# The Pulitzer Prize for Music



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Does the Pulitzer Prize for Music recognize the best compositions? The following is a list of the most recent 20 winners. Which of these have you heard? Which do you like?

1993: Christopher Rouse, Trombone Concerto
1994: Gunther Schuller, Of Reminiscences and Reflections
1995: Morton Gould, Stringmusic
1996: George Walker, Lilacs, for soprano and orchestra
1997: Wynton Marsalis, Blood on the Fields, oratorio
1998: Aaron Jay Kernis, String Quartet No. 2, Musica Instrumentalis
1999: Melinda Wagner, Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion
2000: Lewis Spratlan, Life is a Dream, opera (awarded for concert version of Act II)
2001: John Corigliano, Symphony No. 2, for string orchestra
2002: Henry Brant, Ice Field
2003: John Adams, On the Transmigration of Souls
2004: Paul Moravec, Tempest Fantasy
2005: Steven Stucky, Second Concerto for Orchestra
2006: Yehudi Wyner, Chiavi in Mano, (piano concerto)
2007: Ornette Coleman, Sound Grammar
2008: David Lang, The Little Match Girl Passion
2009: Steve Reich, Double Sextet
2010: Jennifer Higdon, Violin Concerto
2011: Zhou Long, Madame White Snake, opera
2012: Kevin Puts, Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

> 1998: Aaron Jay Kernis, String Quartet No. 2, Musica Instrumentalis


This one: it is one intense and dramatic elegy - lyrically moving in the best of the traditional models of the string quartet. I gathered he had composed it with the death of thousands in mind...the 9/11 murders of innocent civilians. It's hard not to be touched by the intensity of his work when the reference points of his composition are marked out so transparently.

Nonetheless, it's a hard piece to listen to, over and over again.



> 2011: Zhou Long, Madame White Snake, opera


This one, if you've ever seen those awful B movie flicks about Madame White Snake and been fascinated with the Tartan Series of Asian Cinema, brings a lot of this kind of oriental fantasy-blended-mythology which is all the fad now. Personally I can't stand opera of any sort. This is no exception 

Movies like 'Painted Skin' operate in the same plane as these traditional myth folklores, which like the French Lays of the medieval era, convey a symbolism beyond the dramatic CGI generated imagery. From what I heard of White Snake, it would probably appeal to a highly strung crowd of desperate young men all waiting to get laid.

Not for me


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## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

The only one I have heard is the Reich Double Sextet from 2009.

I don't know if this means that the choices are terrible, or if I have listened to much less music that I would like to believe...


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

KenOC said:


> 1993: Christopher Rouse, Trombone Concerto
> 1994: Gunther Schuller, Of Reminiscences and Reflections


I have these two on CDs.
My preference is for Gunther Schuller (this work is also the name of the album on New World Records)

[if you included the past 30 years, I also have Mel Powell's Pulitzer Prize winner from 1990 called "Doubles" (which was released on the Harmonia Mundi label). There's a few PP winners from the early 1980s whose titles escapes my memory - one by Roger Sessions & one by E.T. Zwilich]

I think a very interesting topic would be how the Pulitzer Board has received pressure during the past 15 years or so to include more African American music (i.e. non-classical) because some groups believe that their intrinsically American music is not recognized and that the contemporary classical works getting these awards are too European in origin to reflect current American tastes. I disagree with this myself - Pulitzer Prizes should not be awarded for jazz and pop music and rap, etc.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I've only heard the Corigliano. Are there any from this list I should seek out?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Manxfeeder said:


> I've only heard the Corigliano. Are there any from this list I should seek out?


I've heard a few. The only one that impressed me was the Adams, and it's perhaps more "striking" than it is top-drawer music. Certainly an imaginative approach to a difficult commission!


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

I am familiar with the following:

1993: Christopher Rouse, Trombone Concerto*
1994: Gunther Schuller, Of Reminiscences and Reflections*
1995: Morton Gould, Stringmusic
1997: Wynton Marsalis, Blood on the Fields, oratorio*
1999: Melinda Wagner, Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion*
2001: John Corigliano, Symphony No. 2, for string orchestra**
2003: John Adams, On the Transmigration of Souls

I can only tell you what I like and dislike. My opinions here are very subjective.

*These are the are the ones I like.

