"the entirety of a man’s story, his biography, condensed into just over four minutes of bassoon bopping" -Bad Gardening Advice (badgardeningadvice.com/reviews/f/der-tapferer-urning---chris-hay)

Purchase of the album includes the score in concert and playing pitch and individual parts, all in one PDF file.

Notes on the piece

This piece was composed for The Ladies’ Reeding Society’s Trio de Bois (www.ladiesreedingsociety.org), who put out a call for reed trio scores with submissions due July 15, 2020. Composers had to pick a subject of inspiration from four choices. I chose “a historical figure who influenced your worldview” and the figure I chose was Karl Heinrich Ulrichs. Ulrichs was a 19th century German lawyer, journalist, and writer who is now considered a pioneer in the movement for gay rights.

I first learned of Ulrichs not from a history class or a book but from a webcomic—Kate Beton’s “Hark! A Vagrant” (harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=396). At that time I had recently come out as gay. Seeing a historical figure and from another country (actually, I am half German myself), I felt a kind of reassurance. The fight for LGBT+ people to live their lives in peace, and like any other member of society, was not new and not isolated to America. There is something about realizing you are gay, you learn to question authority and think for yourself, and you have a greater sensitivity and respect for others, you learn not to judge as quickly. Although I’m not as smart, prolific, or courageous as Ulrichs, I admire him and hope I too can make the world a better place in my own way. I hope I can honour his memory with this piece and encourage others to learn more about him.

The piece itself is a kind of short biography of Ulrichs, highlighting certain points in his life. First, the solo bassoon line establishes a theme for Ulrichs. Being gay (an “Urning”) was part of his identity. He accepts himself, gains confidence, and finds there are others like him. There is joy in these things.

The next section has a rigid structure and alternates between major and minor tonalities. The purpose is to evoke Ulrichs’ time in academics and his scholarly strengths, but also his description of himself as a feminine person in a masculine body.

Next is a dramatization of Ulrichs’ speech before the German Jurists at the Odeon Theatre in Munich. He called for the repeal of anti homosexual laws, but he was shouted down before he could complete his speech. The bassoon is a steady heartbeat; although he was nervous, he went through with the speech anyway. The oboe is his speech, which is also his theme from earlier: sometimes just being your authentic self can be political, a form of activism. The clarinet is in a different key, and whispers, moans, and shrieks in fear and a lack of understanding. A partial inspiration for this section was Charles Ives’ “The Unanswered Question”.

Despite the negative response, Ulrichs continued writing volumes of theory and philosophy on same-sex attraction. He moved throughout Germany and finally settled in L’Aquila Italy. This fourth section uses the melody and harmonies of the scholarly section earlier, but in a more free, natural way and evoking a sense of movement.

Living in L’Aquila, Ulrichs was poor but lived in peace, and shifted his energies to promoting international use of the Latin Language. His journal Aulaudae (Larks) flew across countries and was even enjoyed by royalty! Besides his writing he enjoyed walking in nature, collecting flowers and breeding butterflies. This final section features Ulrich’s theme beautifully in an elongated triple metre. Activism is important but it is also draining. I think after all the work Ulrichs did, this peaceful period at the end of his life, when he could just exist as himself and pursue his other interests, was well deserved. Ulrichs wrote: “Until my dying day I will look back with pride that I found the courage to come face to face in battle against the spectre which for time immemorial has been injecting poison into me and into men of my nature. Many have been driven to suicide because all their happiness in life was tainted. Indeed, I am proud that I found the courage to deal the initial blow to the hydra of public contempt.”

Despite Ulrichs’ fight for positive change, his peaceful end, and his legacy, I felt I could not end the piece completely happily. Like the racism at the end of Mark Camphouse’s “A Movement For Rosa”, homophobia was still strong after Ulrichs and it lingers to this day. We cannot become complacent in the comfort of progress that has been made, but need to stay aware that there is still much work to be done.