{"id":79053,"date":"2021-06-23T08:27:43","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T15:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/?p=79053"},"modified":"2025-12-05T13:41:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T21:41:27","slug":"music-exploring-queer-experiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/music-exploring-queer-experiences\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Exploring Queer Experiences"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Pride Month, we would like to share with you a short playlist of 20th and 21st century music exploring queer experiences. In this list, you\u2019ll find songs, operas, and a symphony: some by LGBTQI+ composers, some exploring LGBTQI+ characters. You can also listen to a similar selection of music in this article\u2019s companion playlist on Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Possession<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\"Ethel
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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From Three Songs<\/em>(1913) by Dame Ethel Smyth<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

It was no great secret that English composer Ethel Smyth<\/a> loved women. Among the most important loves of her life was  Emmeline Pankhurst<\/a>, whom the composer met in 1910. Pankhurst was the co-founder of the Women\u2019s Social and Political Union, an organization dedicated to women\u2019s suffrage. Smyth became deeply attached to Pankhurst, and joined the suffragist movement, even composing the WSPU\u2019s anthem, March of the Women. <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with several colleagues, the two spent two months together in Holloway Prison for their suffragist activism. In her autobiography, Female Pipings for Eden\u00a0<\/em>(1933), Smyth reminisced, \u201cThe ensuing two months in Holloway, though one never got accustomed to an unpleasant sensation when the iron door was slammed and the key turned, were as nothing to me because Mrs. Pankhurst was with us.\u201d<\/em> (Female Pipings for Eden,<\/em>209)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published in 1913, Smyth\u2019s \u201cPossession\u201d is a setting of a poem by Ethel Carnie<\/a>. The poem is a tender reflection on giving freedom to one\u2019s beloved. Smyth dedicated the song to \u201cE.P.\u201d – Emmeline Pankhurst. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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