I

 

The ORDINAND, CANTOR, and CONGREGATION stand.

 

ORDINAND:             (chanting) Fabeness be to the Auntie, and to the Homie Chavvie, and to the

                                    Fantabulosa Fairy;

 

CONGREGATION:   (chanting) As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world

                                    nanti end. Larlou.

 

The CONGREGATION are seated.

 

ORDINAND:             Timbre is a sensation in which we bathe.

 

CANTOR:                  Timbre is the tonal quality of a sound. Have you ever fallen in love

                                    with a voice on the telephone or at a party or on the radio?

 

CONGREGATION:   The voice of Liza Minnelli.
MEMBER 1

 

CONGREGATION:   Yodelling.
MEMBER 2

 

CONGREGATION:   My husband’s morning laugh.
MEMBER 3

 

ORDINAND:             We can perhaps imagine timbre as a complex form of tissue or a

                                    touchable fabric. It must be felt to be processed.

 

CANTOR hums and makes other wordless vocal sounds.

 

ORDINAND:             When we make sound, we create a field of vibrations. We shake matter.

                                    From our bodies, waves move forth and journey through space and time.

                                    They act on matter.

 

Members of the CONGREGATION begin to join the CANTOR in humming and making wordless vocal sounds.

 

ORDINAND:             As soon as we create a sound wave, it moves out of us. The sequence was

                                    fabricated by a living body and carries a unique imprint of that body. Yet it is

                                    literally disembodied. We hear and feel a body, but it is the vibration itself that

                                    touches us. There is no flesh.

 

CONGREGATION and CANTOR abruptly fall silent. Beat.

 

CANTOR:                  (chanting) O sing unto the Duchess a new chant;

 

CONGREGATION:   (chanting) Sing unto the Duchess, all the earth.

 

All exit, except CONGREGATION MEMBERS 1, 2, and 3.

 

II

 

CONGREGATION MEMBERS 2 and 3 are seated. CONGREGATION MEMBER 1 stands.

 

CONGREGATION:   Recall the pre-coming out experience of rifling through dictionaries,
MEMBER 1                encyclopaedias, book indexes.

 

CONGREGATION:   Catechism of the Catholic Church. Homosexuality. 2357.
MEMBER 2

 

CONGREGATION:   Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who
MEMBER 3                experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the

                                    same sex.

 

CONGREGATION:   We pored over terse definitions as if we’d found forbidden fruit.
MEMBER 1   

 

CONGREGATION:   Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of
MEMBER 3                grave depravity, tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are

                                    intrinsically disordered”. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and

                                    sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

 

CONGREGATION:   Even these negative, damning treatments of queer folk helped us feel that we

MEMBER 1                were not alone. That even if we were different, abnormal, or immoral, there

                                    were more of us inthe world than our parents and teachers knew or told us

                                    about.

 

III

 

The ORDINAND, CANTOR, and remainder of the CONGREGATION return. The CONGREGATION are seated; the ORDINAND and CANTOR stand.

 

CONGREGATION:   Queer people seek other queer people.
MEMBER 2

 

CONGREGATION:   To meet some of their queer needs.
MEMBER 3

 

CONGREGATION:   Their queer desires.
MEMBER 1

 

CANTOR:                  Seeking is a form of reaching. It is an extension of the body toward.

 

ORDINAND:             We do not live in a queer world. The reaching is therefore unusual reaching. The

                                    physical act of reaching is one that is basic, bodily and instinctive.

 

CONGREGATION:   Sound can be understood as a form of touch. Touch does not have to be deep

MEMBER 3                or penetrating to be powerful.

 

CONGREGATION:   Reaching implies, includes, and stretches toward touching the subject, not the

MEMBER 1                 object, of our desires.

 

CONGREGATION:   We cannot exchange with an object, only with another subject.
MEMBER 2

 

ORDINAND:             It is to our advantage to understand how voices touch us, recalibrating our

                                    understanding of how we listen to them.

 

CANTOR:                  We must find subjects that we can reach toward and hope to care for.

 

CONGREGATION stand.

 

ORDINAND:             What happens when a language that may be considered transgressive is used to

                                    express worship and prayer?

 

CANTOR:                  A language of the fringe.

 

CONGREGATION:   A language of the fringe.

 

CANTOR:                  A language from the fringe.

 

CONGREGATION:   A language from the fringe.

 

CANTOR:                  A language for the fringe.

 

CONGREGATION:   A language for the fringe.

 

ORDINAND:             Just as Jesus welcomed the outcast…

 

CONGREGATION:   Tax collectors and widows.
MEMBER 1

 

CONGREGATION:   Sex workers.
MEMBER 2

 

CONGREGATION:   People on the fringe.
MEMBER 3

 

ORDINAND:             …today we might follow in the footsteps of his daring. We locate the queer

                                    within the compass of faith.

 

CANTOR:                  Both human and divine.

 

CONGREGATION:   Both human and divine.

 

ORDINAND:             We boldly welcome the Queer.

 

CANTOR:                  Both human and divine.

 

CONGREGATION:   Both human and divine.

 

ORDINAND:             We outrageously welcome the Queer.

 

CANTOR:                  Both human and divine.

 

CONGREGATION:   Both human and divine.

 

ORDINAND:             Both human and divine. (chanting) Nishta do I condemn thee: troll,

                                    and kertever nishta.

 

CONGREGATION:   (chanting) Larlou.

AND CANTOR

COMPOSER’S NOTE

A Polari evensong was prepared and performed at Westcott House Chapel on Tuesday, 31st January, 2017. This much is known.
           
The experiment, conducted by students of theology as a celebration of queer language and life, was roundly decried by various Church of England authorities.
           
This piece collages found language from various sources. It draws from, but does not reproduce, the photocopied order of service for the polari evensong that floats around various parts of the internet in off-centre photographs. It also draws from the Polari Bible, created and maintained by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and from the essays “Queer Listening to Queer Vocal Timbres” by Yvon Bonenfant and “Sounding Gay: Pitch Properties in the Speech of Gay and Straight Men” by Rudolf P. Gaudio. Its title is drawn from Anne Carson’s translation of Sappho.

 

PERFORMANCE NOTE

The chanted sections are marked up in a format typical of Christian responsorial chant; underlined syllables are to be sung on a different pitch from the others. What the particular pitches may be depends on the inclinations and abilities of those chanting.

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