Copyright. Joshua Shank

Transcription

1 Copyright y oshua Shank 2016

2 he Dissertation Committee or oshua Shank Certiies that this is the approved version o the olloing dissertation: o oys Kissing: An Oratorio or Men's oices and Instruments Committee: Russell Pinkston, Supervisor Donald Grantham Yevgeniy Sharlat Eric Drott Chad ennett

3 o oys Kissing: An Oratorio or Men's oices and Instruments y oshua Shank A; MMusic Dissertation Presented to the aculty o the Graduate School o he niversity o exas at Austin in Partial ulillment o the Requirements or the Degree o Doctor o Musical Arts he niversity o exas at Austin Decemer 2016

4 Acknoledgments A quick ord o thanks to all my composition teachers during my time here at the niversity o exas at Austin: Russell Pinkston, Yevgeniy Sharlat, Donald Grantham, ruce Pennycook, Dan Welcher, and the late Daniel Catán I eel I needed every it o knoledge I've learned during my studies ith all o you in order to rite this piece My colleagues and riends in the composition department and eyond have also helped me ecome oth a etter composer ut also a etter human eing, so to all o them Andy, Max, Eli, on, oey, Steve, Kramer, en, Chris, Ian, Corey, im, and ocelyn you have the gratitude o one ho toils in the same vineyard as you do Also deserving o thanks are the people ho helped make o oys Kissing a reality eore it as ever a dissertation Reuen Reynolds III, ill Casey, and the men o the oston Gay Men's Chorus introduced me to the orld o the GALA Choruses Also Dr en Riggs, erey Heine, and the in Cities Gay Men's Chorus graciously asked me to collaorate on this ork Hoever, this ould not have een possile ithout the incredile generosity o a e donors: o oys Kissing as underritten through the generosity o husands Dean A Genth Dr Gary W Senson ith additional support y Alan Ken raun and ohn Sullivan I also oe Eric Grant or ringing all his literary acumen to ear on crating the liretto ith me and en Stonaker proved invaluale in communicating the instrumental parts to the commissioning party; you guys are amazing Matthe Culloton and David remley susequently recorded, mixed, edited, and mastered a gorgeous studio recording o the ork Lastly, David Levithan gave me permission to adapt his incredile novel into a ork e thought could communicate something hopeul to a group o people that sometimes needs it more than anyone else and, or that, I'll never e ale to say 'thank you' enough inally, my husand, Roert Ressler, has een incredily supportive over the to years it has taken me rom the initial phone call rom the in Cities Gay Men's Chorus to the inal period on this document Every grad student should e so lucky to have someone like you in their lives iv

5 o oys Kissing: An Oratorio or Men's oices and Instruments y oshua Shank, DMA he niversity o exas at Austin, 2016 SPERISOR: Russell Pinkston Choirs made up primarily o individuals rom the Lesian, Gay, isexual, and ransgender (LG) community have een around or nearly 0 years ecause there is very little repertoire hich tells their particular story, they have supported the creation o many ne, LG-centric orks to present in concert over the course o their history his dissertation ill concern itsel ith the creation o o oys Kissing: An Oratorio or Men's oices and Instruments hich stems rom a commission the author received in the spring o 2015 rom the in Cities Gay Men's Chorus (CGMC 1 ) to adapt David Levithan's 201 aard-inning, young adult novel, o oys Kissing, into an evening-length, musical ork to e presented y the CGMC during their 5 th -anniversary season Composing such a ork presents many challenges on many levels oth musical, literary, historical, and emotional Over the course o this document the source material ill e examined, and the history o pieces commissioned y gay men's chorus in the nited States ill e examined inally, the method o adaptation o the source material and the compositional process hich resulted in the inal ork ill e explained 1 Note: due to the act that their names can sometimes e a mouthul, it's ecome common or LG choruses around the orld to areviate their names in this ashion or instance, the oston Gay Men's Chorus reers to itsel as GMC and the Gay Men's Chorus o Los Angeles goes y GMCLA v

6 ale o Contents List o iguresvii List o alesviii Chapter 1 he Commission 11 Introduction1 Chapter 2 Historical Context o the Gay Male Chorus Repertoire Chapter Adapting the Source Material 1 he Source Material11 2 Character listing12 Creation o the liretto17 Chapter he Compositional Process2 Chapter 5 Analysis 51 se o Dierent Choral extures 52 Spoken Narration and nderscoring6 5 Inluence o the roaday Musical Style8 Conclusions0 Appendix A: o oys Kissing, Liretto Appendix : o oys Kissing, ull Score79 iliography56 ita59 vi

7 List o igures igure 1 Cover o David Levithan's o oys Kissing2 igure 2 he Primary Chord Sequence26 igure Opening rom Glassorks, mm igure Openings rom o oys Kissing, mm igure 5 Percussion setup or recording o o oys Kissing2 igure 6 Narration 5, mm 1-7, rom o oys Kissing7 igure 7 CGMC perorms o oys Kissing in Minneapolis1 igure 8 CGMC perorms o oys Kissing in Denver vii

8 List o ales ale 1 List o movements or o oys Kissing2 ale 2 List o possile choral textures or o oys Kissing25 ale Instrumentation or o oys Kissing0 ale List o Songs in o oys Kissing8 viii

9 CHAPER 1 he Commission 11 Introduction In early 2015, I received an rom the Artistic Director o the in Cities Gay Men's Chorus (CGMC), Dr en Riggs, inquiring as to hether or not I ould e amenale and availale to rite a piece or their season celerating their 5 th anniversary Speciically, he asked i I ould adapt David Levithan's novel, o oys Kissing (igure 1), or the choir I had knon aout the incredile ork the CGMC does in the LG community in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area and as honored that they asked Dr Riggs inormed me that they ere also planning on recording the susequent ork in its entirety and having it or sale as the audience exited the perormance hall hey ould then take it to the international conerence o the Gay and Lesian Association o Choruses (GALA) and perorm it or the 6,500+ attendees As an added onus, the CGMC had een one o only nine ensemles rom around the orld ho ere asked to perorm in a special Coee Concert that ould e attended y the maority o the conerence As a composer, it as a no rainer to agree to the opportunity Not only ould I e collaorating ith an organization that is actively trying to aect positive change in the LG community and eyond a community o hich I am part ut they ould then go on to record it and present it to an even ider audience 1

10 igure 1 Cover o David Levithan's o oys Kissing he one prolem I had to igure out, hoever, as ho much to charge or such a large ork here eren't many opportunities to talk aout this aspect o eing a composer in any o the graduate courses I've taken and, though there are some resources 2

