Ned Rorem

Rorem's "Nantucket Songs"

"From whence cometh song?" ask the opening lines of a poem by the American writer Theodore Roethke . . .

That's a question American composer Ned Rorem must have asked himself hundreds of times, while providing just as many answers in the form of hundreds of his own original song settings.

In addition to all those, Rorem has sizeable body of orchestral, chamber, and choral music to his credit, and a number of very successful literary collections of perceptive reviews and lively personal diaries. About his own music, Rorem tends to be a little reluctant to speak. "Nothing a composer can say about his music is more pointed than the music itself," he writes.

On today's date in 1979, Rorem himself was at the piano, accompanying soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson in the premiere performance of a song-cycle he called "Nantucket Songs," a cycle that began with Rorem's setting of the aforementioned Roethke poem.

"These songs," wrote Rorem, "merry or complex or strange though their texts may seem, aim away from the head and towards the diaphragm. They are emotional rather than intellectual, and need not be understood to be enjoyed."

Speaking of personal enjoyment, Rorem adds this footnote about the premiere performance of his "Nantucket Songs," which was recorded live at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C: "Phyllis Bryn-Julson and I, unbeknownst to each other, BOTH had fevers of 102 degrees."