Editing Ned Rorem (section)

===1957–1973: Return to the US===
{{external media
| topic  = ''4 Poems of Walt Whitman'' (1957)
| video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFglvRBCiwo Performance] by [[Susan Graham]] (mezzo-soprano) and [[Malcolm Martineau]] (piano)
}}
Rorem returned to the US in either 1957 or 1958 to further pursue composition.{{sfn|Holmes|Tommasini|McDonald|2003|loc=§ para 4}}{{refn|Modern sources are divided on the exact year Rorem returned to the US. {{harvtxt|Ewen|1982|p=541}} and {{harvtxt|Page|2022}} give 1957, while {{harvtxt|McDonald|1989|p=8}} and {{harvtxt|Holmes|Tommasini|McDonald|2003|loc=§ para 4}} give 1958.|group=n}} By now, his music had attracted the attention of several important American musicians and ensembles, and most of his compositions from the 1960s onwards were commissions.{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=8}} In 1959, the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]] under [[Eugene Ormandy]] premiered Rorem's ''Eagles'', a Whitman-inspired and dreamlike [[tone poem]].{{sfn|Ewen|1982|pp=541–542}}{{refn|The same piece was later performed by [[Leopold Stokowski]] for his 1964 debut with the [[Boston Symphony Orchestra]].{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=541}}|group=n}} His Symphony No. 3 (1958) was premiered by Bernstein and the [[New York Philharmonic]] in 1959 to critical praise; the [[New York Herald Tribune]]'s music editor Jay S. Harrison called it "lavish, luscious, and luxe".{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=542}} Conversely, his first full-length opera, ''[[Miss Julie (Rorem opera)|Miss Julie]]'', was not well received at its 1965 premiere at the [[New York City Opera]].{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=11}} Rorem received commissions from organizations such as the [[Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge]] Foundation, [[Ford Foundation]] and [[Koussevitzky Foundation]] among others.{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=10}} By this time, he was established as a [[Neoromanticism (music)|neoromantic]] composer, who largely rejected a strict application of [[modernism (music)|modernist]] techniques or emerging genres such as [[electroacoustic music]].{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=542}}

Rorem held his first teaching position at the [[University of Buffalo]] from 1959 to 1960, during which he wrote ''11 Studies for 11 Players''.{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=542}} A few years later he taught composition at the [[University of Utah]] from 1965 to 1967.{{sfn|Holmes|Tommasini|McDonald|2003|loc=§ para 4}} His short tenures were because he believed that "this is the kind of assignment that should not last more than two years as a teacher begins to believe what he says after that long a time and becomes sterile".{{sfn|McDonald|1989|pp=10–11}} His compositions of the time included more instrumental music, although songs remained a central aspect of his activities.{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=9}} These songs were largely set to 20th-century American poets, though copyright issues sometimes prevented their immediate publication.{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=9}} Among these was the song cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano, ''Poems of Love and Rain'' (1963), written to texts by [[W. H. Auden]], [[Emily Dickinson]], [[Howard Moss]] and [[Theodore Roethke]].{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=542}} Premiered by [[Regina Sarfaty]] and Rorem at the piano on April 12, 1964, it included two different musicals settings for each of the poems.{{sfn|Ewen|1982|p=542}}

Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Rorem struggled with alcoholism.{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=8}} He commented that "The minute a drop of wine touches my lips I begin to be this other person—an infantile regression takes place", though he insisted that he "not be categorized as an alcoholic because [he had] such a puritanical sense of order".{{sfn|Gruen|1972|p=81}} Although he scheduled it carefully, he admitted to feeling a strong sense of guilt when drinking, which he considered detrimental to his artistic creativity.{{sfn|Gruen|1972|pp=80–81}} Rorem attended [[Alcoholics Anonymous]] meetings and used [[Antabuse]], with little success.{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=9}} In late 1967, he became partners with the organist James Roland Holmes; their relationship offered enough stability for Rorem to abandon alcohol completely.{{sfn|McDonald|1989|p=9}}{{sfn|Tommasini|1999}}