11 out there (an old Commissioning Guide rom the no-deunct Meet the Composer organization has een availale various places online or years 1 ), I decided it might e est to check ith some colleagues in similar career stages in order to see hat they might charge or such a thing Ater some time spent talking ith other composers and doing some math, the appropriate ee or the length and readth o the type o ork the CGMC anted seemed as i it should e $25,000 his turned out to e directly in the udget o the various donors they had lined up, so e drated a contract and I started the process o adapting o oys Kissing into something musical 1 Wesite o composer Matt Small, Commissioning Music: A asic Guide, (accessed March 28, 2015)

12 CHAPER 2 Historical Context o the Gay Male Chorus Repertoire Over the past 0 years there have een many ne orks ritten or choral ensemles hich explicitly identiy themselves as memers o the LG community In order to understand hy this is, it is important to understand a e things aout ho those ensemles and their largest parent organization, GALA, came aout Although the GALA chorus movement can trace itsel ack to 1975 ith the ormation o the Philadelphia Anna Crusis Women's Choir 2, the event hich served as the catalyst or its ormation occurred on Novemer 27, 1978 hen San ranciscans grieving the assassinations o Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk the irst openly gay elected oicial in nited States history gathered in an impromptu musical memorial A month later, many o the gay men ho sang on the steps o City Hall that night ould perorm in the irst concert o the San rancisco Gay Men's Chorus (the irst choir to include the ord gay in their title ) A 12-city tour o the nited States y the SGMC in 1981 lead to many more o these choruses popping up as communities or gay men ho anted to sing and, the olloing year GALA Perorming Arts as ormed and 2 Gay and Lesian Association o Choruses, History, (accessed uly 1, 2016) Coyle, Patrick, Signiicant Male oice Repertory Commissioned y American Gay Men's Choruses (DMA diss, niversity o Cincinnati, 2006), 10 Mensel, Roert, A Music o heir On: he Impact o Ainity Compositions on the Singers, Composers, and Conductors o Selected Gay, Lesian, and eminist Choruses (PhD diss, niversity o Oregon, 2007),

13 achieved 501(c) () status 5 In uly o 2016 GALA celerated its 5 th anniversary ith their quadrennial conerence in Denver, Colorado ith over 6,600 singers in attendance 6 ecause LGs have historically een outliers in mainstream society, there is a lack o choral repertoire that speaks to hat Roert Mensel, the current conductor o the Portland Gay Men's Chorus, calls the social and political underpinnings o that community 7 he vast maority o choral repertoire is hat sociologists ould call heteronormative and, in order to create a ody o ork that actively addresses the LG experience, these choruses have een some o the most requent supporters o the commissioning o ne music In act, the GALA esite has one o the most comprehensive resources or choruses on ho to commission ne pieces 8 Mensel goes on urther to descrie the expanding repertoire these ensemles have commissioned over the past 0 years: aken in total, these ne compositions run the gamut o gay and lesian choral expression hese orks may e serious, militant, political, or campy hey may relect the highest artistic sophistication or e simplistic and amateurish What uniies them is their intended perormers and listeners: lesian, eminist, and gay choruses hich ere generally ormed outside o the choral mainstream and their supporters Certainly, the music oten touches upon themes mostly social, seldom musical that have rarely, i ever, een the suect o choral compositions in the past 9 5 Gay and Lesian Association o Choruses, History, (accessed uly 1, 2016) 6 Roin L Godrey (Executive Director o GALA Choruses), in correspondence ith the author, uly 18, Mensel, Roert, A Music o heir On: he Impact o Ainity Compositions on the Singers, Composers, and Conductors o Selected Gay, Lesian, and eminist Choruses (PhD diss, niversity o Oregon, 2007), iv 8 Gay and Lesian Association o Choruses, History, (accessed uly 15, 2016) 9 Coyle, Patrick, Signiicant Male oice Repertory Commissioned y American Gay Men's Choruses 5

14 o oys Kissing as commissioned in the same spirit as many o these pieces and it might e useul to reerence a e o them here Persecution is something that the LG community has had to deal ith or centuries so, as you'll see, the suect matter or many o these orks is quite heavy and oten overlaps elo is a short list o many o these pieces and, henever possile, I've attempted to reerence the composer's on descriptions o their respective orks Alexander's House y Michael Shaie (commissioned y the Gay Men's Chorus o Washington DC) A one-act choral musical aout a man ho dies and leaves his summer home to his estranged son instead o his partner It is a story aout ringing people together rom separate orlds and aout the amily o riends that e create 10 Eos y David Conte (commissioned y the oston Gay Men's Chorus) [his piece] named ater the Greek goddess o the Dan as aout the turning o the century; everything [LGs] had gone through in the past and the advancements e had made It touched on all the maor things the AIDS crisis, everyone coming out, etc and it talked aout all those experiences; a (DMA diss, niversity o Cincinnati, 2006), v 10 Wesite o composer Michael Shaie, Alexander's House, (accessed uly 15, 2016) 6

15 litany o hat as possile or us in the uture 11 or a Look or a ouch y ake Heggie (co-commission eteen the oston Gay Men's Chorus and the Seattle Men's Chorus) a story aout the persecution o gay men during the Holocaust[ased on] true stories told in the documentary ilm Paragraph 175 and the ournal o Manred Lein, rom the nited States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC 12 I Am Harvey Milk y Andre Lippa (commissioned y the San rancisco Gay Men s Chorus, along ith Atlanta Gay Men s Chorus, Dayton Gay Men s Chorus, Denver Gay Men s Chorus, Gay Men's Chorus o Los Angeles, in Cities Gay Men's Chorus, and Heartland Men's Chorus) he composer descries this piece as an emotional celeration o an American icon hich eaves the story o Harvey Milk s lierom oyhood to his rise as the irst openly gay man to hold pulic oice in Caliornia to his assassination 1 Metamorphosis y Roert Seeley (commissioned y the in Cities Gay Men's Chorus) 11 Reuen Reynolds III (conductor o the oston Gay Men's Chorus), phone intervie y the author, uly 15, Wesite o composer ake Heggie, or a Look or a ouch, (accessed uly ) 1 Wesite o composer Andre Lippa, I Am Harvey Milk, (accessed uly 15, 2016) 7

16 his ork is aout change ithin a amily and a gay man moving out o his house ecause o his ather Night Passage y Roert Moran (commissioned y the Seattle Men's Chorus) he opera s [suect] comes rom the day that Oscar Wilde as arrested According to historians, on the evening o this arrest, over 600 men o all alks o lie oarded the train at London s ictoria Station [and made their ay] to Calais, rance sually this late-evening oat ride had a total o approximately 25 passengers hese men, earing a itch hunt y the authorities and press alike, let homes, careers, amilies, lovers, property and titles to live in rance and aay rom such repression 1 hrough a Glass Darkly y Michael Shaie (commissioned y the in Cities Gay Men's Chorus) a 5-minute choral oratorio looking at the eects o crystal meth addiction in the GL community 15 he story loosely ollos a 6-hour period in the lie o Seastian, a young and successul usinessman, as he hits ottom due to his chronic use o methamphetamine Seastian is aout to lose everything and everyone close to him, hile oth his long-time partner, Zack, and one- 1 Wesite o composer Roert Moran, Night Passage, (accessed uly 15, 2016) 15 Crystal meth addiction has recently ecome a rising prolem in certain parts o the gay community or more inormation you can check out an article y he Association or Addiction Proessionals ( 8