**I like the second movement. The rest leave me cold. I saw a live performance and Corigliano was a guest lecturer. This was based on a string quartet. I personally prefer the quartet version.


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## wogandmush (Nov 28, 2012)

Head_case said:


> 1998: Aaron Jay Kernis, String Quartet No. 2, Musica Instrumentalis
> 
> This one: it is one intense and dramatic elegy - lyrically moving in the best of the traditional models of the string quartet. I gathered he had composed it with the death of thousands in mind...the 9/11 murders of innocent civilians. It's hard not to be touched by the intensity of his work when the reference points of his composition are marked out so transparently.


Excuse me if I've misinterpreted your post, but how could it have been composed with 9/11 in mind if it won the prize in 1998?


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## SerbenthumInDerMusik (Nov 9, 2012)

KenOC said:


> Does the Pulitzer Prize for Music recognize the best compositions? The following is a list of the most recent 20 winners. Which of these have you heard? Which do you like?


Spooky. Just before this topic popped up, I was considering opening one with the exact same theme.

On topic, I heard Adams, Higdon and Lang. Fine pieces, but I can't say they stayed in my memory for too long.


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

I'm only heard four of them, I do believe. At least, I know that I own only four of them: The Wynton, Ornette, Adams, and Reich.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

KenOC said:


> 2003: John Adams, On the Transmigration of Souls
> 2004: Paul Moravec, Tempest Fantasy
> 2007: Ornette Coleman, Sound Grammar
> 2010: Jennifer Higdon, Violin Concerto


I have heard these. I really like the Moravec.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Prodromides said:


> I have these two on CDs.
> My preference is for Gunther Schuller (this work is also the name of the album on New World Records)
> 
> [if you included the past 30 years, I also have Mel Powell's Pulitzer Prize winner from 1990 called "Doubles" (which was released on the Harmonia Mundi label). There's a few PP winners from the early 1980s whose titles escapes my memory - one by Roger Sessions & one by E.T. Zwilich]
> ...


Gunther Schuller is one of the promoters of this idea and i agree completely with him. The quality has nothing to do with genres, so if a jazz or rock piece deserves it why not.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Rouse and Corigliano. The Rouse concerto, like most of his work, is very interesting imo. Corigliano in general does less for me, and the second symphony is no exception. I will be checking out the Adams, Kernis and Higdon works.


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

> Excuse me if I've misinterpreted your post, but how could it have been composed with 9/11 in mind if it won the prize in 1998?


I'm not sure...I think I have scrambled up his pieces in my mind. I've not listened to it in over a decade.

Looking it up, it seems that he dedicated it to a friend:

http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2420&State_2874=2&workId_2874=29494

Lament & Prayer seems to be the piece he wrote with suffering and death in mind:

http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2420&State_2874=2&workId_2874=29541

I like his musical language a lot.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Hopefully the Pulitzer draws attention to worthy art that can endure. The Turner prize seems to have the opposite affect because of the lack of anything to admire once the novelty of seeing stained bedsheets, pickled carcasses and models of blow-up dolls has worn off.


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## Guest (Dec 6, 2012)

elgars ghost said:


> Hopefully the Pulitzer draws attention to worthy art that can endure.


As in "endure past my life-span?" But I won't be able to enjoy or appreciate anything once I'm dead. Nor will you. The only "worthy" that counts for any of us is "worthy to me, now."


elgars ghost said:


> The Turner prize seems to have the opposite affect because of the lack of anything to admire once the novelty of seeing stained bedsheets, pickled carcasses and models of blow-up dolls has worn off.


Effect you mean, surely.

The Turner prize is at least for living art that's truly new and not just a rehash. And for a lot more diversity than indicated in your list. (If it even is a list. Isn't that just three items of a single work? And how many Turner prizes have been given out? To things quite different from each other, as one would hope.)

Is "admiration" even a legitimate response to art? I mean to living art? To past art, sure. I admire St. Matthew Passion no end. Pretty Sound (Up and Down) however? Well, I suppose admiration is a part of it. But I think of admiration as being more a looking back at kind of thing. With the Steen-Andersen piece, I'm not looking back at, I'm looking at. And looking at means not so much admiration as grappling with the unknown and the unfamiliar. I think that that's a problem that appears over and over again in these discussions. We look at works of the past, works that have achieved a kind of stature, and we take that stature to be part and parcel of what those works are--not as something achieved but as something intrinsic. (But how could it have been achieved without its being deserved? I can hear being asked. To which, for now, I would only reply "Really? You really believe that?")

