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NED ROREM. SYMPHONY Nº3. SEREBRIER
published: 12 Jun 2015
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Ned Rorem - 9 Songs (1946-51)
Ned Miller Rorem (October 23, 1923 – November 18, 2022) was an American composer of contemporary classical music and a writer. Best known for his art songs, which number over 500, Rorem was considered the leading American of his time writing in the genre. Frequently described as a neoromantic composer, he showed limited interest in the emerging modernist aesthetic of his lifetime.
Please support my channel:
https://ko-fi.com/bartjebartmans
1. Early in the Morning (0:00)
Poem by Robert Hillyer
Dedicated to Pierre Quèvel
2. Alleluia (2:02) 1946
Dedicated to Jeannie Tourel
3. I Will Always Love You (4:51)
Poem by Frank O'Hara
4. Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair (7:15)
Poem and music by Stephen Foster
5. Little Elegy (9:55) 1948
Poem by Elinor Wylie
6. Love (11:16)
Poem by Thomas Lodg...
published: 12 May 2024
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Ned Rorem: Composer | Author | American Icon
"I base my identity on being a composer, who does other things."
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ned Rorem is one of the most accomplished and prolific composers of art songs in the world. As literary as he is musical, Rorem recorded much of his experience — as a composer, as an artist, as a man — in his many diaries, journals, and collected essays.
published: 03 Oct 2013
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NED ROREM. PIANO CONCERTO Nº2
NED ROREM
PIANO CONCERTO Nº2
01. I. Somber and Steady
02. II. Quiet and Sad
03. III. Real Fast
SIMON MULLIGAN, PIANO
ROYAL SCOTISH NATIONAL ORCHESTRA
D. JOSÉ SEREBRIER
published: 22 Nov 2022
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Ned Rorem - Air Music (Official Score Video)
Listen and follow along with our B&H Study Score Video featuring the official publisher's score of Ned Rorem's "Air Music," set to a recording by the Louisville Orchestra and conductor Peter Leonard.
More info on Rorem's "Air Music": https://bit.ly/RoremAirMusic
Purchase the Study Score: https://bit.ly/RoremAirMusicScore
Watch our other Study Score videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUr1r_wAANZGIh64QnTvQUtx84SAOvaE0
Music:
Air Music
Composed by Ned Rorem
Performed by the Louisville Orchestra and Peter Leonard
#BHStudyScores
published: 23 Oct 2023
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Ned Rorem - Piano Sonata No.1 - 3. Toccata
Thomas Lanners: Piano
published: 23 Feb 2011
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Ned Rorem / Symphony No. 3 (Bernstein)
Ned Rorem (b. 1923)
Symphony No. 3 (1958)
00:00 - Lento appassionato
06:49 - Allegro molto vivace
09:10 - Largo
12:00 - Andante
16:38 - Allegro molto
New York Philharmonic, dir. Leonard Bernstein (world premiere broadcast performance of 18 April 1959)
"Rorem's Third Symphony is much related to the last phase of his residence in France in 1957. It embodies a state of mind he has described as 'actively sad,' occasioned by an inward emotional crisis, and the prospect to come of geographical relocation from France to the United States. It was written, notes Rorem, in 'a three week period during the last of seven summers at the Chateau of the Vicomtesse de Noailles in Hyères (in the South of France).' The score notes April 1958 as the date of completion in New York.
The work falls into a s...
published: 15 Oct 2013
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Ned Rorem (Violin Concerto)
Having composed art songs that number in the hundreds, Ned Rorem's numerous works in other genres don't always get as much attention as they deserve. He tends to write in a musical language that welcomes listeners of all backgrounds. But these works never talk down to the audience, as you will discover in his Violin Concerto from 1985.
The piece, at just under twenty-four minutes, is divided into six sections. Rorem says that the concerto could just as well have another title such as "Suite", or even "Variations", since the central theme established at the beginning finds new expressive life in each of the succeeding movements.
José Serebrier leads the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in this particular performance, with Philip Quint as the soloist.
