Quite Regularly Gay

Poet/Lyricist: 

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)

Gertrude Stein said: "A sound, a whole sound is not separation, a whole sound is in an order." "Quite Regularly Gay" is indeed "in an order." Part minimalist round, part Gilbert and Sullivan, this lively piece is a setting of an excerpt from a Stein essay that is believed to contain the first modern literature usage of the word "gay" in the context of homosexuality.

Level: 

Moderate
Item Voicing/Instrumentation Duration Price Audio View Score Quantity
JS-032D
PDF download
SSAA, sop. solo, piano 3:00 $2.00
JS-032 digital purchase only N/A https://www.joanszymko.com/sites/joanszymko.com/files/VMP032Quite%20Regularly%20Gay_0.mp3
JS-032MXD
PDF download
SSSATB, sop. solo, piano 3:00 $2.00
JS-032MX digital purchase only N/A

Publisher: 

Joan Szymko
Text

Quite Regularly Gay

They were regularly gay. They were gay every day.
They ended every day in the same way, at the same time, and

they had been every day regularly gay.

To be regularly gay was to do every day the gay thing that

they did every day. To be regularly gay was to end every

day at the same time after they had been regularly gay.


They were regular in being gay,they learned little things

that are things in being gay, they learned many little things

that are things in being gay, they were gay every day, they

were regular,they were gay, they were gay the same length

of time every day,they were gay, they were quite regularly gay.

She came to using many ways in being gay, she came to use

every way in being gay. She went on living where many

were cultivating something and she was gay, she had used

every way to be gay.

Translation: 

Excerpted by the composer from “Miss Furr and Miss Skeene," an essay from Geography and Plays (1922)

itemtext: 

PDF download

Reviews: 

"I LOVE this piece!!" — Dr. Iris Levine, director Vox Femina Los Angeles and National Repertoire and Standards Chair for women chorus