Ned Rorem

Composer Ned Rorem died earlier today at 99, a few weeks after that birthday. He was a Pulitzer Prize winner, the composer of hundreds of songs, a dozen operas, and many other works. He wrote prolifically about music. He was also, notoriously, the author of tell-all diaries about his life, drinking, and (very gay!) sexual adventures. I read The Paris Diary and The New York Diary decades ago; I expect that I was a lot more shocked than I would be today, and also that I would read them rather differently today.

• Tim Page, Washington Post
• Daniel Lewis, NY Times. (This obituary originally stated that in the 1950s, Rorem met "the composers Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud and Erik Satie," which, no, he did not, because Satie died in 1925. I was one of the people who sent in an error report.)
• Dean Olsher, NPR
• Josh Barone, NYTimes 
• Alex Ross