Paintings by Thomas Hart Ben...
published: 08 Sep 2013
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Ned Rorem — Barcarolles — Timo Andres
Ned Rorem: Barcarolles (1949)
I. Graceful
II. Tender [3:43]
III. Lively [6:25]
Timo Andres, piano
published: 22 Sep 2020
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Ned Rorem - 3 Barcarolles (audio + sheet music)
"Anyone can be drunk, anyone can be in love, anyone can waste time and weep, but only I can pen my songs in the remaining years or minutes," wrote Ned Rorem. Known both as a writer and a composer, Rorem is intriguing as both a musical figure and as a personality. He is self-described as a profoundly diatonic composer and his music language betrays the influence of his French impressionist idols Debussy and Ravel. Rorem's harmonic palette is generally characterized by vertical extrapolations -- through modality, polymodality, and chordal alterations -- of an essentially tonal framework. Some works conduct innovative experiments in the song cycle form; Poems of Love and Rain, for example, sets eight different poems to music, then sets them again in reverse order to contrasting music. Many of...
published: 25 Feb 2018
18:06
Ned Rorem - 9 Songs (1946-51)
Ned Miller Rorem (October 23, 1923 – November 18, 2022) was an American composer of contemporary classical music and a writer. Best known for his art songs, whi...
Ned Miller Rorem (October 23, 1923 – November 18, 2022) was an American composer of contemporary classical music and a writer. Best known for his art songs, which number over 500, Rorem was considered the leading American of his time writing in the genre. Frequently described as a neoromantic composer, he showed limited interest in the emerging modernist aesthetic of his lifetime.
Please support my channel:
https://ko-fi.com/bartjebartmans
1. Early in the Morning (0:00)
Poem by Robert Hillyer
Dedicated to Pierre Quèvel
2. Alleluia (2:02) 1946
Dedicated to Jeannie Tourel
3. I Will Always Love You (4:51)
Poem by Frank O'Hara
4. Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair (7:15)
Poem and music by Stephen Foster
5. Little Elegy (9:55) 1948
Poem by Elinor Wylie
6. Love (11:16)
Poem by Thomas Lodge
Dedication: Shirley Xenia Gabis Roads
7. O Do Not Love too Long (13:05) 1951
Poem by W.B. Yeats
8. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (14:31)
Poem by Robert Frost
Dedication: To My Father
9. To A Young Girl (16:25) 1951
Poem by W.B. Yeats
Dedication: Sylvia Goldstein
Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano & Malcolm Martineau, piano
Ned Rorem is best known for his art songs, of which he wrote more than 500. Many are coupled into some thirty or so song cycles, written from the early 1940s to 2000s. Rorem stressed the importance of a cycle's overall structure, paying close attention to the song order, progression of keys and transition between songs. He also emphasized theatricality, aiming to convey an overarching message via a unified emotional affect or mood. Like in other genres, the musicologist Philip Lieson Miller remarked that "Rorem's chosen field of song is not for the avant garde and he must be classified as [...] conservative", and that "he has never striven for novelty". Rorem's strict definitions of what constitutes a song has molded them to be typically be single-voice and piano settings of lyrical poems of moderate length. He named songs by Monteverdi, Schumann, Poulenc and the Beatles as particular favorites. To obtain certain effects, however, Rorem has occasionally experimented with more modernist sentiments, such as intense chromaticism, successive modulations and alternating time signatures.
Many of Rorem's songs are accompanied by piano, though some have mixed instrumental ensemble or orchestral accompaniment. A pianist himself, his accompaniment parts for the instrument are not completely secondary to the voice and more a "full complement to the melody". They include motives to emphasize textual elements—such as rain and clouds—and are wildly diverse in function, sometimes responding to the voice in counterpoint or simply doubling the vocal line. He sometimes uses the Renaissance-derived ground bass technique of a slow and repeated bassline in the left hand. Reflecting on his piano accompaniments, the writer Bret Johnson describes Rorem's musical hallmarks as "chiming piano, rushing triplets, sumptuous harmonies"
https://wn.com/Ned_Rorem_9_Songs_(1946_51)
Ned Miller Rorem (October 23, 1923 – November 18, 2022) was an American composer of contemporary classical music and a writer. Best known for his art songs, which number over 500, Rorem was considered the leading American of his time writing in the genre. Frequently described as a neoromantic composer, he showed limited interest in the emerging modernist aesthetic of his lifetime.
