Ned Rorem

• A Childhood Miracle, 1951, opera in one act.
• The Robbers, (1956), a one-act opera.
• Miss Julie (1965)
• Hearing (1966–76), opera in five scenes
• Bertha (1968), opera in one act.
• The Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters (1968), three-act opera.
• Fables (1971), five very short operas to poems by Jean de la Fontaine. The five 'micro-operas' are:
  • The Animals Sick of the Plague
  • The Bird Wounded by an Arrow
  • The Fox and the Grapes
  • The Lion in Love
  • The Sun and the Frogs.
• Our Town (2005), first performed by the Indiana University Opera, Bloomington, in 2006. Subsequent performances have been given by the Show-Me Opera at the University of Missouri, Lake George Opera, Aspen Opera, Central City Opera, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Festival Opera of Walnut Creek, The Catholic University of America, Juilliard Opera, Skylark Opera, Civic Opera of Kansas City, Raylynmor Opera Company, Tufts University, University of South Carolina University of North Texas, Shepherd School of Music, Baldwin–Wallace Conservatory of Music, University of Missouri, and the University of California, Irvine, among others.

[Miss Julie and Our Town are his only full-length operas.]

The First symphony is cast in four fairly brief movements: I. Maestoso II. Andantino III. Largo IV: Allegro. and is scored for full orchestra. Rorem has written of this work:

There are as many definitions of symphony as there are symphonies. In Haydn's day it usually meant an orchestral piece in four movements, of which the first was in so-called sonata form. But with Bach, and later with Beethoven through Stravinsky, Symphony means whatever the composer decides.

The Second Symphony is cast in 3 movements of unequal proportion; the 2nd & 3rd combined being less than half the length of the first; I. Broad, Moderate II. Tranquillo III. Allegro. The Second Symphony is probably the composer's least performed. Composed in 1956 it was only performed a handful of times and has remained dormant since 1959 until, as the composer puts it, "José Serebrier resurrected" it 43 years later.

The Third Symphony is cast in five movements: I. Passacaglia II. Allegro molto vivace III. Largo IV. Andante V. Allegro molto. It is perhaps the best known of Rorem's numbered symphonies, having been premiered by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, April 1959. Three recordings have been issued over the years, though none but the most recent Naxos recording has remained in the catalogue for very long. Notable conductors of this work include: Maurice Abravanel, Leonard Bernstein, André Previn and José Serebrier.

For the Naxos recording the composer noted:

Of the five movements the second movement was written first, the first movement was written next, then came the fourth movement, then the third movement; and the last - fifth - movement was indeed written 'at last'. Movement I is a Passacaglia in C, a slow overture in the grand style. II was written originally for two pianos eight years before the rest, and incorporated as the second movement of the symphony. It is a brisk and jazzy dance. Movement III is a short, passionate page about somnambulism, full of dynamic contrast, and coming from afar. Movement IV is a farewell to France. Movement V is a long and fast Rondo - a Concerto for Orchestra all by itself.

[All with piano accompaniment, except where stated otherwise.]

In an October, 2008 interview, Rorem referred to a new saxophone concerto for Branford Marsalis.[16] He was commissioned in 2010 to write a piece for clarinet, cello and piano for clarinetist Thomas Piercy. He composed Four Sonnets of Shakespeare for tenor Andrew Kennedy, which premièred at Wigmore Hall, London on September 27, 2009, and a song-cycle, Songs Old and New, written in 2008 for soprano Mary Wilson and premièred by Wilson and the IRIS Chamber Orchestra under Michael Stern in November 2009.[17]