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Ned Rorem - Exam
Contributed by: Ashcroft
  • 1. When was Ned Rorem born?
A) 1973
B) 1923
C) 1945
D) 1960
  • 2. Ned Rorem is best known for being a:
A) Athlete
B) Architect
C) Composer
D) Painter
  • 3. In which city was Ned Rorem born?
A) Detroit, Michigan
B) San Francisco, California
C) New York City, New York
D) Richmond, Indiana
  • 4. Ned Rorem received a Fulbright Scholarship to study in which country?
A) Brazil
B) Russia
C) Japan
D) France
  • 5. In addition to English, Ned Rorem is fluent in which language?
A) German
B) Italian
C) French
D) Spanish
  • 6. Ned Rorem is known for his collaborations with which type of artists?
A) Sculptors
B) Chefs
C) Architects
D) Poets
  • 7. One of Ned Rorem's well-known books is titled:
A) The London Chronicles
B) The New York Cookbook
C) The Paris Diary
D) The Tokyo Journal
  • 8. Which institution bestowed an honorary doctorate upon Ned Rorem?
A) Oxford University
B) Juilliard School
C) Yale University
D) Sorbonne University
  • 9. Which famous conductor championed Ned Rorem's music?
A) Herbert von Karajan
B) Gustavo Dudamel
C) Leonard Bernstein
D) Arturo Toscanini
  • 10. What is Ned Rorem best known for?
A) His symphonies, which have won numerous awards.
B) His operas, which are widely performed.
C) His art songs, which number over 500.
D) His film scores, which are critically acclaimed.
  • 11. Which musical movement is Ned Rorem frequently described as a part of?
A) Minimalist.
B) Modernist.
C) Expressionist.
D) Neoromantic.
  • 12. Who were some of Ned Rorem's early music teachers?
A) Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson.
B) Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud.
C) Margaret Bonds and Leo Sowerby.
D) Nuta Rothschild and Belle Tannenbaum.
  • 13. Which composer's work inspired the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association?
A) Ned Rorem.
B) Margaret Bonds.
C) Clarence Rufus Rorem.
D) Leo Sowerby.
  • 14. What was Ned Rorem's lifelong partner's name?
A) Paul Goodman.
B) Marie-Laure de Noailles.
C) Rosemary.
D) James Holmes.
  • 15. Where did Ned Rorem teach from 1980 onwards?
A) The University of Chicago.
B) The American Conservatory of Music.
C) The Paris Conservatory.
D) The Curtis Institute.
  • 16. What is considered Ned Rorem's magnum opus?
A) Our Town.
B) Air Music: Ten Etudes for Orchestra.
C) Seven different commissions for the American Bicentennial.
D) Evidence of Things Not Seen.
  • 17. Which award did Ned Rorem win for Air Music: Ten Etudes for Orchestra?
A) The Academy Award for Best Original Score.
B) The Tony Award for Best Original Score.
C) The Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1976.
D) The Grammy Award for Best Classical Composition.
  • 18. What was the last major work of Ned Rorem?
A) Seven different commissions for the American Bicentennial.
B) Evidence of Things Not Seen.
C) Air Music: Ten Etudes for Orchestra.
D) The opera Our Town.
  • 19. Which French composers influenced Ned Rorem's enthusiasm for French music?
A) Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud.
B) Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky.
C) Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
D) Igor Stravinsky and Maurice Ravel.
  • 20. What was the cultural background of Ned Rorem's family?
A) Upper-class with a strong Catholic emphasis.
B) Middle-class with a strong Protestant emphasis.
C) Upper middle-class, semi-bohemian with a strong Quaker emphasis.
D) Working-class with a strong Jewish emphasis.
  • 21. What did Ned Rorem's father Clarence Rufus Rorem inspire?
A) The Curtis Institute.
B) The American Conservatory of Music.
C) The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.
D) The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.
  • 22. Who was Ned Rorem's first piano teacher who made a lasting impression?
A) Leo Sowerby.
B) Nuta Rothschild.
C) Margaret Bonds.
D) Belle Tannenbaum.
  • 23. Which composer's piano concerto did Ned Rorem perform as a youth?
A) Igor Stravinsky.
B) Claude Debussy.
C) Maurice Ravel.
D) Edvard Grieg.
  • 24. What was the name of the arts patron who hosted Ned Rorem in Paris?
A) Marie-Laure de Noailles.
B) Belle Tannenbaum.