17 night-stand, illy, ace the cold truth that they have een lied to and let ehind [he ork] is aout shattered dreams, dreams unrealized, and dreams deerred It is aout the ear o eing alone, the ear o not itting in, and the struggle to ind one s place in the orld It explores the truth that, ith support rom our riends, e can gain the insight to see lie more clearly 16 When We No Longer ouch y Kristopher on Anthony (premiered y the urtle Creek Chorale) [he ork] addresses the stages o grie recovery (Denial, Isolation, Anger argaining, Depression, Acceptance and Hope) 17 he composer, a memer o the chorus, died o AIDS the eek o its premiere 18 here are dozens more examples o pieces commissioned y LG choirs and, on the GALA esite, there is a airly stunning resource hich contains an archive o over 100 ne orks ritten since the organization's inception y ell-knon composers such as Ricky Ian Gordon (Only Heaven), Liy Larsen (Everyone Sang), Stephen Paulus (oo Many Waltzes), and Samuel Adler (Rededication) 19 Pulitzer Prize-inning 16 Wesite o composer Michael Shaie, hrough a Glass Darkly, (accessed uly 15, 2016) 17 Allmusiccom, When We No Longer ouch, (accessed uly 15, 2016) 18 Reuen Reynolds III (conductor o the oston Gay Men's Chorus), phone intervie y the author, uly 15, Gay and Lesian Association o Choruses, Commissioning Ne Music, (accessed uly 15, 2016) 9

18 composers such as Gian Carlo Menotti (My Christmas), William olcom (he More Loving One), Ned Rorem (Love Alone), and ohn Corigliano (O Rage and Rememrance) have also een asked to contriute to the groth o the repertoire GALA has even gone so ar as to set up a und or commissioning emale composers to ork ith the omen's choruses in the organization 20 All o this is to say that LG choruses are hungry or their stories to e told through the commissioning o ne orks hich, as Mensel puts it, all explain some aspect o the gay, lesian, or eminist experience and not only reinorce those experiences or individuals ho are inside these communities, ut educate those outside as ell 21 I'm honored to have my composition sit alongside the LG-speciic orks that have come eore it 20 Gay and Lesian Association o Choruses, Roma Commissioning Consortium, (accessed uly 15, 2016) 21 Mensel, Roert, A Music o heir On: he Impact o Ainity Compositions on the Singers, Composers, and Conductors o Selected Gay, Lesian, and eminist Choruses (PhD diss, niversity o Oregon, 2007), 20 10

19 CHAPER Adapting the Sourcing Material 1 he Source Material David Levithan's o oys Kissing as pulished in 201 and ent on to in a Lamda Literary Aard 22 as ell as ecome one o the novels that as named to the National ook Aard Longlist y the National ook oundation 2 A year later it as named a Stoneall Honor ook in Children's and Young Adult Literature y the GL Round ale o the American Lirary Association 2 and gained notoriety in the LG press hen a parent in Warrenton, irginia asked that the ook e anned rom the lirary at auquier High School (an action hich as unanimously voted don) 25 In 2016 the author as aarded the Margaret A Edards Aard y the American Lirary Association 26 his honor is vieed y riters o young adult iction as something o a lietime achievement aard ut, over runch in Minneapolis, Levithan humly insisted that it as nothing o the sort Lamda Literary, o oys Kissing y David Levithan, (accessed uly 17, 2016) 2 National ook oundation, 201 National ook Aard Longlist, Young People's Literature, (accessed uly 17, 2017) 2 American Lirary Association, Stoneall ook Aards List, (accessed uly 17, 2016) 25 Hannah Dellinger, Committee decides to keep 'o oys Kissing' on school lirary shelves, auquiercom (esite o the auquier imes), April 2, ry_shelves (accessed uly 17, 2016) 26 American Lirary Association, Edards Aard, (accessed uly 18, 2016) 27 A list o previous inners includes people like Susan Cooper (he Dark is Rising sequence), Madeleine 11

20 Levithan's novel consists o our separate storylines all told to the reader in the irst person plural y a phantom Greek chorus o gay men ho lost their lives in the AIDS crisis o the 1980s None o the various Chorus 28 memers stick out as a primary voice ut, rather, are a sort o massive corporate character I I had to descrie their narrative voice I might reerence something like the org rom Star rek: he Next Generation (though not as villainous, o course); they're ust a massive hive mind his unique voice as the primary reason that the CGMC commissioned me to rite this ork a gay choral ensemle singing the ords o a gay Chorus and served as the main concern or the style in hich e adapted the narrative 2 Character Listing he story hich Levithan's Chorus tells the reader is made up o our primaryyet-disparate storylines o seven teenage oys: Craig and Harry, Neil and Peter, Avery and Ryan, and Cooper he Chorus dips in and out o the events happening in the oys' lives over the course o 8 hours and, though their stories are interoven ecause o the shiting gaze o the Chorus, they never actually meet In act, ut or a leeting moment at the end o the ook here Neil and Peter drive to see Craig and Harry in their recordreaking emrace (more on that in a minute), they are never in the same location at the same time he our storylines are as ollos: L'Engle (A Wrinkle in ime), and udy lume (Are You here God It's Me, Margaret) 28 Here I'd ust like to quickly mention that I'll e making a distinction eteen the actual character o the Chorus (capitalized) and the ensemle that perorms the musical ork: the chorus (loer-case) Hopeully it on't e too conusing rom here on out 12

21 Craig and Harry Craig and Harry the titular characters o the ook are to high school-aged oys ho used to date ut have since roken up and decided to remain riends heir classmate, ariq, as violently assaulted or eing gay ater leaving a movie theater and this event deeply aects Craig and Harry to the point that they eel they need to make a symolic statement aout LG rights In order to do this, they decide to undertake the Herculean task o reaking the orld record or the longest kiss: over hours total hey must stand the entire time, never take athroom reaks, and record the event in its entirety as proo What's interesting to note is that this is actually ased on a real-lie event hich Levithan reerences in an author's note at the end o the ook: On Septemer 18, 2010, college students Matty Daley and oy Canciello kissed or thirty-to hours, thirty minutes, and orty-seven seconds (longer than the characters in the ook) to reak the Guinness World Record or longest continuous kiss I am ust one o many people ho ere inspired y hat they did While the characters in this ook are not in any ay ased on Matty and oy, the story is certainly inspired y hat they did I am grateul to Matty or telling me hat it as like, and or continuing to inspire 29 In 2011 there as a documentary made aout Matty and oy's remarkale kiss called Our Lips Are Sealed 0 Hoever, their record has since een roken on more than one occasion (in one case y another gay couple in hailand ho kissed or over 50 hours! 1 ) 29 David Levithan, o oys Kissing, (Ne York: Alred A Knop, 201), Internet Movie Dataase, Our Lips Are Sealed, (accessed uly 11, 2016) 1 he elegraph, Male couple in kissing competition ith orld record 50-hour emrace, (accessed uly 11, 2016) 1

