Schubert's Sexuality: A Prescription for Analysis?

Author(s): Kofi Agawu

Source: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 17, No. 1, Schubert: Music, Sexuality, Culture (Summer,
1993), pp. 79-82
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/746782
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 Commentary

Schubert's Sexuality: A Prescription for Analysis?

KOFI AGAWU

What can Schubert's sexuality have to respectable

do withbiographical criticism and of fac-
the analysis of his music? Four years ago,
toring sexual politics into musical analysis not
Maynard Solomon told a compelling story only about
possible but positively enticing. We are
a leading Austro-Germanic composer, one encouraged to "read" musical works in the os-
whose works are unlikely to be excluded from tensibly more sophisticated ways in which our
the narrowest definitions of the canon of Euro- colleagues read poems, novels, plays, and films.
pean music since 1700: he was probably homo- It is somewhat ironic, given recent and re-
sexual.' Since then, Solomon's tentative argu- current attacks on so-called positivistic musi-
ment has hardened into "fact" in the popular cology, that both Solomon's arguments and Rita
musicological imagination, not because addi- Steblin's rebuttal of them depend foundation-
tional evidence has become available, but be- ally on "facts."2 Steblin maintains that claims
cause, in a field starved of headlines and scan- about Schubert's sexual orientation ought to be
dal, such a revelation promised a much needed advanced against the backdrop of late eigh-
change of critical perspective. Eavesdropping teenth- and early nineteenth-century Viennese
on conversations taking place elsewhere in the practices, that the relevant documents should
academy, we now find the promise of doing be read through the lenses of contemporaneous
understanding, and that we ought to translate
them correctly. Solomon would agree, but con-
19th-Century Music XVII/1 (Summer 1993). @ by The Re-
gents of the University of California.

1Maynard Solomon, "Franz Schubert and the Peacocks of 2Rita Steblin, "The Peacock's Tale: Schubert's Sexuality
Benvenuto Cellini," this journal 12 (1989), 193-206. Reconsidered," this issue, 5-33.

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 19TH
structs the facts differently. While ment some of mayearly nineteenth-century Vienna,
CENTURY
MUSIC wish to reach for the putative ideological Schubert could not have come out, and that
moti-
vation behind this debate-do we want Schubert this resulted in a bottling up of emotional ten-
to be gay?-others will continue to insist that, sion, which in turn affected his creativity in an
even if post-structuralist critical theory under- unusual way, then we need to see the relevant
mines our confidence in precisely locating the demonstration. While they are at it, proponents
gap between facts and interpretations, the of this view might also suggest how such ten-
"facts" ought to be accurate and that proof sion differs in kind from that which derives
should not be denied. from other forms of repression, religious, so-
It will not go unnoticed that there is hardly cial, political, and economic. The linking of
mention of a single work of Schubert in thishomosexuality to a particular creative faculty
debate. It would be understandable, therefore,says little if it does not ultimately show a
if some readers concluded that Schubert's sexu- uniquely gay way of writing rondo, variation,
ality has absolutely nothing to do with his mu- or sonata forms. If, however, such proof is not
sic. Others will, however, see Schubert's sup- forthcoming, then we might concede that
posed homosexuality as providing opportuni- knowledge of the sort that Solomon brings-
ties for analysis. Rather than hastily dismiss- suppressing for now Steblin's refutation-may
ing the possible connection between music and possibly inspire or intrigue some individuals,
sexuality, these more optimistic readers will but is of little or no relevance to an understand-
await the emergence of a body of critical writ- ing of the creative process.
ings that will show how understanding At the immanent or neutral level of analy-
Schubert's sexual orientation enhances a proper sis, the level marked by an explicit parsing of
historical understanding of his music. the score, Schubert's sexuality can play no part
If the debate is not to degenerate into ideol- in the strict sense. It is, of course, possible to
ogy-mongering, then, in the best scholarly tra- argue that our mechanisms for thinking through
dition, we need to define our terms as precisely Schubert's music-the taxonomic modes that
as we can. The issues are complex, of course, enable harmonic, melodic, rhythmic, and for-
but they might be framed semiologically in mal differentiations-enshrine a normative het-
terms of a poietic-neutral-esthesic or composer- erosexual orientation. In that case we need ei-
work-listener paradigm.3 Notionally sufficient ther to define explicitly the alternative homo-
to distribute the reality of actors in this debate, sexual paradigm or put the notion of paradigm
this paradigm allows us to interrogate the rel- under erasure. If, however, we understand such
evance of sexuality to each of the three comple- taxonomies as emanating from an uninflected
mentary levels and modes of understanding. human desire to know, then it is difficult to see
The challenge for those who wish to argue how one can make a case for a "homosexual
for a distinctively homosexual creative process reading" of Schubert's scores.
is to demonstrate the connection between the It is on the level of reception that Schubert's
dynamics of sexuality and what we know of
sexuality may play the most significant role.
The continuing influence of identity politics
Schubert's way of composing. Is there a defini-
tive homosexual approach to composing string on humanistic scholarship has empowered some
quartets and symphonies? Did Schubert take individual listeners to enter uninhibitedly into
advantage of this mode of artistic expression,a strong (sexual) identification-be it real or
or did he remain constrained by the conven- imagined-with composers, thereby enhancing
tional, presumably heterosexual, channels? Iftheir enjoyment of the music. In this hitherto
the claim is that, given the hostile environ-private realm, there can be no judicial inter-
vention. Any representations I choose to con-
struct for the purpose of listening to Schubert's
music are ipso facto valid whether or not they
3The tripartition is Jean Molino's, but it has been most are historically or systematically grounded. If I
fully elaborated in the work of Jean-Jacques Nattiez; see
esp. his Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Mu- choose to think of peacocks while listening to
sic, trans. Carolyn Abbate (Princeton, 1990), pp. 3-37. the Unfinished Symphony, of Schubert's di-

