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by Toni Pizanie
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

Lesbian American Composers

CRI has released a collection of compositions by eleven Lesbian Americans. The work is a follow-up to the two-volume series "Gay American Composers" released in 1996.

Seven of the eleven self-identified Gay women are from New York. They are Pauline Oliveros, Nurit Tilles, Paula Kimper, Eve Beglarian, Annea Lockwood, Madelyn Byrne, and Ruth Anderson. Jennifer Higdon is from Philadelphia with Linda Montano of Austin, TX and the improvisation duo of Marilyn Lerner and Lori Freedman of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Being a dedicated listener of CDs by Suede, Robyn E, Tina Benez and many more out Lesbian singers/composers, I could hardly wait to set the mood with glowing candles, a cooling breeze created by A/C & ceiling fan, a glass of wine set next to my comfy over-stuffed chair. I popped in the CD, curled up with eyes closed and listened.

Clang, bang, bump. I sat upright, eyes bulging. I couldn't believe my ears. I was transported back to the LSU School of Music auditorium. Suddenly it was 1967 and John Cage, Gay composer of the time, was ripping at everything I held sacred in music.

Determined to like and enjoy everything Lesbian composers have worked for the last thirty years, I gritted my teeth and listened. Thump, thump-a heart beat started the third selection then a voice stated, "I am Sappho of Lesbos." Ah! A song, a tone poem about our beloved heroine, Sappho. "Once, I had 33 vertebra, thump, thump, once, I had 22 feet of intestines, thump, thump, I had..." PLEASE! Girl friend, give me a break.

There were other one-line poems set to "interesting" musical tones. And two lovely soprano voices a bit off-key on purpose. All this has been done before and just as badly.

Years before Alice Cooper and Ozzie started biting the heads off snakes or "whatever" and every other hard rock band started beating their instruments to death, there was John Cage, Gay American composer, with an axe destroying a Baby Grand piano on the stage of Carnige Hall. Avant-garde treatment of music didn't start in the 60s with Ives and Cage; although, they did perfect the dissident noise considered to be the new age classical scene. Before them, some believed that the exquisite melodies of Aaron Copeland, also a Gay American composer, were unorthodox. Humph!

Now, I am not telling you that the works of all eleven serious composers are the heterodox creations of bangs and clangs, of sounds of machine guns and skipping radio channels, I am telling you that this new CD is not easy listening in the most literal terms. This isn't the CD I'd give as a gift to my mom. Yet, I might give it to one of my old music major friends as a reminder of how far we haven't come.

November Elections

It is not too early to look toward the Nov. elections with fear in our hearts and determination to overturn the advances of the Christian Coalition. Pat Robertson, founder and funder of the Christian Coalition, states openly that the Coalition is "dominant" in the Republican Party in eighteen states and has "substantial" influence in thirteen other states. Robertson demands, "We must complete the job in all fifty states." This means the elimination of what little is left of the "moderate" wing of the Republican Party. This is a GOP that would NOT like Ike.

Those states where the Coalition claims dominance are LA, TX, OK, AL, GA, FL, SC, NC, VA, MN, IA, WA, OR, ID, CA, CO, AZ, and AK. Maine, which was considered substantial, is quickly becoming more controlled after the failure of equal right legislation earlier this year. Other states considered substantially controlled are MT, NV, UT, NE, KS, AR, MS, KY, IN, MI, OH, & PA.

The GOP has been very clear that tax breaks are for the rich. They have also shown their anti "big government" stand is really anti Medicare, Social Security, school loans and environmental protection. If this affects you, you may want to join the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. These Democratic Senate candidates across the Nation need your help.

In James Carville's book We're Right, They're Wrong, he said of the Republican right-wing, "If progressivism folds we will not have any right to go pointing fingers at the Republican Party.... We will have only ourselves to blame. It will be our fault, and ours alone. It will mean that we were mute when we should have been defending what we believe."

He makes an excellent point which is as true today as it was when written. It is time to act.

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