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Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School

2009 The Genesis of Evidence of Things Not Seen Tyler Scott Nelson

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COLLEGE OF MUSIC

THE GENESIS OF EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN

By

TYLER SCOTT NELSON

A Treatise submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Music

Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2009 The members of the committee approve the treatise of Tyler S. Nelson defended on October 22, 2009.

______Matthew Lata Professor Directing Treatise

______André J. Thomas University Representative

______Stanford Olsen Committee Member

______Marcía Porter Committee Member

The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members.

ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank Ned Rorem for his graciousness in allowing me to speak with him at length about his life and his work. I would also like to thank his niece, Mary Marshall, for her kindness in facilitating our meeting and for going above and beyond the call of duty to make me feel welcome and assist me in this endeavor.

I would also like to thank Matthew Lata, André J. Thomas, Stanford Olsen, and Marcía Porter, for the many hours they have spent and the patience shown as they have guided me through this process.

iii TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract vi

1. NED ROREM 1 Compositional Style 2 Words and Music 6

2. INTRODUCTION TO EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN 12 Of Poets and Poetry 16 Musical Matters 28 After the Fact 48

3. INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE COMPOSER AND THOUGHTS ON SINGING 51 The Future of Song 52

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Brief biographies on the poets in chronological order 56

Appendix B: Transcript of an interview with Ned Rorem on September 2, 2009 66

Appendix C: List of songs, performance forces, and poets for Evidence of Things Not Seen 87

BIBLIOGRAPHY 89

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 101

iv LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES

Example 1 “From Whence Cometh Song” mm. 1-4 28

Example 2 “How Do I love Thee?” mm. 1-4 29

Example 3 “Life in a Love” mm. 1-7 29

Example 4 “Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water” mm. 1-4 30

Example 5 “A Dead Statesman” mm. 1-9 31

Example 6 “The Candid Man” mm. 1-4 32

Example 7 “A Learned Man” mm. 5-11 33

Example 8 “Hymn for Morning” mm. 48-58 34

Example 9 “Hymn for Evening” mm. 22-33 36

Example 10 “I Am He” mm. 1-18 38

Example 11 “Is My Team Ploughing?” mm. 1-10 39

Example 12 “Is My Team Ploughing?” mm. 60-76 40

Example 13 “Even Now” mm. 21-33 41

Example 14 “Evidence of Things Not Seen” mm. 1-8 43

Example 15 “Evidence of Things Not Seen” mm. 72-74 44

Example 16 “He Thinks Upon His Death” mm. 1-6 46

Example 17 “A Terrible Disaster” mm. 1-17 47

v ABSTRACT This treatise presents an exploration into the significance and merit of the song cycle Evidence of Things Not Seen by Ned Rorem. It explores Mr. Rorem’s compositional style, his philosophy on the relationship of text to music, and his personal insights as they pertain to the compositional process of the cycle. Furthermore, it will briefly explore the literary aspects of the composition’s texts, and examine a few of the more prominent musical devices Mr. Rorem uses to illustrate those poetic texts. Lastly, it includes a brief discussion on Mr. Rorem’s view of the future of song, song recital, and music in America.

vi CHAPTER 1

NED ROREM

Composer Ned Rorem, now in his eighty-seventh year, has been hailed by Time Magazine as “the world’s best composer of art songs.”1 He is known for his prolific number of song compositions, which now total over five hundred. Though he has contributed so much to this compositional medium, this is not the extent of his success. Mr. Rorem was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 1951 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1957. His symphonic composition, Air Music, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1976. In addition, he has produced multiple publications consisting of diaries, memoirs, essays, and music critiques. Rorem was born in Richmond, Indiana but spent much of his childhood in Chicago, Illinois. While there, he studied piano with accomplished African-American composer and piano pedagog Margaret A. Bonds. In 1938 he began musical studies with Leo Sowerby at the American Conservatory in Chicago and two years later, enrolled at Northwestern University. Rorem immersed himself in the Chicago music scene and developed a love for jazz, especially for artists such as Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald whom he often heard perform live. In 1942 he left Northwestern University with an unfinished Bachelor’s degree in music, and continued his education at the Curtis School of Music, where he would later become an Instructor of Composition. At Curtis, he studied piano and composition with an emphasis on the works of Igor Stravinsky and the French impressionists. He was dissatisfied with his education, specifically the methods of his composition teacher Rosario Scalero, and he left the school in 1943. Rorem then moved to New York, where he worked as a copyist for Virgil Thompson, with whom he studied privately, and developed skill in orchestration and prosody that would prove useful in his future compositions. Further training led him to private instruction from Aaron Copland during the summer of 1946 and 1947 at the Tanglewood program. Rorem finished a Bachelor of Arts degree at the Juilliard School in 1947 and a Master of Music degree in 1949. In that same year, he moved to Morocco until 1952, when he moved to Paris and studied with Arthur Honegger. He returned to the United States in 1958.

1 Ned Rorem Official Website, “Biography,” http://www.nedrorem.com/index1.html.

1 During his compositional training, Mr. Rorem found song composition particularly rewarding. As he developed skill in this medium, he worked his way into the circles of such high-profile musicians, artists, and authors as Jean Cocteau, Georges Auric, and Francis Poulenc. He continued to compose vocal music, and his efforts yielded not only solo vocal pieces but many works for chamber ensemble and chorus. It was not the voice which first attracted Rorem to song composition but rather “poetry as expressed through the voice.”2 Rorem has also received much attention for his diaries, which often give graphic and descriptive accounts of political, private, and sexual aspects of his life. In the 1960s, he became a popular figure in the Gay Liberation Movement because of the unabashedly descriptive accounts of his gay lifestyle which were published three years before the Stonewall uprising in his book The Paris Diary. Mr. Rorem continues to write and compose. In May 2009, his latest composition, 11 Songs For Susan, sung by Susan Graham, premiered at Carnegie Hall. One may wonder from whence his drive and determination comes and what has kept him going at this prolific pace for so long. Rorem answers this way: “I compose for my own necessity, because no one else makes quite the sound I wish to hear.”3

COMPOSITIONAL STYLE

Rorem’s music is difficult to describe in terms of a singular method or influence. One may describe it as a conglomeration of many elements which give him an eclectic style. Rorem composes what he deems appropriate without being bound by theoretical conventions or public approval. Though much of Rorem’s music contains large amounts of dissonance, he describes it all as tonal. He states that he thinks of all music in those terms, because he hears it in the way he was conditioned to hear it. “I still hear twelve-tone music as tonal, and still hear my own jagged airs as mere nursery exercises for blues singers.”4

2 James Holmes, et al. “Rorem, Ned.” In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http:// www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/48611 (accessed February 15, 2009).

3 Ned Rorem, Settling The Score (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), 319.

4 Ned Rorem, “Why I Write as I Do,” Tempo, New Series, No. 109, (1974), 39.

2 Many of Rorem’s songs display similar elements, such as rhythmic or intervallic references to musical gestures used in previous compositions. They may also utilize disguised elements from the work of another composer. An example of similarities in Rorem’s compositions is found in a comparison between the song “O Where Are You Going?” (the third song of Evidence of Things Not Seen), and in the third movement entitled “Whispers,” from Rorem’s 1969 piano concerto. In a few bars of the piano solo played near the beginning of this movement, we hear music that is almost identical to the opening bars of “O Where Are You Going.” Though not easily delineated, one may identify a “Rorem Sound,” in compositions through an examination of similar rhythmic patterns, melodic fragments (in both instrumental and vocal parts), and intervalic relationships found in his compositions. Rorem believes that his music is constantly changing and that one can never truly recapture or recreate a certain effect that may have worked for a past composition. Though Rorem’s musical style is difficult to describe in terms of stylistic periods, some suggest it has evolved in terms of Rorem’s incorporation of musical influences. Many of his compositions demonstrate the influence of a particular style or instructor with whom he was working at the time they were written. Rorem states that he does not purposefully attempt to emulate a particular style or technique more than another. He explains that when composing songs, he composes what he feels best fits the text with which he is working, and employs whatever musical device seems appropriate, regardless of common practice, theoretical rules, or notions of convention. As Mr. Rorem says, in some cases “rules observed last time must be broken this time; vices become virtues in a different setting.”5 Many find Rorem’s comments on his style evasive in that he is opposed to quantifying and qualifying what he does. In Rorem’s songs, one may notice various elements of many different styles and techniques which he utilizes, without basing the entire composition upon them. Rorem asks the question of himself: “Why do I compose the way I do? How answer,

5 Ned Rorem, “Why I Write as I Do,” Tempo, New Series, No. 109, (1974), 39.

3 unless I know the effect the music has on others? That effect can never really be known, least of all while composing. While composing I can only know the effect I want to project.”6 Because of his success in and impressive output of song, Rorem is frequently asked:

“Out of all the compositional mediums, why choose song?” He responds: “Whatever my reputation in the musical world is, it has always centered around vocal music, specifically songs. In other words, solo voice and piano, which I’ve been writing all of my life. I’m not sure that my first songs, which I wrote when I was fourteen or fifteen, were written because I was crazy about the voice, because I am still not obsessed with the voice the way some people are who like opera. It has to do with being obsessed with poetry as well as music.”7 Rorem is reluctant to analyze his musical choices. On occasion, he is asked specific questions about the use of a certain chord or repeated use of a particular interval. Mr. Rorem generally responds the same way each time. A typical answer was recorded in a 1982 interview by Deborah Davis with the composer: [Deborah:] “You seem to like parallel intervals. You use a lot of parallel fifths and fourths, particularly in soprano-tenor or alto-bass combination. Is there any particular effect you’re trying to get out of that?”

[Ned:] “The particular effect that I’m trying to get is of parallel fifths and fourths.”8

He also feels that his music speaks for itself and does not require analysis to be understood. In his opinion, the only thing a composer can honestly comment on is his or her own creative process. The judgment, is up to the listener. He states: “My music is not problematic, not difficult, and I don’t have a system like Carter or Babbitt. . . . I can teach anyone to write a perfect song, but once that song is finished it’s up to God about whether the piece works or not — whether it bleeds and breathes. . . .”9

6 Ned Rorem, Settling The Score (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,1988), 317.

7 Rorem, Ned, Evidence of Things Not Seen (New York: Boosey and Hawkes, 1997).

8 Deborah Davis, “An Interview about Choral Music with Ned Rorem,” The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 68, No. 3 (1982): 396.

9 Ned Rorem, “Why I Write as I Do,” Tempo, New Series, No. 109, (1974), 40.

4 In the past, when individuals have posed questions in reference to his style and analysis of his music, he has often responded as he does in the following quote, taken from his 1974 essay,”Why I Write As I Do.” “What can be told about music that the music itself can’t tell? Only how it came to be written.”10 In some cases there is no apparent reason for a bitonal chord cluster, or the addition of a minor ninth to a major triad in Rorem’s compositions. It is simply a choice the composer has made to create an effect. He does not assign specific emotions to certain intervals or associate a particular mood with a key signature. Rorem’s compositional choices are just that — choices that may or may not appeal to each individual listener. Though he will not quantify it, Rorem has developed a musical style, which has remained virtually unchanged over the years. In spite of Rorem’s study with composers such as Copland, Poulenc, and Honegger, and his admitted use of jazz, rock, and rap, in his compositions, his music never completely submits to those influences. Rather, one can hear elements of many of these styles and techniques in the music he has written, but those elements do not define his style as a whole. His music reflects his diverse musical upbringing. For this reason, his musical aesthetic is difficult to define. Mr. Rorem’s uncomplicated approach to composition has served him well, and has produced lyrical, original, and accessible music for over seventy years. He is still actively interested in creating new, interesting, and stimulating music for all mediums, especially the voice. Rorem’s thoughts on his life as a composer and the medium of song have given him a sort of invincibility in the music world. His own description of his compositional style suggests that there is no wrong way to compose. His choice of song composition came about as a result of his desire to work with literature. This comfortable stance absolves him of any perceived compositional blunder and provides him with a rich catalogue of music to demonstrate his proficiency. His eclectic style is unique and cannot be accurately classified beyond the description of classical and tonal.

10 Ned Rorem, Settling The Score (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,1988), 317.

5 WORDS AND MUSIC

Rorem has developed a process for working with poetry, which he states consists of three basic rules. They are: “Use only good poems — that is, convincing marvels in English of all periods. Write gracefully for the voice — that is, make the voice line as seen on paper have the arched flow that singers like to interpret. Use no trick — beyond the biggest trick — that is, since singing is already such artifice, never repeat words arbitrarily, much less ask the voice to groan, shriek, or rasp. I have nothing against special effects. They are just not in my language. I betray the poet by framing his words, not by distorting them.”11 Rorem’s rules beg the question, Who is to decide what “good poems” are? Are they written by a poet of a certain age with a certain set of qualifications, or are good poems determined by content alone? Is a poem whose author is heavily decorated, automatically considered a “good” poem? For Mr. Rorem, it seems that a good poem is defined by all of these factors, to some degree. Rorem seems to gravitate to poetic extremes. His selected poems come from both highly decorated poets and poets whose works are virtually unknown, at least in the song world. Above all, however, his selection of poems seems to be rooted in the actual content of the poem, though the poets themselves do play a part. Rorem is well acquainted with the debate over the relationship of words to music in song. He states: “Mendelssohn once said, ‘It’s not that music is too big for words, it is too precise for words.’ And music is music. It isn’t literature. In that sense, a song is a bastard. It is uniting two art forms that didn’t ask to be forced together.”12 One of the most difficult tasks for a song composer is to determine his or her own philosophy of the relationship of text to music. Rorem has had years of experience to develop his method for combining these two elements, which he suggests are not always intended to go together. How does he comprehend poetry and music individually? Together? In an essay entitled “Poetry of Music,” he explains his viewpoint. “Since music lacks content beyond itself, can it then be compared with poetry? ‘What does it mean?’ people ask of a poem. About music

11 Ned Rorem, Settling The Score (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,1988), 319.

12 Ibid.

6 they do not ask why — at least not in the sense of its dealing a double standard, of being beauty that instructs. When singers question me on the significance of the words to a song, I answer: ‘They signify whatever the music tells you they signify. What more do I know about poetry?’ Poems are not ‘why,’ They are ‘because’. . . .”13 Rorem further states that the words of a poem are not adaptations such as novels which become movies, or movies which become Broadway musicals. In his compositions, poems stay the same, unaltered, and unchanged. Music, however, may be tampered with. There are no fixed rules for its ability to be molded around a text. He believes that there are certainly as many correct ways of merging music to text, as there are poems in the world with good composers to set them. He believes that there may be many “good” interpretations of the same poem written by a number of different composers. In Rorem’s words: “A composer’s viewpoint is right if it works, regardless of the poet’s reaction. For the poet will never feel the song as he felt the poem that inspired the song.”14 The essence of Rorem’s philosophy is that there is no one way to set a poem to music. In his work as Instructor of Composition at the Curtis Institute of Music, he would occasionally give all of his composition students the same poem to set to music. He would provide them with different instructions, such as telling one to put the climax in the first few bars, and another to place it at the end. The result was a classroom of students with the same poems but entirely different song compositions. Which was right? All of them were. His own best example of this philosophy is his composition Poems of Love and the Rain in which he composed two different settings of the same eight poems. He describes his intention behind its unique construction: “Although each poem is repeated, none of the music is; thus the poems supposedly take on new impact at second hearing not only by virtue of being sung at a later time, but also by being reinvested with another shape.”15

13 Ned Rorem, Settling The Score (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,1988), 294.

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid.

