Explore every episode of the podcast Hearing The Pulitzers

In this special bonus episode, Dave and Andrew talk with 2011 Pulitzer Winner Zhou Long. Where did he find the libretto for Madame White Snake? What does he think of people analyzing the opera's music? And what role did Bedřich Smetana play in the opera's creation? We hope you enjoy hearing from him about these insights and more!

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore an opera by the composer of our podcast theme, Zhou Long. It's been fifty years since another staged opera won the prize. Is this a worthy work to break that streak? They discuss the opera's synopsis, the music, and how Zhou Long blends Eastern and Western music and themes in the opera.

If you'd like more information about Zhou Long and Madame White Snake, we recommend:

1. Tong Cheng Blackburn, “In Search of Third Space: Composing the Transcultural Experience in the Operas of Bright Sheng, Tan Dun, and Zhou Long” PhD diss., Indiana University, 2015.
2. Fang Bo [方博], “The Transtextual Gender Construction in the Opera Madame White Snake.” Asian-European Music Research Journal 7 (Summer 2021): 1–18.
3. Lu Tan, “The Integration of Chinese and Western Elements in Zhou Long’s Opera Madame White Snake” DMA essay, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2024.
4. Zhou Long's publication site.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore a concerto by one of the most-performed living composers, Jennifer Higdon. Will they think the concerto deserves more play? How does it fit with the other Pulitzer concerto winners?

If you'd like more information about Jennifer Higdon, we recommend:

1. This series of YouTube interviews between Higdon and Hilary Hahn
2. Christina Reitz's book Jennifer Higdon: Composing in Color (McFarland, 2018)
3. Laura Dallman's article "Considering autonomy and collaboration in three concerti by Jennifer Higdon" in The Routledge Handbook of Women's Work in Music (2021)

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore Steve Reich's Double Sextet, but can't help but talk about his earlier work. How does this later piece stack up to classics like Music for 18 Musicians? Could we also view this as a lifetime achievement award for a composer whose music would not have been considered for the Pulitzer Prize in the 1970s? 

If you'd like more information about Steve Reich, we recommend:

1. Steve Reich, Writings on Music, 1968 - 2000 (Oxford University Press)
2. Steve Reich, Conservations (Hanover)
3. Keith Potter, Four Musical Minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass (Cambridge University Press)

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore an oratorio for voice and percussion that mingles minimalism, Bach, and a fairy tale. Will that mixture prove potent for them? And has Andrew ever been more excited for a particular winning piece? 

If you'd like more information about David Lang and The Little Match Girl Passion, we recommend:

1. David Lang's website
2. Dominic Wells's "In the Footsteps of Bach's St. Matthew Passion: The Passion Setting of David Lang and James MacMillan" Tempo 67, no. 264 (2013): 40–51.
3. Tom Service's BBC podcast "The Listening Service" on The Match Girl Passion
4. William Robin's Industry: Bang on a Can and New Music in the Marketplace New York: Oxford University Press, 2021

In this episode, Dave and Andrew listen to the first work without a written score to ever win a Pulitzer, Ornette Coleman's album Sound Grammar. What will they think about this new direction for the prize? And it wouldn't be Hearing the Pulitzers without discussing some drama from the judges! We also discuss a special certificate granted to a deserving late jazz musician.

If you'd like more information about Ornette Coleman, we recommend:

1. Stephen Rush's book Free Jazz, Harmolodics, and Ornette Coleman (Routledge, 2016)
2. Michael Stephan's book Experiencing Ornette Coleman: A Listener's Companion (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017)
3. Nathan Frink's dissertation "Dancing in His Head: The Evolution of Ornette Coleman's Music and Compositional Philosophy" (University of Pittsburgh, 2016) 

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss a piano concerto that the composer, Yehudi Wyner, said "permits expression of the raunchy as well as the refined." How will that duality sit with the hosts? Why doesn't a distinguished composer like Wyner get more performances?? And what former PP winners make an appearance in the episode? 

If you'd like more information about Yehudi Wyner, we recommend:

• June Yin-Hsuan Chen's dissertation, "Analysis of Yehudi Wyner's Piano Concerto, 'Chiavi in Mano'"
• Chapter 17: "A Tale of Two Concertos: The Piano Concertos of Yehudi Wyner and Bernard Rands" in Observations on Music, Culture, and Politics by Daniel Asia
• David Cleary's "An Intoxicating Wyner at 70" in The New Music Connoisseur 8, no. 2 (2000) 9–10.