22 Neil and Peter O the our story lines in o oys Kissing, Neil and Peter are argualy the least important hey are to high-school-aged gay oys ho are in a stale relationship ith one another hey've een together or some time and have a comortale ease aout them heir maor scene occurs hen Peter's dad takes them to a ook store they're not yet old enough to drive themselves and they resolve a relationship issue y using the titles o ooks as dialogue It's cute It's meant to e cute here is some other ancillary drama ith Neil's amily, ho inexplicaly reuse to acknoledge that he is gay and that Peter is his oyriend, ut rom hat I can understand rom the structure and ocus o Levithan's ook, they are simply there to e the in situ itness or Craig and Harry's Kiss he story is told to the reader y the Chorus, ut Neil and Peter itness it in the orld in hich it is actually happening via live streaming on the Internet hey eventually travel to see the record eing roken in person at the end o the novel Avery and Ryan In the opening scenes o Levithan's ook the reader is invited into a prom or teenage LGs in a ton ith the improale name o Kindling 2 We are introduced to a pink-haired oy named Avery, and a lue-haired oy named Ryan hese colors are 2 David Levithan, o oys Kissing, (Ne York: Alred A Knop, 201), 7 1

23 ovious reerences to the colors traditionally associated ith the gender stereotypes o girls and oys, respectively, ut here Levithan decides to suvert those heteronormative concepts and, instead, inect another issue: transgender people Ryan is a cisgendered gay oy and, over the course o the ook, e ind out that Avery is not only gay as ell, ut he is also a transgendered oy his is not, hoever, simply lip service to the trans community Levithan uses the meetcute Avery and Ryan have at the prom to talk aout alling in love or the irst time, and Avery's eventual coming out as a trans person is used as a metaphor or the proverial earing o our souls that e all do hen e enter into a romantic relationship here is some consternation along the ay hich the oys eventually get through (they're assaulted y some local toughs in an aandoned miniature gol course) ut, as I've said eore: it's cute It's meant to e cute Cooper he story o Levithan's ook is, overall, hopeul and optimistic Hoever, one o the oys, Cooper, relects a sadder and sometimes all-too-amiliar experience that LG youth have hen they are discovered y less-than-supportive parents and susequently run out o their homes While there have een improvements or LGs in the nited States serving openly in the military, the passage o anti-discrimination las, marriage equality there is still much ork to e done According to he Williams Institute at the 15

24 niversity o Caliornia Los Angeles's School o La, 0% o all homeless youth in the nited States are LG that's approaching hal o all homeless youth and Cooper's story is a ictionalization o this scenario He is seventeen years old and, due to the isolation he experiences in high school, he has retreated to the Internet or his riendships and sexual encounters In most cases, he engages ith anonymous (and presumaly) older men to discuss and lirt ith (in some cases explicitly) In the opening passages o the ook, he alls asleep ith his head on the keyoard hile still talking ith these individuals and this keeps the computer monitor active until the morning His ather enters the room and reads the still-open chat indos rom the previous night and, enraged y homophoia, physically assaults his son he oy lees and spends the rest o the ook meandering rom place to place in a num despair ecause o ho his lie has allen apart Over the course o the story, he visits a coee shop here he deletes all the contacts rom his phone, has a less-than-stellar in-person romantic encounter ith an older man he meets on a hookup app, and has an anxious run-in ith a peer at Wal-Mart Eventually he makes his ay to a large ridge high aove a river leading to a large city here he attempts suicide According to Levithan, Cooper's story is somehat inspired y that o yler Clementi, a irst-year student at Rutgers niversity ho as surreptitiously videotaped he Williams Institute at the CLA School o La, America's Shame: 0% o Homeless Youth Are LG Kids, (accessed uly 5, 2016) 16

25 kissing another man y his roommate his violation o privacy comined ith amily issues Clementi as acing eventually drove the young man to take his on lie y umping o the George Washington ridge In contrast to Clementi's suicide, Cooper is ultimately pulled o the ridge railing y a traic cop and, in a discussion I had ith Levithan, he made sure to note that there are police oicers ho are directly tasked ith doing ust that 5 Creation o the liretto Adapting a nearly 200-page ook into an evening-length musical ork seemed a diicult task Aside rom a e diegetic songs the ook reerences as eing on the radio or playing in a dance clu, there isn't any music explicitly mentioned to reerence in a musical adaptation his meant that I ould have to create a liretto hich distilled the literary ork into something I could use hen I egan to compose In order to do this I undertook an exhaustive deconstruction o the various storylines; a process I egan to call exploding it out and putting the pieces ack together he our storylines don't happen in a linear ashion ecause the Chorus's gaze constantly shits rom one narrative to another so, in order to keep things organized, I constructed a master document in hich I kept the stories separate his ile hich eventually topped 20,000 ords as made up o veratim quotes rom the ook or thoughts that occurred to me during the process he Ne York imes, Ater Gay Son's Suicide, Mother inds lame in Hersel and in Her Church, August 2, 2012 (accessed uly 1, 2015) 5 David Levithan, intervie y author, Minneapolis, une 18,

26 o constructing the liretto and it alloed me to see the important events in each o the our stories as ell as the events that I thought I could excise in order to make the narrative something that ould yield the 50-minute piece the CGMC as commissioning he original terms o the commission ere that I as to place an emphasis on the character that the chorus portrayed he CGMC anted to make sure that the adaptation made the choral ensemle the star o the sho and, since the novel is primarily ritten in the third person as narrated y the Chorus, there as plenty o material to give them Hoever, this ecame a huge prolem ecause there as simply too much or the 50-minute ork the ensemle anted Solving this prolem ecame aout to things: sutracting characters and/or conlating their stories ith others' he irst characters to go ere the ancillary ones; characters hich didn't necessarily drive the plot Harry and Craig's emale riend, Smita, has a e interactions ith them as she helps ilm he Kiss ut has no real inluence on the events She as the irst to go and her videotaping o the event a requirement to prove they have roken the record as livecasted on the Internet and archived on a esite such as Youue instead he more important o their to riends ho help ith he Kiss is a gay oy named ariq His violent assault outside a movie theater serves as the catalyst or Harry and Craig coming up ith the idea or he Kiss and he has a ateul run to Craig's house 18