7 Poetry, for Rorem, is self contained, and lyrics are not. A transformation occurs within the text of a poem when it is paired with music. When poems become song lyrics, they do not “necessarily lead a life of their own.”16 In other words, they lose their individuality and become part of a larger element, but not independent of it. In my September 2009 interview with the composer, Rorem explained that poets almost always fail when they try to write poetry intended to be set to music. This is because they have a preconceived idea of the music which usually ends up generating what he terms “juvenile word choices,” such as “dream,” and “love,” whereas a word choice such as “hippopotamus” would be as perfect as any other. This attempt by poets to create a musical language achieves more of an affect than an effect. In Rorem’s words, poets who attempt this kind of writing are guilty of self- indulgence. Another example of the difficulties of uniting text and music is found in Rorem’s correspondence and work with Elizabeth Bishop. Rorem was intrigued by her work entitled Visits to St. Elizabeth’s, which he used to compose a piece with the same title for mezzo-soprano. Upon sending it to Bishop, he eagerly awaited her positive response. She was unhappy with the result, and twelve years later finally told him why. She felt it should have been written for a man and that the style in which he had composed it was altogether too fast and feverish. The piece was, however, very popular and well received whenever it was performed, according to both composer and performers. Rorem’s belief is that though Ms. Bishop was not particularly pleased with the song, it was a point of taste, not a criticism of the quality of the piece at all. Rorem believes that in the sometimes unhappy marriage of text and music, the composer must make the final decision and create something that both serves the text and is musically stimulating. The end result, however, may not be universally appealing. Among other frustrations and observations concerning poet and composer relations, Rorem notes that poets’ names are hardly ever seen on score covers and many times (at least in the past) eliminated from song programs, yet they are completely essential to the songs themselves. Rorem asks, “what is the poet without a singer?”17 To this, he suggests the poet

16 Ned Rorem, Settling The Score (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,1988), 294.

17 Ibid. 298.

8 may reply: “but I am not without the singer. . . . The singer is myself, and what you call illuminations are to me evasions.”18 Rorem states that many poets have accused him of not understanding their poetry. In response, he states: “Nor do poets understand music.”19 He states that “good poetry won’t always lend itself to music, won’t of itself make good music even if the composer is good.”20 This is where Rorem’s own ability to choose “song ready” text is essential. He professes to understand the importance of respecting both the poet and the message of his text. He explains that: “Song is the reincarnation of a poem that was destroyed in order to live again in music. The composer, no matter how respectful, must treat poetry as a skeleton on which to bestow flesh, breaking a few bones in the process. He does not render a poem more musical (poetry isn’t music, it’s poetry); he weds it to sound, creating a third entity of different and sometimes greater magnitude than either parent. . . . The only inevitable way to set poetry is the ‘right’ way, and there is no one right way.”21 Rorem considers melody to be the main ingredient of the musical aspect of a song composition. He explains that one must engage in the process of: “Ignoring the given divisions of a poem and substituting others, or even fashioning a long non-repetitive melody which blends the stanzas into a single current. On the other hand, a musician may choose free verse and subject it to rigid patterns of tonal repetition, imposing a new dimension extraneous to the music; or he may allow the free verse to carry him along according to its own rules as he himself carried the strict verse in the previous example. Whatever happens, the poems and music will always have common superstructure.”22 Rorem postulates that the real test for a composer is to find a text that, when paired with music, will maintain clarity and avoid mutual confusion. He believes some poems cannot be enhanced by music, and that the addition of music would be superfluous, or conversely, may

18 Ned Rorem, Settling The Score (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,1988), 294.

19 Ibid. 296.

20 Ibid.

21 Ibid. 298-9.

22 Philip Lieson Miller, “The Songs of Ned Rorem,” Tempo, New Series, No. 127 (1978), 29.

9 overcomplicate a simple text. He has established a few guidelines to which he adheres in his compositions and which he teaches to his students. They are: “If you repeat words that the poet hasn’t repeated, especially if it’s a contemporary poet, everything ends up sounding like Gertrude Stein. . . . And [set the text] more or less at the speed of speech . . . not literally, but at a speed where the words can be comprehended.”23 As one examines Mr. Rorem’s works, he will find instances where he ignores his own rules. In response to this he has said: “No, I sometimes don’t practice what I preach. I do repeat words from time to time, but not indiscriminately. There are diverse aesthetics for setting words to music. . . .”24 Rorem has said that he intentionally tries to avoid the “conventions” of composition, and believes that there is a difference in the meaning of vocal music versus non-vocal music. He believes that: Non-vocal music is never literal, [and] can never be proven to “mean” anything. Tone poems mean only what the composer tells you, in words, they mean. . . . Song settings, meanwhile, can mean only what their texts tell you they mean; no one composer is more right than another in his interpretation of the same text. . . . Since words speak louder than music, but since music, precisely because of its meaninglessness, can heighten or even change the sense of words, I try, in word settings, to avoid the conventions. I don’t compose “war music” for war scenes or “love music” for love scenes, preferring to contradict — but can you prove it’s a contradiction? — the expected. Thus, I’m sometimes criticized for missing the point of a poem. Still, it’s not for a composer to review his own music, since that music speaks louder than his words.25

Many of Rorem’s song compositions display an equilibrium between the two entities of poetry and music, even when one element is absent. Rorem’s placement of text above music in terms of importance is evident in a few ways. For example, on occasion in the songs of Evidence of Things Not Seen, the strength of a particular line of text, for Rorem, warrants the elimination of accompaniment altogether. Conversely, emotional exclamation, in the form of words such as “oh,” “ah,” or strong poetic cadences in the text may rely on Rorem’s surge of musical presence

23 Ned Rorem, Interview by Tyler Nelson, September 2, 2009, Nantucket, Massachusetts.

24 Deborah Davis, “An Interview about Choral Music with Ned Rorem,” The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 68, No. 3 (1982): 390-1.

25 Rorem, Ned, Evidence of Things Not Seen (New York: Boosey and Hawkes, 1997).

10 to carry meaning. Though both of these musical and literary elements seem to exist independently, it is ultimately the poem, for him, which gives birth to the song.

11 CHAPTER 2

INTRODUCTION TO EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN

Though Ned Rorem has been writing songs since he was fourteen years old, he had never written anything quite like Evidence of Things Not Seen. This piece originally followed a very different set of guidelines. In an interview given in 1998, Mr. Rorem explains how he first conceived of it. “I have always wanted to write something called Art of the Song which would be a full evening of songs just by me and sung interrelated in some way. But it would be madness to write a piece like that unless it was a commission with a guarantee performance.”26 Upon receiving a commission from The Library of Congress and The New York Festival of Song, Rorem decided that this was the opportunity for this composition to come forth. He made some modifications, such as changing the original title from Art of Song to Evidence of Things Not Seen, and making it a song cycle instead of a grouping of individual pieces. The cycle contains thirty-six songs with texts taken from an eclectic grouping of twenty- four different authors, including: W.H. Auden, Charles Baudelaire, Stephen Crane, Robert Frost, A.E. Housman, Langston Hughes, Theodore Roethke, Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, William ButlerYeats, Paul Goodman, Thomas Ken, William Wordsworth, Elizabeth Barret Browning, Robert Browning, Edna St. Vincent Millay, John Woolman, Jane Kenyon, Julien Green, Mark Doty, Paul Monette, Colette, William Penn, and Rudyard Kipling. The work is divided into three main parts entitled “Beginnings,” “Middles,” and “Ends.” Of the thirty-six pieces, there are eight quartets, four trios, and six duets. There are also three soprano solos, five alto solos, five tenor solos, and five baritone solos. The individual songs are all relatively short and range from fifty-seven seconds to just under five minutes. The work premiered in Carnegie Hall on January 22, 1998 with soloists Lisa Saffer, soprano; Delores Ziegler, mezzo-soprano; Rufus Müller, tenor; Kurt Ollmann, baritone; and Michael Barrett and Steven Blier on piano. Concerning the challenge of composing a work of this magnitude with so many different combinations of voice types and the use of so many different poets, Mr. Rorem has said:

26 Erik Philbrook, “Words’Worth,” Playback Magazine, Fall (1998), http://www.ascap.com/playback/1998/october/ rorem.html.

12 The challenge would be less musical than theatrical. A composer always has musical ideas or he wouldn’t be a composer; but when he proposes to link these abstract ideas to concrete words — words by authors who never asked to be musicalized — he must find words which (at least for him) need to be sung. If these words are intended for a cycle rather than for a single song, then there must be a sense (at least for him) of inevitability in their sequence, because the same song in a different context takes on new meaning. If the chosen words are by different authors, then these authors must seem to share a certain parenting (at least for him) even though they may be separated by centuries. . . . 27

In terms of the structure of the piece, Mr. Rorem has also provided some insight as to his choice of the three divisions or parts into which the piece is divided. The order of songs relies on subject matter. The opening group Beginnings, is just that — songs about moving forward, and the wistful optimism of love, with a concluding hymn — text from the eighteenth century to be sung by a congregation in the morning. . . . The second group Middles, about coming of age, horror of war, romantic disappointment, concludes with another hymn, this one for evening. The last group Ends, about death, concludes with an admonishment from William Penn, echoing a definition of Faith in Corinthians II: “Look not to things that are seen but to that which is unseen; for things that are seen pass away, but that which is unseen is forever.”28

In my 2009 interview with Mr. Rorem, he stated that these divisions or parts were an afterthought; that as he began to compose music for the poetry, it seemed only natural for the three parts to materialize. I asked Mr. Rorem if a cycle of this magnitude was difficult to compose with a deadline, particularly with a commission offered from an organization so illustrious as the Library of Congress. He replied that he enjoys deadlines and that they help motivate the creative process as long as they are not unreasonable. He explained that for a song cycle of this length, a six-month deadline did not pose any problem. He stated that when he has a large and complex commission such as this, he devotes all of his time to that project alone. Rorem also explained that American baritone Kurt Ollmann was the only performer of the six (two pianists and four soloists) he knew beforehand. He knew nothing of the others

27 Ned Rorem, Evidence of Things Not Seen (Thirty-Six Songs for Four Solo Voices and Piano), (Boosey and Hawkes; New York: 1997).

28Ibid.

13 chosen to perform the work. When asked if he had specific performers in mind when he wrote the piece, he replied: “I don’t think I really knew who the singers were going to be . . . and even if I don’t, I write tenor music for tenors rather than a specific tenor.”29 A helpful detail which Mr. Rorem has provided in the score for Evidence of Things Not Seen, is the month, date, year, and sometimes the place in which each piece was composed. This information appears at the end of every song. In this composition, all but six of the thirty-six songs were composed in 1997. Of those six, four were composed in 1996 and two in the 1950s. He explains that the 1996 compositions were written expressly for this cycle, but the two written in the 1950s “waited all this time to find a home.”30 There are two pieces which contain “recycled” elements in the composition. The first of these is the opening song of the cycle “From Whence Cometh Song,” by Theodore Roethke. The text was used by Rorem in another song but, as he explains in the composer’s note: “No other text seemed more apt.”31 The second of the two “recycled” pieces was one of the two written in the 1950s, entitled “Boy With a Baseball Glove” by Paul Goodman. The melody from this piece was used in the third movement of a Violin Concerto that Mr. Rorem composed some years earlier. The cycle has a progressive story-line at work in terms of thematic material and chronology, which we have discussed in reference to Rorem’s descriptions of Parts One, Two and Three of the cycle. A closer examination of the poetry will suggest some possible reasons why Mr. Rorem was drawn to these poems and why he felt compelled to group them in this way. This cycle is significant for a few reasons. Among them is its use of four solo voices. Cycles such as In a Persian Garden by Liza Lehman, Osvaldo Golijov’s Ayre, and From an Unknown Past, by Rorem himself, which call for four voices, are rare. In the case of Ayre, the most recent 2008 recording utilizes artist Dawn Upshaw’s voice for all four parts.

29 Ned Rorem, Interview by Tyler Nelson, September 2, 2009, Nantucket, Massachusetts.

30 Ned Rorem, Evidence of Things Not Seen (Thirty-Six Songs for Four Solo Voices and Piano), (Boosey and Hawkes; New York: 1997).

31 Ibid.

14 Another unique feature is the cycle’s length. Its average running time is one hundred minutes. Even a cycle such as Schubert’s Winterreise, considered lengthy among song cycles, takes only seventy minutes to perform. The cycle’s merit also stems from its literary content. Rorem has chosen poetry which he considers autobiographical. With the composition of this cycle, Rorem has expressed the fact that he has shared with the public most everything that he wants to say as a composer. This highly intimate personal connection to the subject matter, coupled with Rorem’s choice of salient texts written by diverse authors, also renders the cycle noteworthy. The musical diversity of the cycle is another contributing factor to its merit among song cycles. One can find multiple styles of composition contained in its pages such as hymns in four-part harmony, a cappella selections, songs reminiscent of the English composers such as Vaughan Williams, Ireland and Britten, and declamatory, quasi-recitative-style songs. Many song cycles contain songs that flow together in a similar stylistic manner, but the songs of Evidence of Things Not Seen may function just as well as excerptible pieces as they do in the context of the cycle. Rorem himself has granted permission to performers to excerpt any song they wish. Additional contributing factors to the cycle’s significance are found in the difficulty and challenge presented to those performing the work. From a performer’s standpoint, this cycle presents a challenge of technical facility, communicative ability, vocal stamina, and tessitura, as well as the ability to work well in an ensemble. Rorem has also given the pianists a formidable task, and the work is often performed with two pianists (as it was at its premiere), due to the demands of the piano part. From a performer’s standpoint, the reward offered, however, for a successful performance of the cycle is well worth the effort.

15 OF POETS AND POETRY

Mr. Rorem has selected a diverse group of texts for Evidence of Things Not Seen, penned by equally diverse poets whose lives span a time period from 1637 to present. Three of the poet’s works (those of Colette, Julien Green, and Charles Baudelaire), have been translated from French to English by the composer himself. Only one, Mark Doty, is still living. Two were atheist, ten openly gay or bisexual, and at least one (Oscar Wilde), was arrested for actions related to his public declaration of homosexuality. Two were Quakers, four won the Pulitzer Prize (Frost won it four times), and two (Elizabeth and Robert Browning) were married to one another. These poets’ lives are filled with accounts of wars, criticisms of the governing bodies of the time, affirmations of faith, and religious conviction. A brief discussion of the basic characteristics, similarities, and qualities of the poetry contained in this cycle will prove useful in comprehending its nature. When selecting poems for Evidence of Things Not Seen, Rorem had picked poems from a large list of poets in whose works he was interested. Though the composer himself may not choose to identify the reasons for his selection of these particular texts, there are some clues in the poetry and in the lives of the poets themselves. Rorem revealed in my 2009 interview, that he did not leave any poems out or alter his selections once they are made. It was simply a question of deciding which were most appropriate for this particular composition. Among his poetic selections, many poems such as those written by Auden, Frost, and Whitman, have been used by other composers. When I asked Mr. Rorem if he ever considers their settings, he responded: “Yeah, sometimes — I’m also annoyed when somebody else uses a poem. And I don’t seek them out. And when I do . . . obviously — I can’t really approve of them, because I did it different.”32 Of the texts for the thirty-six songs contained in the score, only five poets are used more than once. They are: W.H. Auden, with five poems, Paul Goodman with four, Walt Whitman with three, and Thomas Ken, William Penn and Stephen Crane, each with two.

32Ned Rorem, Interview by Tyler Nelson, September 2, 2009, Nantucket, Massachusetts.

16 According to Rorem, there is no common thread among the poets, other than his own personal tastes, yet he has loosely organized them thematically as we read in the composer’s note found at the beginning of the score. “The first section, goes semi-optimistically forward and all four singers sort of trudge out into the open. None of these authors knew each other as far as I know, but they know each other through my juxtaposition. There are sections about love, most of it unfulfilled. The middle section has a lot to do with war. And William Penn and Kipling and John Woolman and Auden talk about the horrors of war — the blood and rape and utter destruction. The third section is about death, both comforting and not. Evidence of Things Not Seen, is a definition of faith, because that which is God or an afterlife is simply a question of faith and faith is the evidence of things not seen.”33 Rorem often speaks of choosing poetry that “speaks to his condition.” This is a Quaker saying which Rorem has adopted. Though he is not a practicing Quaker, he has always kept this piece of the religion at the forefront of his personal credo. His taste in poets has changed over the years. He has discussed the fact that some poets he has set once and will never use again, due to the fact that they no longer “speak to his condition.” In other words, as his “condition” (or state of being) changes, so do his poetic tastes. One possible reason for his interest in certain poets may be the relationship that he shares with them. Rorem states that he has personally known six of the poets whose works are contained in this cycle. He describes his relationships with them as follows: I’ve never met Theodore Roethke, but we corresponded, and the correspondence was all about — let me see — it seems to me it was all about money. When the song was printed, he wanted his name to be as big as mine. He’s right. . . . I’ve met Auden once or twice, and we had a little correspondence, but we weren’t friends. . . . Goodman was a very good friend and I knew him when I was an adolescent. He was a grownup, and I’m one of the people who know him as a writer — I mean as a poet — as well as a thinker. Most people really don’t know his poetry, but I love it. . . . I wrote Jane Kenyon, and her husband answered saying she was dead. . . . Green was a good friend of mine and a prose writer. He was an American who lived in France. Mark Doty and Paul Monette — I knew through their poems and corresponded with them.34

33 Erik Philbrook, “Words’Worth,” Playback Magazine, Fall (1998), http://www.ascap.com/playback/1998/october/ rorem.html.

34 Ned Rorem, Interview by Tyler Nelson, September 2, 2009, Nantucket, Massachusetts.

17 The most obvious possible attraction to this poetry for Mr. Rorem, other than the personal connection he shares with a few of its authors is the fact that some of them led lives similar to his, and experienced some of the same woes and hardships. These poets most certainly speak to his condition. Mark Doty and Paul Monette are at the top of the list in this category. Both of them gay men, they experienced the loss of partners and close friends due to the ravages of AIDS. Monette and Doty have written accounts of the loss of their partners to AIDS. Many elements of these accounts are similar to the account Mr. Rorem has written about the loss of his own long-time partner to AIDS, contained in his diary, Lies. In fact, the two poems from the cycle,”Faith,” and “Even Now,” (by Doty and Monette respectively) mirror many of the sentiments Rorem himself has written about. They describe the pain of living day-to-day with the knowledge that a loved one is suffering from a disease for which there is no cure. They also describe the feelings of frustration, loneliness and rejection that both the sick individual and his partner often feel during this time. Rorem devoted a large section of his diary Lies, to the description of just such events. He sometimes rants about the injustice of his situation, and other times describes sleepless nights and tear-filled days, just as Doty and Monette do in their works. Another element of Rorem’s condition to which some of the poets speak is his gay lifestyle. Paul Monette, Paul Goodman, and Ned Rorem share an additional connection in that they have all written extensively about growing up gay and dealing with the way in which society views them and their lifestyle choices. Rorem, Goodman, and Monette also boldly admit to living a gay lifestyle at a time when society as a whole was not accepting of it. The three have all been icons for the Gay Liberation Movement at one time or another. Goodman was perhaps the most involved and was a political activist for the pacifist left in the 1960s and 1970s. Though they did not write openly about it, Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde and some hypothesize Langston Hughes, wrote poetry during their lifetimes which contains homosexual themes. Rorem may have been attracted to the works of Oscar Wilde in particular because Wilde was arrested for his homosexual lifestyle and served time in jail. Rorem has discussed the fact that at times, he too has been ridiculed as a “public sinner” and shunned by individuals or society.

