Ned Rorem
Rorem in 1968
Born	Ned Miller Rorem (1923-10-23)October 23, 1923 Richmond, Indiana, U.S.
Died	November 18, 2022(2022-11-18) (aged 99) New York City,New York, U.S.
Education	Northwestern University Curtis Institute Juilliard School (BA,MM)
Occupations	Composer writer
Works	List of compositions
Website	Official website

Ned Miller Rorem (October 23, 1923 – November 18, 2022) was an American composer ofcontemporary classical music and a writer. Best known for hisart songs, which number over 500, Rorem was considered the leading American of his time writing in the genre. Frequently described as aneoromantic composer, he showed limited interest in the emergingmodernist aesthetic of his lifetime. As a writer, he kept—and later published—numerous diaries in which he spoke candidly of his exchanges and relationships with many cultural figures of America and France.

Born inRichmond, Indiana, Rorem found an early interest in music, studying withMargaret Bonds andLeo Sowerby. He developed a strong enthusiasm for French music and received mentorship fromAaron Copland andVirgil Thomson, among others. After two productive years inMorocco, Rorem was hosted by the arts patronMarie-Laure de Noailles in Paris, where he was influenced by theneoclassicist groupLes Six, particularlyFrancis Poulenc andDarius Milhaud. He returned to America in around 1957, establishing himself as a prominent composer and receiving regular commissions. For theAmerican Bicentennial, he worked on seven different commissions concurrently, among which wasAir Music: Ten Etudes for Orchestra, which won aPulitzer Prize for Music in 1976.

Much of Rorem's life was spent with his lifelong partner James Holmes, between his apartment in New York and house inNantucket. From 1980 onwards he taught at theCurtis Institute. He wrote the large-scale song cycleEvidence of Things Not Seen (1997) to 36 texts by 24 writers, for theNew York Festival of Song. It is considered by commentators and Rorem himself to be hismagnum opus. Much of his later compositions were devoted toconcertante and his final major work was the operaOur Town (2006).

Rorem maintained a life-long interest in the FrenchImpressionist composersClaude Debussy (left) andMaurice Ravel (right)

Ned Miller Rorem^[1] was born inRichmond, Indiana, US on October 23, 1923.^[2] Born to parents ofNorwegian descent, he was their second child after his sister Rosemary.^{[3][4][n 1]} His father Clarence Rufus Rorem was amedical economist atEarlham College whose work later inspired theBlue Cross Blue Shield Association, while his mother Gladys Miller Rorem was active in antiwar movements and theReligious Society of Friends (Quakers).^[3][1] Ned described his background as "upper middle-class, semi-bohemian but with a strong Quaker emphasis".^[4] He later explained that his family was more culturally but not religiously Quaker;^{[R 1]} throughout his life he described himself as a "Quaker atheist".^[1] The family moved to Chicago a few months after Rorem's birth, where he attended theUniversity of Chicago Laboratory Schools.^[4] Though not musicians themselves, his parents were enthusiastic about the arts, and brought their children to numerous concerts by the famous pianists and dancers.^{[3][n 2]}

Rorem showed an early talent and interest in music, learning piano in his youth with Nuta Rothschild.^[3] Though he had other teachers before Rothschild, she was his first to make a lasting impression: she inaugurated his life-long enthusiasm for French music and culture, especiallyImpressionists such asClaude Debussy andMaurice Ravel.^{[3][n 3]} By age 12, Rorem began piano lessons withMargaret Bonds, who helped foster his interest inmusic composition and introduced him to both American jazz and American classical music by composers such asCharles Tomlinson Griffes andJohn Alden Carpenter.^[6] The music ofIgor Stravinsky and songs ofBillie Holiday also left deep impressions.^{[2][n 4]} He began piano study with Belle Tannenbaum in 1938, under whom he learned and performed the first movement ofEdvard Grieg'sPiano Concerto.^[6] Throughout his youth he also studiedmusic theory at theAmerican Conservatory of Music withLeo Sowerby, a well known church music composer of the time.^[6] He graduated high school in 1940, around when he began a close friendship with the future writerPaul Goodman, whose poems he would later set to music.^[6] Rorem also found interest in literary activities, having kept a diary since his youth.^[4]