In 2020, Dave and Andrew released their 9th episode, covering Douglas Moore's forgotten opera Giants in the Earth without being able to hear it or even see the score. Now, after 50 years after the last performance, Giants in the Earth has appeared again in a new production by the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra. Will it be a hit or a miss?

If you'd like to know more about the performance, we recommend:

1. Information about the live performance by the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra
2. The streaming performance of Giants in the Earth
3. Joshua Barone's coverage of the performance in the New York Times, "An Operatic ‘Diamond on the Side of the Road’ Catches Light Again."

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore a concerto for orchestra that achieved great heights by, in the words of its creator Steven Stucky, "standing on the shoulders of those who have already cleared the path ahead." But will our hosts appreciate the view? And who were some of the other nominees this year? We also discuss a rule change within the Pulitzer Prize award process that took effect with this year's winner. 

If you'd like more information about Steven Stucky, we recommend:

1. "Stucky, Hartke, Crockett: Conversations in Los Angeles." Contemporary Music Review, 10, no. 1 (1994): 51–73.
2. Franklin Crawford, "Steal this concerto, please: An interview with Steven Stucky" Cornell Chronicle, April 21, 2005.
3. Steven Stucky, Lutosławski and his Music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981).
4. This Washington Post article about the changes to the music prize from June 2004.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew dive into a work inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest. Will the work live up to the Bard's reputation? And does this piece fit into the typical mold of a Pulitzer Prize winning work? 

If you'd like more information about Paul Moravec, we recommend:

1. Paul Moravec's personal website
2. Dialogue with Moravec for the Kansas City Lyric Opera's production of The Shining
3. Paul Moravec's short article “Tonality and Transcendence.” Contemporary Music Review vol. 6. no. 2 (1992): 39–42.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew go back to the events of 9/11 and listen to a piece memorializing the day. But will they find the piece moving or maudlin? And how does the piece hold up some 20+ years later? By this point, John Adams was a famous composer, but should this particular piece of his have won the prize? 

If you'd like more information about John Adams, we recommend:

1. His memoir Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life (you can read an excerpt at NPR).
2. Dan Blim's article referenced in the show, "Disunity and the Commemoration of 9/11 in John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls" Journal of the Society for American Music, 7, no. 4 (November 2013): 382-420.
3. Kalle Puolakka's article "Public Art and Dewey’s Democratic Experience: The Case of John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls" The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 74, No. 4 (2016): 371-81.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore the first experimental composer to win the Pulitzer since Charles E. Ives. With that pedigree, what will they think of Henry Brant's Ice Field? And why is this piece called a "spatial" composition?

If you'd like to learn more about Henry Brant and Ice Field, we recommend:

1. This video of the work with commentary from Michael Tilson Thomas and organist Cameron Carpenter
2. Maria Anna Harley's article “An American in Space: Henry Brant’s ‘Spatial Music.’” American Music 15, no. 1 (1997): 70–92.
3. Frank Oteri's 2002 interview with Henry Brant in New Music Box

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore the symphony of John Corigliano they don't know. After appreciating Corigliano's first and third symphonies, what will they think of the second? This piece, a rescoring and revision of Corigliano's String Quartet, is another in a recent stretch of winning works that began in a different form. 

If you'd like to learn more about Corigliano, we recommend:

1. This interview with Corigliano by Living the Classical Life
2. Corigliano's composer's note about the Symphony No. 2
3. Elizabeth Bergman's “Of Rage and Remembrance, Music and Memory: The Work of Mourning in John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1 and Choral Chaconne.” American Music 31, no. 3 (2013): 340–61

In this episode, Dave and Andrew talk about a curious winner for the year 2000 since it was originally composed 25 years earlier! What will they think about this blast from the past? It's also the first opera to win the Pulitzer Prize in many decades.