18 Edna St. Vincent Millay, Julien Green, A.E. Housman and Colette were also openly gay or bisexual, and though references to these sexual preferences may not have been as overt in their works, they do exist. Rorem may have been drawn to their work because of the suffering and persecution they experienced for their lifestyle choices. Another connection two of the poets share with Rorem is their Quaker religion. Rorem’s parents were pacifists and Quakers, and though Rorem does not actively practice, the sentiments echoed by Quaker poets John Woolman and William Penn most likely appealed to Rorem because of their themes of finding comfort through religious principles, advocation of peace, the alleviation of human suffering, and universal acceptance of all regardless of personal convictions. These themes are also found in Rorem’s poetic selections for this cycle. In an excerpt from Rorem’s setting of Woolman’s writings entitled “I Saw a Mass,” the themes of human suffering and universal acceptance are presented. “I saw a mass of matter of a dull gloomy color . . . and was informed that this mass was human beings in as great misery as they could be and live, and I was mixed in with them and henceforth I might not consider myself as a distinct or separate being.”35 Penn’s writings provide an example of many of the same principles which Woolman discusses but also contain references to the theme of finding comfort through religious principles. The following example is taken from his book of reflections and maxims entitled “Some Fruits of Solitude,” and is also the text of Rorem’s song, “The Comfort of Friends.” “This is the Comfort of Friends, that though they may be said to Die, yet their Friendship and Society are, in the best Sense, ever present, because Immortal.”36 There are other religious connections to Rorem from his selection of poets. Both A.E. Houseman and Robert Browning were atheist like him for at least part of their lives. Browning became an atheist later in life, in an effort to emulate his favorite poet, Percy Shelly. Housman on the other hand, much like Rorem, became an atheist at the young age of fourteen and remained so the rest of his life, just as Rorem has.

35 John Woolman. Journal (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Library, 1993) 320.

36 William Penn. Some Fruits of Solitude; in reflections and maxims: relating to the conduct of humane life (London: Printed for Thomas Northcott, 1693) 137.

19 Other similarities between Rorem and Browning include the fact that Browning, like Rorem, was well read and considered a literary scholar. He and Rorem began producing works at a very young age and are both fascinated with languages, particularly French. Housman, too, was infatuated with languages, especially Latin. He, like Rorem, was fond of the poetic themes of loneliness, pessimism, loss, and the transience of beauty in his writings. Another connection is that of Rudyard Kipling to the composer. Kipling lost a son in World War I, and because of this, became critical of government leaders’ actions during war time. He also expressed a pacifist attitude in response to the tragedies of World War I. In the following excerpt from Kipling’s poem, “A Dead Statesman,” from Rorem’s song with the same title, the speaker questions his future after propagating death and destruction. Now all my lies are proved untrue And I must face the men I slew. What tale shall serve me here among Mine angry and defrauded young?37

The influence of Rorem’s Quaker roots returns again with the poetic themes of war, guilt, and wrongful death. Rorem abhors war in all forms, and most likely this text stood out to him because of his strong anti-war sentiments. In this same vein, the text Rorem has chosen from Langston Hughes also embraces this anti-war sentiment. Hughes, however, did not write about war for the same reasons or with the frequency that Kipling did. Rorem may have initially been attracted to the works of Hughes for different reasons. Hughes was a strong advocate for racial equality and peaceful resolution of racial differences. Much of his writing dealt with racial discrimination and confronted racial stereotypes. Similarly, much of Rorem’s writing deals with discrimination and stereotypes of the gay culture. Some of the less obvious aspects of the poetry in Part One to which Rorem seems to gravitate, and which he does not himself acknowledge in his description of thematic material include the themes of innocence, the beauty of nature, the pleasures of love, and naiveté. Though Rorem does not list these themes in his brief description of the three parts of the cycle, there are various examples found in the poetry. Rorem states that Part One is about moving

37 Rudyard Kipling. The Years Between (New York: Doubleday, 1919) 141.

20 forward and the wistful optimism of love. Upon closer inspection, we find that Rorem has chosen poetry with very descriptive images of nature and the world around us. The first song contains images of crying hounds, the dying cries of a wounded animal, and shifting wind. The text comes from “From Whence Cometh Song?” contained in Theodore Roethke’s publication The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. Roethke spent much time in a greenhouse as a child, and these descriptive images may be a manifestation of his curiosity and love for nature. An interesting feature of this song in particular, is found in a poetic juxtaposition of the characteristics of each verse. The text of the first verse discusses things that can be heard but not seen, the second verse, things that can be seen but not heard, and the last verse deals with things that are neither heard nor seen, but felt. These attributes in three poetic verses serve as an archetype for the structure of the entire cycle. Though the exact characteristics of poetic content present in the first song do not correspond to each of the three parts of the cycle, a similar poetic structure is at play. Part One contains images and experiences that are primarily seen but not heard or felt: the physical manifestations of love, images of nature (to which I have already referred), and physical interaction with individuals. The content of Part Two deals with themes that cannot always be seen in the literal sense, but rather the effect of their presence can be seen. For example, immorality, hypocrisy, hatred, disloyalty and the effects of being rejected in love are all described, but not through specific actions. The poetry does not contain descriptions of specific acts but rather gives descriptions of the effects of those acts, and therefore contains themes of things perceived but not directly seen. Part Three deals with themes that can only be felt. It deals exclusively with death, which can only be truly described by the individual who is dying. Returning to the descriptive images of nature found in Part One, we find Auden’s words from his collection Five Songs, contained in the poem, “O Where Are You Going?” The poem describes the shape of twisted trees and fatal valleys (which the speakers in the poem pass on their journey), as well as walking on a path which changes from granite to grass. Wordsworth and Goodman describe the images of a rainbow in the sky, blushing sun, a boy fishing on a landing, and a crackling campfire. Further examples of nature images are found in Whitman’s description of a scene on a winter night in a bar room, with reference to the

21 rotating earth. Auden’s poem “The More Loving One,” depicts an evening sky with burning stars and the sublimity of the total dark of evening. Lastly, Thomas Ken’s words fittingly conclude Part One by describing the rising of the sun and relating a clean conscience to the clarity of the day at noon. These beautiful images and earnestness of the speaker’s tone in the poems of Part One are immediately shattered as Part Two begins. Though there are still images of nature contained in the verses of Part Two, they are now part of a very different thematic texture. In addition, the themes of Parts Two and Three contain more cohesive poetic themes than the more diverse and varied themes of Part One. Rorem describes Part Two as a discussion about “coming of age, horror of war, and romantic disappointment.”38 The tone of these poems no longer centers upon taking joy in the world around us and using it to describe feelings of love and excitement. These images of nature and the beauty of the world now become a setting for themes which Rorem does not identify, but which are an integral part of the poetry, such as hypocrisy, death, violence, the futility of war, anger, grief, and fear of the unknown. Rorem has chosen poems which sharply criticize the themes that are perhaps most painful to him and the things which he most despises. The words of John Woolman (referenced earlier), begin Part Two, describing the loneliness and pain of the human race. This is followed by Penn’s scathing rant about hypocrisy among Christians. The beginning lines of his text read: “Oh the rapes, fires, murders, and rivers of blood that lie at the door of professed Christians! If this be godly, what’s devilish? If this be Christian, what paganism?”39 Kipling’s verses on the futility of war to which I have already referred come next, and after that, a poem by Stephen Crane entitled “The Candid Man,” in which a violent assault on a “learned bystander,” by “the candid man” quells an attempt to to give direction and aid. “My good fool,” said a learned bystander, “Your operations are mad.” “You are too candid,” cried the candid man.

38 Ned Rorem, Evidence of Things Not Seen (Thirty-Six Songs for Four Solo Voices and Piano), (Boosey and Hawkes; New York: 1997).

39 William Penn. Some Fruits of Solitude; in Reflections and Maxims: Relating to the Conduct of Humane Life (London: Printed for Thomas Northcott, 1693) 137.

22 And when his stick left the head of the learned bystander It was two sticks.”40

Hughes’s hyperbolic statements in “Comment on War,” echo those of Kipling and condemn the act of war, stating in the opening line: “Let us kill off youth for the sake of truth.”41 Following the order of the songs, the next song, “A Learned Man,” contains another of Crane’s poetic offerings describing deceit and betrayal as a trusted friend leads another to ruin. Auden’s text “Dear, Through the Night,” follows, and tells the story of an individual who, upon finding a moment of peace and solitude to converse with his significant other, discovers his lover has been untrue and has another love. The speaker addresses us in the present, and recalls this event, which happened many years ago but remains fresh in his mind. The theme of death is the subject of the next two poems. Oscar Wilde’s “Requiescat” describes a lonely scene at a snow-covered grave site, imagining the once beautiful woman who lies below enclosed in a grave of wood and stone. His final stanza summarizes the tragic scene: Peace, Peace, she cannot hear Lyre of sonnet, All my life’s buried here, Heap earth upon it.42

In the next song, “Is my Team Ploughing?” Rorem uses a text by Housman which is a conversation between a dead man and his best friend. The man inquires about those most dear to him, and the living man answers that they are all well. At one point, he asks about the girl he has left behind, and when the friend answers that she is well, he asks how the friend is doing. The friend responds that all is well with him too and that he has a new love. He pleads with the dead friend to never ask her name, for he has fallen in love with the girl his friend has left behind, and feels guilt, shame, and remorse for his actions. We are now introduced to the underlying fear of the unknown with Auden’s quasi hallucinatory existential narration, in which the speaker is almost mad in anticipation of dealing

40 Stephen Crane. War Is Kind And Other Poems (Newnan, Georgia: Dover Publications, 1998) 31.

41 Langston Hughes. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (New York: Knopf: Distributed by Random House, 1994) 133.

42 Oscar Wilde. Poems (New York: Brentano’s, 1909) 39.

23 with the future or the current situation in which he finds himself. The reaction of the speaker seems to be a result of unrequited love, as his observance of lovers on the street is what first triggers this poetic eruption. The following excerpts demonstrate fantastic images, (another element to which Rorem seems to be attracted) and the almost bipolar tone to the poem. “I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you Till China and Africa meet. And the river jumps over the mountain And the salmon sing in the street. “ . . . “O plunge your hands in water Plunge them in up to the wrist; Stare, stare at the basin And wonder what you’ve missed.”

“The glacier knocks in the cupboard, The desert sighs in the bed, And the crack in the teacup opens A lane to the land of the dead.”43

This same uncertainty and fear of the unknown is found in Jane Kenyon’s poem “The Sick Wife,” which tells the story of a wife, too ill to move, who sits in the car while her husband goes into the store for groceries. She observes the world around her, knowing that there is nothing she can do to stop life as she watches it go by, growing more feeble and helpless each day. Kenyon herself suffered from extreme depression and illness most of her adult life, and her poetry often contains themes that resemble her own personal demons. Thomas Ken’s words end Part Two as they did Part One, but this time the tone of the poem is repentant and submissive. It is filled with an air of regret and sadness, and is an appropriate ending to this second part of the cycle, filled with themes of death, destruction, remorse and regret. Part Three of the cycle is the most unified in terms of thematic material. Mr. Rorem describes its theme in only one word — death. Every text in Part Three mentions death directly or indirectly. It is interesting to note, however, that it is not always a physical death, but sometimes a spiritual and emotional one, to which the poets refer.

43 W.H. Auden. Another Time (New York: Random House, 1940) 225.

24 The poems “He Thinks Upon His Death” by Julien Green, “The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water” by W.B. Yeats, “End of the Day” by Charles Baudelaire (translated by Rorem), Mark Doty’s “Faith,” Paul Monette’s “Even Now,” and the final text of the cycle “Evidence of Things Not Seen” by Penn, refer to death primarily in the physical form. Some of the texts, particularly those of Baudelaire and Monette, also contain elements of spiritual and emotional death. The poems discuss the thoughts that individuals have before death, and curiosity about what comes next, as well as an attempt to make sense of death itself. In Green’s verse, the speaker anticipates his last day of life and in a realization of mortality states that: “A day would come when my heart would beat one last time, then would cease its suffering.”44 Yeats’ depiction of death in his poem “The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water,” employs more of the fantastic and figurative descriptive imagery for which Rorem seems to have a predisposition. An excerpt of the poem describes the appearance of the old men, and the way they describe death. They had hands like claws, and their knees Were twisted like the old thorn-trees By the waters. I heard the old, old men say, “All that’s beautiful drifts away, Like the waters.”45

Charles Baudelaire’s verse also gives haunting descriptions of death. In his poem “End of the Day,” as translated by Ned Rorem, a sample of the verses reads: While body and soul long desperately for rest, my heart seethes with deathly dreams. Let me lie on my back and enshroud myself in your curtains, O nourishing darkness!46

44 Julien Green. L’autre sommeil: roman (Paris: Fayard, 1994) 133.

45 William Butler Yeats. In the Seven Woods: being poems chiefly of the Irish heroic age (Shannon: Irish University Press, 1970) 26-27.

46 Charles Baudelaire. Les Fleurs du Mal (Paris: Gallimard, 2007) 328.

25 Mark Doty’s text, as previously mentioned, provides narration on the frantic state of the speaker’s life as he deals with the impending death of his partner due to an illness (AIDS) that no one seems to understand. It discusses death in a very real, immediate way, as the speaker describes his distracted state, which almost causes the dog he is walking to be hit by a car. The irony is that the source of his distraction, an effort to think of a way to save his partner, is what almost causes the death of the only other thing he cares about. Penn’s final analysis of death is succinct, and provides the only bit of hope in the texts of Part Three. . . . Faith lights us, even through the grave, being the Evidence of Things not Seen. And this is the Comfort of the Good, that the Grave cannot hold them, and that they live as soon as they die. For Death is no more than the Turning of us over from Time to Eternity. Death then, being the Way and Condition of Life, we cannot love to live, if we cannot bear to die . . . 47

Of the non-physical references to death, Colette’s words, taken from L’Étoile Vesper, are also translated by Mr. Rorem. In her verse, a road is a metaphor for life. She describes her journey, which includes two saddled horses guided by a single hand, as they pull her down this path of life. The symbolism of the steeds is left to the reader to interpret. It would seem likely that they are either the speaker’s appetites and passions, which must be bridled or controlled during the course of life, or perhaps two very strong outside influences which must constantly be balanced. Regardless of the meaning of these factors, the speaker is trying desperately to align and unify them; he can see the end of life nearing, and needs the added pull their unified effort brings to reach the intended destination. The poetry of Frost alludes to an inner, spiritual, or emotional death, which may or may not have been caused by unrequited love. The cause is not entirely clear in the poem’s verses, perhaps purposefully so. Frost sets up this death in the first stanza and then describes the slow pace at which the light around the speaker, the literal light of day, dies, symbolizing the loss of the inner light which the speaker at one time possessed. As I came to the edge of the woods, Thrush music-hark!

47 William Penn. Some Fruits of Solitude; in Reflections and Maxims: Relating to the Conduct of Humane Life (London: Printed for Thomas Northcott, 1693) 137.

26 Now it was dusk outside, Inside it was dark.48

Goodman’s verse in Part Three describes the emotional death associated with rejection. The poem is entitled “A Terrible Disaster,” and is filled with references to depression, lack of self-worth and self-confidence, and eventually, possible thoughts of suicide. The final stanza of the poem contains the last blow to the speaker’s ego, and is a perfect assessment of what has happened years ago. A disastrous and terrible simple fate I share in common with many other folk and maybe we had all been better off if we had died then when our hearts were broken.49

In an interview soon after the premiere of Evidence of Things Not Seen, Rorem shared a realization he had while listening to the performance: “I sat there listening to it, thinking what a terribly good piece it is and how all of these words conspired to blend and work toward a finished product. But then I said, ‘I didn’t write the words’ and there is an element of cheating in all composers who use words. Schubert cheated and Brahms cheated, because half of the work is already done, but the composer usually gets the credit. . . . In this case, it’s a question of taking a pre-existing lyric, often a lyric masterpiece, and then presuming that you can add something to it.”50 Rorem’s criteria for these poetic selections is a combination of his empathy for poetic texts to which he personally relates, and those texts which employ poetic devices and imagery which he finds compelling. There is no apparent cryptic message, or hidden meaning, or organization other than their thematic groupings. For Rorem, the meaning behind each text is clear and as he states, the poems in their particular order, (at least for him) make sense What is true of his choices is that he makes the most of the texts he selects and does not use them as a vehicle for his music, but rather, the music becomes their vehicle.

