Ned Miller Rorem (October 23, 1923 – November 18, 2022) was an American composer of contemporary classical music and a writer. He is best known for his art songs, of which there are more than 500. During his time, he was considered the leading American composer in this genre. He was often described as a neoromantic composer and showed little interest in the modernist style that was becoming popular during his lifetime. As a writer, he kept and later published many diaries in which he shared honest details about his interactions with important cultural figures from America and France.

Rorem was born in Richmond, Indiana. He developed an early interest in music and studied with Margaret Bonds and Leo Sowerby. He became very interested in French music and was mentored by Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson, among others. After spending two years in Morocco, he was invited to stay in Paris by Marie-Laure de Noailles, an arts patron. There, he was influenced by the neoclassicist group Les Six, especially Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud. He returned to America around 1957, became a well-known composer, and received many commissions. For the American Bicentennial, he worked on seven projects at the same time, including Air Music: Ten Etudes for Orchestra, which won a Pulitzer 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 his home in Nantucket. From 1980 onward, he taught at the Curtis Institute. He composed the large-scale song cycle Evidence of Things Not Seen (1997), based on 36 texts by 24 writers, for the New York Festival of Song. This work is considered by critics and Rorem himself to be his greatest achievement. In his later years, he focused on concertante music, and his final major work was the opera Our Town (2006).

Life and career

Ned Miller Rorem was born on October 23, 1923, in Richmond, Indiana, United States. His parents were of Norwegian heritage, and he was the second child in his family, with an older sister named Rosemary. His father, Clarence Rufus Rorem, worked as a medical economist at Earlham College, and his ideas later influenced the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. His mother, Gladys Miller Rorem, was involved in antiwar efforts and belonged to the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers. Ned described his family background as "upper middle-class, partially artistic but with a strong Quaker influence." He later said his family was culturally connected to Quakers but not religiously Quaker. He called himself a "Quaker atheist." The family moved to Chicago shortly after his birth, where he attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. Although his parents were not musicians, they supported the arts and took their children to many concerts featuring famous pianists and dancers.

Rorem showed an early interest in music and began learning piano as a child with a teacher named Nuta Rothschild. Before Rothschild, he had other teachers, but she was the first to deeply influence him. She helped him develop a lifelong love for French music and culture, especially the works of composers like Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. By age 12, he started piano lessons with Margaret Bonds, who encouraged his interest in composing music and introduced him to American jazz and classical music by composers such as Charles Tomlinson Griffes and John Alden Carpenter. He was also deeply influenced by the music of Igor Stravinsky and the songs of Billie Holiday. In 1938, he began piano lessons with Belle Tannenbaum, under whom he learned and performed the first movement of Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto. During his youth, he studied music theory at the American Conservatory of Music with Leo Sowerby, a well-known church music composer. He graduated from high school in 1940, around the time he formed a close friendship with the future writer Paul Goodman, whose poems he later set to music. Rorem also kept a diary from a young age, showing an interest in writing.

Ned Rorem’s education timeline:

In 1940, Rorem attended the School of Music at Northwestern University, where he studied composition with Alfred Nolte and piano with Harold Van Horne. Under Van Horne, he focused on music by composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin. In 1942, he transferred to the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied composition and orchestration with Gian Carlo Menotti and counterpoint with Rosario Scalero. He had several compositions performed, including The 70th Psalm (1943), a choral piece with orchestral accompaniment, and a Piano Sonata for Four Hands. He left Curtis after one year because he disagreed with Scalero’s teaching style, and his parents stopped giving him regular money. In late 1943, he moved to New York and worked as a copyist for the composer Virgil Thomson, with whom he also studied orchestration and prosody. Through a friend, he met the conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, who introduced him to Aaron Copland. Rorem later attended summer sessions at the Tanglewood Music Center to study with Copland. In an article for The New York Times, he wrote, "I took the job with Virgil, became an instant fan of Aaron and Lenny, and for the next 42 years with many ups and downs, I’ve remained close friends with all three men. Some weekend!"

In 1943, Rorem enrolled at the Juilliard School, where he studied composition with Bernard Wagenaar. He graduated from Juilliard with a Bachelor of Arts in 1946 and a Master of Music in 1948. While a student, he worked as a piano accompanist for performers like dancer Martha Graham and singer Éva Gauthier. Because of his interest in literature, he became more interested in composing art songs and also wrote incidental music, ballet music, and music for a puppet show. In 1948, his song The Lordly Hudson, based on a poem by Paul Goodman, won the Music Library Association’s published song of the year award. That same year, his orchestral Overture in C won a Gershwin Prize and was performed by the New York Philharmonic in May 1948. The success of these works marked an important step in his career as a composer.