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minutive stature (he was less than five feet tall) San Francisco does. And, on the heterosexual
KOFI
AGAWU
while listening to Winterreise, or of his bout side, there are those who will support, contra-
Schubert's
with syphilis while listening to the late string dict, or remain indifferent to the questionSexuality
of
quartets, I am fully entitled to do so. These Schubert's putative homosexuality. We would
images, which are not always easy to defend do well to be mindful of this broad range of
against charges of crude reductionism, predict- listeners, even while, for political or ideologi-
ability, and lack of consequence, are available cal reasons, we declare our allegiances to one
from a still larger pool, and it is up to the group or another.
individual to choose or will whichever seems
With the facts still somewhat fragile, it is
appropriate. not clear whether Schubert's music is the ap-
In granting that knowledge of Schubert's
propriate site for investigating the significance
sexuality may affect the ways in which some for
of music analysis of a composer's sexuality. In
us hear his music, and in granting that the any case, we need to confront a central analyti-
cal issue: namely, what sorts of traces are left
choice of a particular filter may be a personal
on Schubert's works by his sexual orientation?
decision, we threaten to undermine the author-
The idea that musical works are documents or
ity of interpretive communities that would
claim that without a knowledge of the conven- texts is continuing to influence thinking about
music, especially music since the eighteenth
tions of sonata form one cannot properly appre-
century. Not that there is anything new about
ciate the design of, for example, the first move-
ment of the A-Major Piano Sonata, D. 959, this: the encoding of an extramusical impulse
with its remarkable loosening of form, its rich in a musical work is at least as old as medieval
motivic content, and its startlingly original Europe, and it is a vulgar distortion of musical
modulations. It is, of course, possible to argue history that confines this interplay to the nine-
that nothing stands outside politics, so that teenth century. The problem is not whether
knowledge of sonata form is just as "political" something extramusical preceded or provided
as knowledge of Schubert's sexual orientation. the conditions of possibility for the actual com-
In this mode of politicization, there is little position. It is the simpler and, at the same
basis for discussion, only assertion. But within time, more difficult question of significance:
the tradition of a constructed listening, a tradi- having determined this motivation, how is such
tion that pays close attention to the history ofknowledge to be incorporated into the act of
musical composition and to individual interpretation?
composerly routines, unbridled politicization One reason why notions of musical au-
need not swallow up all our concerns. We can, tonomy and transcendence have not yet been
in fact, talk about more and less productive successfully resisted is that the only inscrip-
ways of musical listening. tions that have been unearthed (in Schubert's
One danger of the politicization of listeningworks, among others) are particular musical
is to impel a kind of crude associationism be- archetypes in a variety of rhythmic disposi-
tween pairs of categories-male listeners and tions. Ever alert to extramusical references, the
male composers, female listeners and female case for a documentary reading of Schubert's
composers, homosexual listeners and homo- instrumental music can find little consolation
sexual composers, and so on. This one-to-one in the indisputable fact that musical composi-
correspondence is, of course, not necessarily tion is recomposition, and that Schubert's way
of composing is simply inconceivable outside a
preferred by those in a position to prefer it. For
example, while (the possibility of) Schubert's
specific pedagogical tradition. Those who have
homosexuality elicits celebration from some trouble accepting this version of the history of
homosexuals, others remain indifferent to it.
musical composition will forever be on the look-
Still others recognize today's sexual freedom asout for hints of extramusicality with which to
an important enabling factor in thinking about decode Schubert's works even though all the
the music of the past, which is not the same requisite evidence is there in the scores.
thing as insisting that Schubert's Vienna be If we abandon, accordingly, the expectation
that Schubert's music will reflect its societal
made to yield secrets in the way that today's