48 Robert Frost. The Poetry of Robert Frost (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969) 156.

49 Paul Goodman. Collected Poems (New York: Random House, 1972).

50 Erik Philbrook, “Words’Worth,” Playback Magazine, Fall (1998), http://www.ascap.com/playback/1998/october/ rorem.html.

27 MUSICAL MATTERS

In terms of the musical organization of Evidence of Things Not Seen, Rorem does not employ the use of leitmotifs, relationship of key signatures, or length of piece to give structure to the cycle. There are, however, musical motives which appear throughout the cycle which do provide a musical connective tissue. Parts One and Two of the cycle contain one motive that is introduced for the first time in those particular parts. Part Three of the cycle does not contain any obvious motives, and relies on poetic material for unification. Part One’s motive is not limited to that section and appears throughout the work. We first see it in the beginning bars of the cycle as the tenor’s vocal line intones the words “from whence cometh song.” It consists of the leap of a minor ninth, from E-flat to F- natural in the tenor line with the rhythmic pattern of two half notes followed by two quarters then two half notes. This same motive is repeated next in the alto solo “How Do I Love Thee?” (see Examples 1 and 2), this time leaping from D-Flat to E-Flat .

Example 1 “From Whence Cometh Song” mm. 1-4

28 Example 2 “How Do I Love Thee?” mm. 1-4

The first motive, referenced in the examples above, always occurs in the opening bars of each piece in which it is used, and its appearance is sporadic. When the motive reappears in measure one of “Life in a Love,” the intervals remain the same (this time from D-natural to E- natural), but the note values are altered slightly. This time the baritone sings the motive immediately followed by the alto, in exact repetition (see Example 3).

Example 3 “Life in a Love” mm. 1-7

29 There is a gap between the appearance of the motive and the next, which occurs near the end of the cycle in the trio for soprano, alto, and tenor, entitled “Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water.” The note values are altered yet again, but the intervallic relationships remain the same. Rorem uses a quarter note followed by a quarter note triplet to replace the original use of two half notes. There are also some simple embellishments in the form of eighth note passing tones and the repetition of the second part of the motive in this example, which is the motive’s last appearance in the cycle (see Example 4).

Example 4 “Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water” mm. 1-4

This motive is used for a few purposes. In the first example (Example 1), it creates a sense of longing and yearning, adding to the ambiguity and sense of curiosity in the text through its large unprepared leaps. Later, in “How do I Love Thee,” it achieves a similar effect, helping to illustrate the speaker’s inability to express the depth of his love. The leap in this case suggests

30 the search for the right word or sentiment. The dynamic changes slightly for the next two examples, in which it is used to embody the grand, sweeping affirmation of love (in Example 3), then disbelief at having found love. In addition, this second manifestation also creates a sense of negativity and uncertainty, which is described in “Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water.” The Part Two motive first appears in the third song of this part. It is made up of a rhythmic figure consisting of a chord comprised of quarter notes, followed by a quarter rest and then another chord followed by two quarter rests in a measure with a tempo marking of 5/4. The motive is well established the first time we hear it since it is employed as a prelude to set the tone for Kipling’s text, “A Dead Statesman,” before the tenor vocal line begins.

Example 5 “A Dead Statesman” mm. 1-9

31 The text comes from Kipling’s collection, Epitaphs of War, and describes the plight of a politician who is confronted about the now dead soldiers for whose deaths he was responsible. The motive effectively creates an edgy and nervous texture to add to the isolation of a jagged vocal line full of quick, disjunct leaps (see Example 5). This song flows seamlessly into the next, entitled “The Candid Man.” The chords of the piano motive modulate and become more sparse, (moving in parallel minor ninths in the right hand and minor sevenths in the left), but maintain an exact repetition of the rhythmic pattern (see Example 6).

Example 6 “The Candid Man” mm. 1-4

There is one song between this appearance of the motive and the next, which occurs in the trio for soprano, alto and tenor, “A Learned Man.” Rorem returns to an exact repetition of the initial motive both rhythmically and in terms of the number of notes in the chord and their spacing. This time however, the key signature has shifted from E-Flat Major to A-minor. The motive’s entrance is delayed, in comparison to its entrance at the beginning of the piece (see Example 7).

32 Example 7 “A learned Man” mm. 5-11

This is the last appearance of the Part Two motive in its entirety. There are other fragments of the motive throughout Part Two, but it never occurs again in its complete form. Another interesting feature of the musical structure is found in the three hymns which punctuate the first two parts. They are alike in musical texture, utilizing basic homophonic four part writing and tightly knit harmonies. The musical texture of these hymns, though decidedly calm in comparison to the other pieces in the cycle, often contains blaring dissonances. The hymns too, adopt characteristics of the parts in which they are found.

33 Example 8 “Hymn for Morning” mm. 48-58

34 The first hymn, “Hymn for Morning,” for example, expresses uncertainty, anticipation and excitement. This perfectly coincides with Rorem’s stated goal to convey the optimism of love, new beginnings, and discovery. Rorem achieves this by once again, utilizing large leaps in the vocal lines, which suggest searching, longing and discovery. He intersperses short piano solos with sections of singing, suggesting new beginning, change, realization, and further discovery with each new vocal entrance. In sections with heavy dissonance, staggering the entrance of vocal lines to create uneven vocal textures, which weave their way into the more homophonic consonant sections, suggest that the speaker’s thoughts and realizations begin to materialize and combine to form concrete ideas and solid decisions about his future course of actions. The following figure is an example of a dissonant cacophony which transforms into a calmer tonal section of the ensemble (see Example 8). Part Two, which is about disappointment in love and war (among other things), utilizes the “Hymn for Evening” at its conclusion to convey a sense of submission or acceptance. In other words, it suggests that the journey taken has instilled within the individual a sense of maturity or understanding. Rorem achieves this effect by making the texture of this hymn even more consonant and tightly-knit in comparison to the texture of “Hymn for Morning.” He has retained the piano interjections, (which in this instance seem to carry the impetus of the vocal line rather than disrupting it), and dissonances are kept to a minimum. The flowing vocal lines intertwine, creating a rocking sensation in the vocal parts, aided by the 6/4 tempo marking. The lilting melody is passed between vocal parts, and are sometimes sung in canon, creating a soothing, uninterrupted vocal texture, suggesting a unification of purpose in the life of the speaker (see Example 9).

35 Example 9 “Hymn for Evening” mm. 22-33

36 Rorem’s attention to detail is demonstrated by the diversity and originality in each of the cycle’s songs. The best example of this is the music contained in Part Three, in which all of the songs are about death, but all contain very diverse and unrelated music. Throughout the entire cycle, there are no apparent examples of Rorem’s use of stock musical gestures or formulas to accompany the texts for which he is writing. His music seems to perfectly capture the essence of each poem in a way unique to that text. An example of this originality is found in the tenor solo contained in Part One of the cycle. It is entitled “I Am He” (see Example 10). The text conveys bitterness, loneliness, sadness, despair, and pain. Rorem conveys the emotion of this text by choosing to compose the first eleven bars of the short eighteen-bar piece without accompaniment. The vocal line is also written on an E-natural and ascends to an A- natural, high in the tessitura, and requires some facility to produce a consistently clear and even tone. It repeatedly leaps to the upper extremities of the vocal range, (from E-natural to A- natural) and from those upper notes, often drops down by large intervals, such as from G-natural to F-natural, over an octave below. The lack of accompaniment draws attention to the large leaps of the vocal line, as well as its high placement. This creates the appropriate amount of discomfort and uneasiness in the musical texture. When the accompaniment does enter, it consists of a simple blocked chord played on the first beat of the bar and then sustained. The chords then move chromatically down the staff until the end of the piece. This descent creates an additional sense of abandonment and depression. Above these chords, the vocal line maintains its position high in the tenor range and becomes more agitated by skipping up and down in a series of uneven leaps, which finally settle on the same E-natural on which it began, with a decrescendo marking. There is no further cadence or musical punctuation in the last measure of the piece, and the sonorities are left to die out, adding to the forsaken tone of the poem.

37 Example 10 “I Am He” mm. 1-18

In complete contrast to this piece, Rorem employs his descriptive skills in other ways as evidenced in the tenor and baritone duet “Is My Team Ploughing?” The accompaniment consists of a dissonant, aggressive, four bar motive in 6/8 time comprised of a series of six notes, the

38 pitches for which vary from measure to measure in the right hand, but are repeated exactly in the left. The piano is also given the instruction to play “hard.” Above this frantic accompaniment (depicting the horses pulling the plough), Rorem writes a choppy, fragmented vocal line which causes interruption of the text phrases and gives the sensation that the speaker (a dead man) is panic-stricken and frantic (see Example 11).

Example 11 “Is My Team Ploughing?” mm. 1-10

When the vocal line of the second speaker (the living friend of the dead man) enters, the accompaniment immediately changes and becomes sustained, controlled, and assumes the form of a blocked chord. The vocal line itself is immediately more lyrical and flowing as the speaker

39 reassuringly converses with his dead friend. These contrasting textures change immediately according to who is speaking as the two individuals converse. In addition, the music surrounding the text of the dead man becomes more frantic, and gets progressively louder while the dead man asks about all the things that were once important to him. The music reaches a climax as he asks about the girl whom he has left, then about his friend. The vocal part of the living man (burdened with guilt), who has taken his friend’s girl, immediately becomes more somber and subdued. This further polarizes the speakers’ two extreme musical styles (see Examples 12).

Example 12 “Is My Team Ploughing?” mm. 60-76

40 Another example which warrants a closer look is the last solo of the piece “Even Now,” (see Example 13) a tenor solo, which leads directly into the closing ensemble, “Evidence of Things Not Seen.”

Example 13 “Even Now,” mm. 21-33

41 This is perhaps the most epic and challenging piece of the whole cycle, both emotionally and vocally. The piano accompaniment is not extremely involved but does present a few formidable passages. These poly-tonal piano flourishes, which often contain pitches spelling out three different chords (such as in measure twenty-one, where an F diminished triad, a D-major triad, and a G-minor seventh chord are found), paint an ethereal picture of mystery, ambiguity, and uncertainty as the speaker voices his most personal thoughts and wishes in a stream of conscious narration. The piano serves to bring the speaker back into focus periodically as his unaccompanied vocal lines die away. The speaker sometimes addresses his partner, sometimes God, and sometimes mankind. All of his queries are rhetorical. The vocal line is filled with succinct, chromatic, arcing musical gestures, which add to the feeling that the speaker doesn’t quite know what he wants to say but is trying to give voice to his thoughts. The vocal line also exhibits another of Rorem’s preferred techniques which is to exploit the extremes of the vocal range, as he does in other compositions such as “Pippa’s Song” and many of the songs contained in his cycle Poems of Love and the Rain. This vocal line in this song ascends to a B-flat at the climax and descends to a low B-natural at its lowest point. This further adds to the disparity and miserable state of the speaker as he laments the loss of his closest companion. The piece is marked “overwrought, yet floatingly free,” and maintains this characteristic until a new marking of “calm,” is inserted. At this point in the piece, the speaker is at his lowest emotional state, ready to submit to whatever may come next. He chooses to address mankind in general, and plead for their prayers, since he, the speaker, is not a “praying man.” At this point, the accompaniment gives the first sense of rhythmic structure to the musical texture in the form of two half notes in a 4/4 bar. The vocal line enters on the off beats, suggesting the speaker’s remaining uncertainty or at least inability to explain his planned course of action. At the end of his affirmation, his vocal line leads seamlessly into the last number, and the piano enters under the tenor’s sustained D-natural (see Example 14). This suggests that another force has begun to finish the speaker’s thought for him and physically buoy him up, as the next song with a completely different musical texture begins in the accompaniment.

42 Example 14 “Evidence of Things Not Seen,” mm. 1-8

The catalyst for this “salvation” from his current state of suffering is the act of faith, which the alto voice then sings with the text “faith lights us, even through the grave.” All the voices enter one by one, and the musical texture swells, depicting the growth of this faith. The four voices eventually become one and sing in unison, and sometimes close canon, as they deliver the last triumphant line of the piece: “we cannot love to live if we cannot bear to die.” In the last few bars of the piece, the tenor and alto lines ascend in slow stepwise motion, as does the piano in four note phrases, played with the right hand. This rising of the vocal and accompanimental parts depicts strength, hope, and optimism. The dynamic marking punctuates

43 this thought with the direction to perform a slow decrescendo from mezzo-piano to pianissimo as the piece ends (see Example 15).

Example 15 “Evidence of Things Not Seen” mm. 72-74

In addition to motivic connections, there are other illustrative musical devices present in the cycle. Rorem’s thematic summary of Part One includes the description of moving forward. He perfectly generates that effect in Part One of the cycle by utilizing quick tempi, rolled flourishes in the accompaniment, and quick, light articulations. In many of the songs, the piano or vocal line often gives the impression of moving forward at a quicker pace than the other, by utilizing notes with smaller values such as sixteenth or eighth notes. In some cases the

44 accompaniment will have six eighth notes and the vocal line a whole note, such as in measure seventy-two of “Evidence of Things Not Seen.” There are, however, a few instances in which both the vocal and piano parts move at the same fast-paced speed. One or the other is always providing rhythmic drive to the piece as well, through percussive articulations. Rorem’s attempt to convey the thematic content he has outlined may be the contributing factor to the danger of occasionally obscuring the poetic text for which he is writing with the accompaniment. Much of this occurs in Part One, however, and the music is not dominated by such instances. Rorem’s musical choices in the accompaniment successfully accomplish their design in songs such as “How Do I Love Thee,” where the aforementioned unending sixteenth note accompanimental barrage gives a feeling of energy, exuberance, and overflowing joy at times. This is also true of “Life in a Love,” where a similar accompaniment provides a feeling of unending unification to the alto and baritone vocal lines as they sing of their love, devotion, and commitment to one another. The musical language of Part Two is much more pensive, systematic, and thoughtful. Rorem uses his notes more sparingly. He illustrates that fact with the very first chord of Part Two, a bitonal chord cluster, bearing the instruction to “hold for twenty seconds.” When the vocal line enters, the accompaniment consists of only one dotted half note in the right hand of the piano to accompany the repeated D-sharp on which the alto must sing the text of the song for the first eight measures after her entrance. Part Two, like Part One, does contain fast tempi as well, but he does use them sparingly and they are always marked with instructions such as “angry,” “a nervous heartbeat,” or “without irony.” This suggests that they are to convey a specific emotion or theme, especially considering the fact that the rest of the pieces in Part Three bear markings such as “gently,” “paralyzingly slow,” and “straightforward.” This is evidenced in the fact that the fastest tempo in Part Two is found in the song “Is My Team Ploughing?” and specifically depicts the aggressive, pulsating steps of horses pulling the plough as described in the text. Part Three of the cycle is perhaps the most diverse of the three in terms of musical contrast from piece to piece. There are multiple figures in both the piano and vocal lines that sound a great deal alike, but are different enough that they seem only to reference or suggest the

45 other instances of like melodic material. For example, in general, there is heavy use of flowing arpeggiated piano figures in triple meter, and vocal cadences and flourishes reminiscent of jazz riffs. The pervading literary theme of Part Three, death, is often depicted both in the vocal and piano lines by utilizing monotonous musical gestures. The most common among them is the repetition of a single note. Prime examples of this technique include the opening bars of the baritone solo, “He Thinks Upon His Death” (see Example 16), and in the opening systems of the tenor solo, “A Terrible Disaster,” which utilize monotonous figures in the piano part in both Examples 16 and 17, as well as short rising and falling sequences in the right hand in Example 17 (see Example 17).

Example 16 “He Thinks Upon His Death” mm. 1-6

46 Example 17 “A Terrible Disaster” mm. 1-17

The vocal line also employs repeated notes and small intervalic leaps combined with short melodic fragments to give the feeling of despondency and despair. The singer is not given a complete, connected melodic phrase until the middle of the piece, suggesting that the speaker cannot even muster the strength to articulate the pain he is suffering. If there is a weakness in the cycle as a whole, it may be that some of the music presents a particular challenge to the pianist in terms of conveying the poem’s message to the listener. I refer specifically to the accompanimental element of the pieces. Part One of the cycle is primarily the source of what may, without careful attention from the accompanist, obscure the song text. Rorem’s unceasing stream of sixteenth and thirty-second note patterns which fill the accompaniment of almost half of the fourteen songs in Part One of the cycle (and many of his

47 song compositions in general), can leave the listener longing for a simpler and less busy musical texture to better grasp the carefully crafted melody carrying the verse in the vocal lines. The poetry is given more room to breathe in Parts Two and Three with less frequent episodes of the danger of obscuring the text. This may be a result of the stronger cohesive poetic themes in Parts Two and Three versus the more scattered unfocused themes of Part One. Rorem’s perceived difficulty in finding a concise, all-encompassing theme for Part One of the cycle seems to have manifest itself in his musical choices as well. Rorem is straightforward with his audience. From the music contained in this cycle, one may deduce that he never writes music that he hopes to be universally appealing, but rather, as he says, music that he feels he needs to hear. He is not apologetic in his musical choices, and some may deem certain choices more effective than others, but all are effective for him. It is one thing for a composer to understand what he has done in creating a piece like this, but, as Mr. Rorem has said, the test is to see if his abilities produce something which is effective in communicating the message of the piece to an audience. In the case of this piece, Mr. Rorem has certainly passed that test.