Rorem later said the 1940s were a key time for shaping his future as a composer, and by 1950, he was certain he wanted to be a composer. Using money from the Gershwin Prize, he traveled to France in early 1949, though he spent much of the next two years in Morocco. He was very productive in Morocco, creating many compositions quickly. He once said, "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." Among his early large-scale works, he wrote the ballet Melos in 1949 and both his Piano Concerto No. 2 and Symphony No. 1 in 1950. The ballet won the Prix de Biarritz in 1951, while the Symphony was performed in Vienna in February 1951 by Jonathan Sternberg and the Piano Concerto in 1954 by Julius Katchen through French Radio. During this time, he wrote many song cycles based on a single text: Flight for Heaven (1950) to Robert Herrick; Six Irish Poems (1950) to George Darley; Cycle of Holy Songs (1951) to biblical texts; and To a Young Girl to W. B. Yeats. He also composed his first opera, A Childhood Miracle, based on a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Though written in 1951, the opera was not performed until May 10, 1955, in New York. He later received two honors: the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Award in 1950 and a Fulbright Scholarship in 1951.

With the Fulbright Scholarship in 1951, Rorem moved to Paris to study with Arthur Honegger, a composer from the Les Six group known for neoclassicist music. Unlike many American musicians in Paris, he did not study with Nadia Boulanger, who believed her teaching might change his unique style. He became friends with Marie-Laure de Noailles, a wealthy arts patron, and lived in her home. Through her, he met other leading Parisian cultural figures, including composers from Les Six, Francis Poulenc, Georges Auric, and Darius Milhaud. Their influence strengthened the French style in his music, and he set many medieval French poems in the 1953 song cycle Poèmes pour la paix. Other works created in Paris include: Piano Sonata No. 2 (1950); two ballets, Ballet for Jerry (1951) and Dorian Gray (1952); Design for Orchestra (1953); The Poet’s Requiem (1955); and Symphony No. 2. A 1953 concert in Paris featured

Music

Ned Rorem composed music for piano, orchestra, chamber ensembles, and solo instruments. However, he believed all his music had a vocal and song-like quality. Often described as a neoromantic composer, Rorem generally avoided the strict modernist styles that were becoming popular at the time. His music was mostly tonal, and Grove Music Online noted that he used a wide range of techniques, showing both complexity and strength in his work.

Rorem is best known for his art songs, of which he wrote more than 500. These songs were often grouped into about thirty song cycles, created from the 1940s through the 2000s. He focused on the overall structure of each cycle, carefully arranging the order of songs, the progression of musical keys, and the transitions between pieces. He also emphasized theatrical elements, aiming to express a unified emotional message throughout each cycle. Musicologist Philip Lieson Miller noted that Rorem’s work was not experimental and that he avoided seeking novelty. Rorem’s songs were typically written for a single voice and piano, based on lyrical poems of moderate length. He admired the works of composers like Monteverdi, Schumann, Poulenc, and the Beatles. Occasionally, he used modernist techniques such as intense chromaticism, frequent key changes, and alternating time signatures to achieve specific effects.

Rorem’s main focus in art songs was setting poetry, rather than emphasizing the sound of the human voice. Grove Music Online praised his ability to set words naturally and clearly while maintaining the full range of vocal expression. Most of his songs were written in English, and he criticized American colleagues who prioritized other languages over English. In his early years, he often set the poems of his friend Paul Goodman. Later, he composed many songs based on the works of Theodore Roethke. He frequently created entire song cycles based on the poetry of a single writer, including John Ashbery, Witter Bynner, Demetrios Capetanakis, George Darley, Frank O’Hara, Robert Herrick, Kenneth Koch, Howard Moss, Sylvia Plath, Wallace Stevens, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Walt Whitman, to whom he dedicated three cycles. A few of his songs were written in other languages, such as French poems by Jean-Antoine de Baïf, Jean Daurat, Olivier de Magny, Henri de Régnier, and Pierre de Ronsard, as well as ancient Greek texts by Plato.

Most of Rorem’s songs were accompanied by piano, though some featured mixed instrumental ensembles or orchestras. As a pianist himself, he treated piano parts as essential to the music, not just background. His piano accompaniments included musical ideas that highlighted specific words, such as “rain” or “clouds,” and varied widely in function. Sometimes the piano responded to the voice in counterpoint or simply repeated the vocal line. He occasionally used a Renaissance-style technique called a ground bass, where a slow, repeated bassline in the left hand supported the melody. Music writer Bret Johnson described Rorem’s piano style as featuring “chiming piano, rushing triplets, and rich harmonies.”