Please support my channel:
https://ko-fi.com/bartjebartmans
1. Early in the Morning (0:00)
Poem by Robert Hillyer
Dedicated to Pierre Quèvel
2. Alleluia (2:02) 1946
Dedicated to Jeannie Tourel
3. I Will Always Love You (4:51)
Poem by Frank O'Hara
4. Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair (7:15)
Poem and music by Stephen Foster
5. Little Elegy (9:55) 1948
Poem by Elinor Wylie
6. Love (11:16)
Poem by Thomas Lodge
Dedication: Shirley Xenia Gabis Roads
7. O Do Not Love too Long (13:05) 1951
Poem by W.B. Yeats
8. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (14:31)
Poem by Robert Frost
Dedication: To My Father
9. To A Young Girl (16:25) 1951
Poem by W.B. Yeats
Dedication: Sylvia Goldstein
Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano & Malcolm Martineau, piano
Ned Rorem is best known for his art songs, of which he wrote more than 500. Many are coupled into some thirty or so song cycles, written from the early 1940s to 2000s. Rorem stressed the importance of a cycle's overall structure, paying close attention to the song order, progression of keys and transition between songs. He also emphasized theatricality, aiming to convey an overarching message via a unified emotional affect or mood. Like in other genres, the musicologist Philip Lieson Miller remarked that "Rorem's chosen field of song is not for the avant garde and he must be classified as [...] conservative", and that "he has never striven for novelty". Rorem's strict definitions of what constitutes a song has molded them to be typically be single-voice and piano settings of lyrical poems of moderate length. He named songs by Monteverdi, Schumann, Poulenc and the Beatles as particular favorites. To obtain certain effects, however, Rorem has occasionally experimented with more modernist sentiments, such as intense chromaticism, successive modulations and alternating time signatures.
Many of Rorem's songs are accompanied by piano, though some have mixed instrumental ensemble or orchestral accompaniment. A pianist himself, his accompaniment parts for the instrument are not completely secondary to the voice and more a "full complement to the melody". They include motives to emphasize textual elements—such as rain and clouds—and are wildly diverse in function, sometimes responding to the voice in counterpoint or simply doubling the vocal line. He sometimes uses the Renaissance-derived ground bass technique of a slow and repeated bassline in the left hand. Reflecting on his piano accompaniments, the writer Bret Johnson describes Rorem's musical hallmarks as "chiming piano, rushing triplets, sumptuous harmonies"
- published: 12 May 2024
- views: 3510
1:09
Ned Rorem: Composer | Author | American Icon
"I base my identity on being a composer, who does other things."
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ned Rorem is one of the most accomplished and prolific compo...
"I base my identity on being a composer, who does other things."
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ned Rorem is one of the most accomplished and prolific composers of art songs in the world. As literary as he is musical, Rorem recorded much of his experience — as a composer, as an artist, as a man — in his many diaries, journals, and collected essays.
https://wn.com/Ned_Rorem_Composer_|_Author_|_American_Icon
"I base my identity on being a composer, who does other things."
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ned Rorem is one of the most accomplished and prolific composers of art songs in the world. As literary as he is musical, Rorem recorded much of his experience — as a composer, as an artist, as a man — in his many diaries, journals, and collected essays.