Rorem attended theSchool of Music ofNorthwestern University in 1940, studying composition with Alfred Nolte and piano with Harold Van Horne.^[6] Under the latter he focused on standard repertoire byBach,Beethoven andChopin, but transferred to theCurtis Institute of Music in 1942.^[6][9] There, he studied composition andorchestration underGian Carlo Menotti andcounterpoint underRosario Scalero.^[10] He had numerous compositions premiered, includingThe 70th Psalm (1943), a choral piece with orchestral accompaniment, and a Piano Sonata for Four Hands.^[11] Considering Scalero unprogressive, he left Curtis after a year; his parents disagreed with the decision and ceased providing him a regular allowance.^[11] Moving to New York in late 1943, to support himself he took a job as copyist for the composerVirgil Thomson, with whom he also studied orchestration andprosody.^[9] Via a mutual friend, he became acquainted with the conductor and composerLeonard Bernstein, and Bernstein introduced him toAaron Copland.^[5] Rorem later attended two of theTanglewood Music Center's summer sessions to study with Copland.^[12] Rorem later remarked in an article ofThe New York Times: "Well, I took the job withVirgil, became an instant fan ofAaron andLenny, and for the next 42 years with many an up and a down I've remained staunch friends with all three men. Some weekend!"^{[R 3]}

Later in 1943 he enrolled in theJuilliard School and studied composition withBernard Wagenaar.^[12] Rorem graduated from Juilliard with a Bachelor of Arts in 1946 and aMaster of Music in 1948.^[12][8] While a student he worked as a piano accompanist for performers such as the dancerMartha Graham and the singerÉva Gauthier.^[11] Due to his interest in literature he became increasingly interested in composingart songs, and also wroteincidental music, ballet music and music for apuppet show.^[11] In 1948, his songThe Lordly Hudson ona poem by Goodman won theMusic Library Association's published song of the year award.^[12] That same year, his orchestralOverture in C won aGershwin Prize and was premiered byNew York Philharmonic underMishel Piastro [de] in May 1948.^[12] The positive reception of both these compositions was an important milestone in his career as an emerging composer.^[13]

Rorem later remarked that the 1940s were formative for charting his future career and by 1950 he was certain of being a composer.^[14] With money from the Gershwin Prize, he left for France in early 1949, though spent much of the next two years inMorocco.^[15][16] He was hugely productive in the comparatively quieter Morocco, and produced a variety of compositions in rapid succession.^[16] He later explained that "The best influence for a composer is four walls. The light must come from inside. When it comes from outside, the result is postcard music."^{[R 4]} Among his earliest large-scale works, he wrote the balletMelos in 1949, and both his Piano Concerto No. 2 and Symphony No. 1 1950.^[15] The ballet won the Prix de Biarritz in 1951, while the Symphony was premiered in Vienna in February 1951 byJonathan Sternberg and the piano concerto in 1954 byJulius Katchen via French Radio.^[15] During this period he wrote numerous song cycles dedicated to a single textual source:Flight for Heaven (1950) toRobert Herrick;Six Irish Poems (1950) toGeorge Darley;Cycle of Holy Songs (1951) to biblical texts; andTo a Young Girl toW. B. Yeats.^[15] He composed his first opera,A Childhood Miracle, toElliott Stein's libretto based onThe Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales byNathaniel Hawthorne.^[17] Though written in 1951, the opera was not premiered until May 10, 1955, in New York.^[15] He later received two further honors: the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Award in 1950 and aFulbright Scholarship in 1951.^[15]

