Editing Ned Rorem (section)

===1949–1957: France and Morocco===
[[File:Marie-Laure de Noailles1.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|link=Marie-Laure de Noailles|The arts patron [[Marie-Laure de Noailles]] (1949, [[Carl Van Vechten|Van Vechten]]) who allowed Rorem to stay in her Paris mansion and introduced him to other cultural figures of the city]]

Rorem later remarked that the 1940s were formative for charting his future career and by 1950 he was certain of being a composer.{{sfn|Gruen|1972|p=74}} With money from the Gershwin Prize, he left for France in early 1949, though spent much of the next two years in [[Morocco]].{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=541}}{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=6}} He was hugely productive in the comparatively quieter Morocco, and produced a variety of compositions in rapid succession.{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=6}} He later explained that "The best influence for a composer is four walls. The light must come from inside. When it comes from outside, the result is postcard music."<ref group="R">{{harvnb|Rorem|1968|p=125}}</ref> Among his earliest large-scale works, he wrote the ballet ''Melos'' in 1949, and both his Piano Concerto No. 2 and Symphony No. 1 1950.{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=541}} The ballet won the Prix de Biarritz in 1951, while the Symphony was premiered in Vienna in February 1951 by [[Jonathan Sternberg]] and the piano concerto in 1954 by [[Julius Katchen]] via French Radio.{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=541}} During this period he wrote numerous song cycles dedicated to a single textual source: ''Flight for Heaven'' (1950) to [[Robert Herrick (poet)|Robert Herrick]]; ''Six Irish Poems'' (1950) to [[George Darley]]; ''Cycle of Holy Songs'' (1951) to biblical texts; and ''To a Young Girl'' to [[W. B. Yeats]].{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=541}} He composed his first opera, ''A Childhood Miracle'', to [[Elliott Stein]]'s libretto based on ''[[The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales]]'' by [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]].{{sfn|Holmes|Tommasini|McDonald|2003|loc=§ "Works"}} Though written in 1951, the opera was not premiered until May 10, 1955, in New York.{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=541}} He later received two further honors: the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Award in 1950 and a [[Fulbright Scholarship]] in 1951.{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=541}}

On the Fulbright Scholarship, in 1951 Rorem settled in Paris to study with [[Arthur Honegger]], a representative from the [[Les Six]] group of [[Neoclassicism (music)|neoclassicist]] music.{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=6}} Unlike most young American musicians in the city, he did not study with [[Nadia Boulanger]], as she opined that her instruction might tarnish his already individual style.{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=6}} He became associated with the wealthy arts patron [[Marie-Laure de Noailles]], at whose mansion he resided.{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=541}} Through her influence, he met with the leading Parisian cultural figures of his time, including other composers of Les Six, [[Francis Poulenc]], [[Georges Auric]] and [[Darius Milhaud]].{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=541}} Their proximity solidified the French influence of his style and he set numerous medieval French poems in the 1953 song cycle ''Poémes pour la paix''.{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=541}} Other compositions written in Paris include: Piano Sonata No. 2 (1950); two ballets, ''Ballet for Jerry'' (1951) and ''Dorian Gray'' (1952); ''Design for Orchestra'' (1953); ''The Poet's Requiem'' (1955); and Symphony No. 2.{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=541}} A Paris concert in 1953 featured solely Rorem's compositions.{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=541}}