1997

Evidence of Things Not Seen

Composed by Ned Rorem

Song Collection

Rorem's massive song cycle Evidence of Things Not Seen sets 36 poems by a total of 24 authors. The majority of the writers are American. The non-American writers included in the cycle are W.H. Auden, William Wordsworth, Thomas Ken, Oscar Wilde, A.E. Housman, W.B. Yeats, and English translations of Julien Green, Colette, and Charles Baudelaire. The cycle premiered in 1997 at the New York Festival of Song, and the songs are divided among four singers (a soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and baritone). The cycle also is divided into three sections: Beginnings, Middles, and Ends. According to Anthony Tommasini in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians: "...the first [Beginnings], includes songs about moving forward and the ‘wistful optimism of love’; ‘Middles’, the second, touches on coming of age and the horrors of war; ‘Ends’ treats issues of death, inspired, in part, by friends of the composer stricken by AIDS. " --Christie Finn

Song Listing

BEGINNINGS:

1. From Whence Cometh Song (Roethke)
2. The Open Road (Whitman)
3. O Where Are You Going? (Auden)
4. The Rainbow (Wordsworth)
5. How Do I Love Thee? (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
6. Life in a Love (Robert Browning)
7. Their Lonely Betters (Auden)
8. His Beauty Sparkles (Goodman)
9. Boy With a Baseball Glove (Goodman)
10. A Glimpse (Whitman)
11. I Am He (Whitman)
12. Love Cannot Fill (Millay)
13. The More Loving One (Auden)
14. Hymn For Morning (Ken)

MIDDLES:

15. I Saw A Mass (Woolman)
16. The Comfort of Friends (Penn)
17. A Dead Statesman (Kipling)
18. The Candid Man (Crane)
19. Comment on War (Hughes)
20. A Learned Man (Crane)
21. Dear, Though the Night (Auden)
22. Requiescat (Wilde)
23. Is My Team Ploughing (Housman)
24. As I Walked Out One Evening (Auden)
25. The Sick Wife (Kenyon)
26. Now is the Dreadful Midnight (Goodman)
27. Hymn For Evening (Ken)

ENDS:

28. He Thinks Upon His Death (Green, excerpted from L’autre sommeil and translated from the original French)
29. On an Echoing Road (Colette, excerpted from L’etoile vesper and translated from the original French)
30. A Terrible Disaster (Goodman)
31. Come In (Frost)
32. The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water (Yeats)
33. End of the Day (Baudelaire, La fin de la journée, translated from the original French)
34. Faith (Doty)
35. Even Now… (Monette)
36. Evidence of Things not Seen (William Penn)

Songs

From Whence Cometh Song1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremTheodore RoethkeThe Open Road1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremWalt WhitmanHow Do I Love Thee?1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremElizabeth Barrett BrowningLife in a Love1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremRobert BrowningHis Beauty Sparkles1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremPaul GoodmanBoy With a Baseball Glove1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremPaul GoodmanA Glimpse1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremWalt WhitmanI Am He1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremWalt WhitmanLove Cannot Fill1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremEdna St. Vincent MillayI Saw a Mass1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremJohn WoolmanThe Comfort of Friends1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremWilliam PennA Dead Statesman1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremRudyard KiplingThe Candid Man1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremStephen CraneComment on War1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremLangston HughesA Learned Man1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremStephen CraneThe Sick Wife1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremJane KenyonNow is the Dreadful Midnight1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremPaul GoodmanA Terrible Disaster1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremPaul GoodmanCome In1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremRobert FrostFaith1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremMark DotyEven Now…1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremPaul MonetteEvidence of Things Not Seen1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremWilliam Penn

Sheet Music

Evidence of Things Not Seen

Ned Rorem
Buy via Boosey & Hawkes