If you'd like more information about Lewis Spratlan, we recommend:

1. This video of Spratlan talking about the origins of the opera before the full premiere by the Santa Fe Opera.
2. This video of Spratlan detailing the opera's history with the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
3. A. Robert Lauer's article "The Santa Fe Opera’s Life Is a Dream" Bulletin of the Comediantes, Volume 63, Number 2 (2011): 155-60.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore a concerto featuring an instrument not often put into a concerto setting: the flute. But its title also promises a balance among three forces instead of a featured soloist. What will they think of this contradictory piece?

If you'd like more information about Melinda Wagner, we recommend:

1. Frank Oteri's excellent interview with Melinda Wagner from 2015
2. Yujia Xia's dissertation "Melinda Wagner and Her Piano Concerto: Extremity of Sky" from 2021.
3. Mark Alburger, "Winning the Pulitzer Can Brighten Your Whole Day: An Interview with Melinda Wagner," 20th-Century Music 6, no. 6 (1999): 1-7.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew return to the venerable string quartet for a piece that mixes tonality, modernist music, Baroque dances, and Medieval modality. But will this mixture work for them?

If you'd like more information about Aaron Jay Kernis and the String Quartet #2, we recommend:

1. Leta Miller's book Aaron Jay Kernis, the first biography of the composer that we reference several times in the episode.
2. A conversation between Kernis and Frank Oteri right after the biography was published.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew go deep into the tangled history surrounding the first jazz piece to ever win the Pulitzer Prize in Music, Wynton Marsalis's Blood on the Fields. But what will they think of the changes to the Pulitzer that allowed a largely-improvised piece to win an award previously reserved for notated music?

If you'd like more information about Wynton Marsalis, we recommend:

1. Wynton Marsalis's official website
2. Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life by Wynton Marsalis and Geoffrey Ward
3. David Stowe's article "The Diasporic Imagination of Wynton Marsalis," in The Black Urban Community, edited by Gayle T. Tate and Lewis A. Randolph (Palgrave, 2006)
4. Matthew Alan Thomas's dissertation "Dynamic canons: How the Pulitzer Prize, documentary film, and the U.S. Department of State are changing the way we think about jazz," University of Southern California, 2011

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss a song cycle in all but name, George Walker's Lilacs. From the outside, this win looks like another lifetime achievement award, but is it? And does Lilacs remind them of music from an earlier period in the Pulitzer's history?

If you'd like more information about George Walker or Lilacs, we recommend:

1. Ginger Sharnell Jones-Robinson's DMA document, "An Analysis of Selected Vocal Works by George Walker" from the University of South Carolina, 2023.
2. Mikey Thomas Terry's interview with George Walker, The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 84, No. 3 (2000), pp. 372–88
3. This short documentary on Walker and his music

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss a composer from an earlier generation winning a Pulitzer in the twilight of his career. What will they think of Stringmusic?

If you'd like more information about Morton Gould, we recommend:

1. J. Wesley Flinn's article, "Developing Variation in the Late Work of Morton Gould and Why It Matters" Gamut vol. 10. no. 1 (2021)
2. Lee Evan's dissertation, "Morton Gould: His Life and Music," Columbia University, 1978.
3. Peter Goodman's book, Morton Gould: American Salute (Amadeus Press, 2003).

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss one of the composers Dave wishes he had met, Gunther Schuller. But does Schuller's winning work Of Reminiscences and Reflections live up to his high expectations?

If you'd like more information about Gunther Schuller, we recommend:

1. Schuller's autobiography, A Life in Pursuit of Music and Beauty
2. The Gunther Schuller Society
3. Read "The Compleat Musician in the Complete Conservatory" in Schuller's collection of essays, Musings. 

In this episode, Dave and Andrew consider one of the few concertos to win the Pulitzer Prize, this time for an instrument whose sound some critics claimed grew "tiresome." Will they agree? And what famous composer's music is quoted in the piece?

If you'd like more information about Christopher Rouse, we recommend:

1. This interview with Joe Alessi mentioned in the episode.
2. R. Burkhardt Reiter's 2005 dissertation, Symmetry and Narrative in Christopher Rouse's Trombone Concerto with white space waiting (an original composition for chamber orchestra). 
3. Laurie Shulman's article, "Christopher Rouse: An Overview" in Tempo, no. 199 (1997): 2-8.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew address one of the most controversial awards in Pulitzer history. What happened in 1992 and was Wayne Peterson's music worthy of the ruckus that grew around it? 