On the Fulbright Scholarship, in 1951 Rorem settled in Paris to study withArthur Honegger, a representative from theLes Six group ofneoclassicist music.^[16] Unlike most young American musicians in the city, he did not study withNadia Boulanger, as she opined that her instruction might tarnish his already individual style.^[16] He became associated with the wealthy arts patronMarie-Laure de Noailles, at whose mansion he resided.^[15] Through her influence, he met with the leading Parisian cultural figures of his time, including other composers of Les Six,Francis Poulenc,Georges Auric andDarius Milhaud.^[15] Their proximity solidified the French influence of his style and he set numerous medieval French poems in the 1953 song cyclePoémes pour la paix.^[15] Other compositions written in Paris include: Piano Sonata No. 2 (1950); two ballets,Ballet for Jerry (1951) andDorian Gray (1952);Design for Orchestra (1953);The Poet's Requiem (1955); and Symphony No. 2.^[15] A Paris concert in 1953 featured solely Rorem's compositions.^[15]

External videos
4 Poems of Walt Whitman (1957)
Performance bySusan Graham (mezzo-soprano) andMalcolm Martineau (piano)

Rorem returned to the US in either 1957 or 1958 to further pursue composition.^{[18][n 5]} By now, his music had attracted the attention of several important American musicians and ensembles, and most of his compositions from the 1960s onwards were commissions.^[19] In 1959, thePhiladelphia Orchestra underEugene Ormandy premiered Rorem'sEagles, a Whitman-inspired and dreamliketone poem.^{[20][n 6]} His Symphony No. 3 (1958) was premiered by Bernstein and theNew York Philharmonic in 1959 to critical praise; theNew York Herald Tribune's music editor Jay S. Harrison called it "lavish, luscious, and luxe".^[21] Conversely, his first full-length opera,Miss Julie, was not well received at its 1965 premiere at theNew York City Opera.^[22] Rorem received commissions from organizations such as theElizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation,Ford Foundation andKoussevitzky Foundation among others.^[23] By this time, he was established as aneoromantic composer, who largely rejected a strict application ofmodernist techniques or emerging genres such aselectroacoustic music.^[21]

Rorem held his first teaching position at theUniversity of Buffalo from 1959 to 1960, during which he wrote11 Studies for 11 Players.^[21] A few years later he taught composition at theUniversity of Utah from 1965 to 1967.^[18] His short tenures were because he believed that "this is the kind of assignment that should not last more than two years as a teacher begins to believe what he says after that long a time and becomes sterile".^[24] His compositions of the time included more instrumental music, although songs remained a central aspect of his activities.^[25] These songs were largely set to 20th-century American poets, though copyright issues sometimes prevented their immediate publication.^[25] Among these was the song cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano,Poems of Love and Rain (1963), written to texts byW. H. Auden,Emily Dickinson,Howard Moss andTheodore Roethke.^[21] Premiered byRegina Sarfaty and Rorem at the piano on April 12, 1964, it included two different musicals settings for each of the poems.^[21]

Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Rorem struggled with alcoholism.^[19] He commented that "The minute a drop of wine touches my lips I begin to be this other person—an infantile regression takes place", though he insisted that he "not be categorized as an alcoholic because [he had] such a puritanical sense of order".^[26] Although he scheduled it carefully, he admitted to feeling a strong sense of guilt when drinking, which he considered detrimental to his artistic creativity.^[27] Rorem attendedAlcoholics Anonymous meetings and usedAntabuse, with little success.^[25] In late 1967, he became partners with the organist James Roland Holmes; their relationship offered enough stability for Rorem to abandon alcohol completely.^[25][28]

In 1974 Rorem and Holmes bought a summer house inNantucket, Massachusetts.^[5] His time there was generally peaceful and he later remarked that "I wroteAir Music, made pies, felt no competition, was content".^[22] There Rorem worked on seven different commissions concurrently between 1974 and 1975 for theAmerican Bicentennial.^[21] One of these wasAir Music: Ten Etudes for Orchestra forThomas Schippers with theCincinnati Symphony Orchestra, where each movement was limited to different combinations of instruments.^{[21][n 7]}Air Music would win thePulitzer Prize for Music in 1976;^[30] Rorem later noted his surprise from the award, having been convinced that his music would not be accepted by "those stuffy Pulitzer people".^[29] Other major works of this time include the 1977 orchestral suiteSunday Morning, inspired by thepoem of the same name byWallace Stevens.^[31]

