I will be taking my family to Wolf Trap tonight to see the Marine Band finish its program with Aaron Copland+óGé¼Gäós Billy the Kid and, of course, Tchaikovsky+óGé¼Gäós 1812 Overture, which this country has adopted as one of its favorite patriotic barn-burners. Copland appears a lot in summer concerts +óGé¼GÇ£ we hear his Fanfare for the Common Man, Rodeo, Lincoln Portrait, and Appalachian Spring frequently. Another commonly heard composer +óGé¼GÇ£ Leonard Bernstein. It will be hard to miss his West Side Story songs or suite this summer. For solemn moments, Samuel Barber+óGé¼Gäós Adagio for Strings, which was the theme of the highly evocative movie Platoon, is played a fair amount.
One other thought. All these fine composers were gay. (Bernstein may have been bisexual.) All had to hide their preferences, sometimes with +óGé¼+ôcover+óGé¼-¥ marriages. Tchaikovsky, according to one school of biographers, may have committed suicide to keep knowledge of his homosexuality from becoming public. (I wonder what else he would have written, since he was at the height of his powers when he died.)
I hope everyone enjoys the music they hear this summer, however they plan to vote on Virginia+óGé¼Gäós anti-gay amendment.