‘Onward to the End of the Nineteenth Century’: Edward Prime-Stevenson’s Queer Musicological Nostalgia

Abstract

Abstract Relatively little known today, Edward Prime-Stevenson (1858–1942) was a man of hidden depths. Despite success as a music critic, Prime-Stevenson left the United States around the turn of the century to pursue (in his words) ‘studies in a branch of sexual psychology’ in Europe. Following this move, he published two books on homosexuality under the pseudonym Xavier Mayne. While ‘Mayne’s’ work has been analysed in depth by LGBTQ+ literary scholars in the past twenty years, Prime-Stevenson’s musical writings have received substantially less attention. This article considers the intertextual relationships between his musical and sexological writings—in particular, his approach to secret messages in instrumental music, musings on musical intimacy, and attempts at queer canon-building—as both a scholarly attempt at creating a proto-‘queer musicology’ through sheer force of will and a deeply personal voicing of queer musical nostalgia.