In any case, when we look at current work, particularly anything genuinely new, we tend not to do the sensible, sensical thing and change our perceptions, our perspective, to acknowledge the implications of newness. No, we simply judge it (and how delightfully magisterial of us, eh?) according to the perspective of works that have come through a process, a sometimes long and involved process. Questions like "Who is the next Beethoven?" come from this perspective. It's false. Beethoven was Beethoven. Only one. Sui generis. And, even more importantly, not the same Beethoven to us that he was to his contemporaries.

But new works have not gone through a process. They are now. And they require a kind of engagement, a level of engagement, even, that older works simply do not. To attempt to provide a factitious process on the composer's part means rehash. Give the "new" work the trappings of old works, so it seems to be the kind of thing that's gone through a process already. To provide a factitious process on the listener's part means to supply the new work a history by speculating about the future: "worthy art that can endure." But we simply cannot know. And we none of us will be around to test any of our guesses. We only have now.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

Prodromides said:


> Pulitzer Prizes should not be awarded for jazz and pop music and rap, etc.


Ummmmmm why? Great art doesn't only come from one tradition. Its not the Pulitzer Prize in Western classical music, its the Pulitzer Prize in music.


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

> As in "endure past my life-span?" But I won't be able to enjoy or appreciate anything once I'm dead. Nor will you. The only "worthy" that counts for any of us is "worthy to me, now."


My guess is Elgar's Ghost was referring to music which has a timeless quality, that is, is intrinsically musical and is not based on superficial attributes such as sensationalism akin to blow up dolls and dirty bed linen.

Karel Husa's string quartet which won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize is an example: his work is still very striking, although poorly represented by one or two string quartets (the Fine Arts Quartet, and another American ensemble of his adopted homeland, far from his Czech origin). Some 24 years later, his cello concerto won the Grawemeyer Award. In fact, when you go back to his first string quartet, it won the Lili Boulanger Award (although he did study with Nadia...is that cronyism? ) He is a consummate composer, rather than a one hit wonder, even if he is not widely known. The Pulitzer Prize somehow seems to capture that slither of genuine musicality which I respect, even if I don't like all their choices (Madame White Snake being one of them). Husa's string quartet no.3 was an unexpected choice. He described how he was listening to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia at the time...for a man who had survived World War II, the experience can only be grasped as shuddering as one form of evil replaces another.

In this respect, pop music probably doesn't feature in the Pulitzer's search for timelessness or search for music drawn from humanity; it's not that classical music can't be popular; maybe pop music cannot be timeless along the lines of the Pulitzer Prize' ethos? I don't know, but without the Pulitzer Prize, we would have lost out in awareness of some fantastic string quartets. All of their string quartet choices - like Elliott Carter (not that I like his particularly, although I do respect the composer). Even finalists like Fred Lerdahl and winners like George Rochberg & John Corigiliani's string quartets (well, before they were both mutilated into string chamber orchestra :/ ) are fascinating works to behold.

The only problem is that the Pulitzer Prize is limited to Yanks and Alaskans


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## Guest (Dec 6, 2012)

Head_case said:


> My guess is Elgar's Ghost was referring to music which has a timeless quality


But this simply restates EG's remark.



Head_case said:


> intrinsically musical


Chimera.


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

Oh.

I didn't realise. Perhaps you are thinking too narrowly about self, rather than the concept of timelessness; that is - your children can appreciate timeless music for its musical qualities; as can their children.

Chimeras are useful; at least in far as revealing to us, that purity is as imperfect as our idea of perfection.

Anyway - the Pulitzer Prize for Photography also has its critics:


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Some Guy---hadn't seen you lately,was getting worried! But here you are in fine fettle and telling it as it is!!


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*Prague 1968*



Head_case said:


> Karel Husa's string quartet which won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize is an example: his work is still very striking, although poorly represented by one or two string quartets (the Fine Arts Quartet, and another American ensemble of his adopted homeland, far from his Czech origin). Some 24 years later, his cello concerto won the Grawemeyer Award. In fact, when you go back to his first string quartet, it won the Lili Boulanger Award (although he did study with Nadia...is that cronyism? ) He is a consummate composer, rather than a one hit wonder, even if he is not widely known. The Pulitzer Prize somehow seems to capture that slither of genuine musicality which I respect, even if I don't like all their choices (Madame White Snake being one of them). Husa's string quartet no.3 was an unexpected choice. He described how he was listening to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia at the time...for a man who had survived World War II, the experience can only be grasped as shuddering as one form of evil replaces another.


