Ned Rorem reflects on his work and being an American composer in this re-broadcast of an Ode To Gravity program from November 16, 1987. Interviewers Charles Amirkhanian and Fleur Paysour refer to Rorem's writings in The Nantucket Diary and The Paris Diary to discuss various topics, from setting poems and the decline of the art song to gender and race politics in music. Rorem gives reviews of a number of 20th-Century poets and composers, and registers his distaste for "specialization" in American composition. Rorem also shares anecdotes about his creative process. Musical excerpts include "Spring and Fall," "Air Music," "The Lordly Hudson," and "We Never Said Farewell".
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