Music Recommendation - Blog Posts

I'm bored, and I have no hyperfixation right now, so if yall have good movies, series, books, or music recommendations, please tell me I genuinely don't know what to do with my life right now😔

Queer Composers

For Pride Month, I would like to share a list of some of my favorite queer composers. Being queer doesn’t matter when talking about the music, and there is no other commonality that pairs these composers together. The point isn’t to say that queerness makes their music more valuable or influences their music, rather the point is to recognize diversity, and to acknowledge queer visibility. I understand the people who scratch their heads or roll their eyes at the idea of bringing up queer composers, and to them I say the point is simply to recognize their existence, because prejudices and biases through time have worked on erasing or revising history in order to keep hidden this aspect of the human condition. You could shrug and say “Who cares if Tchaikovsky was gay?” and I would say, “You’re right, it doesn’t matter much outside of biographies, but if you acknowledged Tchaikovsky’s homosexuality in Russia you could be arrested for “promoting gay propaganda”. I am also motivated by a comment from a friend who admitted they think the concept of “Pride” for anything you cannot control is “idiotic”. My response can be summed up as, when a group has been shamed for years for their identity, they will be ready to sing about it from the mountaintops when it is accepted. In other words, it is not about who is better or worse, rather it is the opposite of shame, and hopefully putting a human face on something that a lot of people only consider in the abstract.

In no particular order, here is some cool music by some queer people;

Tchaikovsky: Possibly the greatest composer in Russian history, and one of the greatest composers in general. Pyotr Illych Tchaikovsky wrote in multiple genre, from symphonies to concertos to ballets, chamber music, opera…and while he can be criticized for the way he develops themes, his music is melodic and passionate and brimming with life. Among my favorites are his fourth symphony, the second piano concerto, the first orchestral suite, his piano trio, and his concert fantasy.

Poulenc: One of the members of Les Six, a group of Modernist French composers who were reacting against “overblown” Post-Romantic music, and methodical 12-tone serialism, Francis Poulenc can be described as a “neo-classicist”, sometimes his music resembles Stravinsky. The music tends to mix two unlikely moods: goofy, fun melodies and rhythms, and solemn religious contemplation. Cosmopolitan and Catholic, Poulenc was able to juxtapose opposite ends of the spectrum of the human condition; our vulgarity and profanity, and our spirituality and the desire for divine connection. My favorite works by him are his Organ Concerto, his harpsichord concerto “Concert-champêtre”, the concerto for two pianos, the cello sonata, and his Gloria.

Smyth: An English composer and an important figure in the Woman’s Suffrage movement, Ethel Smyth was a Post-Romantic who wrote powerful music lively with the British sense of nobility and strength. In the same ironic tragedy Beethoven went through, Smyth started to lose her hearing from 1913 onward, and so she gave up composing in favor of writing. While that is a shame, she left behind a good handful of orchestral and chamber music. My favorites by her are the overture to one of her operas, The Wreckers, her serenade which is kind of evocative of Brahms, and her gargantuan Mass in D Major.

Szymanowski: A Polish composer from the first half of the 20th century whose life can be seen as a narrative of seeking identity. Karol Szymanowski started out writing in the Post Romantic German style, with dense textures and a lot of chromatic modulation, but he was losing interest in this idiom quickly. He was inspired by Persian poetry he came across, and started writing in an Impressionistic way focusing on Mediterranean cultures, influenced by Greek and Roman mythology, Middle Eastern poetry, and the atmosphere of the Mediterranean as being a diverse mixing of cultures. Later in his life, he decided to look back at Poland for inspiration and finally found his “authentic” Polish identity in music inspired by the folk stories and Catholicism of Poland. My favorite works by him are his nocturne and tarantella for violin and piano, his song cycle the Love Songs of Hafiz, the third symphony, and his Stabat Mater.

Barber: It’s possible to say that Samuel Barber’s music is a good representative of American culture…a diverse mix of differences that complement each other. He took after jazz and blues, and after experiments in tonality heard in Europe and other American composers like Charles Ives, and he took after Romanticism with deep and powerful music. My favorite works by him are the Adagio for Strings which is heavily inspired by Mahler, his piano concerto, and Knoxville: Summer of 1915.

Copland: Another great portrait of America, Aaron Copland was considered one of the quintessential “American” composers of the 20th century, despite the combined factors of being gay, Jewish, leftist, and inspired by Russian and French modernism. All of those were seen as outsiders of the general American public. Even so, taking after Stravinsky, Copland’s music is full of spaciousness and open chords, melodies that range from longing to folksy and fun. My favorite works by him are his clarinet concerto, violin sonata, fanfare for the common man, and his ballet Appalachian Spring.

And if you reblog this list, feel free to add any of your favorite queer composers and share their music, their names, their faces.

You should know this

And this

Play back to back.

A Monthly Occurrence

Me: damn this playlist is AMAZING every single song is a hit, no skips. I should save it-

Me: This is my likes folder.

Jason Todd’s “Fuck You Dad” Playlist

“Faith has earned me nothing but a liar’s tongue,

A child’s grief.

Promised the sacrament, but understand-

You will not save me.

You will not save me.

But you’ll consecrate me.”

You believed in Batman, in Bruce Wayne. He was bigger than life, bigger than death…until he wasn’t. Ain’t that the way it always goes with parents?

Daddy didn’t save you, but he’ll sure make you a martyr. Every moment of your life stripped of autonomy and personhood, towards the monument of Bruce’s pain.

It becomes the thing that defines Bruce, because that’s what Bruce does with pain. He puts it in a goddamn trophy case for everyone to see. Bruce doesn’t know how to be anything but ostentatious.

You came back from death, but you’re different now. You’ll never be as squeaky clean. That’s the thing about death- it cleanses all sin. Broken men will never measure up against dead boys. Dead birds.

I did this all for you by Xana: Destiel Anthem?

“You make a mess of mistakes, I just savour the taste, but I forgave this worthless world, because it gave me you.”

“I did this all so you could have your happy after, a never ending chapter. Call you up in the middle of the night just to enchant you[…]Now I’m part of you for the rest of your damn life.”

“Said you wanted closure, it’s never really over, didn’t wanna scare ya when I lost all my composure. Wishing you would save me, am I going just crazy? Every shooting stars rolling their eyes at me lately.”

I need artist recommendations, but it needs to be people who only have like 3 listeners, preferably

latin music recs to expand ur rock taste ;-)

brat by charli xcx is exactly who music industry was needed finale music is about impact and not just about imaginary numbers on billboard

As a kid who grow up listening 2000/2010 rock indie alternative bands this song is soo 2010 coded

This week’s song recs

This is late but give me a break I have school.

So High by Doja Cat. (ITS GOOD SLOWED AND REVERB TOO)🌸✨🌸✨🌸✨🌸✨

Devil Woman by Marty Robbins. (I love his voice so much)✨🌺✨🌺✨🌺✨🌺✨

People Don’t Change by Mazie. (This song is sadish but I live for it. Also I like just found it so embarrassing but what evs)✨🌼✨🌼✨🌼✨🌼