- published: 03 Oct 2013
- views: 7450
34:16
NED ROREM. PIANO CONCERTO Nº2
NED ROREM
PIANO CONCERTO Nº2
01. I. Somber and Steady
02. II. Quiet and Sad
03. III. Real Fast
SIMON MULLIGAN, PIANO
ROYAL SCOTISH NATIONAL ORCHESTRA
D. JOSÉ SE...
NED ROREM
PIANO CONCERTO Nº2
01. I. Somber and Steady
02. II. Quiet and Sad
03. III. Real Fast
SIMON MULLIGAN, PIANO
ROYAL SCOTISH NATIONAL ORCHESTRA
D. JOSÉ SEREBRIER
https://wn.com/Ned_Rorem._Piano_Concerto_Nº2
NED ROREM
PIANO CONCERTO Nº2
01. I. Somber and Steady
02. II. Quiet and Sad
03. III. Real Fast
SIMON MULLIGAN, PIANO
ROYAL SCOTISH NATIONAL ORCHESTRA
D. JOSÉ SEREBRIER
- published: 22 Nov 2022
- views: 1069
33:59
Ned Rorem - Air Music (Official Score Video)
Listen and follow along with our B&H Study Score Video featuring the official publisher's score of Ned Rorem's "Air Music," set to a recording by the Louisville...
Listen and follow along with our B&H Study Score Video featuring the official publisher's score of Ned Rorem's "Air Music," set to a recording by the Louisville Orchestra and conductor Peter Leonard.
More info on Rorem's "Air Music": https://bit.ly/RoremAirMusic
Purchase the Study Score: https://bit.ly/RoremAirMusicScore
Watch our other Study Score videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUr1r_wAANZGIh64QnTvQUtx84SAOvaE0
Music:
Air Music
Composed by Ned Rorem
Performed by the Louisville Orchestra and Peter Leonard
#BHStudyScores
https://wn.com/Ned_Rorem_Air_Music_(Official_Score_Video)
Listen and follow along with our B&H Study Score Video featuring the official publisher's score of Ned Rorem's "Air Music," set to a recording by the Louisville Orchestra and conductor Peter Leonard.
More info on Rorem's "Air Music": https://bit.ly/RoremAirMusic
Purchase the Study Score: https://bit.ly/RoremAirMusicScore
Watch our other Study Score videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUr1r_wAANZGIh64QnTvQUtx84SAOvaE0
Music:
Air Music
Composed by Ned Rorem
Performed by the Louisville Orchestra and Peter Leonard
#BHStudyScores
- published: 23 Oct 2023
- views: 34515
22:59
Ned Rorem / Symphony No. 3 (Bernstein)
Ned Rorem (b. 1923)
Symphony No. 3 (1958)
00:00 - Lento appassionato
06:49 - Allegro molto vivace
09:10 - Largo
12:00 - Andante
16:38 - Allegro molto
New Yor...
Ned Rorem (b. 1923)
Symphony No. 3 (1958)
00:00 - Lento appassionato
06:49 - Allegro molto vivace
09:10 - Largo
12:00 - Andante
16:38 - Allegro molto
New York Philharmonic, dir. Leonard Bernstein (world premiere broadcast performance of 18 April 1959)
"Rorem's Third Symphony is much related to the last phase of his residence in France in 1957. It embodies a state of mind he has described as 'actively sad,' occasioned by an inward emotional crisis, and the prospect to come of geographical relocation from France to the United States. It was written, notes Rorem, in 'a three week period during the last of seven summers at the Chateau of the Vicomtesse de Noailles in Hyères (in the South of France).' The score notes April 1958 as the date of completion in New York.
The work falls into a sequence of five movements, with an extended 'sort of passacaglia' (marked 'Lento appassionato') to begin. The composer also refers to it as 'a slow overture in the grand style.' An intervallic pattern heard immediately at the start from the trombones (G-E-F-D) is the constant factor of the movement, disguised, altered, extended, and otherwise manipulated. In the first eight-measure statement, it is piled upon itself in various rhythms and phraseologies, and the horns proclaim a lengthened form of it in the 'più mosso' that follows. A more lightly scored 'allegretto,' with clarinets, flutes, and violins prominently utilized, leads to a 'più mosso,' with a rapid figuration on the motive in the oboe, inversions in other voices, solo violin, etc. The brass takes it up in chorale-like chords, and it eventually dies down to a viola rumination, as bridge to the second movement which follows without interruption.