If you'd like more information about Wayne Peterson, we recommend:

1. Joshua Kosman's Obituary of the composer in the New York Times.
2. Peterson's professional management service (with discography, video, etc.)
3. The Boston Modern Orchestra Project's recording of The Face of the Night, The Heart of the Dark.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew are joined by Howard Pollack, John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Music at the University of Houston. Dr. Pollack is the author of acclaimed biographies of several Pulitzer Prize winners from the early years, including a recent biography of two-time winner Samuel Barber.

About Howard Pollack

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore the second Pulitzer Prize in music won by a female composer, Shulamit Ran for her Symphony, in 1991. What will they think about this fourth freely-atonal work in a row to win the prize? And what snags did they run into researching this episode?

As mentioned in the podcast, here is Shulamit Ran performing with the New York Philharmonic in 1965:

If you'd like more information on Shulamit Ran, we recommend:

1. Malcolm Miller, "Between Two Cultures: A Conversation with Shulamit Ran" Tempo, 2004, 58(227):15-32.
2. "Casting Musical Spells: Time, Passion, and Inevitability in the Music of Shulamit Ran,"  In: Kouvaras, L., Williams, N., Grenfell, M. (eds) The Composer, Herself. Palgrave Macmillan (2023).

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore a composer who played with Benny Goodman as a jazz pianist, and then embraced Arnold Schoenberg's musical ideas as a member of the academy. What kind of music does that concoction create? Listen to this episode on Duplicates, Powell's winning piece for two pianos and orchestra.

If you'd like more information about Mel Powell, we recommend:

1. Sally Lamb, “An Analytical Guide to the Works of Mel Powell.” DMA diss., Cornell University, 1988.
2. Jeffrey Perry, "Constructing a Relevant Past: Mel Powell's Beethoven Analogs" American Music 29, no. 4 (2011): 491–535.

Finally, you might like to see Mel Powell in action with Benny Goodman:

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore a work for string orchestra that Kyle Gann opined was the first experimental composition to win the Pulitzer since Charles Ives. Given how much Dave loves Ives, how does he react to Whispers Out of Time? How does the piece fit in the context of music written in the late 1980s?

If you'd like more information about Roger Reynolds, we recommend:

1. Kyle Gann's American Music in the 20th Century (Schirmer, 1997).
2. Roger Reynolds's "Ideals and Realities: A Composer in America" American Music Vol. 25, No. 1 (2007): 4-49.

In this special bonus episode, Dave and Andrew talk with 1988 Pulitzer Prize Winner William Bolcom. What is the difference between the Etudes and the New Etudes? What impact did John Cage have on his career? And who is answering the phone? We hope you enjoy hearing from him about these insights and many more!

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss the first solo piano work to ever win a Pulitzer Prize. And they try to answer the question–if these are "new" etudes, what are the "old" etudes? They also examine how Bolcom incorporates various styles and techniques into the etudes, and ponder the set's historical place among other etude collections.

If you'd like more information about William Bolcom, we recommend:

1. Henry S. Jones's dissertation "William Bolcom's Twelve New Etudes for Piano" (Louisiana State University, 1994).
2. Ji Sun Lee's dissertation "Revolutionary Etudes: The Expansion of Piano Technique Exploited in the Twelve New Etudes of William Bolcom" (University of Arizona, 2001)
3. William Bolcom's website.

And if you'd like to read Dave's interview with Marc-André Hamelin (who premiered the entire set), you can find it here.

In this special bonus episode, Dave and Andrew talk with Pulitzer Winner John Harbison. Why did he decide to play the tuba? What was it like to study composition with two-time winner Walter Piston? What was the impetus for looking at the darker side of Christmas in The Flight Into Egypt? We hope you enjoy hearing from him about these insights and many more!

In this episode Dave and Andrew discuss a composer known for his eclecticism, who writes music that features the influence of jazz, Stravinskian neoclassicism, Schoenbergian serialism, and a variety of popular idioms. But will that mixture of styles win them over when applied to a Biblical text about the "dark side" of Christmas?

