The sound of music.

Where is the future of gay and lesbian music headed? Who knows. The future does not exist. If the future existed, it would not, by definition, be the future. And anyone who speculates about the aesthetics of the future is always proved wrong.

Two or three generations ago, when American music was striving to wean itself from Europe, there arose the constant question, What is American music? How do you define it? How do you write it? Composer Virgil Thomson, always quick with the glib retort, said, "It's very easy to write American music. All you have to do is be an American, then write any kind of music you wish."

By the same token, one generation ago, when homosexuals throughout the world were emerging proudly from their closets, there arose the constant question, Is there a gay sensibility? To which I replied, "Define gay sensibility; then I'll tell you if there is one."

It is always urgent for a newly admitted minority--racial or sexual--to want to define itself beyond its own obvious identity. Well, with literature and painting perhaps it's possible to identify products from blacks or females or even gays (though how many times one is proved wrong!). But with music, other than music linked to other arts (opera, song), this is hopeless. For music has no provable subject matter. How do you guess whether a piece is written by a woman? Because it's delicate and "feminine"? Then what about the aggressively violent music by so many women today, as distinct from the "delicate" music of the past by such heterosexuals as Gabriel Faure or Frederic Chopin? Is it style or subject? Walt Whitman, said to be gay, was actually a very butch poet. Artist Aubrey Beardsley, said to be straight, was evanescent and--shall we say?--passive.

Does a person's sexuality influence his or her work? Of course it does, just as his or her education, personal appearance, and family background influence it. No one knows just how. The important distinction to be made is not between straight and gay music but between good and bad music.

I asked my partner, James Holmes, if there existed gay and lesbian music. His quick retort was, "All music is gay; no music is lesbian." Can you prove otherwise?

Rorem, Pulitzer prize--winner in musical composition, is also the author of 14 books, including The Paris Diary and Knowing When to Stop.