Movement II (Allegro molto vivace) was written eight years before the rest of the symphony, originally for two pianos during a visit to Fez, Morocco, in 1949. It is, says the composer, 'a brisk and jazzy dance' orchestrated in 1958 and utilizing a persistent rhythmic undercurrent, first in tom-tom, then in snare drum, and other percussion instruments. Contrasted with it are melodic fragments that come and go in a wide variety of orchestral colorations.
The mood and style of movements three and four are decidedly different from what has preceded (or, for that matter, what follows). Movement III is a brief 'largo' utilizing massed string chords, a duet of oboes followed by the same thought in muted trumpets drawn to a climax in woodwinds and brass, then relaxed -- the whole almost within the span of a single inspiration and exhalation. The 'andante' that follows is termed by Rorem 'a farewell to France,' beginning with an unaccompanied English horn solo. Whether by intention or otherwise, the texture is suggestive of some procedures in the opening passacaglia. It achieves one climax and subsides, then is projected to a more powerful one before coming to a quiet ending.
Rorem describes his finale (Allegro molto) as 'a long fast Rondo which, in itself, is a Concerto for Orchestra.' A ruffle of percussion joined by rushing figures building up from the low strings to the woodwinds send it on its way, with a sharply outlined theme heard from flutes, trumpets, xylophone, and timpani. This is 'A' of the rondo sequence, and it is heard repeatedly in the course of the movement, sometimes recognizably itself (in the basic rhythmic design), sometimes lyricized and spun into a longer-breathed melody. B is a swift-moving idea, which employs the drumming effect of the movement's opening (rapid sixteenths, in 3/8) and thus is a unifying factor. C is a broader more impassioned melody, first heard about half way through the movement at a point marked 'Appassionato molto meno mosso.' It makes one later appearance in a sequence (from the start) which is as follows: A, B, A (lyric), B, C, A (original), B, A (broader), C, A, with a combination of A-B for the final pages and a decisive ending on A. Building upon strings, harp, celesta, and piano, Rorem's score specifies piccolo, English horn, bass clarinet, contrabassoon, and tuba; pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons; three trumpets and trombones, four horns, four timpani, and a percussion section utilizing virtually everything available." - Irving Kolodin
Summer Night, George Bellows
https://wn.com/Ned_Rorem_Symphony_No._3_(Bernstein)
Ned Rorem (b. 1923)
Symphony No. 3 (1958)
00:00 - Lento appassionato
06:49 - Allegro molto vivace
09:10 - Largo
12:00 - Andante
16:38 - Allegro molto
New York Philharmonic, dir. Leonard Bernstein (world premiere broadcast performance of 18 April 1959)
"Rorem's Third Symphony is much related to the last phase of his residence in France in 1957. It embodies a state of mind he has described as 'actively sad,' occasioned by an inward emotional crisis, and the prospect to come of geographical relocation from France to the United States. It was written, notes Rorem, in 'a three week period during the last of seven summers at the Chateau of the Vicomtesse de Noailles in Hyères (in the South of France).' The score notes April 1958 as the date of completion in New York.
The work falls into a sequence of five movements, with an extended 'sort of passacaglia' (marked 'Lento appassionato') to begin. The composer also refers to it as 'a slow overture in the grand style.' An intervallic pattern heard immediately at the start from the trombones (G-E-F-D) is the constant factor of the movement, disguised, altered, extended, and otherwise manipulated. In the first eight-measure statement, it is piled upon itself in various rhythms and phraseologies, and the horns proclaim a lengthened form of it in the 'più mosso' that follows. A more lightly scored 'allegretto,' with clarinets, flutes, and violins prominently utilized, leads to a 'più mosso,' with a rapid figuration on the motive in the oboe, inversions in other voices, solo violin, etc. The brass takes it up in chorale-like chords, and it eventually dies down to a viola rumination, as bridge to the second movement which follows without interruption.