If you'd like more information about Harbison, we recommend:

1. Brian Galante's dissertation "John Harbison's The Flight into Egypt: An Analysis for Performance," University of North Texas, 2008.
2. Mike Seabrook's "John Harbison and His Music," Tempo 197 (July 1996): 7–11.
3. Tom Jacob's profile in the San Francisco Classical Voice.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss someone they know primarily as a music theorist. George Perle is celebrated for his theoretical work on twelve-tone theory and Alban Berg's music, but how does he stack up as a composer? And what do they think of the first woodwind quintet to win a Pulitzer?

For more information about George Perle, we recommend:

1. George Perle, Twelve-Tone Tonality, 2nd edition (University of California Press, 1996).
2. George Perle, The Operas of Alban Berg, Vol I and Vol II (University of California Press, 1989).
3. Elliott Antokoletz, "George Perle: Man, Composer, and Theorist," Theory and Practice 33 (2008): 55-63.
4. Steven Rosenhaus, "Harmonic Motion in George Perle's Wind Quintet No. 4" Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1995.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew continue discussing the streak of Neo-Romantic winners of the Pulitzer Prize in music with Stephen Albert's Symphony RiverRun. But will this symphony win them over?

For more information about Stephen Albert, we recommend:

1. Ron Petrides's dissertation "Pitch Organization in Stephen Albert's Symphony RiverRun: A Study in Modal Combinations and Tonal Centricity" PhD Diss, NYU, 2008.
2. Holly Watkins's article "The Pastoral After Environmentalism: Nature and Culture in Stephen Albert's Symphony: RiverRun" Current Musicology, no. 84 (2007): 7-24.
3. Stephen Albert's Website (maintained by Alissa Grimaldi)

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss a composer associated with New Romanticism. But is that label reductive or does it accurately describe Bernard Rands's music? How about this song cycle based on poems about the sun?

If you'd like more information about Rands, we recommend:

1. Will Robin's article "Horizons ’83, Meet the Composer, and New Romanticism’s New Marketplace" in Musical Quarterly, Vol. 102, nos. 2-3 (2019): 158–99.
2. Benjamin Rivera's thesis "An Introduction to the Musical Language of Bernard Rands, as Demonstrated in Canti d'Amor" from Roosevelt University in 2005.
3. Bruce Duffie's interview with Bernard Rands.

In this special bonus episode, Dave and Andrew talk with Pulitzer Winner Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. What did she learn studying at Florida State University and with former Pulitzer winners Roger Sessions and Elliott Carter? And why does she have a framed "Peanuts" cartoon in her studio? We hope you enjoy hearing from her about these insights and more!

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss the first female Pulitzer Prize winner, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, who wrote a symphony of all things. What will they think about the first symphony to win the prize since Walter Piston's Symphony No. 7 back in 1961?

As promised in the episode, here's Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's appearance in Peanuts.

If you'd like more information about Zwilich, we recommend:

1. Julie Schnepel's article "Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Symphony No. 1: Developing Variation in the 1980s" in Indiana Theory Review Vol. 10 (Spring and Fall 1989): 1-19
2. Anthony J. Palmer's "Interview with Ellen Taaffe Zwilich" in Philosophy of Music Education Review Vol. 19, No. 1 (Spring 2011): 80-99.
3. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's website.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss the third winner of the Pulitzer Prize to study with Horatio Parker at Yale, Roger Sessions, for his Concerto for Orchestra. Since the other two winners were Charles Ives and Quincy Porter, it isn't a shock that Sessions was 85 years old when he won. What will they think about this blast from the past?

If you'd like to learn more about Roger Sessions, we recommend:

1. Roger Sessions on Music: Collected Essays, edited by Edward T. Cone (Princeton University Press, 1979).
2. Andrea Olmstead's book Roger Sessions: A Biography (Routledge, 2008).
3. The Correspondence of Roger Sessions by Andrea Olmstead and Roger Sessions (Northeastern University Press, 1992)
4. The Roger Sessions Society

In this episode, Dave and Andrew cover the fourth and final time (so far) that the Pulitzer Board decided not to award a music prize. Unlike 1965, which was the last year they didn't award the prize, 1981 wasn't mired in controversy. So why did the Pulitzer Board not award a prize and what should have won? As a bonus, Dave and Andrew also discuss lessons learned after covering 40 years of the Pulitzer Prize and make predictions for what's to come!

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss a composer Aaron Copland called a "rare find among composers — a creator with a truly original gift." Will they agree with Copland about David Del Tredici's In Memory of a Summer Day?

