Talk:Ned Rorem/Archive 1

Quaker ?
What evidence is there that Ned Rorem is a Quaker, please? BTW, a person who lives in a Quaker settlement or attends a Quaker School or College, or whose family have been Quakers for generations is not ncessarily a Quaker ---  Vernon White  '''. . . Talk''' 09:26, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I see on the Official website there is a chronology listing: "A Quaker Reader, Rorem's first major work for organ, is premiered by Leonard Raver at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center; is awarded honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by Northwestern University".

Is there any other evidence, please? There's a quote at ASCAP: October - November - December 1998 " I'm a Quaker, by the way, philosophically, though not religiously." This does not qualify him to be be called "a Quaker", which involves membership of a Quaker Meeting and worshiping with other Quakers regularly. Vernon White '''. . . Talk''' 13:46, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Hello, My name is Neil Erickson. I am a personal acquaintance of Ned and have heard him on multiple occasions refer to himself as a Quaker. In addition, he writes about being a Quaker (and pacifist, of course) in a number of his published diaries. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Neil Erickson (talk • contribs) 03:55, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

The following is from an interview with Rorem from the Paris Review: -- &#x2611; Sam uelWantman 03:30, 7 July 2016 (UTC)
 * INTERVIEWER


 * Your Quaker upbringing—did that encourage early habits of introspection?


 * ROREM


 * I didn’t really have a “Quaker upbringing.” My mother’s younger brother was killed in the First World War at the age of seventeen. She never got over the trauma. When they were married in 1920 my parents (she a Congregational minister’s daughter, he a Methodist) looked around for a group that would work for peace, internationally, and not just in time of war. The Society of Friends was the answer. They weren’t concerned with the God part (I’m not sure they ever believed in God), only with the peace part. Thus my older sister, Rosemary, and I were raised as pacifists, to think that there is no alternative to peace. Which I believe. Whether I’m right or wrong, I’m not ashamed of it . . .So I was not raised piously, much less in silence. We were taken regularly to all the best concerts and plays that came to Chicago. My background was far more structured by the cultured and caring intellect of my parents than by the strictured structure of the stricter Quakers.

Needs list of his published non-musical works: diaries, essays, etc.
This article identifies Ned Rorem as a "composer and diarist," but it gives very little information about the second of those two occupations. In addition to the copious lists of musical compositions, there should be a section listing all his published literary works. My local library has copies of four books of diaries and two of essays, but that cannot be all he has written because it's not a large library. Someone who has access to the information should add that list to this article.--Jim10701 (talk) 04:12, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

I absolutely agree: I believe I read somewhere that Rorem has published upwards of 18 or 19 books about music; I came here to find a bibliography of his writings and was surprised not to find it here. I can Google around and see what I can find, but I'm scared of getting lousy information that way. Basementwall (talk) 19:18, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

I have read two of Ned Rorem's books, the Paris Diary and the New York Diary. Both of them are still in print. (I just looked on Amazon. You can order both of those books for a Kindle, too.) I found him to be a witty, bitchy, and very engaging writer, in those two volumes, any way. When he was a young man he knew a lot of people in the classical music world, and he has some great stories to tell. At his best, he's a first-rate writer. Lauren Hahn

Request for Comments
There is an RfC on the question of using "Religion: None" vs. "Religion: None (atheist)" in the infobox on this and other similar pages.

The RfC is at Template talk:Infobox person.

Please help us determine consensus on this issue. --Guy Macon (talk) 19:38, 23 April 2015 (UTC)

Interviews with Rorem (2013–2016) listenable online
The weekly radio program Singing and Other Sins has done six interviews with Rorem from 2013 through 2016. They are listenable for free online (just Control+F rorem):. -- Softlavender (talk) 23:53, 12 March 2017 (UTC)