Rorem composed two full-length operas: Miss Julie (1965) and Our Town (2005). Miss Julie was not well received, with critic Harold C. Schonberg noting its melodies were bland and unoriginal. Rorem himself believed that song specialists could not easily write successful operas, just as opera composers could not write great songs. The libretto for Miss Julie was written by Kenward Elmslie, based on a play by August Strindberg. Rorem revised the opera for a more successful revival in 1979, and it was later performed again in 1994.

Our Town, written 40 years later, was based on a play by Thornton Wilder. It premiered successfully in 2006 at the Indiana University Opera Theater and was later performed at the Juilliard Opera Center and the Central City Opera. Critic Joshua Barone described it as a “tastefully restrained echo of the play’s text” that deserved more prominent stages. The opera’s final monologue-aria by the character Emily Webb is particularly well-regarded and often performed by soprano singers.

Throughout his career, Rorem composed about six small one-act operas, many of which did not fit neatly into the genre. His first, A Childhood Miracle (1951), premiered in 1955. He wrote the libretto for The Robbers (1958), based on Chaucer’s The Pardoner’s Tale. His two-act opera The Anniversary (1961), with a libretto by Jascha Kessler, was never performed. It was unusually based on a serialist tone row, which Rorem included on the title page. Other operas included Bertha (1968) and Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters (1971), a collaboration with Stein. In the 1970s, he wrote Fables (1971), based on La Fontaine’s fables, and Hearing (1976), based on his song cycles.

Rorem’s three numbered symphonies were written between 1950 and 1958. They have remained less performed, even during the revival of neoromanticism in the late 20th century. Critic David Hurwitz noted that Rorem’s symphonies featured long, lyrical melodies that might remind listeners of his songwriting skills or be inspired by Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloë.

Rorem’s Symphony No. 1 (1950) had four short movements and was described by the composer as a “Suite.” His Symphony No. 2 (1956) had three movements with uneven lengths, similar to Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 6. It was rarely performed until 1959, when conductor José Serebrier revived it 43 years later. Symphony No. 3 (1958), with five movements, was the most well-known of his symphonies. Critic Blair Sanderson called it the most fully realized, with strong rhythms and clear structure

Legacy

Near the end of his life, Rorem was called the "respected leader of American art song, a writer who produced many books, [and] an early supporter of gay rights."

Rorem became well-known for his art songs during a time when few American composers focused on this genre. Since the 1950s, he has been called "America's top composer of art songs," a title also given by choral conductor Robert Shaw. Music critic Miller compared him to British song composers Ralph Vaughan Williams, Peter Warlock, Gerald Finzi, and Benjamin Britten. His teacher, Thomson, described him as "an American Poulenc," a comparison explained by Grove Music Online as due to his use of "calmness, humor, elegance, and clear but not overly emotional expression." While Rorem wrote many works for orchestra, piano, and small musical groups, these are less well-known than his art songs. Because of his fame for smaller works, Barone noted, "It would be hard to find great masterpieces in Mr. Rorem's large body of work. But he never wanted to be like Beethoven."

Barone called Rorem "an important figure in gay history," noting his confidence and openness about his sexuality. Barone added that while Rorem's writings were not central to the gay liberation movement, they helped inspire it. Rorem often said that both homosexuality and heterosexuality were common and not unusual. In an interview, physician and writer Lawrence D. Mass compared Rorem's attitude to that of writer William Hoffman, who avoided being called a "gay writer," and contrasted it with composer Lou Harrison, who was proud to be a gay composer and discussed the meaning of his identity. Rorem also disagreed with the idea that a composer's sexuality affects their music, stating that Schubert's supposed homosexuality had no influence on his work.

Rorem kept a detailed diary and wrote honestly about his own and others' sexuality, including his relationships with Leonard Bernstein, John Cheever, Noël Coward, and Tennessee Williams. He estimated he had 3,000 romantic and sexual relationships. He also wrote many books about music, including Music from Inside Out (1967), Music and People (1968), Pure Contraption (1974), Setting the Tone (1983), Settling the Score (1988), and Other Entertainment (1996). In 2005, a documentary film titled Ned Rorem: Word And Music was made about him, co-directed by James Dowell and John Kolomvakis.

Writings

• 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.

• 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 145

Awards and honors

• 1950: Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Award
• 1951: Fulbright Fellowship
• 1957: Guggenheim Fellowship
• 1968: Award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters
• 1976: Pulitzer Prize for Music
• 1977: Honorary doctorate from Northwestern University
• 1977: Guggenheim Fellowship
• 2003: ASCAP's Lifetime Achievement Award
• 2004: Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres