Abstract
O n the slight position of songs in his oeuvre, Aaron Copland simply commented: "I had never thought of myself as a vocal composer."' Samuel Barber, though, had never thought of himself as limited in any such way, saying so with flair. When asked why he actively cultivated both vocal and instrumental idioms, as opposed to Copland, the younger composer responded: "I myself am bisexual: I do both."2 Raising the possibility of same-sex desire (along with heterosexual desire), Barber's quip snagged the cover of public reticence maintained by him and the large number of gay American composers of roughly his generation, a diverse group including, among others, Copland, Virgil Thomson, Marc Blitzstein, John Cage, and Harry Partch.s Besides this brief moment of revelation, Barber's declaration of bisexuality begs a series of playful questions. If he's both, then what's gay and straight? Are songs and opera homosexual, and instrumental
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