Hearing The Pulitzers

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:

This series of YouTube interviews between Higdon and Hilary Hahn

Christina Reitz's book Jennifer Higdon: Composing in Color (McFarland, 2018)

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:

Steve Reich, Writings on Music, 1968 - 2000 (Oxford University Press)

Steve Reich, Conservations (Hanover)

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:

David Lang's website

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.

Tom Service's BBC podcast "The Listening Service" on The Match Girl Passion

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:

Stephen Rush's book Free Jazz, Harmolodics, and Ornette Coleman (Routledge, 2016)

Michael Stephan's book Experiencing Ornette Coleman: A Listener's Companion (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017)

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.