Rorem, composed

I was glad to find in Calendar an excellent, extended profile by Johanna Keller of one of our leading American composers, Ned Rorem (“A Prolific Paradox,” March 2).

One small suggestion might be offered to amend her statement that Rorem “resisted the temptation to write serial music.” Not so.

In his first full-length opera, “The Anniversary,” written in 1962 in Los Angeles at the Huntington Hartford Foundation, he set a tone row on the title page. The opera in two acts contains tone row architecture of the Rorem kind.

I ought to know, since he used my libretto and set it for singing throughout, without any prose recitative.

Jascha Kessler

Santa Monica