AFTER THE FACT

Though much of Rorem’s music has received positive reviews, it is difficult to find any negative criticism of Evidence of Things Not Seen. The cycle premiered in January of 1998. Since then, Rorem has composed other song cycles, instrumental works, and operas. Evidence of Things Not Seen remains the largest, most complex, and perhaps most well received of all his song cycles to date. Perhaps this magnum opus has been so well received because of the personal connection it shares with the composer. As was stated, he considers the piece autobiographical. “What else would it be? Nothing comes from nothing.”51 When I asked Mr. Rorem about the cycle in terms of any message he wished to convey through it, he replied: “Oh, the words are so much stronger than any corny notion I would have about messages. Either the collection of poems works or it doesn't. And either it works with the

51 Ned Rorem, Interview by Tyler Nelson, September 2, 2009, Nantucket, Massachusetts.

48 music or it doesn’t, or it works without the music but not with the music, or something, but those are decisions that I’m experienced with. . . . I think you’re either a song writer or you’re not.”52 At its premiere, the cycle was well received by critics and audiences alike. In fact, many reviews of Rorem’s cycle comment on the same characteristics we have already outlined in a discussion of the cycle’s significance and merit. In reference to Evidence of Things Not Seen, Tim Page of The Washington Post, has commented: In some earlier pieces, I have felt that Rorem’s undeniable craft overshadowed his artistry — rather as if I were listening to a master workman doing his perfectly accomplished thing rather than to a human being desperately trying to tell me something. It is not quite fair to say that Evidence of Things Not Seen is more direct than some of Rorem’s other work — he has always addressed his audience straightforwardly. But I do believe his work has taken on a new intensity of expression. It is not merely because he has addressed the “Big Issues” in this cycle — love, death, youth, infirmity, infinity. Rather, even the smaller, subtle themes and passages ring with conviction.53

Other words of praise have come from a review in The New York Times, which offered: Impressive about the cycle is that its songs are written in so many different ways. Some stories are told in the piano parts, played alternately and handsomely by Michael Barrett and Steven Blier . . . at other times Mr. Rorem lets singers soar in great melodic arcs to the exclusion of almost everything else.54

From interviews with the composer and performers, Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times, reports: “The music in this new work is typical of Mr. Rorem’s elegant style, with lucid, tonally grounded yet pungent harmonies, with vocal lines that are singable even when challenging and with a lyrical sensibility that pays equal homage to Poulenc and Billie Holiday. . . . It is enough, he says, if his new song cycle simply moves people, and converts them. It has comforted him.”55 Though not with the frequency that Mr. Rorem would like, Evidence of Things Not Seen, is still performed with some regularity. The composer informed me in September 2009 that a

52 Ibid.

53 Tim Page, “‘Ned Rorem Delivers Convincing ‘Evidence,’” The Washington Post, April 20, 1998.

54 Bernard Holland, “Rorem’s Songs Offer a Guide Through Life,” The New York Times, January 26, 1998.

55 Anthony Tommasini, “With an Eye on the Unseen, Ned Rorem Sums Up in a New Work,” January 20, 1998.

49 Parisian vocal ensemble recently wrote him to request permission to perform the work and to change the order of the songs to better fit their program. In addition, a new recording of Evidence of Things Not Seen, is scheduled to be released in January 2010. At the time of the interview, the composer was expecting his preview of the recording. Its popularity and influence continue to spread.

50 CHAPTER 3

INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE COMPOSER AND THOUGHTS ON SINGING

Rorem is a composer who prefers to leave questions of interpretation up to the performers once his work is finished. He does not choose to guide and instruct musicians on the nuances and details of his music. “Once I’ve written something and I’ve heard it, then people will come do it for me, I’ll [listen] just to be nice but there’s no one way of doing it, not even the composer’s way, and if he can change, he can change his ideas with every singer.”56 Professional pianist and vocal coach Steven Blier, one of the two pianists who premiered Evidence of Things Not Seen, explained that Rorem has, on a few occasions, told his performers he trusts them to do a piece justice, and does not need to rehearse with them. On one occasion, Mr. Rorem submitted a piece entitled “My Sad Captains,” to The New York Festival of Song (one of the organizations that commissioned Evidence of Things Not Seen), for a concert entitled “American Love Songs.” Blier remembers that Rorem’s composer colleagues spent hours with the performers trying to show them how to perform the music they had submitted for the concert as well, but Rorem simply said: “You’ll know what to do with it.”57 This was also the case with Evidence of Things Not Seen. Rorem does not leave the performer entirely alone, however, and summarizes the entirety of his advice in one phrase: “Just sing the right notes in comprehensible English. Same for the pianist.”58 He does provide one additional caveat: “It’s all in the music, and I’m pretty careful about details as well as general things, so just sing what’s on the page. There’s lots of leeway with singers I think. It’s inconceivable you would transpose a Chopin Etude for example. They’re written for hands, but not for the voice. . . . Every singer has his own [instrument].”59 From this, one may assume that his music is to be molded by each individual singer in the way it best suits that individual. If a song is transposed to more comfortably sing it, or a

56 Ned Rorem, Interview by Tyler Nelson, September 2, 2009, Nantucket, Massachusetts.

57 Ned Rorem, Liner Notes from Evidence of Things Not Seen, Monique McDonald, Delores Ziegler, Rufus Müller, Kurt Ollmann, Michael Barrett, Steven Blier. New World Records 09322-80575-2, 1999. (CD).

58 Ned Rorem, Interview by Tyler Nelson, September 2, 2009, Nantucket, Massachusetts.

59 Ibid.

51 particular performer sings or plays a phrase in the way that best exploits their strengths, this is perfectly acceptable to Mr. Rorem. His advice about singing in general can be summed up in one simple principle: For me, the most important thing about a singer is diction, and if he ain’t got good diction, I couldn’t care less about how beautiful a voice is. An awful lot of singers feel that enunciation and pronunciation are second to beauty of voice, and I think it’s the reverse. So what, if you’re singing something complicated, not even complicated. If you’re singing poetry, the words have to come first, and the voice will take care of itself.60

It is clear that the essence of Rorem’s view on the interpretation of his music is rooted in his attention to poetry in his compositions. Rorem suggests that when one focuses on the delivery of that text, all other elements of performance will fall into place. Perhaps Rorem’s demands are not too unreasonable after all.

THE FUTURE OF SONG

Rorem has stated, in reference to Evidence of Things Not Seen: “If I were to leave just one piece of music after I die — this would probably be it. I think I said most of what I have to say in this cycle.”61 Mr. Rorem often expresses frustration about the fact that his works, especially this one, are not more regularly recorded or performed. He has also commented on his frustration concerning the lack of popularity and interest in song literature in general. He explains that: “If the world of Elvis song is a trillion-dollar business, in the world of serious classical music, song is the least remunerative of expressions. Song, in English, particularly by Americans, is more rarefied still, partly because historically the form’s intimacy never meshed with the massive concepts of our pioneer composers, and partly because we have no recital tradition for singers. . . . Today, re-creation takes priority over creation.”62 Rorem’s song compositions are commonly referred to as “art song.” In an essay on this topic entitled: “Notes from Last Year,” he asks the question:

60Ned Rorem, Interview by Tyler Nelson, September 2, 2009, Nantucket, Massachusetts.

61 Ibid.

62 Rorem, Ned, Evidence of Things Not Seen (New York: Boosey and Hawkes, 1997).

52 “What is it?” people occasionally ask, seeing my name linked to the term. The term’s not in my vocabulary. Is art song art any more than Grand Opera’s grand? It is our feeble translation of the French mélodie or the German Lied, to distinguish the genre from pop. The genre once referred to settings of pre- existing poetry to be sung by a trained voice under the formal circumstances of a recital. Today the rise in quality of some pop, and the increasing rarity of the formal recital (though the rise and rarity must not be mistaken for fusion), suggest that Classical and Popular — or Sacred and Profane — need re-differentiation as Commercial and Non-commercial.63

Some critics claim that the song recital has enjoyed a small boost in popularity over the last few years, but still lacks the attraction it once had. Rorem suggests that it is not because of a lack of competent and talented performers to champion this kind of music but rather, its failure to draw an audience and generate profits that has caused the decline of song recital popularity. Rorem feels that some of this lack of interest is also due to ignorance about the art form itself. He states: “Today, there is not one single classical singer of so-called art songs who can earn a living as a recitalist and get an audience unless he or she has a reputation as an opera singer. Then people come to hear the opera singer sing songs and hope to hear the aria from Carmen. There are many, many fine solo singers but there aren’t any who can earn a living without teaching, and that’s terrible. I credit that to the general know-nothing, philistinism of the whole world, beginning with America.”64 Rorem’s frustrations surrounding Evidence of Things Not Seen, are not limited to song and song recital. Rorem has also expressed resentment about the challenges of promoting his music. In reference to Evidence of Things Not Seen, he poses the question: What do you do with a piece like this? First of all, it had marvelous write-ups in Washington and New York and every place else and everyone said that it should be recorded, but it isn’t. How do you have a piece recorded? A recording has to be backed by something. The money has to come from somewhere. This piece, with all of its good reception, has been recorded, but it hasn’t been edited. New World Records can’t raise the money to produce it. The Three Tenors make in one evening what a composer like me makes in a lifetime. So their priorities are

63 Ned Rorem, Pure Contraption: a Composer’s Essays (New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1974), 20-1.

64 Erik Philbrook, “Words’Worth,” Playback Magazine, Fall (1998), http://www.ascap.com/playback/1998/october/ rorem.html

53 quite screwed up. To get a recording just doesn’t happen like that. I think that is poignant. I think that is too bad.65

Rorem’s frustrations with the state of music in America, are even more severe than his dissatisfaction as it relates to his own work. He paints a bleak picture of the state of things: I really feel that America is going into a sort of dark ages from which we may not emerge. . . . There used to be a requirement in public schools of a minimum amount of listening to classical music. Whether the kids hated it or not, there it was. And it was there to hate. It is not even there to hate now. . . . I think that music is the worst off, because even with cultured educated people . . . if you mention contemporary music, they are more apt to think about the Rolling Stones or the Beastie Boys. I was raised certainly with the pop music of my time and I and my young friends didn’t distinguish between what is good and what is bad.66

Though Rorem’s view of the future is bleak, he maintains a certain level of optimism about his future work. When I asked the composer about his future plans, he revealed that there is no project in particular on which he would like to work. He did say, however, that if the right commission came along with the right price tag attached, he would certainly have to think about it. “I don’t know if I have it in me to write another opera. But if someone said here’s $1,000,000 right now, I’d think a lot about that one. It’s just about the energy required to do it. . . . When someone asked Stephen Sondheim, “what’s your first inspiration when you’re writing something?” and he said: “money,” I actually understand that. It means the thing will be done. You can perform. It’s appreciated because somebody gave you money for it, and I don’t think it’s grasping or cynical. I think it’s constructive.”67 What does this mean for the future of Rorem and his songs? Will this cycle stand the test of time? One can only speculate, but we do have a few reassuring signs. Many of the poets whose texts Mr. Rorem has used in the cycle have maintained popularity and interest over the years since they have been written. In addition, because of the immense number of songs Mr. Rorem has produced, the music libraries of the world will likely contain at least one of his

65 Erik Philbrook, “Words’Worth,” Playback Magazine, Fall (1998), http://www.ascap.com/playback/1998/october/ rorem.html.

66 Rorem, Ned, Evidence of Things Not Seen (New York: Boosey and Hawkes, 1997).

67 Ned Rorem, Interview by Tyler Nelson, September 2, 2009, Nantucket, Massachusetts.

54 compositions, hopefully leading others to discover, or re-discover this work. In addition, Rorem’s list of publications will surely continue to draw people to his life and his works. The reason Evidence of Things Not Seen speaks to many is a result of a number of factors but is perhaps due in large part to Rorem’s unique focus on text and its message. For many, his unique approach to song composition with an emphasis on text, coupled with his extensive training and experience, powerfully convey the message of the poems through music to an audience in a way that not every song can. It is not a question of intervallic relationships or an effort to push the limits of tonality. It is simply a clear, compelling communication from composer to listener. Perhaps in the case of this cycle, the popularity and longevity it has enjoyed and will hopefully enjoy in the future, are the true manifestations of evidence of things not seen.

55 APPENDIX A

BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES ON THE POETS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

Thomas Ken (1637-1711)

Thomas Ken is considered one of the fathers of modern English hymnology. He was an English cleric and one of the “non juring” bishops who denied loyalty to two monarchs at the same time when he refused to pledge allegiance to William of Orange and nullify his pledge to James II. As a clergyman, he served as chaplain to Mary, the Princess of England and was later made Royal Chaplain to King Charles. He was a man of strong morals. On one occasion, when asked to house the mistress of King Charles, he refused. Because of his boldness and courage in standing up to the King, he was rewarded the next year with the post of appointed Bishop. Though he did write some poetry, his legacy lies in his famous and numerous hymn texts. His poetic themes include redemption, forgiveness, repentance, nature and Deity.

William Penn (1644-1718)

Penn, a Quaker, was the founder of Pennsylvania and led a difficult life filled with crippling debt, imprisonment, and persecution. He served in the English Navy for a time, but was discharged because of his refusal to remove his hat to superior officers. As a youth, he was expelled from Oxford University when he refused to become Anglican. On one occasion, he tore what he deemed “obnoxious robes” off a student on the campus. After he fled from England to the American colonies in search of religious freedom, he made many treaties with the Native Americans. Under his leadership, Pennsylvania became the only colony to be governed by a single legislature of elected representatives, a system which would last until 1776. Penn’s literary themes include hypocrisy, peace, discrimination, and freedom.

John Woolman (1720-1772)

Quaker John Woolman was a minister who traveled throughout the American colonies preaching. A peaceful man, he despised the practice of slavery and when asked to draw up wills transferring ownership of slaves, he refused. He also refused to ride stagecoaches because he felt

56 the animals pulling them were sometimes treated unfairly. His largest literary contribution is his own personal journal which was published posthumously in 1774. He served many missions for his church, was a civil rights activist, and spoke against conscription, military taxation, and slavery. Woolman’s literary themes include finding comfort through religion, peace, redemption, universal acceptance, and equality among men.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

British poet William Wordsworth is often credited with ushering in the English Romantic Movement with his publication Lyrical Ballads. He was England’s Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850 at the age of eighty. His vacation to the French and Swiss Alps at the age of twenty-three left an indelible impression on him and is often referenced in his works. While in France, he fathered a daughter with a French woman. For the next twenty years, he was only able to see her a few times due to political unrest. Family was very important to him, and his sister Dorothy, though not in ill health, lived under his care from her adolescence until she died. His poetic themes deal with death, endurance, separation, grief, the relationship of man to nature, abandoned women, and nature’s healing power.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

Browning, who was part Creole, lived in Jamaica for a time where her family owned sugar plantations. The slave labor used on those plantations was a source of great distress for Elizabeth throughout her life. An intelligent individual, she taught herself Hebrew so she could read the Old Testament of the Bible in the original language. She was a Christian and very active in the missionary efforts of her church. She was ill and lived with debilitating injuries for most of her life. In 1846 she secretly met and courted fellow poet Robert Browning, and they eloped. She is buried in Italy where she and her husband fled to escape her family and where they lived for many years. Her poetic themes include social injustice, child labor, slavery, oppression of women, and political unrest.

57 Robert Browning (1812-1889)

Browning grew up in a home where he had access to his father’s library of over six thousand books. He and his wife, Elizabeth, abhorred slavery. He was home-schooled and published his first collection of poetry at the age of twelve. Often described by his family as a bright and anxious student, he learned Latin, Greek, and French by the time he was fourteen. He was a great admirer of the poet Shelly and for a time became a vegetarian and atheist in emulation of Shelly’s life. His strength lay in dramatic monologues and later in prose, but he also had facility in other areas and wrote an anthology of poetry and drama as well. His poetic themes include love, persecution, social injustice, and nature.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

American poet Walt Whitman was an essayist, journalist, humanist and poet. This self- proclaimed “poet of Democracy” has inspired more than twelve hundred vocal and instrumental settings by such composers as Vaughan Williams, Holst, Weill, Hoiby, Crumb and Persichetti. He is often called the father of free verse, and his controversial and popular collection of poetry entitled Leaves of Grass has often been characterized as obscene and overtly sexual. Extremely involved in politics, he served as a nurse in the Civil War, and actively supported the abolition of slavery. Many of his brothers were victims of the Civil War and were captured, tortured, or died of disease. He was “deeply influenced by Deism, but denied any one faith was more important than another and embraced all religions equally.”68 His poetic themes include democracy, the human body, self introspection, religion, philosophy of life, and unrequited love.

Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)

Baudelaire was a nineteenth-century French poet, translator, and literary and artistic critic. His poetry was often dark and controversial, and some was initially banned when first published. He was a social misfit and refused to behave himself while in school. He associated himself with artistic and literary decadence. Baudelaire was close to his mother, who struggled

68 Reynolds, David S. Walt Whitman’s America: A Cultural Biography (New York: Vintage Books, 1995).

58 with his antics. Her disapproval of his errant ways led him to attempt suicide, which did not kill him, but left him with severe physical injuries the rest of his life. He took part in the 1848 revolutions and was a strong supporter of Richard Wagner. He kept company with such notables as Victor Hugo, Balzac, and Franz Liszt among others. His controversial poetic themes included sex, lesbianism, sacred and profane love, metamorphosis, corruption, loss of innocence, oppressiveness of love, nostalgia and past intimacy, hypocrisy, vampires, and beauty versus decay.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

This flamboyant Irish playwright whose real name was Fingle O’Flahertie Wills, was a poet and author of short stories. He was known for his wit and for being a lifelong Irish Nationalist, though he spent most of his life outside the country in England and France. He was imprisoned for two years at hard labor for “gross indecency” with men. After his release he moved to France, and never returned to Ireland again. Some scholars suggest he was one of the most popular writers of the Victorian era. Wilde was was the author of the successful play The Importance of Being Earnest. A follower of the Decadent and Aesthetic movements, and an advocate of Socialism and Libertarianism, he also called himself an Anarchist. Themes found in his writing include blackmail, political corruption, personal honor, and suppression.

A.E. Housman (1859-1936)

English scholar, poet, and Latinist, Alfred Edward Housman had a troubled life and lived most of it as a recluse. This was due in large part to the fact that he was gay in a time when it was not acceptable to be so, and because of the death of his mother when he was twelve, to whom he was very close. He became an atheist at the age of fourteen and remained so for the rest of his life. He worked for a time as a clerk in a London Patent Office and often found time to visit the British Museum reading room where he studied Latin texts and developed a gift for correcting and detecting errors in the body of those texts and others. He also developed a mastery of the language and understanding for the way in which poets use the words they choose. He enjoyed the works of Heine, Shakespeare, and Scottish border ballads. He preferred

59 works that expressed emotion but were not overtly passionate. His poetry is known for its simplicity, clarity and brevity, and contains such themes as pessimism, loss, loneliness, hangings, drink (alcohol), transience of beauty, and death.

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

Kipling was a Freemason, born in Bombay but educated in England. Kipling worked for English and Indian newspapers as a young writer. He was well-traveled and visited such places as Salt Lake City, Yellowstone, Washington, Chautauqua, New York and Boston. Kipling was the first English language recipient of the Nobel Prize, which was established in 1901. Known primarily for his short stories such as The Jungle Book, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, and Gunga Din, he often wrote about war, politics, the working class, and class structure. He lost a son who fought in World War I and because of this became critical of government leaders. Kipling was a product of his time, and his literary themes often include militarism and British imperialism, as well as themes such as the individual versus society, and racism.

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

Yeats came from a family of artists and attended an art school instead of a university because he felt that he related better to abstract images and art than text and logic. At a young age, he spent a great deal of time in museums doing research for his early folk and fairy tales. During this time he also became interested in the occult and mysticism. His interest in magic and Rosicurianism and the paranormal spurred him to seek out “mystics” and “fortune tellers.” He often held seances and claimed that he had discussions with demons and spirits. He occasionally engaged in what he called “automatic writing” which involved contacting spirits which he and his wife called “instructors.” These spirits supposedly communicated with him in a variety of ways and gave him material for his books and poems, most specifically his work entitled A Vision. In 1923, he was the first Irishman to win the Nobel Prize for literature, one year after he had been appointed to the Irish Senate. Common themes in his writing include spiritualism, the nature of beauty, ceremony contrasting the chaos of modern life and mysticism.

60 Stephen Crane (1871-1900)

Stephen Crane began writing at the age of four, and wrote his first short story, Uncle Jake and the Bell Handle, at the age of fourteen. Crane was an American citizen but spent a great deal of time as a war correspondent in Cuba and Greece. While in Cuba, covering the Spanish- American war for Pulitzer's magazine New York World, his ship sank, and only he, the captain, and two other crewmen made it safely to shore. This experience was later transformed into his short story The Open Boat. He is perhaps best known for his Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage. Crane’s style is an example of literary Naturalism, Realism, and Impressionism, and his novels often use light, motion and color as prominent descriptive and character development techniques. In addition, he often incorporated dialects and regional speech patterns into his dialogue sections which gave his writing a realistic and believable quality. Common themes in his writing include idealism versus reality, spiritual crisis, and fear.

Colette (1873-1954)

Sidonie-Cabrielle Colette wrote over fifty novels and many short stories. She was a colorful figure in French culture and was employed as an actress, singer, dancer, painter, officer in the Légion d’Honneur, and librettist. Much of her writing is autobiographical and details her exploits and intimate relationships with both men and women. She was a friend of Jean Cocteau, and much of her poetry and painting centered around him. In school she insisted on being called by her last name, and retained it as a pen name the rest of her life. She also wrote the libretto for Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges, which premiered in 1918. She caused quite a scandal on the Parisian stage when she exposed herself and almost caused a riot in the theater. Her literary themes deal with the joys and pains of love, female sexuality in the male-dominated world, nature, the mother-daughter bond, feminism, empowerment, sexual freedom and homosexuality.

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

American poet Robert Frost was exposed to the writings of Shakespeare, Robert Burns and Wordsworth from an early age by his parents, both of whom were teachers. He was a heavily-decorated author and received the Congressional Gold Medal, Edward MacDowell

61 Medal, and was a four time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. He was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was made poetry consultant for the Library of Congress. His success, however, came at a heavy price of personal tragedy and hardship. While working as a teacher trying to support his young family, he was forced to farm as well. He lost a son to cholera in 1900, his first wife died in 1934, and another son died in 1940. His youngest daughter died one day after her birth as well. Frost spent some time in England where he had his first publishing success at the age of thirty-nine. He later moved back to America and began farming again. While in Russia in 1962, he had an in-depth conversation with Khrushchev and was asked by government leaders to give them a report of what was said. His poetic themes center heavily on nature, especially woods, stars, homes, and brooks. The images used in his poetry are usually taken from everyday life.

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American poet and the first woman awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1923. She led a controversial life and was persecuted for her bisexual lifestyle and curiously for her poetry written during World War II in support of the allied forces. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work, namely short stories, and was a great admirer of the works of John Milton and Shakespeare. She was involved in the arts, was employed as an actress in her college years, and wrote regularly for the magazine Vanity Fair. She also made contributions to the musical world and wrote the libretto for the Metropolitan Opera’s production of The King’s Henchman, which premiered in 1927. Her literary themes include unrequited love, hope, solitude, and comfort.

Julien Green (1900-1998)

Julien Green was a novelist and playwright born in Paris to American parents. He was educated both in Paris and the United States and was the first person of American parentage to be elected to the French Academy. While in school, he became proficient in a number of languages and even translated some of his own works from French to English. He studied Latin, Greek, German, Spanish, English literature, and History while in school, and was bilingual. His mother

62 often told him stories of the Civil War, and imbued him with a deep sense of loyalty to his Confederate roots. Green served as a soldier in World War I, first with the Americans, then with the French. For a time he considered becoming a monk after his conversion to Catholicism. He later became a Buddhist but eventually returned to Catholicism. He was openly gay and never married. He never became a French citizen, and when French citizenship was offered him by President Pompidou, he declined in order to be faithful to his Confederate heritage. His poetic themes include sexual awakening, sin versus grace, flesh versus spirit, and patriotism.

Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

Poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist Langston Hughes came from a culturally diverse family. He was European American, African American, Native American, White, Scottish, and Jewish. He is perhaps best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance and often incorporated blues and jazz rhythms into his poetry. His work has been set by over sixty composers yielding some two hundred songs. He also wrote the libretto for Street Scene by Kurt Weill. He underwent some difficulty during the McCarthy era when his writings and statements were misconstrued as Communistic, and he was called in to the McCarthy hearings to answer for his favorable descriptions of Marxist Communist ideas. Themes in his writing include racism, nature, and self-empowerment.

W.H. Auden (1907-1973)

Wystan Hugh Auden was an Anglo-American poet born in England, who later became an American citizen. He established a reputation early on as a left-wing political poet and wrote essays and reviews on political, psychological, religious and literary subjects. He also worked on documentary films, poetic plays and opera libretti. His 1945 collection of poems contains thirty-eight songs and other musical pieces which were heavily used by Benjamin Britten with whom he was once a roommate. He was perhaps the most involved in the musical world of any of the poets used in Evidence of Things Not Seen and often called himself an opera addict. His contributions to the opera world include the libretto for Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress and translations of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Don Giovanni, as well as translations of Kurt

63 Weill’s works Die sieben Todsüngden and Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny. His poetic themes include love, politics, morals, the relationship between human beings and the world of nature, the fragility of personal love, and individual failure.

Theodore Roethke (1908-1963)

As a child, Roethke spent a great deal of time in a greenhouse next to the house where he was raised. As a result, his poetry heavily employs nature imagery and metaphors. He won the Pulitzer prize for his collection of poetry entitled The Walking. He suffered from frequent bouts of illness and depression. His writing style includes the use of both strict meter and free verse and is often full of surrealistic and mystical imagery. He associated with fellow poets such as W.H. Auden and Stanley Kunitz and died in 1963 at the age of fifty-five. Poetic themes include rebellion vs. conformity, nature, and oppression.

Paul Goodman (1911-1972)

One of the more controversial authors throughout history, American poet, anarchist, socialist, and public intellectual, Paul Goodman, was the founder of Gestalt therapy and an icon of the Gay Liberation Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He would sneak into classes at Columbia and Harvard Universities as a young man, and through this education was eventually invited to teach at the University of Chicago where he earned his Ph.D. in literature. He was fired from every teaching job he ever held because of inappropriate relationships with students and was persecuted for his controversial ideas about appropriate relationships between boys and men. A diverse individual, he was a political activist for the “pacifist left,” in the 1960s and 1970s, and his writings are classified under twenty-one different categories in the New York City public library. His friendship with German Jew Fritz Perls led to their mutual formation of a Freudian-style therapeutic practice called Gestalt Therapy. His son died in a rock climbing accident in 1967, and he never recovered from the grief of his loss. Themes found in his writing include the individual in relation to the larger society, social ills, good citizens, creativity within a society, children’s rights, city life, and urban design.

64 Paul Monette (1945-1995)

American poet, author and AIDS activist Paul Monette attended Phillips Academy and Yale University. He taught writing and literature at Milton Academy but became disenchanted with poetry and moved to Hollywood for a change of pace. The majority of his writing centers on descriptions of the homosexual lifestyle and living and coping with AIDS. His most acclaimed book Borrowed Time, tells the story of Roger Horwitz, his partner of over twenty years and Horwitz’s battle with and eventual death from AIDS. Monette himself also died of an AIDS-related illness. During his lifetime he published nine novels and two collections of poetry.

Jane Kenyon (1947-1995)

American poet and translator, Jane Kenyon was born and raised in Michigan where she earned her B.A and M.A from University of Michigan. She was fascinated with translation and believed all poets should try their hand at it. She was married to fellow poet Donald Hall, who was twenty years her senior. She won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and published four collections of poetry in her lifetime. Her poetic themes include depression (from which she suffered her entire life), Christianity, new versus old, gender gaps, Feminism, gender roles, and passage of time.

Mark Doty (b. 1953)

American poet Mark Doty earned his Bachelor of Arts from Drake University and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Goddard College in Vermont. He taught at the University of Houston for many years and presently teaches at Rutgers University. He has written twelve books of poetry which have earned him fellowships from the Guggenheim, Merril, Rockefeller, and Whiting Foundations, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts. He also won the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry in 1995 and is the first American to have done so. His long-time partner contracted AIDS in 1989 and died as a result in 1994. These events drastically impacted his writing and inspired his work Atlantis, which won the Ambassador Book Award, Bingham Poetry Prize and the Lambda Literary Award. His poetic themes include nature death, suffering and redemption.

65 APPENDIX B

NED ROREM INTERVIEW NANTUCKET, MASSACHUSETTS SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

NELSON: Well, to begin, I was curious about your experience teaching at the University of Utah. As I mentioned, I studied there for a time. Was that a job you applied for, or did they recruit you? ROREM: No, no. I don’t remember, but I wouldn’t have applied for it. In fact I didn’t. I think — because I’m not a teacher by nature. I think I said, “What do I know about music,” but when I got out there, I found “I am a teacher.” But I wouldn’t do it anymore. It takes too much energy and time, but they let me work. I remember the music department, it was an old building in itself — NELSON: Yes. ROREM: And you would probably know the names. If I could remember them offhand — of the people who were there. Anyway, I guess I was there a year and a half. Four quarters, or three quarters. NELSON: Right. They were back on quarter systems then, that’s right. ROREM: Okay. So now what do we do? NELSON: All right. Well, in the past, you have talked about the relationship of words to music, and I just wondered, what your philosophy is on that relationship. Is one more important than the other? How do they work together? ROREM: Um, well, I’m a writer as well as a composer. NELSON: Right. ROREM: And I’ve had published about fifteen books. But I’m a composer who also writes rather than a writer who also composes, and everything — every attitude comes from me as a composer whether I’m talking about music or not — or even now. But I’m a pretty good writer, and so — what was your question? NELSON: In terms of —

66 ROREM: Oh, yes. Very very early I started writing. I think the first things I wrote were songs. And there were two songs that were to the words of Chaucer. NELSON: Chaucer. ROREM: And E. E. Cummings. NELSON: Cummings, right. ROREM: And there were other songs, and singers seemed to think they were — because I think all of music is song — even without words. And I am not a singer — that is to say I am a singer, but nobody wants to listen to me (laughter). Most composers can’t sing at all. Bobrick had a pretty good voice. He was the exception. Mark Blitzstein. But all composers just kind of squeak and wheeze. But I liked writing songs, and people said I wrote good ones, and my texts that I chose were appropriate. And I wrote them without having heard them. And I wasn’t so particularly interested in the human voice per se, I was just interested in what the human voice could do literarily. But people — and I wrote according to whether I could sing it or not. I did it the same with the symphony or opera — with everything. NELSON: That makes a lot of sense, yes, you want to be able to appreciate both elements. Do you feel — is that something that just — ROREM: I wrote a whole cycle, called — It’s two settings of the same poem. Let’s see, it’s called — NELSON: Oh, uh — Love and Rain — Poems of — ROREM: Poems of Love and the Rain! And on the grounds that there’s the one way of setting. So if I did one that was light and frivolous, the other version would be heavy and then sober, or slow, and so forth. So I went through a couple of them — I left as they were — the first and the last — but I think I’ve written the program notes for it — it’s in the beginning of the music, which if you don’t have — most of this — or all of the music is at Boosey Hawkes. NELSON: Okay. ROREM: Yes. NELSON: Terrific. I’ll have to examine that more closely. I remember reading about it, but I’ve not yet heard how it plays out. Along the same lines — reading in the program notes — or the composer’s note rather, for Evidence of Things Not Seen, I read that you knew some of

67 these poets personally, and I’m curious as to who they were. I think you said there were six of them. I’ve got the score here if you want to look. Please excuse my notes. ROREM: I’ve never met Theodore Roethke, but we corresponded, and the correspondence was all about — let me see — it seems to me it was all about money. When the song was printed, he wanted his name to be as big as mine. He’s right. And he also wanted to be paid for it. Whitman — I’ve got a lot of Whitman. NELSON: Right. ROREM: And Auden. I’ve met him once or twice, and we had a little correspondence, but we weren’t friends. He kind of scared me. NELSON: Okay. ROREM: Wordsworth, Goodman was a very good friend. And I knew him when I was an adolescent. He was a grownup, and I’m one of the people who know him as a writer — I mean as a poet — as well as a thinker. Most people really don’t know his poetry, but I love it. Whitman, Millay, Auden, Thomas Ken — I don’t really know him. I certainly didn’t know him, but I don’t know anything about him except that — John Woolman — these are Quakers. William Penn, Kipling, Steven Crane, Langston Hughes, Oscar Wilde, Houseman, Jane Kenyon. It seems to me that I wrote her, and her husband answered saying she was dead. NELSON: Oh. ROREM: Green was a good friend of mine and a prose writer. He was an American who lived in France. Colette. Mark Doty, and Paul Monette — I knew through their poems and corresponded with them. NELSON: I see. ROREM: So that’s the answer to that. NELSON: Wonderful, I was just curious about your connection to those poets — and I remember reading somewhere that you’ve long studied the words of Paul Goodman — and first became interested in them when you lived in Chicago. That’s where you first started studying, correct? Was it – ROREM: I’m from Chicago. NELSON: You’re from Chicago originally? I lived there for a few years.