Rorem accepted his third teaching post in 1980 at the Curtis Institute, his alma mater, where he headed the composition department withDavid Loeb until 2001.^[22][32] His students at Curtis includedDaron Hagen andDavid Horne;^[1] outside of Curtis, he taughtRoger Briggs.^[33] During this time, Rorem's pace of composition did not diminish.^[34] He wrote compositions for varied genres, includingThe Santa Fe Songs (1980) song cycle for baritone andpiano quartet and theString Symphony (1985), a recording of which by theAtlanta Symphony Orchestra won the 1989Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Recording.^[31][5]

In 1993, Rorem wrote thePiano Concerto No. 4 for Left Hand and Orchestra for his Curtis colleague with an injured right hand,Gary Graffman.^[35] The following year, his earlier operaMiss Julie was revived at theManhattan School of Music Opera Theater.^[36] For the 1997New York Festival of Song, Rorem wrote the large-scale song cycleEvidence of Things Not Seen,^[36] described as his "masterwork" by Daniel Lewis in theTimes.^[5] A deeply personal work, the composition included settings of 36 texts by 24 poets, split into three larger sections: "Beginnings" for optimistic and forward-looking songs, "Middles" exploringcoming of age and the devastation of war, as well as the final "Ends" that concerns death, particularly Rorem's friends killed by AIDS.^[36] With an hour and a half duration, it called for a soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and baritone with piano accompaniment.^[1] The music criticPeter G. Davis called it "one of the musically richest, most exquisitely fashioned, most voice-friendly collections of songs",^[5] while Rorem himself lauded it as his best work.^[1] His partner Holmes died in 1999, after having lived with Rorem for 32 years.^[5]

In theTimes, Daniel Lewis noted that "Well into the 21st century, when quite a few of his modernist critics had passed into irrelevance, Mr. Rorem was still going strong. Admirers turned up at concerts to help celebrate his 80th birthday, his 85th, his 90th, his 95th; the audiences looked that much older each time around, while he looked pretty much as always".^[5] The music critic Steve Smith furthered that compared to the birthday anniversaries ofBritten,Verdi andWagner, "Mr. Rorem's birthday has occasioned less fanfare, seemingly confirming his oft-repeated assertions about the invisibility of living composers".^[37] This latter sentiment would be a focus of his tenure while president of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters from 2000 to 2003.^[1][38] During this time he engaged in a series of larger works, beginning withAftermath (2002) a ten-part song cycle written in response to theSeptember 11 attacks.^[5] Set to English-language poets from the 18th-century to present day, it was written for medium voice accompanied by violin, cello and piano.^[39] What followed next was concertante: aCello Concerto (2002) andFlute Concerto (2002), both written in memory of Thomas Schippers.^[40] His next concerto, the 2003Mallet Concerto, was compared by the writer Bret Johnson in its evocation and sparseness to his first two symphonies.^[40] In 2006, his operaOur Town premiered at theIndiana University Opera Theater, Bloomington.^[5]

From 2010 onwards, Rorem essentially ceased composing, explaining that "I've kind of said everything I have to say, better than anyone else".^[41] Two exceptions were the 2013 song "How Like a Winter", based on Shakespeare'sSonnet 97,^[42] as well as his final work,Recalling Nadia, a brief organ piece written in 2014.^[43] Regardless, Rorem himself noted that by then he didn't receive commissions, "but then, nobody I know does".^[37] His last years were instead spent in the care of his niece, playing piano, doingcrossword puzzles and walking throughCentral Park.^[44] Rorem died at home in Manhattan on November 18, 2022, at age 99.^[1]

Although Rorem wrote works for piano, orchestra and chamber ensemble and solo instruments, he considered all of his music vocal and song-like in nature.^[25] Often described as a neoromantic composer, Rorem generally rejecting the emergence of strict modernist aesthetics.^[21] He wrote in a generallytonal manner,Grove Music Online asserts that he did so with considerable diversity, complexity and potency.^[30]

