The QUEER SPIRITUALS are songs for solo voices and synthetic orchestration that I wrote on Cubase in the year 2000. They form a symphonic sequence and run for a total of 57 minutes. What is queer?In 1999 I gave a talk to the Wadham College maths students called 'Queer as Maths', and what I said was meant to convey that almost anything that needs real concentration, devotion to truth, and independence of spirit means being thought 'queer' and certainly treated as an uneconomic activity. My maths research in Roger Penrose's twistor theory, which enters into the fourth song, is certainly the queerest thing I do. There is of course a particular aspect of queerness to do with sexuality which also enters into some of these songs.what is spiritual?Spiritual does NOT mean christian. The resurrections in these pieces are real and earthly; the knowledge is scientific. The heavenly visions are erotic. The mystery is not the mystery of sacred texts, but of something I have learned from Roger Penrose: it lies in the connections we do not yet understand between mathematics, the world of ideas, and the material world. Roger Penrose doesn't mind if the word 'god' is used for this mystery, but to my mind this word is too much associated with great wrong-doings ever to be used.It's because I can't use words that I turn to music. The songs form a loosely symphonic sequence. Although at first sight they are independent songs, there are inter-relationships of subject: one being that of Kindertoten, early deaths, in the later songs. There are also inter-relationships of key, with C major having a special meaning. The music of J. S. Bach plays a particular part, in this 250th year after his death, but there are many other interwoven musical allusions. Some of these songs refer to my grown-up life studying with Roger Penrose and also with Alan Turing. Others refer to my genetic roots. I have another page which details my genes. Here are links to the words of the songs and detailed notes about them:
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