27 at the end o the ook ut, other than these to dramatic events, ariq doesn't have much earing on the plot Hoever, the motivation or he Kiss still needed to e in the story so, in order to preserve this, I had the assault happen to Harry instead Another minor character hich had to go as om ellamy, a history teacher at Harry and Craig's high school He is one o the adults in the story ho have signed on to chaperone he Kiss and is also an out gay man In a particularly touching moment, the Chorus recognizes him alking up to take his shit atching over the oys and recalls ho he as there or them as the men in the Chorus lay dying o AIDS so many years ago He serves as a sort o mortal protector o the next generation o gay kids, minding the herd, so to speak As he is the real orld emodiment o the Chorus his story as not easy to let go, ut it asn't important enough to arrant the minutes it ould take to tell it I you ere to ask ans o the ook hat they thought the iggest dierence eteen the plot o the ook and the plot o my musical ork as they ould likely say that my piece is missing the entire story o Neil and Peter I did ust as much exhaustive cataloging o their story as I did the other three ut, in the end, they don't serve to advance the plot orard Cooper's story as important ecause it gave voice to some o the struggles that LG youth ace in the orld, Avery and Ryan's as an opportunity to talk aout the experience o a transgender person (something that the conductor o the CGMC elt as very important), and Harry and Craig's kiss as the origin o the title o 19

28 the ook Hoever, Neil and Peter's experience as aout eing in a stale relationship and, aside rom some very teenage drama involving Neil's mother's seeming denial o his sexuality, the overall plot didn't seem to suer rom Neil and Peter's asence Once I had made those changes I decided to ocus on the narrative voice o the Chorus Since it doesn't consist o individual voices the various memers don't even have proper names it as important to ind a ay to have the prose narration hich advances the story occur or this I ell ack on my love o Handel oratorios and decided to make the liretto aout recitative versus aria he recitatives ould e in prose in order to move the storyline orard (I didn't kno yet i I anted them sung or spoken) and the arias ould have more poetic text that the chorus could ruminate on In order to see ho some o the earlier orks in the oratorio genre used a chorus like this, I looked at examples rom a e dierent composers: elix Mendelssohn's Eliah 6 and George rideric Handel's Messiah 7 Once I decided that the Narrators ould e spoken roles, I consulted more recent orks that used this element: El Niño y ohn Adams 8 and Leonard ernstein's MASS 9 ased on my research and the speed at hich I elt the plot ould need to unold, 6 Mendelssohn: Eliah, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, arara onney, lorence Quivar, erry Hadley and homas Hampson dir Roert Sha, elarc 2CD-8089, Messiah: George rideric Handel, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, ennier yvyan, Monica Sinclair, on ickers, and Giorgio ozzi dir Sir homas eecham, RCA ictor , ohn Adams: El Niño, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester erlin, Dan psha, Lorraine Hunt Lieerson, Willard White, heatre o oices, London oices, and Maîtrise de Paris dir Kent Nagano, Nonesuch 796-2, Leonard ernstein: MASS, Norman Scriner Choir, erkshire oy Choir, Alan itus, other vocal soloists, and instrumentalists dir Leonard ernstein, Sony Classical SM2K 6089,

29 I decided to create our narrators and task each ith a single storyline Narrator 1 told Cooper's story, Narrator 2 had Avery and Ryan, Narrator told the story o the Kiss, and Narrator as the mouthpiece or the Chorus his seemed like an eective ay o keeping Levithan's irst person plural style o storytelling intact (it's one o the primary charms o the novel) his also addressed one o my iggest concerns aout adapting the source material: ho the events in the story ould e conveyed to the listener It didn't seem eective to have the events o the novel explicitly played out on stage y memers o the chorus not to mention that it might look asurd or adult men to e portraying teenage oys or nearly an hour so having the Chorus tell the story to the audience in the same ashion as the source material seemed an ideal solution Once I made hat I thought ere the necessary adustments to the characters and plot I put all the pieces ack in an order as close as I could get to the ook's, assigned lines to the various Narrators, and ound places here I thought the chorus might comment musically What I came up ith as a 6-page liretto ith nearly 16,000 ords hich seemed as i it as going to clock in at nearly 90 minutes he initial commission as or a 50-minute ork, so I set out to do some even more udicious editing and egan taking out more individual events rom the three remaining storylines Cooper's story lost his lustered meeting ith a classmate at a local Wal-Mart, the veral assault that Avery and Ryan experience on their second date as removed, and a moment during the night hen someone harasses Harry and Craig y 21

30 loing a ra egg at them also hit the cutting room loor he resulting ne drat as only,000 ords shorter so I decided to ask a riend ith a master's degree in Creative Writing, Eric Grant, i he might take a look at hat I had and oer some advice aout getting the narration cut don He descries his role in the collaoration as ollos: he challenge ith any adaptation is staying as true to the source material as possile hile adding something that makes it personal to the person adapting it his as especially true ith o oys Kissing as the soul o the ook means so much to the LGQ community, and to stay loyal to that soul in the music as vital So ater numerous drats, a e arguments, and some silent apologies to Mr Levithan or cutting out parts o the ook, e captured a message in the liretto that [osh] elt his music could really ampliy and the results are etter than I could've hoped or here is still the distinct eel o Mr Levithan's ook, ut it's een ramed in a ay that makes it distinctly [osh's] vision as ell 0 Ater Eric got through ith a drat o his on he had trimmed the Narrators don to to named Roert and Matthe 1 instead o my our anonymous ones in order to allo them to have a conversation ith one another rather than ust parroting the events o the story at the audience 2, a leaner conlation o a e events, and an even more primary role or the Chorus (hich the commissioning party liked) he inal drat o the liretto that he and I produced as 28 pages and hal as many ords as the previous one he piece ould likely e clocking in a it over the 50-minute mark, ut oth the Artistic Director o the CGMC and I ere satisied ith it Since the narrative o the ook consisted o contrasting episodes in hich the 0 Eric Grant, correspondence ith the composer, uly 18, his as a nod to the real-lie, college-aged men ho roke the orld record or the longest kiss and served as inspiration to the author, oy Canciello and Matty Daley 2 In the irst production o o oys Kissing the CGMC chose to use six actors, each pair o hich ere responsile or one o the three storylines 22

