Francis Poulenc (member of “Les Six”)

How we all have enjoyed their music...but horrors if they were to marry one another!!!

More at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gay_composers

[Coventina]

1. Barber and Menotti were longtime companions.

Too bad they couldn't marry.

:-(

on edit: Gian-Carlo Menotti, who wrote the Christmas opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors" and many other works.

Of course, after 30 years, they did end up breaking up. But then, so do many straight couples. Who knows? In a more tolerant world, maybe they would have stayed together.....

[KansDem]

3. Thank you for your comments regarding Menotti...

My wife makes it a point every year to find a live performance of "Amahl" to take our children to. Also, Menotti is presented in many university music history classes as one of the foremost representatives of 20th-century American opera composition.

Thank you...thank you...thank you, thank you!

[melnjones]

2. Poulenc...

One of my favorites ever. Studied his music, never knew he was gay. Well, there ya go.

[MuseRider]

6. Ahh mine too!

I did not know he was gay nor did I ever even wonder about it. He was an amazing composer. His Clarinet Sonata remains one of my all time favorite pieces to play, so touching, dedicated to Arthur Honegger the second movement brings me to tears.

[melnjones]

9. That's the exact piece...

Wish I still had the chops to play it...or a good horn, for that matter. Maybe someday.

[MuseRider]

10. It is a blast to play

and that second movement....there is nothing more haunting and beautiful. The third was my favorite to play, reminded me of circus music. :)

[Democrats_win]

4. Aaron Copeland! Is the homophobic GOP against AMERICA?

No other composer says AMERICA to the world like Aaron Copeland.

[Jade Fox]

5. Cole Porter. Mama mia!!

I recently watched that movie about him that came out a couple of years ago, "De-lovely". He has got to be the greatest songwriter ever.

[Rageneau]

7. Stephen Sondheim -- genius of modern theater

Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Forum, Sweeny Todd, Company, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, A Little Night Music, etc., etc., etc.

[Kerrytravelers]

8. Bernstein and Copland gay? Why do you hate Amurikkka?

:rofl:

[Charlie Brown]

11. It's also believed that George Gershwin was gay nt

[kineneb]

12. I would prefer meeting any one

of the composers over a whole room of Republican Hypocrites.

And this list only has "recent" composers; we will never how many of the known medieval or Renaissance composers were gay. So many of them were "in the Church".

Tchaikovsky's life ended quite tragically. Because he was perhaps afraid of being "outed" in Imperial Russia, it is thought he committed suicide by exposing himself to cholera.

...the music history geek...:hi:

[OneBlueSky]

13. Billy Strayhorn . . . Duke Ellington's collaborator on . . .

some of the greatest jazz works ever composed . . .

and sole composer of many others (e.g. "Take The 'A' Train") . . .