The poetry of Thomas Merton

 set to the Music of John Jacob Niles

In 1967, John Jacob Niles was in the process of composing music to some poems of Thomas Merton.  John Jacob had been introduced to the poetry by Victor Hammer and his wife, Carolyn. He was then working on the first songs when Jackie Roberts asked him for help in selecting some of his music for a recital she was preparing.

At this meeting John Jacob asked Jackie to sing one of the unpublished songs. This started a professional association that lasted until John Jacob's death in 1980.  In the following years, Rena Niles managed Jackie's concerts until her death in 1996.

John Jacob Niles, Jackie Roberts, Thomas Merton, Janelle Dishman

Thomas Merton, John Jacob Niles, Jackie Roberts

 In 1967, Thomas Merton visited "Boot Hill Farm", the Niles home and studio and heard some of the first three completed pieces, "Messenger", "Carol", and "Responsory".  His reaction  to the music is described in his restricted journal dated Oct. 29, 1967. "Jackie Roberts in her green dress was unforgettable, and the pianist was a sweet dark girl too. I was so grateful to them for their own response to the music and the poems.....It was an afternoon I enjoyed, and I burst into tears at Jackie's singing".  Merton visited Boot Hill farm the following year shortly before his Eastern journey. He heard seven more of the songs, "Sundown", "When Your Point your Finger", "The Lament of the Maiden", "The Weathercock on the Cathedral at Quito", "Love Winter When the Plant Says Nothing" and "Evening". 

Jackie Roberts, Nancie Field, John Jacob Niles

The Completion of  the Song Cycle

Thomas Merton never heard the first public performance of the Niles-Merton work.  He died tragically in Bangkok in December 1968.  After Merton's death, the songs continued to pour out of Johnnie's pen until 22 pieces had been written.  The first performance of all 22 songs at the Newman Center at the University of Kentucky.

Since then

Since 1996, Jacqueline Roberts, with Nancie Field, has edited the final proofs of the Niles-Merton Songs by Mark Foster Music Company and has selected and edited the last eight songs in  "The Songs of John Jacob Niles", published by G. Schirmer.  She has also written, with Kirsten Warner, "A Journey With John Jacob Niles", the story of their musical collaboration.