Canon
Where to start with Rorem
Essential works to know this composer by — spread across their styles-
OrchestralSymphony no. 3
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Vocal2 Poems of Elisabeth Bishop
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Chamber4 Prayers, for flute and piano
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Keyboard6 Friends, for piano
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Vocal2 Poems of Theodore Roethke
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Vocal2 Psalms and a Proverb, for chorus and string quartet
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Vocal3 Choruses for Christmas
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Vocal3 Motets
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Vocal4 Dialogues, for 2 voices and 2 pianos
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Vocal4 Madrigals, on texts by Sappho, for vocal quartet
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Vocal4 Poems of Tennyson
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Vocal5 Songs to Poems of Walt Whitman
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Keyboard6 Variations, for 2 pianos
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Vocal7 Motets for the Church Year
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Keyboard8 Etudes
Listening guide
Hand-curated paths into Rorem's catalogueMost Popular
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Ariel (songs after Sylvia Plath)
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Piano Sonata No. 3
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The Lordly Hudson (song)
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Early in the Morning (song)
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Last Poems of Wallace Stevens (voice + orchestra)
Most Acclaimed
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String Quartet No. 4
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Air Music (orchestra)
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Santa Fe Songs
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Ariel
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War Scenes (songs after Whitman)
Most Weird
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Evidence of Things Not Seen36 songs in 90 minutes — marathon song cycle; rarely performed complete
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War ScenesWhitman’s Civil War nursing diaries — among the most confrontational American song cycles
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Miss Julie (opera)after Strindberg — American opera on a Swedish play
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After Long Silence (song)Yeats text
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Picnic on the Marne
Similar composers
Same era, overlapping styles — by genre & period affinityWorks 107
- Orchestral
- Symphony no. 3
- Cello Concerto
- Double Concerto for violin, cello, and orchestra
- Flute Concerto
- Lions, for orchestra
- Piano Concerto no. 2
- Symphony no. 1
- Symphony no. 2
- Violin Concerto
- Water Music, for violin, clarinet and orchestra
- Vocal
- 2 Poems of Elisabeth Bishop
- 2 Poems of Theodore Roethke
- 2 Psalms and a Proverb, for chorus and string quartet
- 3 Choruses for Christmas
- 3 Motets
- 4 Dialogues, for 2 voices and 2 pianos
- 4 Madrigals, on texts by Sappho, for vocal quartet
- 4 Poems of Tennyson
- 5 Songs to Poems of Walt Whitman
- 7 Motets for the Church Year
- Alleluia
- Are you the new person
- Ariel, cycle of 5 poems, for soprano, clarinet and piano
- As Adam Early in the Morning
- Catullus: on the burial of his brother, for voice and piano
- Cycle of Holy Songs
- Early in the Morning, for voice and piano
- Echo's Songs
- Evidence of Things Not Seen, for voices and piano
- Flight for Heaven, song cycle for voice and piano
- For Susan, for voice and piano
- Full of life now
- Gloria, for soprano, mezzo-soprano and piano
- Hearing, cycle of 6 songs
- I Am Rose
- I Strolled Across an Open Field
- I will always love you, for voice, string trio and piano
- In Time of Pestilence, for chorus
- In a Gondola
- Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair, for voice and piano
- King Midas, cantata for voices and piano
- Little Elegy
- Look Down, Fair Moon
- Lullaby of the Woman of the Mountain
- Medieval Lyrics
- Memory
- More Than a Day, song cycle for countertenor and chamber orchestra
- My Papa's Waltz
- Nantucket Songs
- Night Crow
- Now sleeps the crimson petal, for voice and piano
- O Do Not Love Too Long, for voice and piano
- O You Whom I Often and Silently Come
- On a Singing Girl, for voice and piano
- Orchids
- Pilgrim Strangers, for 6 male voices
- Pippa's Song
- Poems of Love and the Rain, song cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano
- Praise the Lord, O My Soul, for chorus and organ
- Rain in spring, for voice and piano
- Requiem
- Sally's Smile
- See how they love me
- Sing, My Soul, His Wondrous Love
- Spring and Fall
- Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
- Such beauty as hurts to behold
- That Shadow, My Likeness, song for voice and piano
- The Call
- The Lordly Hudson
- The Serpent, for voice and piano
- The Silver Swan
- The Waking
- To You
- To a Young Girl, for voice and piano
- War Scenes, cycle of 5 songs from Whitman
- What if some Little Pain
- Youth, Day, Old Age, and Night
- Chamber
- 4 Prayers, for flute and piano
- 9 Episodes for Four Players, quartet in 9 movements for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano
- Book of Hours, 8 pieces for flute and harp
- Bright Music, for flute, 2 violins, cello and piano
- Dances, for cello and piano
- Day Music, for violin and piano
- Mountain Song, for flute, oboe, violin, cello and piano
- Night Music, for violin and piano
- Picnic on the Marne, 7 waltzes for alto saxophone and piano
- Pilgrims, for strings
- Romeo and Juliet, for flute and guitar
- Spring Music, for violin, cello, and piano
- String Quartet no. 4
- Suite for Guitar
- The End of Summer, for violin, clarinet, and piano
- The Unquestioned Answer, quintet for flute, 2 violins, cello and piano
- Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano
- Keyboard
- 6 Friends, for piano
- 6 Variations, for 2 pianos
- 8 Etudes
- A Quaker Reader, 11 pieces for organ
- Dance Suite, for 2 pianos
- Piano Album I
- Piano Sonata no. 1
- Piano Sonata no. 2
- Piano Sonata no. 3
- Sicilienne, for 2 pianos
- Spiders, for harpsichord
- Views from fhe Oldest House, suite for organ