Rorem's "Nantucket Songs"

Synopsis

“From whence cometh song?” asks the opening lines of a poem by the American writer Theodore Roethke…

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

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

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

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

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

Music Played in Today's Program

Ned Rorem (b. 1923) Nantucket Songs Phyllis Bryn-Julson, soprano; Ned Rorem, piano CRI 670

On This Day

Births

• 1894 - English composer Peter Warlock (real name, Philip Heseltine), in London;

Deaths

• 1953 - Hungarian operetta composer Emmerich Kálmán, age 71, in Paris;

Premieres

• 1733 - Handel: opera "Semiramide" in London at the King's Theater in the Haymarket (Gregorian date: Nov. 10);

• 1876 - Brahms: String Quartet No. 3 in Bb (first public performance), in Berlin, by the Joachim Quartet; This work had been privately premiered at the home of Clara Schumann by the Joachim Quartet on May 23, 1876, and subsequently performed for a small circle of friends at the Joachim home on June 4 that year;

• 1881 - Serenade for Strings, in St. Petersburg (Julian date: Oct. 18);

• 1882 - Tchaikovsky: Trio, Op. 50 (dedicated to the memory of Nicolas Rubinstein), in Moscow at a Russian Musical Society concert by Ivan Hřimaly (violin), Wilhelm Fitzenhagen (cello) and Sergei Taneyev (piano) (Julian date: Oct. 18); This was the public premiere of the Tchaikovsky Trio, but a private performance featuring the same artists had occurred on Feb. 18 (Gregorian date: Mar. 2) that same year;

• 1896 - Amy Beach: "Gaelic" Symphony, at the Music Hall in Boston by the Boston Symphony, Emil Paur conducting; This was an afternoon "open rehearsal" performance - the "official" premiere took place the following evening;

• 1929 - Wallingford Rieger: "Study in Sonority," by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting;

• 1944 - Copland: ballet "Appalachian Spring," by a 13-piece chamber orchestra, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., by the Martha Graham Ballet;

• 1947 - Elie Siegemeister: Symphony No. 1, by the New York Philharmonic, Leopold Stokowski conducting;

• 1947 - Kurt Weill: musical, "Lost in the Stars," in New York City;

• 1957 - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11 ("The Year 1905"), in Moscow, by the USSR State Symphony, Natan Rakhlin;

• 1979 - Ned Rorem: "Nantucket Songs" (to texts by Roethke, Wm. Carlos Williams, Edmund Waller and others) at Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress, with soprano Phylllis Bryn-Julson and the composer at the piano;

• 1998 - Anthony Davis: "Tales (Tails) of a Signifying Monkey," by the Pittsburgh Symphony, David Zinman conducting;

Others

• 1739 - Handel completes in London his Concerto Grosso in A, Op. 6, no. 11 (Gregorian date: Nov. 10);

• 1822 - Schubert begins work on his Symphony No. 8 in B minor, later known as the "Unfinished." Not played until 37 years later;

• 1935 - First concert at The Composers' Forum-Laboratory in New York City, sponsored by the Federal Music Project and featuring works of Roy Harris.