Ned Rorem b. 1923

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An introduction to the music of Ned Rorem

Ned Rorem has written, "I conceive all music…vocally. Whatever my music is written for – tuba, tambourine, tubular bells – it is always the singer within me crying to get out." Rorem is justly proud of his instrumental works; it was Air Music, a piece for orchestra, that won him the Pulitzer Prize. His dozens of chamber and instrumental works are widely performed and recorded. Among the distinguished conductors who have performed his music are Bernstein, Maazel, Mehta, Ormandy, Reiner, Rostropovich and Stokowski. The Atlanta Symphony recording of the String Symphony, Sunday Morning and Eagles received a Grammy Award for Outstanding Orchestral Recording in 1989.

But he is best known for an outpouring of vocal music unmatched by any other American art-music composer. Many share Time magazine’s assessment of him as "the world’s best composer of art songs." In his songs, Rorem’s love of poetry is joined with a desire to communicate directly with the listener as an intimate, an equal.

Rorem’s determination to speak to his audience in this way is reflected in both his treatment of the singing voice and his choice of musical idiom. "In a song," Rorem has written, "the words have to be understood, kept intact, though given a new dimension. Other composers care more for feeling and a disjunct musical line. I am different; poetry can’t be too complex." For him, something vital is lost when the singing voice overpowers the text, as in bel canto or expressionistic vocal idioms. His success in setting texts stems at least partly from an exceptional ability to balance verbal lucidity and musical interest. And by working almost exclusively in the English language, Rorem further ensures that his message will be comprehended.

Ned Rorem’s music strives for clarity. He distrusts the convoluted, the pompous, the grandiose. To some degree this is a legacy of his years in Paris and his exposure to figures such as Poulenc, Auric, and Cocteau. However, Rorem treated the neoclassical aesthetic not with French irony and emotional distance, but with American openness and first-name intimacy, adding clarity of emotional expression to intelligibility of means.

For Rorem, tonal music provides the only harmonic language that can support such intelligibility and clarity. Having carried the banner of tonality faithfully throughout his career (despite a brief flirtation with tone-rows in the late 60s), he has expressed chagrin at the publicity given those who "returned" to tonality. "[I feel] like the Prodigal Son’s brother," he has said.

Some other aspects of Rorem’s work deserve special mention. Despite a late start in the medium, he has become one of the foremost American composers of organ music. His dozens of chamber and orchestral works are widely performed and recorded. Ecumenical in viewpoint, he has made an invaluable contribution to American sacred choral music. Through his writings – twelve books and innumerable articles – he has been a tireless advocate of the composer and his or her rightful place in our society’s musical culture. The easy charm and occasional flippancy of Rorem’s prose disguises what becomes, in his music, something of a moral imperative: to create that which can come only from one’s unique being. Characteristically, Rorem writes: "Anyone can be drunk, anyone can be in love, anyone can waste time and weep, but only I can pen my songs in the few remaining years or minutes."