Movement II (Allegro molto vivace) was written eight years before the rest of the symphony, originally for two pianos during a visit to Fez, Morocco, in 1949. It is, says the composer, 'a brisk and jazzy dance' orchestrated in 1958 and utilizing a persistent rhythmic undercurrent, first in tom-tom, then in snare drum, and other percussion instruments. Contrasted with it are melodic fragments that come and go in a wide variety of orchestral colorations.
The mood and style of movements three and four are decidedly different from what has preceded (or, for that matter, what follows). Movement III is a brief 'largo' utilizing massed string chords, a duet of oboes followed by the same thought in muted trumpets drawn to a climax in woodwinds and brass, then relaxed -- the whole almost within the span of a single inspiration and exhalation. The 'andante' that follows is termed by Rorem 'a farewell to France,' beginning with an unaccompanied English horn solo. Whether by intention or otherwise, the texture is suggestive of some procedures in the opening passacaglia. It achieves one climax and subsides, then is projected to a more powerful one before coming to a quiet ending.
Rorem describes his finale (Allegro molto) as 'a long fast Rondo which, in itself, is a Concerto for Orchestra.' A ruffle of percussion joined by rushing figures building up from the low strings to the woodwinds send it on its way, with a sharply outlined theme heard from flutes, trumpets, xylophone, and timpani. This is 'A' of the rondo sequence, and it is heard repeatedly in the course of the movement, sometimes recognizably itself (in the basic rhythmic design), sometimes lyricized and spun into a longer-breathed melody. B is a swift-moving idea, which employs the drumming effect of the movement's opening (rapid sixteenths, in 3/8) and thus is a unifying factor. C is a broader more impassioned melody, first heard about half way through the movement at a point marked 'Appassionato molto meno mosso.' It makes one later appearance in a sequence (from the start) which is as follows: A, B, A (lyric), B, C, A (original), B, A (broader), C, A, with a combination of A-B for the final pages and a decisive ending on A. Building upon strings, harp, celesta, and piano, Rorem's score specifies piccolo, English horn, bass clarinet, contrabassoon, and tuba; pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons; three trumpets and trombones, four horns, four timpani, and a percussion section utilizing virtually everything available." - Irving Kolodin
Summer Night, George Bellows
- published: 15 Oct 2013
- views: 16054
23:58
Ned Rorem (Violin Concerto)
Having composed art songs that number in the hundreds, Ned Rorem's numerous works in other genres don't always get as much attention as they deserve. He tends ...
Having composed art songs that number in the hundreds, Ned Rorem's numerous works in other genres don't always get as much attention as they deserve. He tends to write in a musical language that welcomes listeners of all backgrounds. But these works never talk down to the audience, as you will discover in his Violin Concerto from 1985.
The piece, at just under twenty-four minutes, is divided into six sections. Rorem says that the concerto could just as well have another title such as "Suite", or even "Variations", since the central theme established at the beginning finds new expressive life in each of the succeeding movements.
José Serebrier leads the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in this particular performance, with Philip Quint as the soloist.
Paintings by Thomas Hart Benton
Purchase this recording, which also includes Rorem's flute concerto here: http://www.amazon.com/Flute-Concerto-Violin-N-Rorem/dp/B000F6YWVW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1378619737&sr=8-4&keywords=Ned+Rorem+violin+concerto
https://wn.com/Ned_Rorem_(Violin_Concerto)
Having composed art songs that number in the hundreds, Ned Rorem's numerous works in other genres don't always get as much attention as they deserve. He tends to write in a musical language that welcomes listeners of all backgrounds. But these works never talk down to the audience, as you will discover in his Violin Concerto from 1985.
The piece, at just under twenty-four minutes, is divided into six sections. Rorem says that the concerto could just as well have another title such as "Suite", or even "Variations", since the central theme established at the beginning finds new expressive life in each of the succeeding movements.
José Serebrier leads the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in this particular performance, with Philip Quint as the soloist.
