Ned Rorem
Post-War · 1923–2022
Ned Rorem was best known for songs: settings of English-language poetry for a single voice and piano, of which he wrote several hundred. Born in Richmond, Indiana, in 1923 and raised in Chicago, he studied in New York, then spent much of the 1950s in France and Morocco, absorbing the clarity and polish of French music into his own naturally lyrical style.
He was nearly as famous as a writer of prose. His published diaries, beginning with The Paris Diary in 1966, were candid about his life, his loves, and the musical world, and made him a literary celebrity. Alongside the songs he wrote operas, choral music, and orchestral works, winning the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1976.
Start with the Symphony no. 3 for his orchestral voice, and then find a good song recital, where the heart of his work lives.
107 works in the catalog, across 4 genres. Log what you listen to with Opus, the classical music journal for iPhone.
Chamber
- 4 Prayers, for flute and piano
- 9 Episodes for Four Players, quartet in 9 movements for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano
- Book of Hours, 8 pieces for flute and harp
- Bright Music, for flute, 2 violins, cello and piano
- Dances, for cello and piano
- Day Music, for violin and piano
- Mountain Song, for flute, oboe, violin, cello and piano
- Night Music, for violin and piano
- Picnic on the Marne, 7 waltzes for alto saxophone and piano
- Pilgrims, for strings
- Romeo and Juliet, for flute and guitar
- Spring Music, for violin, cello, and piano
- String Quartet no. 4
- Suite for Guitar
- The End of Summer, for violin, clarinet, and piano
- The Unquestioned Answer, quintet for flute, 2 violins, cello and piano
- Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano
Keyboard
- 6 Friends, for piano
- 6 Variations, for 2 pianos
- 8 Etudes
- A Quaker Reader, 11 pieces for organ
- Dance Suite, for 2 pianos
- Piano Album I
- Piano Sonata no. 1
- Piano Sonata no. 2
- Piano Sonata no. 3
- Sicilienne, for 2 pianos
- Spiders, for harpsichord
- Views from fhe Oldest House, suite for organ
Orchestral
- Symphony no. 3
- Cello Concerto
- Double Concerto for violin, cello, and orchestra
- Flute Concerto
- Lions, for orchestra
- Piano Concerto no. 2
- Symphony no. 1
- Symphony no. 2
- Violin Concerto
- Water Music, for violin, clarinet and orchestra
Vocal
- 2 Poems of Elisabeth Bishop
- 2 Poems of Theodore Roethke
- 2 Psalms and a Proverb, for chorus and string quartet
- 3 Choruses for Christmas
- 3 Motets
- 4 Dialogues, for 2 voices and 2 pianos
- 4 Madrigals, on texts by Sappho, for vocal quartet
- 4 Poems of Tennyson
- 5 Songs to Poems of Walt Whitman
- 7 Motets for the Church Year
- Alleluia
- Are you the new person
- Ariel, cycle of 5 poems, for soprano, clarinet and piano
- As Adam Early in the Morning
- Catullus: on the burial of his brother, for voice and piano
- Cycle of Holy Songs
- Early in the Morning, for voice and piano
- Echo's Songs
- Evidence of Things Not Seen, for voices and piano
- Flight for Heaven, song cycle for voice and piano
- For Susan, for voice and piano
- Full of life now
- Gloria, for soprano, mezzo-soprano and piano
- Hearing, cycle of 6 songs
- I Am Rose
- In a Gondola
- In Time of Pestilence, for chorus
- I Strolled Across an Open Field
- I will always love you, for voice, string trio and piano
- Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair, for voice and piano
- King Midas, cantata for voices and piano
- Little Elegy
- Look Down, Fair Moon
- Lullaby of the Woman of the Mountain
- Medieval Lyrics
- Memory
- More Than a Day, song cycle for countertenor and chamber orchestra
- My Papa's Waltz
- Nantucket Songs
- Night Crow
- Now sleeps the crimson petal, for voice and piano
- O Do Not Love Too Long, for voice and piano
- On a Singing Girl, for voice and piano
- Orchids
- O You Whom I Often and Silently Come
- Pilgrim Strangers, for 6 male voices
- Pippa's Song
- Poems of Love and the Rain, song cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano
- Praise the Lord, O My Soul, for chorus and organ
- Rain in spring, for voice and piano
- Requiem
- Sally's Smile
- See how they love me
- Sing, My Soul, His Wondrous Love
- Spring and Fall
- Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
- Such beauty as hurts to behold
- That Shadow, My Likeness, song for voice and piano
- The Call
- The Lordly Hudson
- The Serpent, for voice and piano
- The Silver Swan
- The Waking
- To a Young Girl, for voice and piano
- To You
- War Scenes, cycle of 5 songs from Whitman
- What if some Little Pain
- Youth, Day, Old Age, and Night
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