“Who Says Classical Music Can’t Be Sexy?” is a short article written by Tom Huizenga, that talks about the sensual side of music.  Huizenga says that one thing that has constantly been on his mind during this Valentine’s Day season has been music.  He states that “music can be impossibly erotic even if it’s not ostensibly about sex.”  I think one possible idea for what Huizenga was trying to say, is that music that is structurally and emotionally beautiful can also be seen as “sexy.”

Huizenga supplies his readers with five different musical examples that can potentially be considered as sexy or not sexy.  One of the examples is a song entitled Salome, opera, Op. 54 (TrV 215) [Scene 4. Salomes Tanz der sieben Schleier.]  The artist of this piece is Cheryl Studer and it appears on the album entitled Richard Strauss: Salome.  Huizenga writes that this song is written about a woman “kissing the severed head of John the Baptist”, which is the last thing that you would probably imagine when thinking of the concept of being sexy.  This song is very beautiful and it possesses both simple and soft parts as well as dramatic and abrupt parts.  Although Huzienga does not find this particular song sensual in any way, he states that there are other sensual parts of this opera.  He writes that one other part of this opera that is sexy is entitled the “Dance of the Seven Veils.”  This portion of the opera contains a strip scene where the character named Salome, “peels off clothing until finally she’s left with none.”

I took it upon myself to search for this piece, to decide if I shared the same opinion with Huizenga.  When I listened to the “Dance of the Seven Veils,” it was easy for me to imagine an accompanying scene such as a strip tease.  The melody is produced by horns, strings, and drums, which create a slow and lingering piece of music that has a sensual feel to it.