Paintings by Thomas Hart Benton
Purchase this recording, which also includes Rorem's flute concerto here: http://www.amazon.com/Flute-Concerto-Violin-N-Rorem/dp/B000F6YWVW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1378619737&sr=8-4&keywords=Ned+Rorem+violin+concerto
- published: 08 Sep 2013
- views: 11539
10:17
Ned Rorem — Barcarolles — Timo Andres
Ned Rorem: Barcarolles (1949)
I. Graceful
II. Tender [3:43]
III. Lively [6:25]
Timo Andres, piano
Ned Rorem: Barcarolles (1949)
I. Graceful
II. Tender [3:43]
III. Lively [6:25]
Timo Andres, piano
https://wn.com/Ned_Rorem_—_Barcarolles_—_Timo_Andres
Ned Rorem: Barcarolles (1949)
I. Graceful
II. Tender [3:43]
III. Lively [6:25]
Timo Andres, piano
- published: 22 Sep 2020
- views: 8110
9:58
Ned Rorem - 3 Barcarolles (audio + sheet music)
"Anyone can be drunk, anyone can be in love, anyone can waste time and weep, but only I can pen my songs in the remaining years or minutes," wrote Ned Rorem. Kn...
"Anyone can be drunk, anyone can be in love, anyone can waste time and weep, but only I can pen my songs in the remaining years or minutes," wrote Ned Rorem. Known both as a writer and a composer, Rorem is intriguing as both a musical figure and as a personality. He is self-described as a profoundly diatonic composer and his music language betrays the influence of his French impressionist idols Debussy and Ravel. Rorem's harmonic palette is generally characterized by vertical extrapolations -- through modality, polymodality, and chordal alterations -- of an essentially tonal framework. Some works conduct innovative experiments in the song cycle form; Poems of Love and Rain, for example, sets eight different poems to music, then sets them again in reverse order to contrasting music. Many of his works juxtapose passages of harmonic and rhythmic complexity with moments of elegance and repose.
Rorem was the second of two children of Clarence Rufus Rorem, one of the founders of the Blue Cross, and Gladys Miller Rorem, a peace activist. The family soon moved to Chicago, where Rorem began studying piano and where he heard live such famous performers as Josef Hofmann, Sergey Rachmaninov, and the Ballets Russes. An early teacher exposed him to Debussy and the impressionists. Subsequent teachers taught him about American contemporary composers like Griffes and John Alden Carpenter, as well as the blues of Billie Holiday, and Rorem learned to notate the little tunes he had composed.
By the age of 16, Rorem had graduated from high school and already performed a concerto with the American Concerto Orchestra. He studied music theory with Leo Sowerby at the American Conservatory for a brief period before entering Northwestern University, where his time was largely spent absorbing a piano repertoire. In 1943, he accepted a scholarship from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where he would study counterpoint with Rosario Scalero and musical-dramatic forms with Gian Carlo Menotti. After only a year there, Rorem moved to New York City, where he worked as Virgil Thomson's copyist in exchange for $20 a week plus composition lessons. Rorem also worked as rehearsal accompanist for Martha Graham and Eva Gauthier. Eventually Rorem entered Juilliard, where he completed bachelor's (1946) and master's (1948) degrees. He also studied with Aaron Copland during two summers at Tanglewood.
An award allowed Rorem to travel to France. What was intended to be a three-month visit ended up lasting 12 years. However, the first portion of his stay was largely spent in Morocco at the home of a friend, where he had the peace and quiet requisite for the 20 or so large-scale works he produced during this period. His work earned more honors, including the Lili Boulanger Award in 1950 and a Fulbright Fellowship the following year.
At this point, Rorem went on to Paris to study with Honegger. Through the influence of the Vicomtesse Marie-Laure de Noailles, he entered a social circle that included Jean Cocteau, Francis Poulenc, and Georges Auric. During this time, he also wrote several rather explicit diaries that were published a decade later to the shock and delight of many.
