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Ned Rorem (1923 - )
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 The
Later Diaries 1961-1972 by Ned
Rorem
The intimate chronicle
of one of our leading composers and writers.
Ned Rorem is celebrated as one of America's
greatest living composers. His diary of his early years, The Paris
Diary & The New York Diary, was widely acclaimed. The Later
Diaries continues one of the most sustained efforts in the
intimate journal form ever undertaken and offers candid insights
into his astonishing life, career, art, friendships, and love. In
these years, Lions, Miss Julie, and Poems of Love and the Rain
were composed and most of his books written; he also continued to
meet the famous and infamous and to write of them with the charm
that Janet Flanner characterized as "worldly, intelligent,
licentious, highly indiscreet."
 The
Paris Diary and the New York Diary by Ned
Rorem, Robert Phelps (Preface), Richard Howard (Introduction)
Composer Ned Rorem has an exquisite way with a
song, distilling musical essences to provide miniature
masterpieces that linger in listeners' minds. He is also, as these
diaries prove, a facile, if somewhat undisciplined, writer. And
someone mired in self-absorption. At the time Rorem wrote his
diaries, he was distinctly callow and obsessed with being
"pretty"; yet the picture that emerges of him in his
youth is not entirely attractive. The book will be of interest to
those who are curious about the lives of significant composers,
both for the small insights that he shares about his composition
process and for the details of his life and the circumstances
under which he wrote his music. His vividly sketched picture of
gay life more than a generation ago widens the audience of this
book. --Sarah Bryan Miller
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Ned Rorem is a contemporary American composer and author.
This site is Ned Rorem's official website, devoted to his music & prose.
Includes list of works, reviews, photos.
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Excerpt:
Words and music are inextricably linked for Ned
Rorem. Time Magazine has called him "the world's
best composer of art songs," yet his musical and literary
ventures extend far beyond this specialized field. Rorem has
composed three symphonies, four piano concertos and an array of
other orchestral works, music for numerous combinations of chamber
forces, six operas, choral works of every description, ballets and
other music for the theater, and literally hundreds of songs and
cycles. He is the author of fourteen books, including five volumes
of diaries and collections of lectures and criticism...
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Interview by Erik Philbrook, The
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
Excerpt:
One of America's most accomplished and prolific
song-oriented composers, Ned Rorem, is in his 75th year and
concerts around the world are celebrating with performances of his
works, both old and new. The world premiere of his latest song
cycle, Evidence of Things Not Seen, presented earlier this
year by the New York Festival of Song, caused Peter Davis of New
York magazine to write: "I will rashly proclaim it one of
the musically richest, most exquisitely fashioned, most
voice-friendly collections of songs I have ever heard by any
American composer." Here Rorem, who is also the author of
many books, discusses Evidence and explains why he thinks
America is on a sad path to musical ignorance...
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From Thomas Hampson's I
Hear American Singing Website
Excerpt:
One of America's most renowned and prolific
composers of art song, Ned Rorem has made enormous contributions
not only to that genre, but to all forms of American musical life...
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by Rich Grzesiak
Excerpt:
In his Music from the Inside Out (1967),
the composer Ned Rorem wrote, "Love is a mystery which, when
solved, evaporates. The same holds for music."
Rorem's own highly publicized life and loves
radiate anything but mystery yet his much honored talent as a
composer enjoys a puzzling obscurity. The more he has written
about his life, the less his own musicality has gained an
audience...
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Names Index:
A B
C D
E F
G H
I J
K L
M N
O P
Q R
S T
U V
W X
Y Z
| Authors
Index | Scholars
Index |
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