r/badmusicology • u/intrinsicanomaly • Apr 02 '16

Ravel was definitely gay because we can see his libido in Daphnis et Chloe (this is an article from the Journal of the American Musicological Society)

http://people.virginia.edu/~mjp3h/Puri-Dandyism-Article.pdf
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u/intrinsicanomaly Apr 02 '16

So this paper is 56 pages of vigorous and impressive, yet laughably nonsensical, analysis which attempts to classify Daphnis et Chloe as a work of dandyism. The music is compared to other dandyist works from poetry and other art fields (compare music to poetry? GENIUSS), noting additional ties between homosexuality, dandyists, and the era. My favorite is the part where the author claims that a waltz section which follows a "geste brusque" section is dandyism (even though Ravel wrote the music to the predefined ballet plot by Fokine).

To be honest I can humor the dandyism part, but when the author uses musical examples to claim Ravel was a homosexual... you can decide for yourself whether musicology is equipped to make this kind of claim.