One of Husa's most successful works is a band work: _Prague 1968_. Fpr the record, he composes many band works.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

norman bates said:


> Gunther Schuller is one of the promoters of this idea and i agree completely with him. The quality has nothing to do with genres, so if a jazz or rock piece deserves it why not.


Hi, norman bates.

Sure, musical works of quality are deserving of consideration for awards. However, since its inception, the Pulitzer Prize in music has been bestowed upon contemporary classical works. This is not to say that quality music doesn't exist elsewhere. But those other areas also have their own award programs.
Will the MTV awards or the BET awards, for example, ever expand their categories to include best opera or best string quartet? I feel that the Pulitzer board has been obligated to consider non-classical music to expand the criteria, yet pop music awards don't (and probably will never) recognize contemporary classical.

If a contemporary classical piece "loses" to a jazz or pop composition, where else could that same contemporary classical piece get recognition?


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

BurningDesire said:


> Ummmmmm why? Great art doesn't only come from one tradition. Its not the Pulitzer Prize in Western classical music, its the Pulitzer Prize in music.


As I mention in the reply to norman bates, contempory classical doesn't recognition in other awards programs so its "home" is with an award like Pulitzer


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

I've listened to:

1993: Christopher Rouse, Trombone Concerto
2003: John Adams, On the Transmigration of Souls
2009: Steve Reich, Double Sextet
2010: Jennifer Higdon, Violin Concerto

I think the Rouse stood out above the others, but honestly, I find much more to like in most of the winners of the Grawemeyer Award for Music than the Pulitzer. I've never understood what people hear in Higdon, for example.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

The Pulitzer, and who gets the prize, has as many vagaries along the way to selection as do the Academy Awards.

I.e.: A winning piece might be awarded after the fact of the committee realizing you should have gotten it for that piece you composed one to three years earlier 

The committee can be as naturally biased toward a style or direction a composer takes and be 'just more inclined' to vote for it over another equally fine work.

You are a competent academic and composer, a truly likeable and collegial person, and well-liked in return... quite unknown to you that your work is even under consideration, your piece gets the prize.

From Your List ~
know of / heard the winning piece, know other works:
John Adams, On the Transmigration of Souls
David Lang, The Little Match Girl Passion
Steve Reich, Double Sextet

know of / have heard other work(s), but not the winning piece 
Christopher Rouse, Trombone Concerto
Gunther Schuller, Of Reminiscences and Reflections
Morton Gould, Stringmusic
Wynton Marsalis, Blood on the Fields, oratorio
Aaron Jay Kernis, String Quartet No. 2, Musica Instrumentalis
John Corigliano, Symphony No. 2, for string orchestra
Henry Brant, Ice Field
Jennifer Higdon, Violin Concerto
Steven Stucky, Second Concerto for Orchestra
Ornette Coleman, Sound Grammar
Zhou Long, Madame White Snake, opera

have never heard of composer or piece:
Lewis Spratlan, Life is a Dream, opera (awarded for concert version of Act II)
Paul Moravec, Tempest Fantasy
Yehudi Wyner, Chiavi in Mano, (piano concerto)
Kevin Puts, Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts

The prize has, for the most part, gone to a moderate majority of well-written modern but rather conservative pieces, and a moderate number of the here and there more 'cutting edge' avant-gardist music, Elliott Carter, Charles Wuorinen, etc. Many of those most 'accessible' conservative modern pieces from not long ago and years ago are almost forgotten - some lingering about more as a historic footnote in the annals of 20th century music.

But a few pieces seem to still be in the literature, or just now, coming more into regular public play and exposure, for example, the Barber Piano Concerto, I believe, will, as did the Ravel G major, 'of a sudden' one day be popular on the summer pops orchestral / Proms curcuits - until the 1970's, THE staple piano and orchestra piece(s) were the Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue, and if adventurous, his Piano Concerto in F.