31 Chorus checks in ith the dierent oys' stories, our inal structure mirrored this y yielding movements separated into our larger sections (ale 1) hose sections corresponded ith the three days over hich the story happens (ith riday laeled Prologues ) olloed y a section o epilogues in hich the Chorus talks aout their ishes and advice or uture generations o LG kids ale 1 List o movements or o oys Kissing Prologues 1 Openings 2 Chorus or Sleeping oys Saturday Wake up! Cooper's discovery 5 Chorus or oys Driving Cars 6 he reason 7 Narration 1 8 Chorus or the Sky 9 Narration 2 10 Cooper hits delete 11 Narration 12 Craig's mother shos up 1 Song or Some o Our Parents 1 Chorus o the ody 15 ourteen minutes 16 Harry and Craig kiss into the night 17 Chorus or a sleeping oy Sunday 18 Narration 19 Song or Some o s 20 enty-our hours 21 Narration 5 22 Hymn rom the closet 2 Chorus or Strength 2 Narration 6 25 Cooper leaves ton 26 Over and over again 27 Narration 7 28 Song or hat Kid Out here 29 Countdon Epilogues 0 Chorus or hen the time comes 1 Chorus or o oys Kissing 2 In eteen Make more than dust 2

32 CHAPER he Compositional Process Due to the time constraints o the commission I had less than 18 months rom signing the contract to the premiere I ould have to igure out ho to rite an hour's orth o music in a very short time Hoever, I also had to take into account the act that the CGMC as going to record it a month eore the premiere so they could have the alum availale or purchase so those 18 months ere actually more like 16 Since I ould e dealing ith rehearsal time constraints, my primary ocus in eginning to rite music ould have to e the parts that the Chorus ould e singing I ould inish those and send them o in a piano/vocal score as the parts o the liretto that ere primarily spoken narration took shape One o the challenges o orking ith a choir made up o amateur singers rom all ages and alks o lie is that the music has to e accessile ut still compelling and, as the singers aren't paid (and in some cases actually pay dues to e in the ensemle), the rehearsal process couldn't eel laorious My experience ith the men's chorus repertoire is that it can sometimes rely too heavily on hat I call the Wall o Sound y this I mean that there are entire pieces that are made up o solely homophonic, -part At the time I also had commissions rom the oston Gay Men's Chorus to rite a 25-minute ork or chorus and chamer orchestra as ell as an a cappella piece or the Minneapolis-ased ensemle, he Summer Singers Oviously not the recording technique pioneered y Phil Spector Wall o Sound is ust hat pops in my head every time I've een ored ith too much constant homophonic music 2

33 riting ith no variation or a lengthier piece like the one the CGMC envisioned in their commission I elt that I ould need to ind that variation in order to not ore the audience (or mysel), so I made the olloing mental list (ale 2): ale 2 List o possile choral textures or o oys Kissing -part Wall o Sound o, three, or our parts homophonic or contrapuntal nison (chant) Accompanied v a capella alsetto Since I as asing the structure o the piece on the oratorio genre and the role o the Chorus as to comment on the events o the story, it seemed natural that their material e more lyrical in contrast to hat the Narrators ere going to e given and, in some cases, irmly rooted in the songriting tradition that amateur choruses can sound so successul at perorming Hoever, since I as concerned ith textural variation I didn't ant to have the piece to only e rooted in that tradition I entertained a e dierent ays o generating material ut the method hich I elt ould e the most expedient as to ase the entire oratorio on a sequence o chords hese chords and the order in hich they occurred ould govern the ork in a airly strict ay that ould eliminate a lot o choices or me hen I eventually sat don to rite his as a practical decision as it ould allo me to rite aster and meet my approaching deadline his Primary Chord Sequence 17 in all occurs in every 25

34 transposition throughout the course o o oys Kissing ut, or the sake o revity, only the transposition hich egins ith the loest note as a -natural is listed here (igure 2) igure 2 he Primary Chord Sequence he Primary Chord Sequence had elements o diatonicism chords 11 and 12 orm a dominant progression ( 7 I 9 ) in the key o C and chords 8 and 9 imply a progression o I 6 I in the key o A (aleit ith some added color notes) and, thus, ould e easier or amateur musicians to hear since the consonant harmonies ould e 26

35 somehat amiliar Hoever, over an hour o purely diatonic music seemed as i it might get oring so there are elements in the sequence hich are dissonant as ell (chords 1 through 16 in particular) In case there ere long sequences o narration in hich the harmonies moved quickly, it as also important that the Primary Chord Sequence could start over somehat seamlessly his is hy the irst and last memers (chords 1 and 17), although voiced dierently, are exactly the same except or a single pitch Another primary element o the ook hich I elt had to someho e portrayed in the music as that o the to dierent orlds in hich the action takes place: the orld o the living hich the oys inhait and the orld o the dead hich the Chorus inhaits I had een analyzing a lot o Philip Glass's music at the time and ran across the irst movement o his 1982 composition, Glassorks, hich he titled Opening (igure ) he constant -against-2 hich happens throughout the movement's six minutes o music orm a eautiul, interlocking, and kaleidoscopic pattern hen heard together ut the right hand and let hand never play simple or compound time together his seemed like the perect metaphor or the orld o the oys and the orld o the Chorus; alays seemingly orking in congress ith one another ut never quite meeting up Consequently, the irst movement o o oys Kissing deploys this same rhythmic pattern and, in triute to Glass's ork, is called Openings 5 (igure ) his threeagainst-to rhythm occurs throughout o oys Kissing in various tempi and registers 5 he plural orm o this ord is due to the act that there are multiple storylines hich egin here 27

36 igure Opening rom Glassorks, mm igure Openings rom o oys Kissing, mm 1-8 Once the piano/vocal score had een composed and as the narrative portions o the liretto ecame locked y mysel and my co-lirettist, I needed to egin the 6 Philip Glass, Opening rom Glassorks, (Dunvagen Music: ryn Mar, PA: Presser, 1982, c198) 28

37 orchestration process he terms o the commission ere that the chorus e accompanied y a chamer ensemle hose instrumentation as to e chosen in consultation ith the Artistic Director o the CGMC In the summer o 2015 I as taken on a 10-day tour o Israel and urkey ith the oston Gay Men's Chorus so, y the time it came to choose an instrumentation or o oys Kissing, I kne the challenges I as going to e acing ith such a large group o only tenors and asses I had also heard a onderul alum o music called So here 7 hich piano-ased singer/songriter en olds made ith the chamer ensemle ymusic heir instrumentation o lute, clarinet, trumpet, violin, viola, and cello seemed as i it might e the right comination o trele-heavy ranges and right instrumental colors to comat over 100 men's voices he CGMC already had a sta accompanist to play piano and the Artistic Director suggested e add a contraass to ill out the lo end and, ater e agreed on adding a percussionist, that set our inal instrumentation (ale ) We ould have the lush sound and ull range o strings, the dexterity o oodinds, the poer o a rass instrument, and the colors o a percussion section here as some discussion aout adding an ooe and a horn, ut udgetary issues ere a concern 7 So here, en olds, ymusic, Giancarlo Guerrero, and the Nashville Symphony Ne West Records NW67,

