music.wikisort.org - Composer

Ned Rorem (born October 23, 1923)[1] is an American composer and diarist. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1976 for his Air Music: Ten Etudes for Orchestra.[3]

Ned Rorem
Born	October 23, 1923 (1923-10-23) (age 99)[1] Richmond, Indiana, U.S.
Occupation	Composer, author
Notable work	The Paris Diary of Ned Rorem
Partner	James Holmes[2]
Awards	Pulitzer Prize for Music (1976)
Website	nedrorem.net

Life

Rorem was born in Richmond, Indiana in 1923, the son and second child of C. (Clarence) Rufus Rorem (1894–1988)[4] and his wife, the former Gladys W. Miller, born in Illinois.[5] They met and married in South Dakota in 1920,[6] where Rufus Rorem was working for Goodyear Rubber.[7] Ned Rorem had an older sister, Rosemary.[5]

Rorem's family moved to Chicago, where Rufus worked for the American Hospital Association.[8] Rorem showed an early interest in and talent for music. He received his early education at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and the American Conservatory of Music. He studied at Northwestern University before attending the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and the Juilliard School in New York City. Rorem was raised as a Quaker and refers to this in interviews in relation to his piece A Quaker Reader, which is based on Quaker texts.[9][10][11]

In 1966 he published The Paris Diary of Ned Rorem. This was followed by Later Diaries 1951–1972 (1974) and The Nantucket Diary of Ned Rorem, 1973–1985 (1987). In them he is always candid, and open about his and other men's sexuality, describing his relationships with Leonard Bernstein, Noël Coward, Samuel Barber, and Virgil Thomson, and outing several others.[12] Rorem also had a short affair with writer John Cheever.[13]

Rorem has written extensively about music as well. These essays are collected in the anthologies Music from Inside Out (1967), Music and People (1968), Pure Contraption (1974), Setting the Tone (1983), Settling the Score (1988), and Other Entertainment (1996). His prose is much admired, not least for its barbed observations about such prominent musicians as composer and conductor Pierre Boulez. Rorem has composed in a chromatic tonal idiom throughout his career, and he is not hesitant to attack the orthodoxies of the avant-garde.

Rorem was the subject of a 2005 documentary film, Ned Rorem: Word & Music.

His notable students include Daron Hagen and David Horne.

His life partner was organist James Roland Holmes (1939–1999).[2]

Selected works

Operas

• A Childhood Miracle, 1951, opera in one act.
• The Robbers, (1956), a one-act opera.
• Miss Julie (1965)
• Hearing (1966–1976), opera in five scenes
• Bertha (1968), opera in one act.
• The Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters (1968), three-act opera.
• Fables (1971), five very short operas to poems by Jean de la Fontaine. The five 'micro-operas' are:
  • The Animals Sick of the Plague
  • The Bird Wounded by an Arrow
  • The Fox and the Grapes
  • The Lion in Love
  • The Sun and the Frogs.
• Our Town (2005), first performed by the Indiana University Opera, Bloomington, in 2006. Subsequent performances have been given by the Show-Me Opera at the University of Missouri, Lake George Opera, Aspen Opera, Central City Opera, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Festival Opera of Walnut Creek, The Catholic University of America, Juilliard Opera, Skylark Opera, Civic Opera of Kansas City, Raylynmor Opera Company, Tufts University, University of South Carolina University of North Texas, Shepherd School of Music, Baldwin–Wallace Conservatory of Music, University of Missouri, University of California, Irvine, and West Texas A&M University, among others.

[Miss Julie and Our Town are his only full-length operas.]

Symphonies

Symphony No. 1 (1950) [Peermusic Classical]

The First symphony is cast in four fairly brief movements: I: Maestoso, II: Andantino, III: Largo, IV: Allegro; and is scored for full orchestra. Rorem has written of this work:

There are as many definitions of symphony as there are symphonies. In Haydn's day it usually meant an orchestral piece in four movements, of which the first was in so-called sonata form. But with Bach, and later with Beethoven through Stravinsky, Symphony means whatever the composer decides.

Symphony No. 2 (1956) [Boosey & Hawkes]

The Second Symphony is cast in 3 movements of unequal proportion; the 2nd & 3rd combined being less than half the length of the first; I: Broad, Moderate; II: Tranquillo; III: Allegro. The Second Symphony is probably the composer's least performed. Composed in 1956 it was only performed a handful of times and has remained dormant since 1959 until, as the composer puts it, "José Serebrier resurrected" it 43 years later.

