Ned Rorem has an auspicious birthday this weekend.
He has known everyone in a century of American music.
Yet, despite writing large symphonies, he is known chiefly for his songs, his chamber music and his diaries.
Is that a fair assessment for posterity?
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Long live Ned!
EARLY IN THE MORNING is one of the greatest art songs since Poulenc: 100 seconds of the most poignant nostalgia. Nathan Gunn’s recording is especially fine. There is a DVD of Lambert Wilson’s 2005 Opera Comique ‘spectacle’ ‘Nuit Americaine’ in which he adds to the expected Bernstein, Porter, Gershwin Rogers etc 4 Rorem songs including this one.
The wonderful poem is by Robert Hillyer:
Early in the morning
Of a lovely summer day,
As they lowered the bright awning
At the outdoor café,
I was breakfasting on croissants
And café au lait
Under greenery like scenery,
Rue François Premier.
They were hosing the hot pavement
With a dash of flashing spray
And a smell of summer showers
When the dust is drenched away,
Under greenery like scenery,
Rue François Premier.
I was twenty and a lover
And in Paradise to stay,
Very early in the morning
Of a lovely summer day.
Many of us were first introduced to Ned through those wonderful diaries, which included segments about my voice teacher Jennie Tourel.
A very unique voice in American music. His harmonic language has been quite influential on vocal composers in the US, and while he certainly has successful music in other genres (Piano Sonata #1, Symphony #3), he most resembles Hugo Wolf in his commitment to composing art song with great attention to text declamation. Happy birthday, Mr. Rorem.
I have heard quite a lot of Rorem and I like most of what I’ve heard. His songs are absolute gems to me where his symphonies are merely very good. I would say the same of Schubert with the exception of the two last symphonies; some people have a defining genre and then there’s the very few like Beethoven and Mozart who define every genre.
No, and in fact that’s a shockingly ignorant remark. How many of the pieces do you actually know? Does music history teach you anything? Most American music of the twentieth century has been ignored and not because of a lack of quality but because of the near obscene conservatism of donors and concert goers who are never allowed to hear anything else.
Please wake up, Norman.
I totally agree with your point from “Most American music of the 20th century has been ignored…….”. I would love to hear something from that period on every symphony concert.
In today’s woke (not meant to be critical, it’s just an accurate description) American classical music landscape, what place is left in orchestral programming for entire generations of American composers like him composing in the second half of the 20th century?
They live on on youtube.
I wrote a critical assessment of Ned’s music recently, for the Boosey website. (I studied with him.) Lots of great stuff in the non-vocal catalog (Sunday Morning, English Horn Concerto, Trio for Flute, Cello, and Piano….) He’s a great romantic, but a modernist too.
https://www.boosey.com/cr/news/Russell-Platt-on-Ned-Rorem-s-Music/101751
Russell, Great assessment of Ned’s excellent and varied music.
I quite like his violin concerto; there’s a fine recording of it by Gidon Kremer. I wish orchestras would program it.
In 50+ years of going to orchestra concerts all over the US, of orchestras small and large, I have never encountered a note of his music. That’s pretty sad. Thank God for record companies and producers who believe in his music.
As a gay man who came out in the ‘70’s, Rorem’s Diaries, with their frankness, emotional truth, and, yes, name-dropping, were iconic to me…but he really wanted you to hear his music above all, apart from all that…and I have no doubt his music will be treasured in the company of the greatest American composers, Barber, Bernstein, Copland, Schumann, Carter, and Ives.
He will also be remembered as a master of prose, arguably the greatest essayist on classical music of his time.
Music to help you fall asleep….
The Barcarolles are beautiful. Thank you for posting this.
Rorem’s 3rd symphony and English Horn Concerto are non-vocal orchestral master works that show the composer’s skills are broad. Both of the pieces above deserve a regular place in concert halls, but will sadly remain confined to streaming, YouTube, and home CD/LP collections.
I myself am fast approaching being 70 years of age. I have been an avid classical music fan and collector, arguably a connoisseur with most music which most people do not have on digital media, collecting my stuff ever since I was a high school junior. I have a classical music appreciation, due in no small part to one of my high School choral musical teacher, who in 2016 passed on. So it was when I was 16 when I was first really introduced in death to a lot of the classical music repertoire, beginning with Beethoven’s bicentennial birthday year.
Shameful that it took me almost 50 years both to hear of the existence of Ned, his music and his art. I hope that he continues with reasonably good health and that he makes it to his centennial birthday celebration, and beyond, ache and pain free.
Best
Did Santa Fe ever do a Rorem opera? Which major American companies did (MET, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston)? Wish I knew. It would seem truly odd if such a great vocal composer who wrote 8 operas were overlooked in this way. Even his four-square, pat, preciously suburban Yankee-ness doesn’t justify such neglect.