He is best known for hisart songs, of which he wrote more than 500.^{[45][n 8]} Many are coupled into some thirty or sosong cycles, written from the early 1940s to 2000s.^{[17][n 9]} Rorem stressed the importance of a cycle's overall structure, paying close attention to the song order, progression ofkeys and transition between songs.^[48] He also emphasizedtheatricality, aiming to convey an overarching message via a unified emotional affect or mood.^[49] Like in other genres, the musicologist Philip Lieson Miller remarked that "Rorem's chosen field of song is not for the avant garde and he must be classified as ... conservative", and that "he has never striven for novelty".^[50] Rorem's strict definitions of what constitutes a song has molded them to be typically be single-voice and piano settings of lyrical poems of moderate length.^[51] He named songs byMonteverdi,Schumann,Poulenc andthe Beatles as particular favorites.^[5] To obtain certain effects, however, Rorem has occasionally experimented with more modernist sentiments, such as intensechromaticism, successivemodulations and alternatingtime signatures.^[52]

Rorem's main interest in the art song is the setting of poetry, rather than the sound of the human voice.^[53][54] Numerous commentators have lauded his abilities in prosody, withGrove Music Online noting that he "sets words with naturalness and clarity, without compromising the range and scope of vocal lines".^[53] The vast majority of Rorem's songs are set in English and he has criticized American colleagues who prioritize setting other languages over English.^[51][55] In his early years, he was particularly devoted to the poems of his friendPaul Goodman, and later set many works byTheodore Roethke.^[51] Rorem often composed entire cycles to the poetry of a single writer:John Ashbery,Witter Bynner,Demetrios Capetanakis,George Darley,Frank O'Hara,Robert Herrick,Kenneth Koch,Howard Moss,Sylvia Plath,Wallace Stevens,Alfred, Lord Tennyson, andWalt Whitman, to whom he dedicated three cycles.^[56] His few settings in other languages include French poems byJean-Antoine de Baïf,Jean Daurat,Olivier de Magny [fr],Henri de Régnier,Pierre de Ronsard, as well as ancient Greek texts byPlato.^[57]

Many of Rorem's songs are accompanied by piano, though some have mixed instrumental ensemble or orchestral accompaniment.^[58] A pianist himself, his accompaniment parts for the instrument are not completely secondary to the voice and more a "full complement to the melody".^[1] They include motives to emphasize textual elements—such as rain and clouds—and are wildly diverse in function, sometimes responding to the voice in counterpoint or simplydoubling the vocal line.^[59] He sometimes uses theRenaissance-derivedground bass technique of a slow and repeatedbassline in the left hand.^[60] Reflecting on his piano accompaniments, the writer Bret Johnson describes Rorem's musical hallmarks as "chiming piano, rushing triplets, sumptuous harmonies".^[61]

External videos
Final aria-monologue fromOur Town
Performance byMarnie Breckenridge

Only two full-length operas were written by Rorem:Miss Julie (1965) andOur Town (2005).^[38]Miss Julie was not well-received; the music criticHarold C. Schonberg commented that his melodies were bland and lacked individuality.^[5] Holmes explained that Rorem himself "contends that song specialists cannot automatically turn out good operas any more than opera composers can turn out true songs: a gift for tune and a gift for tragedy do not always join hands".^[62] The opera's libretto was written byKenward Elmslie, itself based on theplay of the same name byAugust Strindberg.^[21] Rorem revised it for a more successful revival in 1979;^[22] it was again revived again in 1994 at theManhattan School of Music Opera.^[36]