Symphony No. 3 (1958) [Boosey & Hawkes]

The Third Symphony is cast in five movements: I: Passacaglia, II: Allegro molto vivace, III: Largo, IV: Andante, V: Allegro molto. It is perhaps the best known of Rorem's numbered symphonies, having been premiered by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, April 1959. Three recordings have been issued over the years, though none but the most recent Naxos recording has remained in the catalogue for very long. Notable conductors of this work include: Maurice Abravanel, Leonard Bernstein, André Previn, and José Serebrier.

For the Naxos recording the composer noted:

Of the five movements the second movement was written first, the first movement was written next, then came the fourth movement, then the third movement; and the last – fifth – movement was indeed written 'at last'. Movement I is a Passacaglia in C, a slow overture in the grand style. Movement II was written originally for two pianos, eight years before the rest, and incorporated as the second movement of the symphony. It is a brisk and jazzy dance. Movement III is a short, passionate page about somnambulism, full of dynamic contrast, and coming from afar. Movement IV is a farewell to France. Movement V is a long and fast Rondo – a concerto for orchestra all by itself.

Orchestral

Chamber

Vocal

Selected songs

[All with piano accompaniment, except where stated otherwise.]

Choral

Solo instrumental

Recent projects

In an October 2008 interview, Rorem referred to a new saxophone concerto for Branford Marsalis.[15] In 2010, he was commissioned to write a piece for clarinet, cello and piano for clarinetist Thomas Piercy. He composed Four Sonnets of Shakespeare for tenor Andrew Kennedy, which premièred at Wigmore Hall, London on September 27, 2009, and a song-cycle, Songs Old and New, written in 2008 for soprano Mary Wilson and premièred by Wilson and the IRIS Chamber Orchestra under Michael Stern in November 2009.[16]

Recordings

Rorem's works have been extensively recorded and are listed on his official website (see External Links below). They include:

• Songs of Ned Rorem Susan Graham (mezzo) Malcolm Martineau (piano) Rorem's settings of poems by Paul Goodman, Theodore Roethke, Witter Bynner, Tennyson, Walt Whitman, and others. Erato 80222[17]
• Songs of Ned Rorem with Charles Bressler (tenor) Phyllis Curtin (soprano) Gianna D'Angelo (soprano) Donald Gramm (bass) Regina Sarfaty (mezzo-soprano) Accompanied at the piano by the composer
• Three Symphonies José Serebrier, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Naxos Records 8.559149[18]
• "Gotham Ensemble Plays Ned Rorem" Thomas Piercy, clarinet, Rolf Shulte, violin, Judith Olson, piano, Angelina Réaux, soprano, Humbert Lucarelli, oboe, Delores Stevens, piano. Ned Rorem: Gotham Ensemble (music CD). Albany Records.
• Day Music, Jaime Laredo (violin), Ruth Laredo (piano); Night Music: Earl Carlyss (violin), Ann Schein (piano). CD, Phoenix USA PHCD123, 1991

Awards

• 1951 – Fulbright Fellowship
• 1957 – Guggenheim Fellowship
• 1968 – Award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters
• 1976 – Pulitzer Prize for Music recognizing his suite Air Music: Ten Etudes of Orchestra, first performed in Cincinnati, December 5, 1975[3][19]
• 1998 – Musical America Composer of the Year
• 2003 – ASCAP’s Lifetime Achievement Award
• 2004 – Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
• 2003 – Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur

References

External links

• The official Ned Rorem website
• Ned Rorem @ Boosey & Hawkes
• McClatchy, J.D. (Spring 1999). "Ned Rorem, The Art of the Diary No. 1". The Paris Review.
• Charles Amirkhanian and Fleur Paysour interview Ned Rorem, Nov. 16, 1987
• Ned Rorem (13 March 2006). "Ned Rorem at Home". NewMusicBox (Interview). Interviewed by Oteri, F.J. (published 1 May 2006). (includes video)
• Songs of Ned Rorem
• "Ned Rorem collection, 1935–2006". Washington, DC: Library of Congress.
• Interview with Ned Rorem, 24 April 1986
• Ned Rorem at Library of Congress Authorities, with 325 catalog records

На других языках

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[de] Ned Rorem

Ned Rorem (* 23. Oktober 1923 in Richmond, Indiana) ist ein US-amerikanischer Komponist.

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- [en] Ned Rorem

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[es] Ned Rorem

Ned Rorem (Richmond, Indiana; 23 de octubre de 1923) es un laureado compositor y escritor estadounidense.

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[ru] Рорем, Нед

Нед Рорем (англ. Ned Rorem; род. 23 октября 1923 (1923-10-23), Ричмонд) — американский композитор .

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