68 ROREM: Oh did you? NELSON: I did. In the Oak Park area. My father was going to Northwestern. He was working in advertising. But I’ve always loved the city. ROREM: You lived in Oak Park? NELSON: I did . . . I was just wondering in terms of your compositional process with Evidence of Things Not Seen, were there any poems that you went back and changed later on or was there any music that you changed? ROREM: I don’t think so. But, just like in the Poems of Love and the Rain, there’s no one right way to set it to music, and I’ve learned with the years that people in the arts like poets — poets are not necessarily musical — they aren’t necessarily interested in music, and by extension, composers generally are the best round of creative artists. Painters don’t know anything about anything except painting. And what other performing arts: poets, painters, composers — uh, sometimes I’ve been writing a cycle or something and I need a fast song here, and so I’ll decide that this or that form is a fast poem, and who — I don’t know — no one can say I’m wrong. They can say it’s lousy music or bad. I think that whether my music is lousy or not, I think it’s skillfully written. So my instinct is not to write fast music, but maybe precisely because of that — because I think my fast music works — a song like This is for Sailors — do you know that? NELSON: No, I don’t believe I do — ROREM: Uh, also, I’ve learned that poets if they are alive, are flattered that you use their music, but they inevitably are not disappointed but miffed when they hear it in a song, because it’s not a song, but we have to use something, so why not poetry? In certain cases, like with Paul Goodman, he wrote a couple of songs expressly for me to set to music, some blues songs actually that could be done in a little café in New York ages ago, but words are words and music is music and are different things, so that something like a song is kind of illegitimate wedding two different arts with each other. NELSON: I see what you mean, marrying two things that didn’t ask to be married but work well together in most cases. ROREM: That’s right.

69 NELSON: Okay. Fantastic. Thank You. I wondered in terms of the way you prefer to compose, is there any challenge that is presented by something like Evidence of Things Not Seen where you have a commission and a deadline? Does that hinder or help your process at all when you have that looming date coming up? ROREM: No. I like deadlines. NELSON: You do? ROREM: If someone said by this time next Tuesday, I want a twenty-song cycle, I obviously can’t do that, but a deadline of six months or something like that is — that’s all I would be working on at that time. I figured, who commissioned Evidence? Who did it? NELSON: It’s the Library of Congress and the New York Festival of Song. ROREM: Oh that’s it, yeah. I don’t think I really knew who the singers were going to be. I think one of your questions was about that. NELSON: Yes, I just wondered if you had any singers in mind — any singers that you’d been listening to or whose voices you had recalled as you were writing it. ROREM: And even if I don’t, I would write — I write tenor music for tenors rather than a specific tenor. But when I began writing songs, I wrote everything for a woman named Nell Angelotti who is sort of an agile mezzo-soprano. And she also would sing them immediately. She was a good soprano, the vocal writing could be proved immediately when she read the songs. The songs for male voices, I think some were written for — they are dedicated to Sir Donald Graham, but he was in France and I was in America. Sir Donald Graham went ahead and performed them, and Souzay heard about that and was not amused, but so I write — yes sometimes with certain singers in mind. NELSON: Great, thank you. Well, moving on, I noticed that other composers have set some of these same poems, and I wondered if you ever look at other settings of texts that you are interested in? ROREM: Yeah, sometimes — I’m also annoyed when somebody else uses a poem. And I don’t seek them out. And when I do, obviously — I can’t really approve of them, because I did it different, but also there aren’t that many people writing songs these days. You can count on the fingers of two hands the number of American song composers since 1910. Before that, I

70 don’t know Ives was, the — songs were pretty good. He was apparently — when he became a little better known, he took some of his music and amended it so that it would look better. NELSON: Really? ROREM: Yeah. What was questioned — what were we talking about? NELSON: Oh, we were talking about other settings of some of the same poems. ROREM: Oh, yeah, uh — I can’t offhand think of an example, but I do know that other composers — usually more or less the same kind of music, which is why I wrote poems of Love and the Rain because I wanted to sort of have more than one way of setting it to music, and not any one mood. Like “Stop all the Clocks” which is the opener. NELSON: Okay. ROREM: It opens with that, and the first setting is big and noble and stentorian, and the second setting is so fast and jovial and secure. Juxtaposition. NELSON: Along the lines of poetry still, since we’re in this vein, I was reading in one of your diaries, that you have sort of a queue of poets and that you keep a list of poets whose works interest you. I was just wondering for Evidence of Things Not Seen, did you simply go to your list and say, “Oh, I’ve been wanting to set these?” ROREM: I don’t remember. I don’t remember saying that I have a list of poetry that I would eventually — oh, yes I do. Actually, I was in New York setting poems for music perhaps. I think — I don’t know that one says that this poem needs music, but I do say that music will empower this poem. There are certain poets like — well, Cummings — this is the first person I ever set to music. There are certain intellectual poets — I’m trying to think who, but I can’t think of them as there are certain things to consider such as the rhyme schemes and the forms. NELSON: So some lend themselves better to music? ROREM: Yes. NELSON: I see. You mentioned E. E. Cummings, and I was reading — I can’t remember where at the moment– but you were talking about where you had done some settings of your own poetry, is that correct? When you very first started composing? ROREM: Yeah. But I don’t — they’re no good! People always say, “Well, why don’t you set your own poems to music?” But I flatter myself that my choice of poems for making

71 songs is pretty good, and if I thought my own poems were good enough to set to music, I wouldn’t need to set them to music. I wouldn’t have written them in the first place. I wrote the text for a little opera once, which is actually — well that’s different from song writing completely. The text for operas aren’t poetry — they’re opera texts. It’s not true that a good song writer — everyone says that he would write a marvelous opera, but that’s certainly not true. There are any number of composers who write songs who are incapable of writing operas or are not interested in writing operas. And there are opera composers who don’t write songs at all — they write operas. Britten did both, and I have done both, but I can’t think of others. NELSON: Bernstein did too. ROREM: Bernstein did too, um-hmm. Do you know songs — do you know the Epitaphs of Theodore Chanler? NELSON: No. ROREM: Well, then, look them up. NELSON: Okay. ROREM: Theodore Chanler. He wrote eight epitaphs — I forget who published them, but you can find that out. All of his eight songs can be sung in about twelve minutes, and that’s pretty much his whole catalogue. NELSON: Great. Epitaphs, you said? ROREM: Yeah. NELSON: But the whole catalog is not very long anyway? ROREM: I don’t think so. I don’t know what else he’s written, but I don’t know that he’s written operas or — he would have been born around 1910, maybe earlier — Chanler — without a “D.” And very early in my life — I started being an accompanist for Janet Fairbank, who was a singer, without much of a voice, but she had a — she commissioned cycles and had — and gave recitals, and there’s another one called Alice Tully, who had even less of a voice, but she commissioned songs. And a lot of songs in America wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for these two women, because they paid for — asked for songs. NELSON: It’s wonderful that these individuals exist who understand the importance and the value of songs, but it seems sad at the same time that people don’t —

72 ROREM: There’s no money in it, and certainly there’s no money for the singers, because the song recital is a — people don’t give song recitals anymore. NELSON: Right. ROREM: But there are certain composers and Theodore Chanler was one of them who — I think that’s all he ever did write — was Epitaphs. NELSON: It would be interesting to explore that. Great. Going back to the poems for a second — I was wondering if there were any poems that you had wanted to include in Evidence of Things Not Seen but didn’t — for whatever reason. ROREM: Oh — that I didn’t include? NELSON: Yes, I was wondering if there were things that you originally had envisioned as part of— ROREM: Uh, I don’t remember. NELSON: Okay. I was just curious, because in terms of a song cycle, it’s quite lengthy, and with the four voices, it’s very unique in terms of its structure — ROREM: And I wrote a program note here which is in the front of the score. NELSON: Yeah, that’s been very helpful to me actually. I was reading in the program note — you talked about your dream of something called the Art of Song, how you had envisioned this evening of songs — of your songs — and you would perform them with singers of your choice, but that you felt it was a little impossible to try something like that without a commission, because you couldn’t guarantee that people would be interested. ROREM: I didn’t call it Art of Song because it sounds a little pretentious. NELSON: Oh — that’s Stephen Blier who said that to you right? I worked with him last summer at the Merola Opera Program. ROREM: You did? He is a first rate pianist and coach. NELSON: Yes. I came in to work and he said, “Let’s get down to the guts of the poem, the guts of the music, and figure out what we’re trying to accomplish with this song.” ROREM: For me, the most important thing about a singer is diction, and if he ain’t got good diction, I couldn’t care less about how beautiful a voice is. An awful lot of singers feel that enunciation and pronunciation are second to beauty of voice, and I think it’s the reverse.

73 NELSON: Ah. ROREM: So what, if you’re singing something complicated, not even complicated. If you’re singing poetry, the words have to come first, and the voice will take care of itself. You’ve either got a voice or you don’t. There are a lot of songs that don’t require beauty of voice. My opera Our Town is like that. NELSON: I haven’t seen it but I’ve read about it. ROREM: But everybody on stage is under twenty. I suppose there are some grownups there, but — people under twenty don’t have to have beautiful voices, but they have to have good diction. And it’s a little wrong to have stentorian dramatic actors delivering the text, which is youthful but prosy. And Sandy McClatchy who did the libretto out of the play, I could have done it myself, but he did it. He condensed the play — he cut about half of it in order to — because if it was the whole play, it would be six hours long. It’s an opera. And he added set numbers with choral and duets and trios. NELSON: So he embedded those numbers before you went to work on the music. ROREM: Yes. Everyone — everyone, including Copland had wanted to get the rights to setting that to music, but nobody could because — but finally, his nephew Tappan Wilder who was a friend of McClatchy’s gave me the rights. He owns all the rights to Thornton Wilder’s works. So I got the rights and I was able to do it. NELSON: And yours is the first, because you were the first one to be able to get those rights? ROREM: Yes, um-hmm. Because Copland had been writing music for the movie of Our Town, and it was very good, but why they didn’t allow him to do the opera, I don’t know. I’ve forgotten why — but they didn’t. NELSON: Interesting. ROREM: And I think he was already dead when I did my version. NELSON: Oh, that reminds me of another question. I was curious about some of the timelines for the pieces. You’ve written a date and a place at the end of most of these compositions, and I notice that there were six pieces that were composed before 1997. There were four in 1996, and then two from the 50s.

74 ROREM: The 50s — I needed some songs — so I took songs that I had written but had never been used and put them in. All the others, as far as I know, were written expressly for this cycle, and — as you see — I divided it up into more or less optimistic sections, and the middle and the end about death or the coming of death. NELSON: Yes, I had a question about that as well. Is that something that you had planned to do before starting composition, or did the sections just sort of materialize as you began to write the music and assemble the poetry? ROREM: Uh — what’s the question? NELSON: I just wondered about the division of the sections — if you had imagined the three sections before you started composing, or if that’s — ROREM: No, I think that came along as I went — and I would have had a lot of these — half of the forms I would have had in the booklet to be used eventually. NELSON: I see. ROREM: I still have a book or folder called “Poems for Music,” perhaps which I might set sometime. NELSON: You have some things that you’d like to get to. Do you still keep a sketch book of musical ideas as well? ROREM: Oh yeah. NELSON: Okay. So you have both arsenals full at any time? ROREM: Yeah. I’m not working on anything right now, but if someone came along and commissioned generously something, I would do it. I still feel like I have time because I feel like I’m never going to die, everyone else is going to die, but I’m not going to die, so we all feel that, I suppose. But I’m never at a loss for texts. But if I — if I was commissioned to do something for this person or for these two people or something, I would go back and see which I thought fit. And then arrange them if it’s the cycle. Even of three songs, of which I’ve done cycles of three songs put together — unless — it’s a question of where to put them. If you ask poets to write poems, it doesn’t work, because they always write what they think is musical, and that’s — that’s for me to decide, not for them. So poems written expressly to be set to music — I am trying to think of what I’ve written that was pre-written to be set to music. Anyway, I always

75 say “Look, don’t think about the music — just write the poem, and I’ll make the other decisions.” NELSON: So, other than your sketch book, do you ever have music waiting for the right words, or do they usually line up together in their infant stages? ROREM: No, the words come first. NELSON: The words come first. ROREM: Always. I might in my notebook have some just ideas or tunes or this and that. Generally they would be used as accompaniment to a song, but because the melodies and so forth emerge from the words, again, there’s no one way of doing it. NELSON: I remember reading about a technique that you used with your compositional students where you would have them all set a text in a different way and give different instructions to each student such as: “The climax goes here,” or “The climax goes here,” to illustrate that same point, correct? To show that there’s — ROREM: If I, yeah — if I had a class, and I would give the same form to everybody, and say ask them to prepare it. I would never say — and the only thing I would criticize would be the nature of the setting. I would say, “I think it’s interesting that Jennifer has done a slow version of this poem and that Alexander has done a fast version,” and so on. But the only thing I would criticize would be the word setting. I would say, “I have no definitions of what you should do, except (a) make it so that the words can be understood, and (b) for God’s sake, don’t write — don’t repeat words that the poet hasn’t repeated.” And the fact that Handel or other people — first of all that was a convention of the period, but if you repeat words that the poet hasn’t repeated, especially if it’s a contemporary poet, everything ends up sounding like Gertrude Stein. So those are the only rules that I would have. And — more or less of the speed of speech, but not literally. But at a speed where the words can be comprehended. NELSON: Sure. So not to disrupt — as you say — the pronunciation and the diction, so that people can understand what is being said. ROREM: None of these was written specifically beforehand to be set to music. Um, Roethke and I — we never met — I don’t think. I think maybe he came once to — oh he was going to come to a concert, but he had something else to do that night, so he never did. I think

76 Auden is a marvelous poet, and I think he is the most singable of the living poets we’ve been through. I’ll probably never do Whitman again. He’s been done so much. And Millay. Langston Hughes. Jane Kenyon. I told you about that, Julien Green was a friend in Paris, and he was not French, but he was bilingual and wrote many many books — all of them in French. NELSON: His is one of the ones you translated, correct? ROREM: Yes, I translated. And he came to the first performance of — I think three poems of his in translation, but he said to me later that he felt like the music was so what, if you’re singing something complicated, not even complicated. If you’re singing poetry, the words have to come first, and the voice will take care of itself. You’ve either got a voice or you don’t. There are a lot of songs that don’t require beauty of voice. My opera Our Town is like that it seems to me that, “If I wanted to write poems in English, I would have written the poems in English instead of translated them.” And I can understand that point of view — suddenly to hear your words which are written in one language sung in another language — is something that he couldn’t identify with, and neither would I be able to if I were him. Mark Doty — I don’t think I ever met him. I don’t know. And Paul Monette. I truly can’t remember, but I’ve read a lot about each of them, and I’ve had correspondence with them. NELSON: I know that John Woolman and William Penn, they were Quakers, so because of your Quaker heritage their words may appeal to you, and I’m wondering about these other poets. What is it that sort of jumps out to you and says, “Ah, this would be a great poem to set,” or “I’d really be interested to work with this text?” ROREM: I can’t answer that. I either do or I don’t. But I look for something that is singable, by which I mean — I’m trying to think of a poem that isn’t singable — uh — well, I’ll think of it eventually. But I certainly don’t want poets to write especially for something to be — because then they’ll put in words like “dream” and “love” and this and that, whereas a word like hippopotamus is good for song texts. NELSON: In speaking about the music, though the music speaks for itself, is there a message that you would like individuals to take away from Evidence of Things Not Seen? Is there any particular message you wish to convey?

