Cusick and Her Lesbian Relationship with Music Essay

In the es aver On a Lesbian Relationship with medicine A Serious elbow grease Not to Think Straight by Suzanne G. Cusick, she brings up an interesting proceeds more or less the connection amid her world a lesbian and her being a practice of medicineian, a harmonyologist, if on that point costs any.Im especially implicated in the king system and the link among medicationality and lesbianism she mentions in this bind. Here, Ill try to analysis them in detail and relate them with other issues in music and sexual practice, exploring them in a more general picture. Cusick redefines the belief of sexual practice in her evidence, as the modal value of expressing and/or enacting consanguinitys of niggardness done physical pleasure sh ared, accepted, or given. According to her, this process of expressing and enacting furthert as well as be found in our musical activities, where the circulation of physical pleasure screw be experienced as well. Thus, she says that ou r musicalities and our sexualities are psychically next-door neighbors. (70) I desire to claim that this idea of her amazes me. From my previous musical experience, Im sensibly sure that music is a subject heightsly intimate for me.For instance, I usually have reluctance when Im asked to sing or perform a striving written by myself, even if I think it is a brilliant one. And this wont happen if the song is nearone elses. In my opinion, music, especially my own music which Im face-to-facely attached to, is an expression of my true self, and that identity and soulal characteristics contained in it makes it so special that I wont be ordain to share it with others, unless its someone really close to me. A nonher event that I think will support Cusicks idea is that several(predicate) mountain always have different opinions towards the same piece of music. No matter how the composer perceives it, the listener usually has the tendency to relate it to his/her own soulal experien ces, which differ from person to person. It is reasonable to think that music is a attribute of someones person-to-personities and characteristics, because of the occasion the music creates.Therefore, I believe that there exists a connection between the musicality and the sexuality of a genuine person, since both of them are revelations of his/her true identity, and we kitty examine our own behaviors on both of them. In other words, these both factors are connected because of the person who they belong to, and they are contained in the system of his/her perspectives. Cusick in like manner explains in her article what does it mean to be a lesbian and how to define sexuality, which are prerequisite questions if we demand to relate it to music. From her point of good deal, the essence of ones sexuality and the element of all human affinitys is the reason system. An example that stinker explain this is what musicologists say close the masculinity in van van Beethoven. In Susan McClarys opinion, there exist musical constructions of gender and sexuality.She regards the field of music and musicology as male-dominated, since the masculine average and the distinction between genders are deeply rooted in music, such(prenominal) as masculine and feminine cadences, rhythms, gendered major and minor triads, etc. (7) She as well as 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 fire gamble an alternative approach, arguing that we regard Beethoven as symbol of masculinity because of the overwhelming idea that viewing cleaning woman as as unchanging, eternal essence, as the opposite of the dynamically striving and achieving man. (326) Matthew result overly approaches this from another(prenominal) perspective by examining the heroic in Beethovens works, finding umteen screw up-dressed heroines. (132) Its notable that although there is immensity put on female characters, women usually need to conceal their sexuality and transgress the gendered norms in order to serve as the epitomes in the esthetic sphere.This shows that, no matter what kind of connection there exists between Beethoven and masculinity, there does exist a indicator system that emphasis on the inequality between men and women, where women as less worth less, personnel less man, in both our society and in music. Whichever argument we believe, we should bring the extensive presence of the power system in our society, and in practice, it can be found both in music and in many familys 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-dominating and non-power woman who spots anothe r woman in her relationship, the flow of power can exist in both directions, as opposed to a heterosexual relationship 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 impartial binary opposition male and female. The lack of opposition creates a world that scrambles the usual components of man and woman, and a world reposition of fixed categories. (73) This reminds me of the documentary Paris is Burning, which stunned 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 and then an appropriate way to observe a relationsh ip.As I mentioned before, power is an important factor that circulates within the relationship. Whats more, pleasure and intimacy are objectives that we usually want to achieve when we are involved someone we love, and olibanum they are essential bolsters of a relationship. As Cusick says, this triad can be experienced more freely in lesbian relationships, because without the power stream 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 the beloved as in a lesbian relationship where the power circulates both ways and cross without boundaries. (78) In the article Musicality, Essentialism, and the Closet written by Philip Brett, he also discusses music be perceived as feminine. Brett says that in history, music has much 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 ravish our sense or our soul, people from the medieval and early on modern times let us see 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 tenseness between the ostensible struct ure, which represents the tension between a social norm and a very high degree of eccentricity, suggests her escape 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 authoritative 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 train that the choices of music can reflect that persons personality 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 look for that peoples music preferences are related to a unsubtle array of personality dimensions and self-views. If the link up 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 touch on 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 throw them as well, directing them into the qualities that can be defined through that music. This can also illustrate Cusicks p oint that her relationship with music is about the power dynamic that circulates both ways between music and her, and this relationship 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 address 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 arbitrary heterosexuality.Personally, I dont entirely 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 focusing on texts can deviates us is that her love and professional interests in music bring out her only lo oking at music as an intimate lover. solely 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 joy from cooking, and she loves to peel fruits and vegetables without a knife, because she believes it will create all in all 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 render in love with the statue he carved, why cant a songwriter build a romantic 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 certain 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 worth(predicate) sources of thoughts if we want to explore the relationship between 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, good 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 chaffer 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 Endi ngs Music, Gender, and Sexuality. Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press, 1991.Rentfrow, Peter J, and Samuel D Gosling. The do re mis of everyday life the structure and personality correlates of music preferences. diary 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 fatherhood in Egmont. 19th-Century Music 30 (2006-07), 97-132.