His second full-length opera,Our Town, was written 40 years later on theplay of the same name byThornton Wilder.^[38] It received a successful 2006 premiere at theIndiana University Opera Theater and was later performed at theJuilliard Opera Center, New York (2008) and the Central City Opera, Denver (2013).^[5] The music critic Joshua Barone noted that it is "a tastefully restrained echo of the play's text that has found a home on smaller stages but deserves bigger ones".^[41] The play's already small-scale set and condense narrative was matched by Rorem's setting as achamber opera and Johnson explained that "the economy of resources may well be the key to the opera's mobility and then its success".^[38] The work's final monologue-aria from the character Emily Webb is particularly well-regarded and often standard repertoire for soprano singers.^[37]

Throughout his career Rorem wrote some six small one-act operas, many of which do not fit squarely into the genre.^[62] The first of these wasA Childhood Miracle of 1951, which had to wait three years for its premiere in New York 1955.^[15] Rorem wrote his own libretto for his 1958 opera based on Chaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale",The Robbers.^[63] His 1961 two-act operaThe Anniversary was never performed.^[17] It included a libretto by Jascha Kessler and was, unusually for Rorem, based on the serialisttone row which he included on thetitle page.^[64] Rorem wrote the one-actBertha (1968) to a libretto by Kenneth Koch.^[63] The same year he wrote the three-actThree Sisters who are Not Sisters (1971), his second collaboration with Stein as the librettist.^[17] The 1970s saw his two final short operas:Fables (1971), 5 brief scene based onLa Fontaine'sFables; andHearing (1976) on a libretto by Holmes based on Rorem's song cycles.^[17]

Rorem's three numbered symphonies were written in a span of eight years during the 1950s.^[65] They have remained relatively "ostracized", even during the late 20th-century revival of neoromanticism.^[66] The music criticDavid Hurwitz remarked that "Ned Rorem's symphonies are shot through with long, lyrical melodies that some observers might relate to his gifts as a songwriter, but strike me as more likely inspired by the "Sunrise" sequence from Ravel'sDaphnis et Chloë–music so strikingly lovely that the beauty it describes can only exist in the world of fantasy and make-believe."^[67]

Rorem's Symphony No. 1 (1950) is cast in four fairly brief movements: I: Maestoso, II: Andantino, III: Largo, and IV: Allegro;^[68] the composer himself noted that it "could easily be called a Suite".^[69] TheAllMusic critic Blair Sanderson considered it the most lyrical and gentle of his symphonies.^[66] His Symphony No. 2 (1956) is cast in 3 movements, I: Broad, Moderate; II: Tranquillo; III: Allegro.^[68] They are of highly unequal proportion—the second movement and the third movement combined being less than half the length of the first movement—akin to the structure ofSymphony No. 6 byDmitri Shostakovich.^[67] Both the first and second symphonies are infrequently performed; the second in particularly had not been performed since 1959 until, as the composer puts it, "José Serebrier resurrected" it 43 years later.^[70] TheThird Symphony (1958) is cast in five movements: I: Passacaglia, II: Allegro molto vivace, III: Largo, IV: Andante, V: Allegro molto.^[68] It is the best known of Rorem's numbered symphonies,^[71] described by Sanderson as "the most fully realized, [with] resilient rhythms and cogent structures".^[66] Hurwitz opines that it should be among the "great American symphonies".^[72] Rorem later arranged the Scherzo movement forwind orchestra in 2002.^[17]

From 1948 onwards, Rorem wrote numerous pieces for solo piano, usually dedicated to relatives or close friends.^[37] Many of these were written for his partner Holmes, and others are named for their recipient, such asFor Shirley (1989) andFor Ben (1999).^[17] Johnson described most of them as brief sketches that contained precedents for his later works.^[73] His earliest published piano work was the 1948 setA Quiet Afternoon, written for his sister's children.^[40]

Among his main piano compositions are three sonatas written in his early years 1948, 1949 and 1954.^[17] Barone singles out the "sparkingToccata" third movement from the First Sonata,^[41] noting that it is a commonencore for pianists.^[44] A few months after its publication, Rorem published the Toccata as a separate piece.^[17]

