War Scenes by Ned Rorem uses the poetry of Walt Whitman.
Walt Whitman (1819 -
1892) was one of, if not the most influential American poets. He mainly wrote in the realist school. He was also known as the father of free verse1. His most famous work was leaves of grass. But he also wrote a significant amount during the civil war, about the war. During that time he worked in hospitals in D.C. helping those who were wounded in war2. This is where Rorem takes all of the text for War Scenes. Most of the texts specifically are from Specimen days and collect which contains texts from his earlier Memoranda during the war. Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022) was an American composer born in Richmond Indiana mostly known for his art songs. Studied at Northwestern starting in 1940 moved to curtis in 1942 then juilliard graduating in 1947. Studying first with Margaret Bonds and then later with Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson. His music was heavily influenced by Les Six Specifically Poulenc and Milhaud. He is most often described as a Neoromantic against his modernist contemporaries. War Scenes is a song cycle for Medium low voice and piano, and details the horrors and human losses of the civil war. The cycle starts off with the longest song “A Night Battle.” The text comes from Specimen days “A night Battle, over a week since”3. The text is nearly four pages long but Rorem cuts most of it out. He takes measures to remove any allusions to the specifics of time in the poem to leave the poem ambiguous and more widely applicable. Though it recounts the battle of Chancellorsville in 1863 one would not be able to tell from the song. It is clear Rorem is trying to show the horror of and chaos of battle using many challenging leaps like minor the minor 9th and augmented fours scattered all around the piece. The tempo marking is even naked as quarter note equals seventysix with the caption “frantic.” The voice is often left alone only broken by occasional interludes of piano. I imagine this to be the cries of men interrupted by gunshots. Then bold chords played under the voice could be cannons. The second song is “A Specimen Case” which is a perfect song to follow “A Night Battle.” as it describes a single mortally wounded man in comparison to a whole battle. The micro vs the Macro. Rorem also heavily shaves down the text to make it more general. In Whitman's original pros he describes a morally wounded. Thomas Haley, an Irishman serving in the Fourth New York Cavalry, joined the Union cause but suffered greatly. Whitman described him as a "fine specimen of youthful physical manliness." Despite his condition – shot through the lung – Haley barely acknowledged Whitman's presence. It seemed Haley couldn't grasp Whitman's presence due to pain, medication, or both, as he remained in a trance-like state, unaware of "the heart of the stranger that hover'd near." That being said, Rorem removes any reference to the specifics of the person. Whitman uses more than a half page to describe the scene and Rorem chooses to only use the last three lines.4. The piano uses only half notes but the voice uses off-set eighth notes giving it an uneasy touch and go feeling much like the injured soldier.
1 Reynolds, D. (1996). Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography 2 Reynolds, D. (1996). Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography 3 Whitman, W. (1882). Specimen Days 4 “Grady Hayden, "Whitman Whitman War Poetry Settings by Three Composers," (DMA Document, Belmont University, 2022), The third song “An Incident” is the first piece to use a text in its entirety. It tells the story of a confederate soldier with apathetic resolve. It’s much more emotionally distant than the pieces before it. It is clear that Rorem wants the text to come off as cold. He instructs the singer to be “uninvolved, like a reporter.” and the piano to be “Subjective, neurotic and illustrative.” This gives the piece the atmosphere of being a news report. The voice is still hovering around an F4, shifting between slow and fast notes almost as if it were morse code. The piano then interrupts as though showing the disjointed and disturbed mind of the narrator. It’s also worth noting that this song is the exact middle of the cycle, perhaps making a commentary on the meaninglessness of war and the coldness in which we talk about it. The Final song in the Cycle is “The Real War Will Never Get in the Books.” As one can guess from the deeply descriptive title it's about what really happens that is never reflected in history. It is taken from Whitman's "Memoranda During the War." Rorem once again strips down the 4 page long pros into just a few lines5. This time though he opts to add in the line “and so goodbye to the war” which is not in the Memoranda but is in “Specimen Days”6 The song uses many haunting and clashing sonorities. This could be interpreted as the clash between what we are told about the war and what actually happened. Rorem gives very specific directions to the mood of the vocal line such as “Flexible, Declamatory, slower than speech, but rich and full supple and grand” and “Hollow, mysterious and even.” This gives us too conflicting atmospheres, yet again representing the truth from what we are told. The Cycle takes on a journey from the grand picture of a battle, then to the really actual human cost of that battle, then to how we might be told about said battle to finally a reflection on the contradiction between what happens and war, and what we are told which is illustrated in this cycle. I think this is organized in the right way, but I also prefer to honor the wishes and settings of the composer. I very much enjoyed this cycle. Firstly I love Whitman's poetry. He has long been one of my favorite authors and I have two different collections of his complete works. Secondly, while I'm often a fan of the use of both piano and voice simultaneously to create an atmosphere I think the way Rorem Breaks them up is tasteful. Finally I do just think it haunting, and feels both familiar but new all at the same time.
5 Whitman, W. (1882). Specimen Days 6 “Grady Hayden, "Whitman Whitman War Poetry Settings by Three Composers," (DMA Document, Belmont University, 2022),
