Gender Identity and Gestural Representations in Jonathan Harvey’s String Quartet No. 2

Abstract

Jonathan Harvey debuted several novel techniques and elements in his String Quartet No. 2—“temperature” and gender markings, unique to this piece, and the melodic chain technique, a method which he continued to use in his subsequent quartets. Though the melodic chain technique is decipherable from score analysis, and has been explained by the composer in interviews, Harvey’s temperature and gender markings have continued to puzzle scholars, due to vague descriptions that obscure their meaning (especially in the case of the temperature markings) and to the implied stereotypes of themes that are gendered feminine and masculine (more shocking to the modern eye than it was in 1988). The question thus arises: did Harvey engage in a sexist trope with his gendered stereotyping of the themes, or was he ahead of his time by offering a nuanced and fluid approach to understanding gender, guided by his spirituality, presenting the constraints of binary stereotypes before dismantling them? Building on the scholarship of gender theory and musical gesture and embodiment, this article examines the meaning of gender in this piece.