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Mixed Choir
LGBTQ+ Music

I am like many (2018)

for SATB (divisi) choir, a cappella

Text: Adapted by the composer from newspaper reports, UK Parliamentary transcripts, and excerpts from Don Leon (attrib. Lord Byron)
Duration: 7 minutes
Difficulty: 3/4

Commissioned by Senate House Library for their 2018 exhibition, Queer Between the Covers. Composed in residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity with the assistance of Uģis Prauliņš and Michael Zaugg, and workshopped by Pro Coro Canada. First performed in London, UK by The Fourth Choir (Dominic Ellis-Peckham, dir.) in May 2018. First Canadian performance in Halifax by Eastern Horizon (Jack Bennet, dir.) in June 2018. First European performance in Stockholm, Sweden by Voces Nordicae (Lone Larsen, dir.) in April 2022.

I am like many is the result of a unique commission from Senate House Library in London, which tasked me with setting something from their current exhibition of queer texts. Upon perusing their materials, it seemed to me that everything centred around a single moment in time: the Parliamentary debates on the Wolfenden Report in 1958, representing the first significant (if initially unsuccessful) steps towards the legalisation of homosexuality in Britain. In I am like many, I have composed a dramatic scene, setting dialogue from the debates and newspaper reports, interwoven with lines from Don Leon (a 19th century poem which argued for the legalisation of homosexuality nearly a century earlier). The title itself comes from an anonymous letter read during the debates: 'I do not pretend that I am good, but I am like many.'

NOTE: The final movement, “The Letter”, is published separately and can be performed on its own. To perform the complete work, purchase the first 3 movements above at a reduced rate, then order the final movement directly from Cypress Choral Music.

Click here to see the complete score (mvmts 1-3 only).

The audio below is the commercial EP recording by The Fourth Choir.

Full Text

The text of “I am like many” was compiled by the composer, largely based on contemporary newspaper reports & transcripts from British Parliament. Additional lines are incorporated from the 19th c. poem “Don Leon” (attributed to Lord Byron), which are set in italics below.

Prelude
God, like the potter, when his clay is damp,
Gives every man, in birth, a different stamp.
Bear witness: man, whate’er his rank may be.
Who now can say my caste from stain is free?

In the House of Commons
26 November 1958.
Parliament debates the Wolfenden Report to-day.
The House is torn by the problem it faces;
by the distinction between sin and crime;
by the risk in the remedies it might propose.

It is a foregone conclusion
that the homosexual laws will not be reformed yet,
but that reform must come eventually.

The Debate
Is such conduct injurious to society?
’Tis hard to say why erring mortals think
This fount is pure, and that unfit to drink.

Great nations have fallen and empires been destroyed
because corruption became widespread.

Is it a matter for the private conscience?
And tell us, casuists, were statutes meant
To scourge the wicked or the innocent?

These persons are a malignant canker;
if allowed to grow it would eventually
kill what is known as normal life.

That little spot, which constitutes our isle,
Is not the world! Its censure or its smile
Can never reason’s fabric overthrow.

The Letter
People have no idea of the life of fear and dread we live.
I want them to look upon this debate
with kindness and sympathy, and think,
‘There, but for the grace of God, go I.’

Love, love it was, that made my eyes delight
To have his person ever in my sight.

I do not pretend that I am good
but I am like many.