The prize has gone to the driest of dry academic pieces, populist genre pieces, etc. It is more a barometer of who makes up the committee, personal tastes and more than a little bit of 'politicking' within the academic theorist / composer's circuit. In brief, about as uneven as it gets  Generally conservative (Barber, Copland, Tompson, John Adams) but occasionally adventurous, (Carter, Wuorinen, Davidovsky, Druckman, Crumb, etc.) and a lot of both sorts, many of those seemingly pieces with a very brief shelf-life.

Amongst many a composer, the award began to be thought of as a composer's 'Kiss of Death.' -- meaning your work was that certifiably conservative pabulum bland that in getting the award it marked you as less than interesting.... This means there is a decent-sized cash award prize about which many a 'serious' composer quietly prays they will never be awarded!!!!!

Check yourself ~ how many composer's names do you recognize / are you familiar with their work, hear the piece they've won? It is not a test of any sort; looking through it and checking a number of the pieces not known to you should give you a good idea of the 'weight' or importance of the Pulitzer Prize -- without having to ask 

...my familiarity with all on the list, since it began.... I would say there are only one or two of these I became aware of 'just because' they had won the Pulitzer.... that was secondary to their general reputation.
_(Samuel Barber and Elliott Carter have each been awarded the prize two times.)_
1943: *William Schuman*, Secular Cantata No. 2: A Free Song
1944: *Howard Hanson*, Symphony No. 4, "Requiem"
1945: *Aaron Copland*, *Appalachian Spring*, ballet
1946: *Leo Sowerby*, The Canticle of the Sun
1947: *Charles Ives, Symphony No. 3*
1948: *Walter Piston, Symphony No. 3*
1949: *Virgil Thomson, Louisiana Story*, film score
1950: *Gian Carlo Menotti, The Consul*, opera
1951: *Douglas Stuart Moore,* Giants in the Earth, opera
1952: *Gail Kubik,* Symphony Concertante
1953: no prize awarded
1954: *Quincy Porter*, Concerto Concertante for two pianos and orchestra
1955: *Gian Carlo Menotti,* The Saint of Bleecker Street, opera
1956: *Ernst Toch*, Symphony No. 3
1957: *Norman Dello Joio, Meditations on Ecclesiastes* as one sort of example...




1958: *Samuel Barber, Vanessa*, opera
1959: John La Montaine, Piano Concerto
1960: *Elliott Carter, String Quartet No. 2*
1961: *Walter Piston*, Symphony No. 7
1962: Robert Ward, The Crucible, opera
1963: *Samuel Barber, Piano Concerto*
1964: no prize awarded
1965: no prize awarded (See Duke Ellington)
1966: Leslie Bassett, Variations for Orchestra
1967: *Leon Kirchner*, Quartet No. 3 for strings and electronic tape
1968: *George Crumb, Echoes of Time and the River*
1969: *Karel Husa,* String Quartet No. 3
1970: *Charles Wuorinen,* Time's Encomium
1971: *Mario Davidovsky,* Synchronisms No. 6
1972: *Jacob Druckman, Windows*
1973: *Elliott Carter, String Quartet No. 3*
1974: *Donald Martino*, Notturno
1975: *Dominick Argento*, From the Diary of Virginia Woolf
1976: *Ned Rorem,* Air Music
1977: Richard Wernick, Visions of Terror and Wonder
1978: *Michael Colgrass*, Deja Vu for percussion and orchestra
1979: *Joseph Schwantner*, Aftertones of Infinity
1980: *David Del Tredici,* In Memory of a Summer Day
1981: no prize awarded
1982: *Roger Sessions,* Concerto for Orchestra
1983: *Ellen Zwilich,* Three Movements for Orchestra (Symphony No. 1)
1984: Bernard Rands, Canti del Sole
1985: *Stephen Albert, Symphony No. 1 "RiverRun"*
1986: *George Perle*, Wind Quintet No. 4, for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon
1987: *John Harbison,* The Flight into Egypt
1988: *William Bolcom, 12 New Etudes for Piano*
1989: *Roger Reynolds*, Whispers Out of Time
1990: Mel D. Powell, Duplicates: A Concerto
1991: *Shulamit Ran*, Symphony
1992: *Wayne Peterson*, The Face of the Night, the Heart of the Dark
1993: *Christopher Rouse,* Trombone Concerto
1994: *Gunther Schuller*, Of Reminiscences and Reflections
1995: *Morton Gould*, Stringmusic
1996: George Walker, Lilacs, for soprano and orchestra
1997: *Wynton Marsalis*, Blood on the Fields, oratorio
1998: *Aaron Jay Kernis*, String Quartet No. 2, Musica Instrumentalis
1999: Melinda Wagner, Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion
2000: Lewis Spratlan, Life is a Dream, opera (awarded for concert version of Act II)
2001: *John Corigliano,* Symphony No. 2, for string orchestra
2002: *Henry Brant,* Ice Field
2003: *John Adams, On the Transmigration of Souls*
2004: Paul Moravec, Tempest Fantasy
2005: *Steven Stucky, *Second Concerto for Orchestra
2006: Yehudi Wyner, Chiavi in Mano, (piano concerto)
2007: *Ornette Coleman*, Sound Grammar
2008: *David Lang,* The Little Match Girl Passion
2009: *Steve Reich, Double Sextet*
2010: *Jennifer Higdon,* Violin Concerto
2011: *Zhou Long, *Madame White Snake, opera
2012: Kevin Puts, Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts

This may have changed, but it used to be that anyone could make a nomination of composer and piece to the committee, including the composer 

[I find the MacArthur grants much more 'interesting,' and they are broader, in music not just to contemporary classical composers. Those composers, anyway, include: Conlon Nancarrow, Ralph Shapey, Milton Babbitt, Charles Wuorinen, Ali Akbar Khan, Gunther Schuller, Meredith Monk, Bright Sheng.... etc. 
& 'the others,' -- Ran Blake, composer and pianist / Max Roach, drummer and jazz composer / Gary A. Tomlinson, musicologist / Bernice Johnson Reagon, music historian, composer, and vocalist / George Russell, composer and music theorist / John Eaton, composer / Steve Lacy, saxophonist and composer / Anthony Braxton, avant-garde composer and musician / Ornette Coleman, jazz performer and composer / Sam-Ang Sam, musician and cultural preservationist / Susan McClary, musicologist / Trimpin, sound sculptor ....


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

BurningDesire said:


> Ummmmmm why? Great art doesn't only come from one tradition. Its not the Pulitzer Prize in Western classical music, its the Pulitzer Prize in music.


Until very recently, it was the Pulitzer Prize _exclusively for American composer's contemporary classical music. _

I'm ambivalent about the Pulitzer committee's broadened spectrum of other genres now eligible for nomination and the prize.

The posthumous award to Thelonius Monk, I think, "Well, it is about time, already!"

I think -- as risky as it is -- the popular genre of musical theater in America, already being a popular / populist genre, does not need the boost of publicity nor the cash prize....


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

PetrB said:


> I think -- as risky as it is -- the popular genre of musical theater in America, already being a popular / populist genre, does not need the boost of publicity nor the cash prize....


Actually musicals have one in the drama catagory:

1985 _Sunday in the Park With George_
1976 _A Chorus Line_
1962 _How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying _
1960 _Fiorello!_
1950 _South Pacific _
1932 _Of Thee I Sing_


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Prodromides said:


> Hi, norman bates.
> 
> Sure, musical works of quality are deserving of consideration for awards. However, since its inception, the Pulitzer Prize in music has been bestowed upon contemporary classical works. This is not to say that quality music doesn't exist elsewhere. But those other areas also have their own award programs.
> Will the MTV awards or the BET awards, for example, ever expand their categories to include best opera or best string quartet? I feel that the Pulitzer board has been obligated to consider non-classical music to expand the criteria, yet pop music awards don't (and probably will never) recognize contemporary classical.
> ...


Probably the difference is that a MTV award is not about quality.


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2012)

I believe that the point has also been made that the Pulitzer Prize is also not about quality.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

Music is too subjective for a prize system to objectively filter out the best. Its always going to be affected by the judge's bias. If I were on the committee I would pick the pieces I thought were really great, and inevitably those would be pieces I really liked.


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

The Kernis String Quartet literature (Pulitzer Prize winner of course) leaves a very pleasant feeling of intrigue: its merits are there. However I don't seem to listen to it more than once every few months. Its judges clearly can detect its merit, although prizes are rarely ever dished out in terms of meritocracy alone. Maybe Laderman's string quartet should have been a serious contender....


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