Open Collections

Knights, Matthew-John

University of British Columbia

Drag Queens and Dragons is a work for solo soprano and mixed chamber sextet (C flute doubling alto flute, B flat clarinet doubling bass clarinet, percussion [high gong, snare drum, two metal cooking pots, bass drum, and vibraphone], violin, violoncello, and piano). It has a duration of approximately 20 minutes and has six sections that meld together into one long-form song. The work is of the music theatre genre and combines music and theatre into a performance that is not opera nor musical theatre. The text deals with gender and sexuality through a personal approach, detailing my own journey to finding peace with being gay and non-binary. The idea of a ‘third gender’ is reflected in this ‘third space’ of the genre of music theatre. The music is held together by recurring themes and motives (including the Pillar Chord, Vivier “Thirds” theme, and repeating triplet quarter notes motive) in an imperfect chain linking structure whereby these elements recur rarely in sections directly next to each other, but instead almost at random, creating a piece that evolves constantly while still having familiar elements to ground the listener.

Text; Still Image

2024-08-08

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88910

Music - Composition

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/