Cusick and Her Lesbian Relationship with Music Essay

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 several(prenominal) the connection in the midst of her being a homosexual and her being a musician, a musicologist, if at t put on place exists any.Im especially interested in the reason dodging and the link between musicality and lesbianism she mentions in this article. Here, Ill 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 finished physical pleasure sh atomic number 18d, accepted, or given. According to her, this process of expressing and enacting buns as well as be plant in our musical activities, where the circulation of physical pleasure abide be experienced as well. Thus, she says that our musicalities and our sexual ities are psychically next-door neighbors. (70) I need to claim that this idea of her amazes me. From my prior musical experience, Im pretty sure that music is a subject highly intimate for me.For instance, I commonly have reluctance when Im asked to sing or perform a song written by myself, even if I think it is a brilliant hotshot. And this wont happen if the song is someone elses. In my opinion, music, especially my own music which Im face-to-facely attached to, is an expression of my line up self, and that identity and individual(prenominal) characteristics contained in it makes it so special that I wont be willing to share it with others, unless its someone rightfully close to me. Another point that I think will support Cusicks idea is that different people always have different opinions towards the same piece of music. No theme how the composer perceives it, the listener usually has the tendency to relate it to his/her own personal experiences, which differ from perso n to person. It is reasonable to think that music is a symbol of someones personalities and characteristics, because of the intimacy the music creates.Therefore, I believe that on that point exists a connection between the musicality and the sexuality of a certain person, since both of them are revelations of his/her true identity, and we corporation examine our own behaviors on both of them. In other words, these two factors are connected because of the person who they belong to, and they are contained in the system of his/her situations. Cusick also explains in her article what does it mean to be a lesbian and how to define sexuality, which are essential questions if we want to relate it to music. From her point of view, the essence of ones sexuality and the element of all relationships is the spot system. An example that move explain this is what musicologists say about the maleness in Beethoven. In Susan McClarys opinion, at that place exist musical constructions of gender and sexuality.She regards the field of music and musicology as male-dominated, since the masculine norm and the distinction between genders are deeply rooted in music, such as masculine and feminine cadences, rhythms, gendered major and minor triads, etc. (7) She also analyzes Beethovens music, which to her contains pounding, thrusting gestures that represent masculinity. (75) On the contrary, in Sanna Pedersons article Beethoven and Masculinity, she redefines the concept of masculinity and the link between it with Beethoven. She states that we can find an alternative approach, arguing that we regard Beethoven as symbol of masculinity because of the overwhelming idea that viewing woman as as unchanging, eternal essence, as the opposite of the dynamically striving and achieving man. (326) Matthew Head also approaches this from another perspective by examining the heroic in Beethovens works, finding many overlay-dressed heroines. (132) Its notable that although there is importance put on female person characters, women usually need to conceal their sexuality and transgress the gendered norms in order to serve as the epitomes in the aesthetic sphere.This shows that, no matter what kind of connection there exists between Beethoven and masculinity, there does exist a author system that emphasis on the inequality between men and women, where women as less expenditure less, power less man, in both our society and in music. Whichever argument we believe, we should admit the extensive presence of the power system in our society, and in practice, it can be found both in music and in many relationships between people, especially heterosexual ones. The most significant point of view of her in this essay, I think, is that she believes being a lesbian is an escape from this power system As a woman, as a non- distinguished and non-power woman who loves another woman in her relationship, the flow of power can exist in both directions, as opposed to a heterosexual relat ionship where a man typically plays the dominating and powerful part.And Cusick believes that this is the beauty of a lesbian relationship its about organizing the force field of power, pleasure, and intimacy that refuses the simple binary opposition male and female. The lack of opposition creates a world that scrambles the usual components of man and woman, and a world free of fixed categories. (73) This reminds me of the documentary Paris is Burning, which astonied me with its idea of celebrations of a powerful expression of personalities, without any restriction of boundaries. There, what matters is the personal prides, which are fully showed in the drag nights in New York. Cusick further explains the elements in a lesbian relationship as the power/pleasure/intimacy triad. (71) From my understanding, this is indeed an appropriate way to observe a relationship.As I mentioned before, power is an important factor that circulates within the relationship. Whats more, pleasure and int imacy are objectives that we usually want to achieve when we are involved someone we love, and thus they are essential bolsters of a relationship. As Cusick says, this triad can be experienced more freely in lesbian relationships, because without the power flowing only in one direction, the equality and balance between the two lovers can give them more intimacy and pleasure, both physically and psychically, from their relationship. Hence, in Cusicks article, being a lesbian is not merely a sexual orientation it is also the way one prefers to