C) Margaret Bonds.
D) Nuta Rothschild.
  • 25. Which group influenced Ned Rorem in Paris?
A) The Impressionists.
B) The American Bicentennial.
C) Les Six.
D) The Quakers.
  • 26. How many texts by how many writers did the song cycle Evidence of Things Not Seen include?
A) 24 texts by 36 writers.
B) 50 texts by 30 writers.
C) 30 texts by 50 writers.
D) 36 texts by 24 writers.
  • 27. What was Ned Rorem's self-described religious identity?
A) Quaker atheist.
B) Jewish.
C) Catholic.
D) Protestant.
  • 28. What was the name of the school Ned Rorem attended in Chicago?
A) The Paris Conservatory.
B) The Curtis Institute.
C) The American Conservatory of Music.
D) The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.
  • 29. Which future writer did Ned Rorem become friends with in his youth?
A) Paul Goodman.
B) Margaret Bonds.
C) Nuta Rothschild.
D) Leo Sowerby.
  • 30. What did Ned Rorem's mother Gladys Miller Rorem actively participate in?
A) Antiwar movements and the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
B) The Impressionist movement.
C) The American Bicentennial.
D) The modernist aesthetic.
  • 31. Who were Ned Rorem's composition teachers at Northwestern University?
A) Alfred Nolte
B) Gian Carlo Menotti
C) Rosario Scalero
D) Bernard Wagenaar
  • 32. Under whom did Ned Rorem study piano at Northwestern University?
A) Gian Carlo Menotti
B) Alfred Nolte
C) Bernard Wagenaar
D) Harold Van Horne
  • 33. Which composer did Ned Rorem study orchestration with in New York?
A) Aaron Copland
B) Leonard Bernstein
C) Virgil Thomson
D) Mishel Piastro
  • 34. In what year did Ned Rorem transfer to the Curtis Institute of Music?
A) 1940
B) 1942
C) 1943
D) 1946
  • 35. Who did Ned Rorem study counterpoint under at Curtis Institute of Music?
A) Bernard Wagenaar
B) Gian Carlo Menotti
C) Alfred Nolte
D) Rosario Scalero
  • 36. What was the title of one of Ned Rorem's compositions premiered in 1943?
A) The 70th Psalm
B) Overture in C
C) Piano Sonata for Four Hands
D) The Lordly Hudson
  • 37. Why did Ned Rorem leave the Curtis Institute of Music?
A) He wanted to study at Juilliard
B) He lost his allowance
C) He considered Rosario Scalero unprogressive
D) He moved to New York
  • 38. Who was Ned Rorem's composition teacher at Juilliard School?
A) Alfred Nolte
B) Rosario Scalero
C) Gian Carlo Menotti
D) Bernard Wagenaar
  • 39. Which famous dancer did Ned Rorem work as a piano accompanist for?
A) Anna Pavlova
B) Isadora Duncan
C) Martha Graham
D) Éva Gauthier
  • 40. Which orchestra premiered Ned Rorem's 'Overture in C' in May 1948?
A) Philadelphia Orchestra
B) Cleveland Orchestra
C) Boston Symphony Orchestra
D) New York Philharmonic
  • 41. Which organization did Rorem attend meetings for?
A) Overeaters Anonymous
B) Narcotics Anonymous
C) Alcoholics Anonymous
D) Gamblers Anonymous
  • 42. In which year did Ned Rorem leave for France?
A) 1949
B) 1952
C) 1950
D) 1951
  • 43. What is the title of the opera based on La Fontaine's Fables?
A) Hearing
B) Bertha
C) Three Sisters who are Not Sisters
D) Fables
  • 44. Which opera by Rorem was based on Chaucer's 'The Pardoner's Tale'?
A) Our Town
B) Bertha
C) Miss Julie
D) The Robbers
  • 45. In what year was Ned Rorem's first opera, A Childhood Miracle, premiered?
A) 1955
B) 1951
C) 1954
D) 1953
  • 46. What was the source of the text for Ned Rorem's song cycle 'To a Young Girl'?
A) W. B. Yeats
B) Robert Herrick
C) George Darley
D) Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • 47. To whom were the 2002 concertos dedicated?
A) Aaron Copland
B) Thomas Schippers
C) Leonard Bernstein
D) Gustav Mahler
  • 48. Which opera by Rorem was not well received at its premiere in 1965?
