7-27 Music Notes

As Pride month comes to a close, our instrumental music this morning celebrates the contributions of LGBT composers and performers.

Nico Muhly is one of the foremost composers today, and an advocate for better visibility of LGBT composers, whose music is minimalist – contemplative yet engaging – and his organ compositions push the boundaries of the instrument.

Queer organists and, more broadly, queer church musicians, have made a sizable impact on sacred music for centuries. A considerable number of organists are LGBT, compared to other instrumentalists, and many serve in churches that are homophobic or ask them to keep their sexuality private. It is very unfortunate that to this day churches part ways with organists or organists leave because of this dynamic, and while progress has been made, there is a long way to go.

A number of significant jazz composers were LGBT, including Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Billy Strayhorn, and Tony Jackson (who was openly gay at the turn of the century and whose distinctive dress became adopted as the norm for performers for decades). Scholars suggest composition was an appealing vocation because they could be relatively more open and less secretive than if they were performing, and touring. A large portion of what we know as “The Great American Songbook” was written by gay men.

Billy Strayhorn was an incredibly influential musician, writing standards such as “Take the A Train” and “Lush Life.” He was hired by Duke Ellington at age 23, and became Ellington’s arranger, composer, and collaborator until his early death from cancer in 1967. Strayhorn was openly gay, a committed friend of MLK, and an activist in many civil rights and social justice causes. In Ellington’s autobiography, he cites Strayhorn’s four major moral freedoms he held as an activist: “freedom from hate, unconditionally; freedom from self-pity (even through all the pain and bad news); freedom from fear of possibly doing something that might possibly help another more than it might himself and freedom from the kind of pride that might make a man think that he was better than his brother or his neighbor.”

Lotus Blossom was likely inspired by Strayhorn’s grandmother’s garden, where he would often visit during difficult times in his childhood, or when avoiding from his alcoholic father. The song invokes complex emotions, with introspective sophistication alongside youthful hopefulness. Duke Ellington played it at the end of each concert, and organist Alec Wynton played it for Duke Ellington’s funeral – a reconstruction of which will be played today.

Daphne Willis is a singer-songwriter whose music explores complex emotional journeys, personal struggles, justice, and hope. An advocate for mental health and LGBT liberation, her song I am Enough conveys an empowering message of hope and self-acceptance. Willis collaborated with filmmaker Victoria Duncan to create an LGBT ballet music video to bring attention to and increase LTBG depiction represented in ballet.

Help Us Forgive, Forgiving Lord

Help us forgive, forgiving Lord the wrong that others do,
and, when our hearts are pierced by pain, to bring the hurt to you.

For on the cross you bore for us the curse, the scorn, the hate
and gave your life to lift from us sin’s cruel and crushing weight.

Let grace unlock each prisoned heart, uncoil each fisted hand
until from hate our hearts are freed, our hands in love extend.

And then, the broken circle closed, the broken friendships healed,
Lord, hold us fast within the bonds by your forgiveness sealed.

I Am Enough – Daphne Willis