If you'd like more information about David Del Tredici, we recommend:

1. Contemporary Music Review's issue on New Tonality, volume 6, issue 2 (1992), including Paul Moravec's interview with Del Tredici.
2. J. D. Dolan's article on Del Tredici in BOMB, No. 60 (Summer 1997): 42-45
3. James E. Chute's dissertation "The reemergence of tonality in contemporary music as shown in the works of David Del Tredici, Joseph Schwantner, and John Adams" (University of Cincinnati, 1991)
4. A recent interview with Del Tredici

In this episode, Andrew and Dave explore a composer they first encountered with his music for wind band. In his Pulitzer-winning work, Schwantner fashioned a composition critics have described as creating a "poetic illusion—but only an illusion— of movement." Will this illusion win them over?

If you'd like more information about Schwantner we recommend:

1. James Chute's dissertation "The reemergence of tonality in contemporary music as shown in the works of David Del Tredici, Joseph Schwantner, and John Adams" (University of Cincinnati, 1991)
2. Schwantner's website

3. Cynthia Folio's article "The synthesis of traditional and contemporary elements in Joseph Schwantner's 'Sparrows,'" Perspectives of New Music, vol. 24, no. 1 (1985): 184-96.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew record their first live podcast event! In front of the Kansas City Conducting Symposium, they discuss an unusual work for the Pulitzers in that Michael Colgrass featured the percussion section of the orchestra. Will they enjoy this departure from standard orchestration?

If you'd like more information about Colgrass, we recommend:

1. Colgrass's autobiographies Adventures of an American Composer and My Lessons with Kumi 
2. James Donald Broadhurst's dissertation "The early drum-melodic music of Michael Colgrass and the evolution of the Colgrass drum" (The Ohio State University, 2005)

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss a Pulitzer winner that has so fallen out of the repertoire that there is no commercially available recording. But that doesn't mean there aren't interesting things to learn about the state of music in the late 1970s! For example, why was there an extra meeting of the jury, and did all the members participate in the deliberations? Listen to find out! 

If you'd like more information about Richard Wernick, we recommend:

1. This interview with Wernick from 2021 with the Network for New Music
2. Michael Rose's dissertation "Unity in diversity: the synthesis of compositional approaches in Richard Wernick's Vision of terror and wonder"
3. Bruce Duffie's interview with Wernick

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In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore a composer better known for his songs who won for an orchestral work, Ned Rorem. They may enjoy The Nantucket Songs but what will they think about Air Music?

And was Air Music actually supposed to win the Pulitzer Prize??? Tune in to find out.

If you'd like to know more about Ned Rorem, we recommend:

1. Ned Rorem, The Paris and the New York Diaries, 1951-1961, Open Road Media
2. J.D. McClatchy's 1999 interview with Ned Rorem in The Paris Review, Issue 150
3. A Ned Rorem Reader (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001)

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore the first song cycle to ever win the Pulitzer Prize, Dominick Argento's From the Diary of Virginia Woolf. Argento always remarked that his music balanced between his desire for fantasy and his need for control. Do Dave and Andrew think this work has that balance?

If you'd like more information about Dominick Argento, we recommend:

1. Jacquelyn Matava's dissertation "Dominick Argento's From the Diary of Virginia Woolf: A Preparation Guide for Performers" (Indiana University, 2014)
2. Russell Platt's New Yorker article "The Elegant Musical Vessels of Dominick Argento"
3. Argento's memoir, Catalogue Raisonnâe as Memoir: A Composer's Life (University of Minnesota Press, 2004)

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In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss a composer who is usually considered a 12-tone composer, but who also rejected labels. He famously told the New York Times in 1997 that "If anyone writes program notes and says I am a Serial or a 12-tone composer, I am infuriated." How do Dave and Andrew label Martino's music? How does Notturno fit into the style of other winners in the early 1970s?

If you'd like more information about Donald Martino and Notturno, we recommend:

1. James Praznik's 2022 dissertation "Dreaming of Single Hexachords in an Infinite Expanse: An Analysis of Movement II of Donald Martino’s Notturno"
2. The collection of articles in tribute to Martino in Perspectives of New Music 29/2 (Summer 1991)
3. Bruce Duffie's interview with Martino

In this episode, Dave and Andrew revisit Elliott Carter, who won his first Pulitzer in 1960. They awarded his String Quartet No. 2 two big thumbs up. Will they be as enthusiastic about Carter's String Quartet No. 3?