behave, to organize the relationship to the world in a power/pleasure/intimacy triad. Its a way of refusing, breaking, and creating, and to cope with the world in a way that she prefers. And these behaviors can also be detected in a persons musicality, which is also built in his/her identity.More interestingly, Cusick talks about the lesbian relationship she has with music. She treats music as a woman, and a woman that can be a lover, and also t he beloved as in a lesbian relationship where the power circulates both ways and cross without boundaries. (78) In the article tunefulity, Essentialism, and the Closet written by Philip Brett, he also discusses music be perceived as feminine. Brett says that in history, music has often been considered a dangerous substance, an agent of moral ambiguity always in dander of bestowing deviant status upon its practitioners. (11) By describing music as a woman that malign our sense or our soul, people from the medieval and early modern times let us keep an eye on how close music and sexuality can be. This also makes Cusicks treating music as a female lover more sensible.Another idea of her that interests me is that she thinks her choice of music can reflects her sexuality. She says that her love for hidden relationships and the latent hostility between the ostensible structure, which represents the tension between a social norm and a very high degree of eccentricity, suggests her esc ape from the power system. Also, she dis-prefers music hat upset this power equilibrium. (77) She explains this by saying that her lesbian self let her prefer certain kinds of music and reject some other kinds. This makes me think about in general, how peoples choices of music reflect their sexuality and identity, and to what degree. I agree that the choices of music can reflect that persons nature to some extent, but I also believe that the music he/she listens can shape that person into the qualities and personalities that the music wants him/her to have. The same as Cusicks relationship with her music, there is a counter-influence here as well.Rentfrow and Gosling found in their research that peoples music preferences are related to a wide array of personality dimensions and self-views. If the links between music preferences and personality do exist, we can easily infer that our choices of music reflect our identity, which also links to our sexuality. Besides, we can always see the influences of music on people. It has been shown by Frederick H. Martens that music exerts its collective influence in the course of history. He also says that as an individual influence, music is one of the factors in the life of kings and rulers, which also has exerted a more or less direct influence on the destinies of countries and peoples. We can see clearly from his article that music can significantly affect ones views and thoughts on this world, therefore it is an important element in directing peoples personality and characteristics.Hence, the relationship between a person and the music he/she listens is a mutual one. Peoples preference of music decides the music they choose, and what they choose can reversely variety them as well, directing them into the qualities that can be defined through that music. This can also illustrate Cusicks point that her relationship with music is about the power dynamic that circulates both ways between music and her, and this relationsh ip highly resembles the one between lesbian lovers. Thus, the link between music and sexuality is obvious. Furthermore, Im wondering about how the connection between identity and sexuality works in other subjects and fields of study. Cusick says in her article that she does not call the texts of music because she thinks that they tend to trick us into staying in a power-over paradigm that is mighty close to the regime of compulsory heterosexuality.Personally, I dont on the whole agree with her on this. In my opinion, other subjects such as literature and art can also illustrate ones identity, thus they can represent peoples qualities through the power/pleasure/intimacy triad as well, and so does texts in music . The reason why Cusick thinks that focussing on texts can deviates us is that her love and professional interests in music leave her only looking at music as an intimate lover. entirely for people from other fields and domains, their subjects can be treated as lovers and beloved as well. For example, it is reasonable to imagine a poet feels extreme intimacy in his relationship with poems. Cusick mentioned by herself in the notes that she can also find tremendous bliss from cooking, and she loves to peel fruits and vegetables without a knife, because she believes it will create wholly pleasurable experiences. (83)I would not say Cusick is also in love with vegetables, but what she says can suggest that pleasure and intimacy do not solely exist between people and music. As Pygmalion can fall in love with the statue he carved, why cant a songwriter build a wild-eyed tie with the texts of music he wrote? In other words, as long as we have passion, the relationship between people and his/her subject of study can be developed in any area, within which we can find its connection with sexuality.This essay of Cusick is not very long, but the notions it contains, I believe, are really valuable sources of thoughts if we want to explore the relationship betwe en music and sexuality, especially when we want to discover it from a perspective about our own identity and personal characteristics. Cusick has nicely shown that the boundary between music and sex can be a blurred one, where both are means of negotiating power and intimacy through the circulation of pleasure. Here, the most important is the people that involves both with music and with sex, intimately experiencing them and wholly mingling with them. As Cusick says, what really matters is neither music nor sex, but the transcendent joy of being alive, not dead, and aware of the existence. (69)Works CitedBrett, 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, gumshoe J, and Samuel D Gosling. The do re m is 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. 196-218Burnham, 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.