Rorem's reputation primarily revolves around art songs, during a time when the genre lacked interest from other American composers.^[74] Since the 1950s, he has been described as the "America's foremost composer of art songs",^[75] a designation echoed by the choral conductorRobert Shaw.^[5] Miller ranks him highly with the British song composersRalph Vaughan Williams,Peter Warlock,Gerald Finzi andBenjamin Britten.^[50] His mentor Thomson characterized him as "an American Poulenc", explained byGrove Music Online as due to his expression of "restraint, wit, elegance and direct yet unsentimental expressivity"^[53] Although his music for orchestra, piano and chamber ensemble is substantial,^[74] it less known than his art songs.^[75] In light of his renown for small-scale works, Barone concludes that "You would be hard-pressed to find greatness in Mr. Rorem's vast oeuvre. But he has never aimed to be a Beethoven."^[44]

Rorem was called "an icon of gay history" by Barone, who cited his confidence and openness towards his sexuality.^[44] Barone furthered that although his writings were not centralGay liberation texts, they offered impetus for the movement.^[41] Rorem himself frequently commented as to the general unremarkability of both homosexuality and heterosexuality.^[76] In an interview with Rorem, the physician and writerLawrence D. Mass compared Rorem's indifference to the writerWilliam Hoffman—who "is similarly defensive about being called a gay writer"—and contrasted it toLou Harrison—who is "proud to be a gay composer and interested in talking about what that might mean".^[77] Rorem similarly rejected any connection between a composer's music and sexuality, ridiculing the proposal thatSchubert's supposed homosexuality had any effect on his music.^[78]

A dedicated diarist, Rorem wrote candidly on his and other men's sexuality, describing his relationships withLeonard Bernstein,John Cheever,Noël Coward andTennessee Williams.^[1] Rorem's writings estimate his total romantic and sexual relationships as 3,000.^[79] He wrote extensively about music as well, collected the anthologiesMusic from Inside Out (1967),Music and People (1968),Pure Contraption (1974),Setting the Tone (1983),Settling the Score (1988), andOther Entertainment (1996).^[80] In 2005, Rorem was the subject of a documentary film,Ned Rorem: Word And Music, co-directed by James Dowell and John Kolomvakis.^[81]

Books

• Rorem, Ned (1966).The Paris Diary. New York:George Braziller.OCLC 220705.
• —— (1967).The New York Diary. New York:George Braziller.OCLC 419642.
• —— (1967).Music from Inside Out. New York:George Braziller.OCLC 637907.
• —— (1968).Music and People. New York:George Braziller.OCLC 449570.
• —— (1970).Critical Affairs: a Composer's Journal. New York:George Braziller.ISBN 978-0-8076-0569-1.OCLC 91619.
• —— (1974).Pure Contraption. New York:Holt, Rinehart and Winston.ISBN 978-0-03-011021-4.OCLC 622504.
• —— (1974).The Final Diary. New York:Holt, Rinehart and Winston.ISBN 978-0-03-012251-4.OCLC 914568.
• —— (1978).An Absolute Gift. New York:Simon & Schuster.ISBN 978-0-671-22666-4.OCLC 3516613.
• —— (1983).Setting the Tone: Essays and a Diary. New York:Coward, McCann & Geoghegan.ISBN 978-0-698-11234-6.OCLC 869040899.
• —— (1984).Paul's Blues. New York: Red Ozier Press.OCLC 13481014.
• —— (1987).The Nantucket Diary. San Francisco:North Point Press.ISBN 978-0-86547-259-4.OCLC 16902949.
• —— (1988).Settling the Score: Essays on Music. New York:Doubleday.OCLC 915855727.
• —— (1994).Knowing When to Stop: A Memoir. New York:Simon & Schuster.ISBN 978-0-671-72872-4.OCLC 30593756.
• —— (1996).Other Entertainment: Collected Pieces. New York:Simon & Schuster.ISBN 978-0-684-82249-5.OCLC 34623876.
• —— (1997).Dear Paul, Dear Ned: The Correspondence of Paul Bowles and Ned Rorem. New York: Elysium Press.OCLC 37781932.
• —— (2005).Wings of Friendship: Selected Letters, 1944–2003. Washington:Shoemaker & Hoard.OCLC 57625802.
• —— (2006).Facing the Night: A Diary (1999–2005) and Musical Writings. Washington:Shoemaker & Hoard.OCLC 70230711.