38 ale Instrumentation or o oys Kissing lute Clarinet in -lat rumpet in -lat Percussion Piano iolin iola Cello ass During the pre-composition period I elt it as a good idea to come up ith a deined role or the orchestra ecause I didn't ant it to sound to the audience as i it ere ust oligatory accompaniment I had entertained ideas aout ho the various sections o the instrumental ensemle strings, inds, and percussion might correspond ith the three oys' storylines ut I elt that might eel somehat oring as each instrument ould then e locked into a role Instead, I settled on the notion that the instruments might exist in the same orld as the Chorus and only come in during a movement in hich the chorus sang his idea came rom a masterclass I attended a e years ago in hich the lecturer relayed an anecdote aout ho the composer Dominick Argento had once told him that i a composer has a liretto in hich parts are spoken, then there is no reason or other parts to e sung What I thought that it o advice might e getting at is that the dierent sound orlds that spoken text and sung text inhait are aurally disconnected rom one another and that the transition eteen the to can e arring It reminded me o the instances in hich I've heard pieces that have narration typically ampliied using a microphone and speakers and the narrator either comes in or drops out he transition 0

39 rom ampliied sound to acoustic sound nearly alays took me out o the experience the composer as trying to crat and I've elt somehat averse to ever using spoken narration ever since In order to amiliarize mysel ith pieces outside the oratorio genre that had large sections ith spoken narration I listened to pieces like Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait 8 and Leonard ernstein's Symphony No : Kaddish 9 and, although the transition eteen ampliied sound and acoustic sound asn't as arring as I rememered ecause o the ays in hich sound engineers can mix recordings, I as still reminded that I ould need to attempt to solve this prolem or the ork's our scheduled live perormances he solution I came up ith in order to lur the lines eteen the acoustic singing o the Chorus and the ampliied speech o the Narrators as the orchestra hey ould only e used in the movements o the oratorio in hich the chorus as singing his ould have them inhaiting a sound orld distinct rom that o the Narrators instead o sharing it and calling attention to the dierence eteen ampliied and acoustic vocal sound It ould also urther serve to divorce the Chorus rom the orld o the living and seemingly elevate their singing into a dierent musical space rom the accompanied narration 8 Appalachian Spring, Melvyn Douglas, oston Symphony Orchestra, and Serge Koussevitzky Dutton CDEA 5021, ernstein Conducts ernstein: Kaddish Chichester Psalms, elicia ernstein, ennie ourel, Columus oychoir, Camerata Singers, Ne York Philharmonic, and Leonard ernstein Sony Classical SMK 60595,

40 igure 5 Percussion setup or CGMC's recording session o o oys Kissing Photo credit: Paul Nixdor With that I had the ull measure o constraints or riting the piece: narration ould only e accompanied y piano and the orchestra ould only e used i the chorus as singing here ere instances in hich I departed rom these commandments or dramatic license, ut having these to measures in place moved options o the tale and helped me ork aster 2

41 CHAPER 5 Analysis 51 se o Dierent Choral extures As I mentioned eore, I made a mental list o the dierent textures I could get out o a choral ensemle made up o only men's voices (ale 2) When I egan composing o oys Kissing I didn't make a checklist to make sure that I used every one o these textures and in some cases as in the use o the alsetto range I didn't end up using them at all he -part, homophonic, Wall o Sound I had een so concerned aout overusing ended up in only to prominent passages (oth o hich turned out to e a cappella): mm 5-5 in No 2 (Appendix, pp ) and No 22, Hymn rom the Closet (p 21) Examples o homophonic and contrapuntal singing in a to-part texture can e seen in No 1, mm (pp ) and No 2 (pp 2-25), respectively I ound that this equal tenor/ass division alloed or greater clarity o the ords as they ere sung y the ensemle his as a concern ecause I kne eorehand that the CGMC ould not e using supertitles in their perormances A three-part division o the ensemle has alays een prolematic or me as a composer ecause a men's ensemle isn't usually divided in that ay here are our sections: tenors (1 and 2), aritones, and asses A three-part division alays requires 50 rom here on out I'm going to e reerring to page numers o this dissertation document

42 special dispensation in rehearsal and, thus, takes time aay rom learning repertoire Hoever, there ere a e instances in o oys Kissing here I decided to employ it he most prominent example is ound in No, mm (pp 1-5) Here I used it ecause o the natural, uilding expansion rom unison, to to-part, to three-part voicings that the harmonies undergo throughout the ensuing stanzas o the text In this three-part passage, I dropped the orchestration don to ust the inds lute, clarinet, and trumpet to allo or more text clarity he our-part contrapuntal texture is one that I almost never employed due to the act that, in a ensemle, all o the ranges are tightly packed together Conservatively, there are only aout to octaves and a third D2 to G that are generally usale and dividing that among our voices means that clarity o line and text is a concern; the lyrics can e completely oscured and the vertical harmonies are all the listener can hear I decided to use this to my advantage during No 26, Over and Over (pp , mm 2-50) his movement occurs ater the Chorus atches Cooper attempt suicide and one o the narrators comments that every time they are made to atch an LG child end their lie that the men o the Chorus die over and over again (a line taken directly rom the ook he text or this movement consists o the repetition o the inal our ords o that quote so the our-part, contrapuntal harmonies ouldn't need aural clarity or the listener to kno hat the chorus as singing; the music could then concern itsel primarily ith the harmonic content his as also a particularly

43 emotional moment or a lot o audience memers I spoke ith ater the perormances One o the irst times I can rememer encountering a chorus o men singing as in 1990 as a 10-year-old riding the school us and hearing the German pop group Enigma's song, Sadeness (Part I), 51 come over the radio In it a group o monks is heard chanting in unison over an electronic eat his song orms some o my earliest memories o the male voice so, henever I'm asked to compose something or a group o tenors and asses, I nearly alays use this texture Due to the sheer numer o singers perorming a given line it (a) can cut more eectively through a larger instrumental ensemle or a smaller group playing loudly and () the clarity o the lyrics is heavily ampliied or the listener his is hy you ind plenty o unison or, in some cases topart riting in orks or chorus and orchestra A prominent example o this in o oys Kissing occurs in mm o No 1, Openings, hen the chorus sings the ords It as an exquisite irony: ust hen e stopped anting to kill ourselves, e started to die (pp 88-90) he chorus egins in unison so the listener can clearly hear the heartreaking text he a cappella texture has een, in my experience, underutilized in the repertoire ritten or gay men's choruses his is likely ecause, as a chorus consisting primarily o amateur singers, tuning can sometimes e an issue Hoever, ecause it is seldom used meant to me that, hen it is, it can e striking I rarely used this texture ecause o the 51 MCMXC ad, Enigma, Charisma Records,