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 19TH note" in the Moment musical, op. 94, no. 6, to
origins in a specific rather than in a generalized
CENTURY
MUSIC way, then we must abandon the corollary
Schubert'sex-
syphilitic condition, we cannot yet
proceed
pectation that Schubert's sexuality will to a reasonable level of generalization
(always)
find iconic representation in his music.
untilClaims
we have produced several more such read-
about Schubert's choice of unconventional ings.4 Nor do we need to give Carl Dahlhaus's
modulatory schemes, or about his formal insistence
loos- on a distinctive and memorable ret-
ening, or about his preference for repetition
rospective current in Schubert an extramusical
and variation over genuine development: these
designation for it to retain its interpretive sig-
nificance.5
and other claims are far too fragile to provide
It would be fashionable to see in this debate
proof that he composed as a homosexual. For
and in
such demonstrations to have force they need to the renewed awareness of the role of
be based on a clear-which is not to say sexuality in music a way forward. In interro-
simple-definition of the nature of homosexual gating the broad claim that Schubert's sexual-
creativity and on a set of rules for making the ity is relevant to our understanding of his mu-
transition from this presumably diffuse state tosic, I am by no means suggesting that it is
the state of "musicking." Otherwise such irrelevant. On the contrary, I see a sound knowl-
claims can seem forced, even laughable. Yet edge of sexuality as possibly providing oppor-
the challenge to define a homosexual essence tunities for analysis and criticism. The real
has so far not been met, any more than femi- work therefore lies ahead. Whatever form it
nist scholars have succeeded in advancing an takes, one hopes that it will include extended
essentially feminine sensibility. Some might analyses of Schubert's music informed by ei-
argue that such foundational premises, far from ther of two competing and partially contradic-
constituting a necessary point of departure, are tory premises: first, that Schubert's music is
a nuisance, to be resisted or bracketed or dis- foundationally homosexual and that this con-
pensed with completely. But if we cannot agree dition is evident everywhere, and second that,
on what we are talking about by making our although Schubert might have been a homo-
assumptions explicit, if in other words there is sexual man, he did not always compose as one.
no longer a scholarly protocol, then how are we If, however, in the next decade or so, the mat-
going to advance in our communal effort to ter of Schubert's homosexuality has not pro-
understand art works? gressed beyond the programmatic and symbolic,
Those of us who still believe that an under-
then we will be fully justified not only in con-
standing of Schubert's music cannot be framedtesting its validity but also in reading an oppor-
foundationally in a vaguely defined cultural tunistic and perhaps mischievous intent on the
space, but that such space must include thepart of its advocates. As always, the proof of
sort of musical knowledge that comes fromthe pudding lies in
composition and performance, will continue to the analysis. %Vm
resist efforts to hijack music for other causes,
especially causes that cannot distinguish be-4Edward T. Cone, "Schubert's Promissory Note: An Ex
tween one symphony and another, one move- cise in Musical Hermeneutics," this journal 5 (1982), 2
41.
ment and another, or one part of a movement
SCarl Dahlhaus, "Die Sonatenform bei Schubert: Der erste
and another. As much as we may find intrigu-Satz des G-dur-Quartetts D. 887," Musica 32 (1978), 125-
ing Edward T. Cone's linking of a "promissory
30.

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