Wikipedia:Dispute resolution noticeboard/François Robere's proposal

This builds off of Dispute resolution noticeboard/Francis Schonken portion, so his rationale should apply for statements that are the same in both texts. Some of my changes are purely stylistic and might depend on article conventions, in which case I'm fine with either version; others I consider important additions that would significantly add to the informational value of the section.

This proposal would replace explanatory footnote #6 in Frédéric Chopin with the following section, to placed as the last subsection in Frédéric Chopin:

Affections
In early October 1829 Chopin wrote to Woyciechowski:

The "adagio" Chopin refers to is the second movement (Larghetto) of his Piano Concerto Op. 21, and the "little waltz" is his Op. posth. 70, No. 3, in D-flat major. Chopin did not elaborate on his "ideal"; some translators, like Arthur Hedley (1962) and David Frick (2016), assume he was referring to a woman, which conforms with biographers usually assuming that Konstancja Gładkowska was meant. However, in other passages he is more suggestive: for example, in a letter to Woyciechowski written eleven months later - a few weeks before leaving Poland indefinitely - Chopin writes the following:

Biographer Adam Zamoyski believes the passage is consistent with how feelings were expressed in 19th century Poland. Biographer Alan Walker sees the passage as undeniably erotic, but believes it was the result of "psychological confusion" regarding his emotions towards Gładkowska - a "mental twist", in his words. Music critic Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim sees this interpretation as "hand-wringing", noting that Chopin's "only lasting [romantic] relationship was with the trouser-wearing, cigar-smoking George Sand", and even that was for the most part platonic. According to a 2020 radio broadcast by Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, the "ideal" which Chopin mentioned in his letter of 3 October 1829 is Woyciechowski himself, the true object of the composer's affection throughout the period. Musicologist Antoni Pizà states that "clearly Chopin had homosexual desires."

As for the other material currently in the "Sexuality" section of the Chopin article: "According to Pizá, "Chopin's historiography has been desexualized: from weak to fairy, from elf to hermaphrodite. But of course, de-sexualization is a form of sexualization: passing Chopin as 'asexual' redefines him as a harmless being, suitable for all publics... There is not doubt that the main way in which Chopin's figure has been neutralized is through his sexuality, either by covering it up or inventing it.""
 * Pizá's statement and Kallberg's material can be moved to the Frédéric Chopin section; the latter trimmed and condensed, and the former expanded with the following:

"According to musicologist Philip Brett and sociologist Elizabeth wood, "composers like Handel and Schubert, even the effeminized Chopin, are still assumed to be stable entities, and scholarship about them continues to assume the default position of sexual orientation... The literature about these bachelor composers reveals... a constant embarrassment or evasion [of the subject]". Brett and Wood suggest further research may shed light not only on the composers' histories, but their music."
 * In the same paragraph, add the following statement


 * The Sand and Solange material would probably be better placed in the 4th and 5th subsections of Frédéric Chopin (without prejudice to reworking the prose a bit).
 * The biographical part of the de Custine material rewritten and appended to the 3rd paragraph in the Frédéric Chopin section, and consideration given to mentioning de Custine's assault and Chopin's supposed awareness of it (per Pizá).

Citations

Bibliography

François Robere (talk) 21:12, 21 December 2020 (UTC)