Rorem returned to New York in 1958 and during the next few decades held teaching positions at the University of Buffalo (1959-1960), the University of Utah (1965-1966), and the Curtis Institute (1980-1986). He still remained more of a composer than pedagogue, and is widely revered as the modern master of the art song genre. He received a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for Air Music, two Guggenheim Fellowships, and commissions from several major symphony orchestras.
(AllMusic)
Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Change the quality to a minimum of 480p if the video is blurry.
Original audio: naxosmusiclibrary.com
(Performance by: Leon Fleisher)
Original sheet music: http://en.scorser.com/I/Sheet+music/300179995.html
https://wn.com/Ned_Rorem_3_Barcarolles_(Audio_Sheet_Music)
"Anyone can be drunk, anyone can be in love, anyone can waste time and weep, but only I can pen my songs in the remaining years or minutes," wrote Ned Rorem. Known both as a writer and a composer, Rorem is intriguing as both a musical figure and as a personality. He is self-described as a profoundly diatonic composer and his music language betrays the influence of his French impressionist idols Debussy and Ravel. Rorem's harmonic palette is generally characterized by vertical extrapolations -- through modality, polymodality, and chordal alterations -- of an essentially tonal framework. Some works conduct innovative experiments in the song cycle form; Poems of Love and Rain, for example, sets eight different poems to music, then sets them again in reverse order to contrasting music. Many of his works juxtapose passages of harmonic and rhythmic complexity with moments of elegance and repose.
Rorem was the second of two children of Clarence Rufus Rorem, one of the founders of the Blue Cross, and Gladys Miller Rorem, a peace activist. The family soon moved to Chicago, where Rorem began studying piano and where he heard live such famous performers as Josef Hofmann, Sergey Rachmaninov, and the Ballets Russes. An early teacher exposed him to Debussy and the impressionists. Subsequent teachers taught him about American contemporary composers like Griffes and John Alden Carpenter, as well as the blues of Billie Holiday, and Rorem learned to notate the little tunes he had composed.
By the age of 16, Rorem had graduated from high school and already performed a concerto with the American Concerto Orchestra. He studied music theory with Leo Sowerby at the American Conservatory for a brief period before entering Northwestern University, where his time was largely spent absorbing a piano repertoire. In 1943, he accepted a scholarship from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where he would study counterpoint with Rosario Scalero and musical-dramatic forms with Gian Carlo Menotti. After only a year there, Rorem moved to New York City, where he worked as Virgil Thomson's copyist in exchange for $20 a week plus composition lessons. Rorem also worked as rehearsal accompanist for Martha Graham and Eva Gauthier. Eventually Rorem entered Juilliard, where he completed bachelor's (1946) and master's (1948) degrees. He also studied with Aaron Copland during two summers at Tanglewood.
An award allowed Rorem to travel to France. What was intended to be a three-month visit ended up lasting 12 years. However, the first portion of his stay was largely spent in Morocco at the home of a friend, where he had the peace and quiet requisite for the 20 or so large-scale works he produced during this period. His work earned more honors, including the Lili Boulanger Award in 1950 and a Fulbright Fellowship the following year.
At this point, Rorem went on to Paris to study with Honegger. Through the influence of the Vicomtesse Marie-Laure de Noailles, he entered a social circle that included Jean Cocteau, Francis Poulenc, and Georges Auric. During this time, he also wrote several rather explicit diaries that were published a decade later to the shock and delight of many.
Rorem returned to New York in 1958 and during the next few decades held teaching positions at the University of Buffalo (1959-1960), the University of Utah (1965-1966), and the Curtis Institute (1980-1986). He still remained more of a composer than pedagogue, and is widely revered as the modern master of the art song genre. He received a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for Air Music, two Guggenheim Fellowships, and commissions from several major symphony orchestras.
(AllMusic)
Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Change the quality to a minimum of 480p if the video is blurry.
Original audio: naxosmusiclibrary.com
(Performance by: Leon Fleisher)
Original sheet music: http://en.scorser.com/I/Sheet+music/300179995.html
- published: 25 Feb 2018
- views: 49936