If you'd like more information about Elliott Carter and his String Quartet No. 3, we recommend:

1. This performance of the String Quartet No. 3 by the Jack Quartet.
2. Andrew W. Mead's article "Pitch Structure in Elliott Carter's String Quartet No. 3" in Perspectives of New Music,  vol. 22, no. 1/2 (Autumn, 1983 - Summer, 1984): 31-60
3. Laura Emmery's book Compositional Process in Elliott Carter's String Quartets: A Study in Sketches (Routledge, 2020)

In this episode, Dave and Andrew look through Windows at Jacob Druckman's compositional style and legacy in American music. Druckman taught at Yale and the Aspen Music Festival for years, shaping generations of young composers, and coined the term "New Romanticism" when he curated the Horizons Festivals at the NY Philharmonic in the mid-1980s. Yet today, his attempts to merge modernist techniques with audience-friendly sounds are largely forgotten. Should they be?

If you'd like to know more about Druckman, we recommend:

1. Nicholas Papador's dissertation Jacob Druckman: A Bio-Bibliography and Guide to Research, Northwestern University, 2003.
2. Druckman's interview in Cole Gagne and Tracy Caras's Soundpieces: Interviews with American Composers (Scarecrow Press, 1982)
3. Bruce Duffie speaks with Jacob Druckman

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss the first episode they have a personal connection to as Andrew has performed Mario Davidovsky's Synchronisms No. 6. How does Dave react to the third music winner to incorporate electronic sounds, and how do those sounds hold up 50 years later?

If you'd like more information about Davidovsky, we recommend:

1. Wesley True's lecture “Men, Music, and Machines. Some Thoughts Generated by the Practice and Performance of Mario Davidovsky’s Synchronisms #6 for Piano and Electronics” published in the Journal of the American Liszt Society vol. 9 (June 1981): 50-54.
2. Eric Chasalow's "Mario Davidovsky, An Introduction," Agni no. 50 (1999): 195-200.
3. Davidovsky's bio page on the Edition Peters site.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss the first fully electronic work to ever win a Pulitzer Prize, even though it was the only electronic work its composer ever wrote. Did Charles Wuorinen set a new standard for Pulitzer-winning music or was electronic music a flash in the pan?

If you're interested in learning more about Wuorinen, we recommend:

1. Charles Wuorinen's extensive website
2. Elliott Schwartz's article "Electronic Music: A Thirty-Year Retrospective" in Music Educators Journal, Vol. 64, No. 7 (March 1978): 36-41.
3. Perspective of New Music's "Charles Wuorinen: A Celebration at 80," Vol. 56, No. 2 (Summer 2018)

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore a composer renowned today for his works for wind band, but celebrated during his lifetime for music that was, in Nicolas Slonimsky's famous phrase, "oxygenated by humanistic romanticism." Join us as we try and tease out exactly what Slonimsky meant by exploring Husa's String Quartet No. 3.

If you'd like more information about Husa, we recommend:

1. Lawrence W. Hartzell's "Karel Husa: The Man and the Music" in The Musical Quarterly Vol. 62, No. 1 (Jan., 1976), pp. 87-104
2. Susan Hayes Hitchens's Karel Husa: A Bio-bibliography, published by Greenwood Press in 1991.
3. New York Times obituary for Husa by Steve Smith: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/arts/music/karel-husa-pulitzer-prize-winning-composer-dies-at-95.html

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore an early work by a composer who transformed American music with his singular vision. But how did a composer who concocted a personal aesthetic reflecting a fascination with "life, death, love, the smell of the earth, the sounds of the wind and the sea" impact artists like David Bowie and directors like William Friedkin (who used Crumb's music in The Exorcist)?

If you'd like more information about George Crumb, we recommend:

1. George Crumb's New York Times obituary
2. Thomas Riis's "A Conversation with George Crumb" in The American Music Research Center Journal, Vol. 3 (Jan 1, 1993)
3. Crumb's article "Music: Does It Have a Future?" in The Kenyon Review Vol. 2, No. 3 (Summer, 1980), pp. 115-122
4. Crumb's website: http://www.georgecrumb.net