Ned Rorem (1923-2022)

[richardfinegold]

If you're a fan of Susan Graham, you could try this CD of Rorem songs:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7925743--songs-of-ned-rorem

The only writing I have read of his is Knowing when to stop (though as one wag put it, he didn't seem to!):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Knowing-Whe...s%2C63&sr=1-18

I remember when that SG disc came out, as a few of the songs were played on our station at the time. They have been playing many more Rorem songs, including some from that SG album, this past weekend.

[JasonPalmer]

Ned is composer of the week....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001slxr

he seems to have kept diaries so we know a lot about him, interesting music, very modern to my ears

[Pulcinella]

Ned is composer of the week....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001slxr

he seems to have kept diaries so we know a lot about him, interesting music, very modern to my ears

Really? I must check what they're playing.
Perhaps should cross-reference to the Quakerism and Music thread, though his somewhat outrageous behaviour in his twenties and his waspish tongue don't really chime with Quaker values.

[Serial_Apologist]

Rorem. we're told, was noted as a songsmith, and it was a gift for melody which informs his earliest music from the 1940s and 50s, featured in the first programme. The second introduces a more modernist element, especially in the 15-minute orchestral piece "Lions" from 1963, opening with Vaughan Williamsy chords before entering darker moods steeped in deep glowing orchestral combinations, into which Rorem abruptly inserts what could pass as a jazz ballad, performed here by Branford Marsalis's quartet, with emerging disquiet from dissonant murmurings erupting in expressionistic violence to round off - all rather odd. A couple of conventional religious choral settings and concluding Satieesque set from a suite of pieces for flute and piano or harp concluded this second episode.