A) Eagles
B) Symphony No. 3
C) Miss Julie
D) Poems of Love and Rain
  • 49. Which composer from Les Six did Ned Rorem meet through Marie-Laure de Noailles?
A) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
B) Ludwig van Beethoven
C) Johann Sebastian Bach
D) Francis Poulenc
  • 50. What language did Rorem criticize American colleagues for prioritizing over English in song settings?
A) German
B) Italian
C) French
D) Other languages
  • 51. Which opera by Rorem was written in 1968?
A) Fables
B) The Robbers
C) The Anniversary
D) Bertha
  • 52. What year did a Paris concert feature solely Ned Rorem's compositions?
A) 1955
B) 1953
C) 1950
D) 1951
  • 53. What was unique about the opera 'The Anniversary'?
A) It was based on the serialist tone row.
B) It was based on a Chaucer tale.
C) It was written by Kenneth Koch.
D) It was performed in 1961.
  • 54. At what age did Ned Rorem pass away?
A) 85
B) 99
C) 110
D) 75
  • 55. For whom did Ned Rorem write the Piano Concerto No. 4 for Left Hand and Orchestra?
A) Leonard Bernstein
B) Mstislav Rostropovich
C) Yo-Yo Ma
D) Gary Graffman
  • 56. Which work by Wallace Stevens inspired Ned Rorem's 1977 orchestral suite?
A) Sunday Morning
B) The Idea of Order at Key West
C) Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
D) The Emperor of Ice-Cream
  • 57. Where did Ned Rorem spend much of his time after leaving for France in early 1949?
A) Italy
B) Spain
C) Germany
D) Morocco
  • 58. Which event inspired Ned Rorem's ten-part song cycle 'Aftermath'?
A) The fall of the Berlin Wall
B) The Vietnam War
C) The end of World War II
D) The September 11 attacks
  • 59. Who premiered Ned Rorem's Piano Concerto No. 2?
A) Julius Katchen
B) Nadia Boulanger
C) Arthur Honegger
D) Jonathan Sternberg
  • 60. Which opera by Rorem was based on a libretto by Holmes?
A) Fables
B) Hearing
C) The Robbers
D) The Anniversary
  • 61. How long did Rorem teach at the University of Buffalo?
A) 1957 to 1958
B) 1959 to 1960
C) 1965 to 1967
D) 1960 to 1962
  • 62. Which of the following was not a composition by Ned Rorem during his time in Paris?
A) Symphony No. 3
B) The Poet's Requiem
C) Ballet for Jerry
D) Piano Sonata No. 2
  • 63. What is the narrative style of 'Our Town'?
A) Condensed
B) Fragmented
C) Elaborate
D) Extended
  • 64. In which year did Rorem return to the US to further pursue composition?
A) 1955
B) 1965
C) 1960
D) 1957 or 1958
  • 65. What did Rorem believe about teaching assignments lasting more than two years?
A) They are essential for growth
B) They enhance creativity
C) They are unnecessary
D) They lead to sterility
  • 66. Which composer's songs did Rorem name as a particular favorite?
A) Bach
B) Stravinsky
C) Mozart
D) Schumann
  • 67. Which opera by Rorem was never performed?
A) The Robbers
B) Our Town
C) Miss Julie
D) The Anniversary
  • 68. Which orchestra premiered Rorem's 'Eagles' in 1959?
A) Boston Symphony Orchestra
B) Philadelphia Orchestra
C) Chicago Symphony Orchestra
D) New York Philharmonic
  • 69. Which critic noted that 'Our Town' deserves bigger stages?
A) Harold C. Schonberg
B) Kenneth Koch
C) Thornton Wilder
D) Joshua Barone
  • 70. Which award did Ned Rorem receive in 1950?
A) Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Award
B) Pulitzer Prize
C) Grammy Award
D) Fulbright Scholarship
  • 71. Which section of 'Evidence of Things Not Seen' explores coming of age?
A) Ends
B) Transitions
C) Middles
D) Beginnings
  • 72. Who did Ned Rorem study with in Paris?
A) Elliott Stein
B) Nadia Boulanger
C) Marie-Laure de Noailles
D) Arthur Honegger
  • 73. To which poet did Rorem dedicate three song cycles?
A) Paul Goodman
B) John Ashbery
C) Theodore Roethke
D) Walt Whitman
  • 74. What technique does Rorem sometimes use in his piano accompaniments?
A) Renaissance-derived ground bass
B) Aleatoric music
C) Minimalism
D) Serialism
  • 75. Which foundation did NOT commission Rorem?
A) Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation
B) Ford Foundation
C) Koussevitzky Foundation
D) Guggenheim Foundation
  • 76. Who conducted the premiere of 'Overture in C'?
A) Aaron Copland
B) Mishel Piastro
C) Leonard Bernstein
D) Virgil Thomson
  • 77. When was 'Poems of Love and Rain' premiered?
A) April 12, 1966
B) April 12, 1965
C) April 12, 1964
D) April 12, 1963
  • 78. What did David Hurwitz compare the melodies in Rorem's symphonies to?
A) Ravel's Daphnis et Chloë
B) Mozart's Requiem
C) Beethoven's Symphony No. 9
D) Bach's Brandenburg Concertos
  • 79. Where did Ned Rorem and Holmes buy a summer house in 1974?
A) Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
B) Provincetown, Massachusetts
C) Boston, Massachusetts
D) Nantucket, Massachusetts
  • 80. What was the title of Ned Rorem's final work?
A) Recalling Nadia
B) Final Symphony
C) End of an Era
D) The Last Waltz
  • 81. In which year did Ned Rorem become president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters?
A) 1995
B) 2000
C) 2003
D) 1990
  • 82. Who wrote the libretto for 'Miss Julie'?
A) August Strindberg
B) Ned Rorem
C) Thornton Wilder
D) Kenward Elmslie
  • 83. What did Rorem generally reject in his compositions?
A) Tonal music
B) Strict modernist aesthetics
C) Song cycles
D) Piano accompaniments
  • 84. In which year did Ned Rorem start teaching at the Curtis Institute?
A) 1980
B) 1985
C) 1974
D) 1993
  • 85. What medication did Rorem use to help with his alcoholism?
A) Acamprosate
B) Disulfiram
C) Antabuse
D) Naltrexone
  • 86. Who premiered Ned Rorem's Symphony No. 1 in Vienna?
A) Nadia Boulanger
B) Julius Katchen
C) Arthur Honegger
D) Jonathan Sternberg
  • 87. What was Rorem's struggle throughout the 1950s and 60s?
A) Financial difficulties
B) Depression
C) Alcoholism
D) Addiction to drugs
  • 88. Who was one of Ned Rorem's students at the Curtis Institute?
A) Daron Hagen
B) Philip Glass
C) John Adams
D) Steve Reich
  • 89. Which of the following is NOT a poet whose works Rorem set to music?
A) Sylvia Plath
B) Emily Dickinson
C) Witter Bynner
D) Wallace Stevens
  • 90. During which decade were Ned Rorem's three numbered symphonies composed?
A) 1950s
B) 1940s
C) 1960s
D) 1970s
  • 91. Which song cycle by Ned Rorem was dedicated to medieval French poems?
A) Flight for Heaven
B) To a Young Girl
C) Poémes pour la paix
D) Cycle of Holy Songs
  • 92. What did Ned Rorem say was the best influence for a composer?
A) Nature
B) Travel
C) Four walls
D) City life
  • 93. What did Rorem's relationship with Holmes provide him?
A) Stability to abandon alcohol
B) A teaching position
C) Inspiration for new compositions
D) Financial support
  • 94. Which of Ned Rorem's compositions premiered in 1954?
A) Symphony No. 1
B) Piano Concerto No. 2
C) A Childhood Miracle
D) Poémes pour la paix
  • 95. In what year was Ned Rorem's full-length opera 'Miss Julie' first written?
A) 1994
B) 1965
C) 1979
D) 2005
  • 96. Which librettist collaborated with Rorem on 'Three Sisters who are Not Sisters'?
A) Holmes
B) Stein
C) Kenneth Koch
D) Jascha Kessler
  • 97. What did Rorem say happened when a drop of wine touched his lips?
A) He felt a sense of peace
B) An infantile regression takes place
C) He felt a sense of guilt
D) He became more creative
  • 98. Which of the following poets is NOT mentioned as having works set by Rorem?
A) Kenneth Koch
B) Robert Frost
C) Alfred, Lord Tennyson
D) Frank O'Hara
  • 99. Which section of 'Evidence of Things Not Seen' concerns death?
A) Middles
B) Beginnings
C) Ends
D) Transitions
  • 100. Which ballet by Ned Rorem won the Prix de Biarritz in 1951?
A) A Childhood Miracle
B) Melos
C) Ballet for Jerry
D) Dorian Gray
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