Top of page

Song-Collection As Adam Early in the Morning

Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, [New York]: N. Currier, 1848.
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, [New York]: N. Currier, 1848. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

by Ned Rorem, b. 1923.

With more than 500 songs in his catalog, Ned Rorem is one of the most prolific composers of the American art song. Heavily influenced by his interest in poetry, Rorem has described the song as "a lyrical poem of moderate length set to music for single voice and piano." In choosing texts, Rorem has the innate ability to select those of exquisite craftsmanship. While Rorem has set the texts of British poets, including Edmund Spenser, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Alfred Lord Tennyson, he has also favored American writers such as Theodore Roethke, Paul Goodman, and Walt Whitman. Indeed, Rorem has turned to Whitman's writings as inspiration for a number of his compositions, including Five Songs to Poems by Walt Whitman for voice and piano (1957); War Scenes (1969); The Whitman Cantata (1983); and Goodbye My Fancy (1988).

"As Adam Early in the Morning" is contained in a collection of Rorem's songs entitled 14 Songs on American Poetry, published in 1961 by Henmar Press/C.F. Peters; however, in the liner notes accompanying a recording issued by the Phoenix label (1991), featuring bass-baritone Donald Gramm and pianist Eugene Istomin, Rorem recalls that the song itself was actually composed in the summer of 1957 while he was in Hyères, France. The songs were commissioned by and dedicated to Walder Luke Burnap, who premiered the songs, self-accompanied, in New York in the spring of 1958.

The short poem comes from the "Children of Adam" series of poems in Whitman's Leaves of Grass (1881-82). "As Adam Early in the Morning" is an appropriate finale to this series of poems in that it reaffirms its reiterated theme of Adam in paradise, having awakened, afresh and renewed, and at ease with his own body and his own existence. Whitman's suggestion is that by finding acceptance in our own bodies, we have possibly found true freedom. To reflect the sensual nature of the text, Rorem supplied a maestoso melody over a series of sustained chords. The song is infused with a pseudo-jazz coloring through the use of seventh, ninth, and eleventh chords throughout the composition.

About this Item

Title

  • As Adam Early in the Morning

Headings

  • -  Rorem, Ned, 1923-
  • -  Parlor and Concert Stage
  • -  Songs and Music
  • -  contemporary america (1945-present)
  • -  Songs Collections

Genre

  • song collection

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress is providing access to these materials for educational and research purposes and makes no warranty with regard to their use for other purposes. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or other rights holders (such as holders of publicity and/or privacy rights) is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. There may be content that is protected as "works for hire" (copyright may be held by the party that commissioned the original work) and/or under the copyright or neighboring-rights laws of other nations.

Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permission ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Users should consult the bibliographic information that accompanies each item for specific information. This catalog data provides the details known to the Library of Congress regarding the corresponding items and may assist users in making independent assessments of the legal status of these items as related to their desired uses.

Items included here with the permission of the rights holders are indicated as such in the bibliographic record for each item.

In some cases, the Library was unable to identify a possible rights holder and has elected to place some of those items online as an exercise of fair use for strictly non-commercial educational uses. The Library of Congress would like to learn more about these materials and would like to hear from individuals or institutions that have any additional information or know of their history. Please contact:  Performing Arts Reading Room.

Suggested credit line: Library of Congress.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

As Adam Early in the Morning. Web.. https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200182582/.

APA citation style:

As Adam Early in the Morning. [Web.] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200182582/.

MLA citation style:

As Adam Early in the Morning. Web.. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200182582/>.