Articles

• Rorem, Ned (Spring 1963). "Poulenc: A Memoir".Tempo (64):28–29.doi:10.1017/S0040298200028035.JSTOR 943868.S2CID 145116275.
• —— (December 1968). "The Music of the Beatles".Music Educators Journal.55 (4): 33–34+77–83.doi:10.2307/3392348.JSTOR 3392348.S2CID 143918646.
• —— (June 1974). "Why I Write as I Do".Tempo (109):38–40.doi:10.1017/S0040298200055534.JSTOR 944099.S2CID 145320328.
• —— (April 20, 1975)."Some Notes (Mostly Sour) On Singing Songs".The New York Times.
• —— (December 1978). "Messiaen and Carter on Their Birthdays".Tempo (127):22–24.doi:10.1017/S0040298200018374.JSTOR 945956.S2CID 145322090.
• —— (May 1, 1983)."A Composer Offers Some Candid Thoughts on His Art".The New York Times.
• —— (November 10, 1985)."Aaron Copland: 'He Is Like a Song-Filled Rock of Gibraltar'".The New York Times.
• —— (December 1990). "Leonard Bernstein (An Appreciation)".Tempo (175):6–9.doi:10.1017/S0040298200012559.JSTOR 944575.S2CID 145197594.
• —— (1992)."Young Caeser".Grove Music Online. Oxford:Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O907008.ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.(subscription,Wikilibrary access, orUK public library membership required)
• ——; Robbins, Jerome (2000). "'Ballet for Jerry': Three Letters from Jerome Robbins to Ned Rorem".Dance Chronicle.23 (3):263–273.doi:10.1080/01472520008569391.JSTOR 1567981.S2CID 191581741.
• —— (2001)."Flanagan, William".Grove Music Online. Oxford:Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.09782.ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.(subscription,Wikilibrary access, orUK public library membership required)
• —— (2013)."Goodman, Paul".Grove Music Online. Oxford:Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2282988.ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.(subscription,Wikilibrary access, orUK public library membership required)

• 1950: Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Award^[15]
• 1951:Fulbright Fellowship^[16]
• 1957:Guggenheim Fellowship^[23]
• 1968: Award from theNational Institute of Arts and Letters^[23]
• 1976:Pulitzer Prize for Music^[30]
• 1977: Honorary doctorate from Northwestern University^[22]
• 1977: Guggenheim Fellowship^[23]
• 2003:ASCAP's Lifetime Achievement Award^[90]
• 2004:Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres^[91]

This list identifies each item's location in Rorem's writings.

Books

Articles

Online

SeeMcDonald (1989, pp. 105–242) for an extensive bibliography

• Official website
• Profile for Ned Rorem at Boosey & Hawkes
• Ned Rorem collection, 1935–2006. Washington, DC:Library of Congress.
• Interview with Ned Rorem onWNIB Classical 97, Chicago, April 24, 1986
• Ned Rorem discography atDiscogs
• Ned Rorem atIMDb

• 1923 births
• 2022 deaths
• 20th-century American classical composers
• 20th-century American male musicians
• 21st-century American classical composers
• 21st-century American male musicians
• American Conservatory of Music alumni
• American contemporary classical composers
• American diarists
• American gay musicians
• American LGBTQ composers
• American male opera composers
• American opera composers
• American people of Norwegian descent
• Bienen School of Music alumni
• Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
• Curtis Institute of Music alumni
• Gay composers
• Juilliard School alumni
• LGBTQ classical composers
• Musicians from Richmond, Indiana
• Presidents of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• Pulitzer Prize for Music winners
• University of Chicago Laboratory Schools alumni

• Good articles
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from August 2024
• Articles with hCards
• Pages using multiple image with auto scaled images
• CS1: long volume value