44 pragmatic aspects o having accompaniment or an amateur chorus ut, I elt it arranted having only the chorus singing or No 22, Hymn rom the Closet, (page 21) as the lyrics, taken veratim rom the ook, are especially poignant: I you put enough closets together, you have enough space or a room I you put enough rooms together, you have space or a house I you put enough houses together, you have space or a ton, hen a city, hen a nation, hen a orld his entirely a cappella, homophonic hymn is also o note ecause it contains some particularly challenging harmonies or an amateur choir Over the course o its measures they rigorously traverse the irst nine chords o the Primary Chord Sequence in its E-natural transposition 52 Spoken Narration and nderscoring One o the primary challenges o composing o oys Kissing as iguring out ho to notate the spoken narration Since the Narrators ere mainly going to e accompanied only y the piano vamping through the Primary Chord Sequence, it seemed a practical idea or the pianist to e ale to see hen they should move on to the next chord instead o ust receiving a cue rom the conductor or this reason I notated the dialogue the narrators ere speaking in oxes over each vamp in the piano part I the line as short enough I included all o it ut, i it ere longer, I might only give the irst portion olloed y an ellipsis olloed y the inal portion o the line (igure 6) I 6

45 spoke ith a colleague ho had a lot o experience playing keyoards in pit orchestras and, hen I shoed him ho I had attempted to solve the prolem o shoing hen to transition to the next vamp he said, Yeah, this is great We usually get ay less than this! igure 6 Narration 5, mm 1-7, rom o oys Kissing 7

46 5 Inluence o the roaday Musical Style ale List o Songs in o oys Kissing No 1, Song or Some o Our Parents (pp ) D-lat maor throughout No 19, Song or Some o s (pp ) E minor throughout No 28, Song or hat Kid Out here (pp ) D maor throughout No, Make more than dust (pp 29-55) C-maor ith a hole step modulation up Repertoire o the roaday tradition can sometimes make up a large (ut not necessarily primary) part o a perormance y a gay men's chorus his could e due to any numer o historical, sociological, or psychological reasons hich are ar too complicated to rite aout here ut the act remains: these ensemles are steeped in this tradition and it's something they are good at perorming ecause o this I anted to make sure to put a e songs in the oratorio y reerencing the idiosyncrasies o this repertoire strophic structures, rhyme schemes, etc they ould oth e using skills the ensemle as already adept at as ell as serve as an expressly diatonic contrast to elements o the Primary Chord Sequence hich didn't necessarily have stale diatonicism Although some o the chorus's music throughout has diatonic and song-like elements, there are only our movements hich have the clearly-deined, strophic structures and rhyme schemes that are the hallmark o many musical theater productions Most contain only the I, I,, and vi chords and, ith the exception o the ascending 8

47 hole-step modulation in No, Make more than dust, they all adhere to one key throughout In three o the our, I have gone so ar as to explicitly reer them as songs in their titles (ale ) 9

48 Conclusions o oys Kissing is a signiicant moment in my career as a composer or many reasons It is the irst time I've een commissioned to rite an evening-length ork, the irst time I've adapted a literary ork into a liretto, and the irst time I've seen a ork o mine staged in a dramatic ashion (igure 7) It required ringing to ear all o the knoledge I've gained as a composer riting or the voice over the last 15 years, ut also required me to rite or instruments in a convincing and eective ay he ork is musically successul ecause the maor thematic elements the Primary Chord Sequence, song structures, and the spoken narration stay consistent ut not oring (hopeully) throughout the ork's 70-minute length Not only as the CGMC ale to rehearse and record it successully, ut it as met ith standing ovations all our times it as pulicly perormed so it seems to have connected ith its intended audience and the risk the ensemle took in commissioning a composer one ho doesn't have a literary degree to adapt a novel into something musical or them as hopeully orth it erey Heine, the Executive Director o the CGMC, summed up his thoughts on ho the collaoration ended up: 0

49 in Cities Gay Men s Chorus has a history o orking ith composers to create ne choral orks that tell the stories o our community through music his process o collaoration is alays un and rearding, to go through the act o discovery and sharing as a composer presents their vision that ill e expressed y the voices o over 150 men ut o oys Kissing, and orking ith osh, as extra special or all o us Many o our singers had a very deep, personal response to the music the irst time they sang it osh got to the heart o the source material Where the ook takes a hile to ind its themes, osh takes you there rom the start It s an emotional experience or the men o the chorus and the audience It has een a pleasure to collaorate ith osh and e are so proud to have een ale to present it to our audiences 52 igure 7 CGMC perorms o oys Kissing in ed Mann Concert Hall in Minneapolis, une 17, 2016 Photo credit: Paul Nixdor In uly o 2016 I attended the Gay and Lesian Association o Choruses estival in Denver, Colorado ith my husand, Roert here ere over 6,600 singers there the vast maority o hich ere LG individuals and oettcher Concert Hall in the Denver Perorming Arts Center as packed or the perormance o o oys Kissing on uly 5 (igure 8) Due to the history o discrimination and hatred that LGs can ace, they can ring a lot o traumatic experiences to the ays in hich they interact ith each 52 erey Heine (Executive Director o CGMC) correspondence ith the composer, uly 18,

50 other and orks o art aimed at giving voice to their lie experiences so, or me, it as important that the ork e emotionally successul as ell I took the act that I as riting something or this audience very seriously even more so than many o my other commissions and it seems to have paid o in the our live perormances I itnessed In every case I oserved more than one chorus memer openly moved to tears hile they perormed I alked out o the perormance in Denver to ind a oman soing in the loy I said, You look like you might need a hug, and e emraced or a solid 0 seconds hile she cried into my suit acket Gerald Gurss, the Artistic Director o Charlotte, North Carolina's LGA choir, One oice Chorus, sent me a note that said: Having had close riends ho ere taken y HI/AIDS, I as extremely moved y the concept o [the Chorus] I rememer eing given advice rom them on topics rom dating to alays rememering those ho'd gone eore to advance LG rights [o oys Kissing] rought those riends ack to me I sat in the Denver audience soing most o the hour 5 At the third perormance in Minneapolis a rail-thin man came up to me aterard and gave me a hug He told me he had een HI-positive or decades and survived three outs ith cancer and said, I'm one o the ones ho stayed ehind He as reerencing a line I rote in the inal verse o No 19, Song or Some o s, that the Chorus sings: Some o us, they stayed ehind hey think o us most every day hey atch over you ith us in mind hey survived to sho you the ay or him, it provided a sae space to grieve his riends and look toard the uture As an 5 Gerald Gurss (Artistic Director o One oice Chorus) in correspondence ith the composer, uly 10,

51 LG individual mysel ut, more importantly, as a human eing ho places an emphasis on having empathy or others, I can't think o anything etter to put my time and compositional talents toard than hat that gentleman experienced during the 70 minutes o o oys Kissing igure 8 CGMC perorms o oys Kissing in oettcher Concert Hall in Denver, uly 6, 2016 Photo credit: erey Heine