77 ROREM: Oh, the words are so much stronger than any corny notion I would have about messages. Either the collection of poems works or it doesn't. And either it works with the music or it doesn’t, or it works without the music but not with the music, or something, but those are decisions that I’m experienced with and so on. I think you’re either a song writer or you’re not. And I think I sat down many years ago and said, “I don’t want to hem myself in,” and I wrote a symphony just in order to have written a symphony. But there have been three symphonies since then. And I wrote — I wrote one of everything: one cello concerto, violin sonata, and a double concerto and flute sonatas. I’ve written more or less for all the instruments alone and together. NELSON: Is there any project that you have not yet tackled that you would still like to work on, in terms of a particular instrument or style? ROREM: No. But I don’t know if I have it in me to write another opera. But if someone said here’s $1,000,000 right now, I’d think a lot about that one. It’s just about the energy required to do it. Then I would talk to poets that I know who have the brains and ask: “Have you got any ideas for an opera?” Because right this minute, I don’t have any ideas for an opera, but you get ideas if you think it’s going to be done well at a certain time, and you get paid for it. . . . When someone asked Stephen Sondheim, “what’s your first inspiration when you’re writing something?” and he said: “money,” I actually understand that. It means the thing will be done. You can perform. It’s appreciated because somebody gave you money for it, and I don’t think it’s grasping or cynical. I think it’s constructive. NELSON: It’s your livelihood, it’s your profession. ROREM: Um-hmm. NELSON: So it makes complete sense. I was reading in your diary, Lies about your experience with Jim Holmes and the battle he had, and I can’t help but see in that last section of Evidence especially, many similarities to events that you describe in your book — waking up at night and having these horrible — nightmares and things like that. Would you call Evidence of Things Not Seen autobiographical? ROREM: Oh, yeah. I think every — all music is autobiographical — whether it’s vocal or not. What else would it be? I think — I’ve written — nothing comes from nothing, so that all secondary artists borrow, and first-rate artists steal — and in the act of stealing, they try to make

78 it their own, and the making of it their own is the act of creation. If you take something and you’re embarrassed, so you change it, and with a text — anyway, if I were to write something now, I don’t know what it would be, but I would talk it over with friends or look at the volume, another volume or collection of poems I would use. Is there a recording of Evidence of Things Not Seen? Is it a professional recording? NELSON: It’s the recording — the recording that was done at Carnegie Hall, and I also found a performance recorded at Curtis just a few years ago. ROREM: And they’re both — they’re both published? NELSON: Published, yes. The easiest one to find is the one shares the same picture on the cover as this score here. All the performers are listed here. They are all escaping me now. Yeah, Delores, Rufus, Kurt, Michael Barrett and Steven Blier. ROREM: I also — once I’ve heard a piece done well, I sort of lose interest and want to go on to something else, so I don’t remember all these upcoming performances, and — not that I’m all performable that much, but there are performances that I don’t know about certainly. If something’s published, anyone can sing it — in any place. NELSON: Yes, I guess that’s true. ROREM: Well, if it’s an opera or a symphony, you’ve got to rent the parts, and pay to do it too. Not that much, but you still do. NELSON: Looking back now, it’s been eleven years since the premiere of Evidence of Things Not Seen – ROREM: Has it really? NELSON: Yes, 1998, was the premiere. January of 1998. ROREM: Who sang it? NELSON: I think it was this same group as listed here in the score. ROREM: And they did it in Washington. I know Kurt Ollmann, he’s the only one I knew beforehand. He’s an intelligent baritone. NELSON: But the rest were new to you at the premiere? ROREM: Yeah. NELSON: Did you rehearse much with them?

79 ROREM: I didn’t rehearse at all. NELSON: No? ROREM: Once I’ve written something and I’ve heard it, then people will come do it for me, I don’t — I’ll do it just to be nice — but — because there’s no one way of doing it — not even the composer’s way. He doesn’t have — and I think if he can change, he can change his ideas with every singer. NELSON: I guess that’s true depending upon the singer’s abilities or their particular facility. You hear different things that you would like them to accentuate, but — ROREM: The only people who sang contemporary American music or music in English — it’s even today — there’s a number of people who sing who will sing — Americans — they’ll sing in every language except their own. Where if you go to France, they’ll sing only in French with an occasional lieder thrown in. England is different, but we’re the only country where there’s a slight inferiority complex that goes through that and makes them think that music in English must automatically be inferior — American — so, to know your own language is the beginning of it all. Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears didn’t have that much of a voice, but he had marvelous diction and a way of getting through to an audience. And I’d rather hear him than somebody with a beautiful voice — where the voice comes first. The first time Peter Grimes was done in America was in ’46, at Tanglewood, and I went to all of the rehearsals, and it changed my life. He came over too — he knew what he was doing. In France, there was always — well, Bizet. In Germany, in England, I can’t think of a 19th century composer — you know, there were people who were composing in the 19th century, but I don’t know who they are. NELSON: Oh, I see what you’re saying. Britten certainly stands out among his peers and his colleagues. Looking back, is there anything you feel like you would have done differently in terms of the way you set the poems in Evidence? Do they mean something different to you at this point in your life? ROREM: I haven’t thought about them since then. If I were just to leave one piece of music after I die, this would probably be it. I think I said a lot of — most of what I have to say — in this cycle. I think — all art is theater — it’s not real life — and I think the theatricality works, both for the individual and the group, and the songs collectively.

80 NELSON: Yes, that was actually my next question. Is there one particular work for which you would most like to be remembered? ROREM: Vocal works, yeah, because I think — Well, in this piece, again, because there’s duets, and trios and quartets, but a lot of songs too. And I’m not ashamed that it takes a full evening, and so — and I have no objections. I think I stated in the program note that if someone wants to take out maybe one song or four, it’s okay by me. NELSON: Okay. Excerpting, then. ROREM: Um-hmm. NELSON: In terms of advice for the performer — you already touched on this a bit when you mentioned good diction, but would you have any advice for performers of this piece? Pianists and vocalists alike? In terms of anything to be wary of or performance practice, things like that? ROREM: Just sing the right notes in comprehensible English. Same for the pianist. NELSON: Okay. ROREM: It’s all in the music, and I’m pretty careful about details as well as general things, so just sing what’s on the page. There’s lots of leeway with singers I think. It’s inconceivable you would transpose a Chopin Étude for example. They’re written for hands, but not for the voice. Every singer has his own. And I don’t see why — women are always singing — often sing men songs. I don’t see any reason why men can’t sing a so-called woman song. NELSON: Yes, I recently participated in a master class with Marilyn Horne, and she talked a bit about that, the “rules” of who can sing what and why. ROREM: Demonstrations can be — I heard Callas in that master class once. NELSON: You did? ROREM: Yeah, and — but when she did it — when she was giving — illustrate something — just for twenty seconds, it was marvelous. She didn’t sing out — because it was all intelligence rather than technique. Or not technique — it was all intelligence rather than bravura and Marilyn Horne — I wrote in an essay once — “One Kathleen Ferrier is worth twenty Marilyn Horns,” and she read it and was not amused. And I think I wrote her a letter and said, “I apologize — not like that.” One or two times I’ve met her — the first time she was very

81 very cold, and the second time, she was warmer. But I don’t know what singers are on today. I go to so few concerts. ROREM: Quite often when concert singers try to swing it — it’s embarrassing. NELSON: Yes. ROREM: Roll their eyes — see you don’t want to compromise your voice. My favorite is — Billie Holiday is one of my favorites. I love her. I knew her works from when I was a kid, and Ella Fitzgerald. She’s not still alive, is she? NELSON: No. ROREM: But she had a very long career. NELSON: Yes. ROREM: She and Billie were the opposite sides of the same coin, because Billie Holiday was always sort of depressed and dark with “Strange Fruit”, and Ella was an optimist in her singing. NELSON: Yes, that carries. I hear that in her music. I — actually love Ella Fitzgerald as well. I own a few of her CDs. ROREM: “A Tisket, a Tasket” — NELSON: Yes, that’s what I was thinking of. That’s exactly the one I was thinking of. I ROREM: But Billie had a — I can’t think of any of — you know “Strange Fruit?” NELSON: Yes. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard it. ROREM: It’s about lynching in the South. NELSON: Yes. ROREM: The words were — I forget who — yes, it’s very beautiful, famous. I met — I — we used to go hear Billie in Chicago and later in New York. Getting drunk in those little cafes where they sang. That’s so long ago. Between sessions, Billie would have to sit in the kitchen unless some rich white people invited her to their table and then she would order her expensive drinks. NELSON: Really? ROREM: Um-hmm. NELSON: So she would just have to sit back in the kitchen?

82 ROREM: Um-hmm. NELSON: And she was the star performer? ROREM: Yeah. Because a star is not a star when she’s not singing. I met her going backstage and seeing her. This is before — I guess her career, and then we’d say, “come and sit at our table,” and that would be it. NELSON: And you would talk with her at shows? ROREM: Yes. There was not much to talk about. She was not an intellect, and she liked to talk about crossword puzzles or things like that, but not about real life. I never met Ella Fitzgerald. I heard her many times. I’ve tried to think if any of them who ever made careers — who never sang in operas — What have you seen in Nantucket? NELSON: Oh, nothing except for what I could see on the ferry ride here. That’s all I’ve done. I flew into Hyannis last night — been to Boston before, but mostly just the airport and downtown. This is the first time I’ve ever been. ROREM: Well, it’s a whole psychology unto itself, Nantucket. NELSON: Is it? ROREM: It has nothing to do with Martha’s Vineyard, which has its own — Nantucket sort of upper class wasp — not particularly musical. NELSON: What first brought you to Nantucket? Was it vacationing, or did you have family out here before? ROREM: Oh, I had been here for long weekends ages ago, and then Jim and I used to go places every summer — like Fire Island or something, and then we decided for a change — instead of going to Canada, just go to Nantucket and stay in a house up the street, and that’s when I decided to buy this. NELSON: Because you liked it so much here, you just – ROREM: There aren’t many murders in Nantucket. NELSON: That’s good. ROREM: And if you do murder somebody, it’s hard to get away. NELSON: I can imagine. It’s not a very big island, and the ferry only comes every so often.

83 ROREM: Uh-hmm. NELSON: Unless you take a private plane, I suppose. ROREM: Yeah, but that would be very noticeable. NELSON: It would. The one I got in last night was the smallest plane I think I’ve ever flown in. And it felt just like, you know, basically, a Suburban with wings. ROREM: How many of you were there? NELSON: Seven of us. And I thought it was going to be terrifying because it’s so small. When you took off, you could feel every bump, but it was — it was great. ROREM: Was anybody riding in front? NELSON: No. Well, there was one of our passengers, went up there in the co-pilot seat. Never had an experience quite like that before, but I love flying. ROREM: I used to. Now I don’t like it anymore. NELSON: You don’t like to fly anymore? ROREM: Oh, I don’t like to travel. I’ve seen everything, and I don’t have the — I’ve never been to Greece or the Orient, but I’m not dying to go. NELSON: I would like to go to Greece. That’s always interested me. Croatia also. I have a friend from Croatia, and she always tells me I must go, but I’ve never been. I’m hoping that I can make it there. But never to the Orient either? ROREM: Huh-uh. I lived in Morocco for two years, which is the Orient, but it’s certainly not America. Or it’s certainly not Europe at all. NELSON: It sounds like it would be an interesting place to be, Morocco. ROREM: It was, I guess, when I was there, but I don’t know what’s going on there now. NELSON: Have you been back to Paris much since you lived there? ROREM: Uh, back there? No. I don’t really know anybody there anymore. People have just disappeared. It’s quiet, isn’t it? NELSON: It is. Did you learn French in Paris or before you went to Paris for the first time? ROREM: In high school, I took French. I was a lousy student. But when I got to France, I thanked God for every minute that I had studied French, and it all came back to me, and

84 then I decided — when I realized I was going to stay in France, I decided I wanted to learn French — to be able to say anything in French that I could say in English, and so after the age of seven — you can learn many languages before the age of seven, but you can’t learn to speak a language completely without an accent after seven. Nobody can. That’s why I have a little bit of an accent. But I don’t think — French is not a “B” language the way it used to be. English is the language, the international language. But after French — Spanish, English. NELSON: Yes, I speak Spanish but that’s the only language I’m fluent in. Are you fluent in any other language? ROREM: No, just French. I don’t have occasion anymore to speak French, but my whole life was in French for many years, in Morocco and in France. NELSON: It seems like there’s quite a history here as well — here in Nantucket in terms of the whaling trade and the ships. ROREM: There’s a whaling museum. NELSON: I saw that, walking around a little bit. ROREM: And I guess in the 20s, and the turn of the century, Nantucket was an art center, artists came, did their work here in the summertime, sometimes all year round, but it’s not that way anymore. NELSON: Is it more for tourists, now? ROREM: It is the end of tourist season right now. Um, I don’t know about the vineyard, but I think there are more artists, so to speak, in Martha’s Vineyard. But mainly in Province Town. NELSON: Have you done much performing in Nantucket over the years? ROREM: No. I don’t think I’ve ever done any. NELSON: You’ve never done anything here? ROREM: Oh, I’ve had music played here by people because they know I live here, but they have a pretty good Tuesday night series of concerts in the summer, but that ain’t much. But they get first-rate people who give very conventional recitals. I told the woman who runs it, she stipulated they always do at least one contemporary work, and — but it’s usually the same old Schubert or something.

85 NELSON: The old standbys. ROREM: Well, it’s time for me to take a nap. NELSON: All right, well thank you so much for your time and for the cookies! ROREM: You are very welcome.

86 APPENDIX C

LIST OF SONGS, PERFORMANCE FORCES, AND POETS FOR EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN

Part One: Beginnings

1. From Whence Cometh Song? (Theodore Roethke) ...... Quartet 2. The Open Road (Walt Whitman) ...... Quartet 3. O Where Are You Going? (W.H. Auden) ...... Trio: Soprano, Tenor, Baritone 4. The Rainbow (William Wordsworth)...... Alto Solo 5. How Do I Love Thee? (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)...... Alto Solo 6. Life In a Love (Robert Browning)...... Duet: Soprano and Tenor 7. Their Lonely Betters (W.H. Auden)...... Soprano Solo 8. His Beauty Sparkles (Paul Goodman)...... Duet: Soprano and Tenor 9. Boy With a Baseball Glove (Paul Goodman)...... Tenor Solo 10. A Glimpse (Walt Whitman)...... Baritone Solo 11. I Am He (Walt Whitman)...... Tenor Solo 12. Love Cannot Fill (Edna St. Vincent Millay)...... Alto Solo 13. The More Loving One (W.H. Auden)...... Baritone Solo 14. Hymn for Morning (Thomas Ken)...... Quartet

Part Two: Middles

15. I Saw a Mass (John Woolman)...... Alto Solo 16. The Comfort of Friends (William Penn)...... Alto Solo 17. A Dead Statesman (Rudyard Kipling)...... Tenor Solo 18. The Candid Man (Stephen Crane)...... Quartet 19. Comment on War (Langston Hughes)...... Duet: Soprano and Alto 20. A Learned Man (Stephen Crane)...... Tenor Solo 21. Dear, Through the Night (W.H. Auden)...... Baritone Solo 22. Requiescat (Oscar Wilde) ...... Trio: Soprano, Alto, Baritone 23. Is My Team Ploughing? (Alfred Edward Housman)...... Duet: Tenor and Baritone 24. As I Walked Out One Evening (W.H.Auden)...... Quartet 25. The Sick Wife (Jane Kenyon)...... Alto Solo 26. Now Is the Dreadful Midnight (Paul Goodman)...... Soprano Solo 27. Hymn For Morning (Thomas Ken)...... Quartet

87 Part Three: Ends

28. He Thinks Upon His Death (Julien Green)...... Baritone Solo 29. On an Echoing Road (Colette)...... Duet: Soprano and Alto 30. A Terrible Disaster (Paul Goodman)...... Tenor Solo 31. Come In (Robert Frost)...... Soprano Solo 32. The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water (William Butler Yeats) Trio: Soprano, Alto, Tenor 33. End of the Day (Charles Beaudelaire)...... Duet: Alto and Tenor 33. Faith (Mark Doty)...... Baritone Solo 34. Even Now (Paul Monette)...... Tenor Solo 35. Evidence of Things Not Seen (William Penn)...... Quartet

88 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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100 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Tyler Nelson is one of America’s most promising young tenors. Already enjoying success in a wide variety of concert repertoire, his recent engagements have included Haydn’s The Creation with the Thomasville Singers and performances of Handel’s Messiah with both Chipola College and the Tallahassee Music Guild. He has performed as a tenor soloist with the Utah Philharmonic in such works as Messiah, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Carmina Burana, and The Creation. Mr. Nelson also has a wide range of operatic experience. During successive seasons with Ohio Light Opera, he sang Sancho in Man of La Mancha, Matthew in Maytime, Dr. Blind in Die Fledermaus, Pietro in The Firefly, Philipe in New Moon, and Mr. Collins in the world premiere of Pride and Prejudice. Arts blog CoolCleveland.com commented: “Tyler Nelson, as that erstwhile clergyman, could steal the show if he tried. As it was, he nearly brought down the house with “I Aim to Please”.” Opera News, reviewing the same performances, called his singing “mellifluous.” He has performed the roles of Vašek in The Bartered Bride, Sam in Street Scene, and Slender in Merry Wives of Windsor with the University of Utah Lyric Opera Ensemble, with whom he also sang his first Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Recent seasons have seen a repeat of Ottavio with the Florida State Opera for whom he also performed his first Fenton in Falstaff, Nanki-poo in The Mikado and, most recently, Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His international debut was in Mazatlan, Mexico, as Shallow in Gordon Getty’s Plump Jack, under the direction of the composer. Robert Commanday of San Francisco Classical Voice said of Mr. Nelson’s performance: “Tyler Nelson, a young tenor living in Florida, did a captivating number on Justice Shallow. His diction was impeccable and his animation as the silly, ridiculous squire won for him alone laughs that were independent of the lines. His bright, keenly focused, vibrant tenor invites Mozart. He has a big future.” Recently, Mr. Nelson debuted as tenor soloist in Orff’s daunting Carmina Burana with both the Reno Symphony Orchestra and the California Symphony. In 2008, he performed the role of The Mayor in Benjamin Britten’s comic masterpiece Albert Herring with the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Young Artists Program and with the Châteauville Foundation under

101 the direction of Maestro Lorin Maazel. In 2009, he joined Maestro Maazel again to perform Albert Herring and the role of Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia. In 2010 he will join Chicago Opera Theater in the role of Delfa, for its production of Giasone. He is a graduate of the University of Utah where he earned both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Vocal Performance under the tutelage of Robert Breault and Lorna Haywood. He currently resides in Salt Lake City Utah, where he teaches at the University of Utah.

102