Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Pulitzer Prizes, 2008 (III)

In connection with an article I'm working on, Columbia University sent me a complete list of all the jurors for the music prize. If you've ever wondered who decides on the winners of this extremely visible prize, wonder no more. The (slightly ragged-looking) table below lists all Pulitzer music prize jurors since 1943 and how many times they served.

Clifton, Chalmers

17

Ward, Robert

15

Kastendieck, Miles

7

Schuller, Gunther composer

7

Baker, David N.

6

Hamilton, David

6

Harbison, John,

6

Schwantner, Joseph, composer

6

Copland, Aaron

5

Luening, Otto

5

Wernick, Richard

5

Lang, Paul Henry

4

Page, Tim,

4

Persichetti, Vincent,

4

Bassett, Leslie

3

Bergsma, William

3

Bernheimer, Martin

3

Dello Joio, Norman

3

Hume, Paul

3

Kirchner, Leon

3

Lewis, John

3

Lowens, Irving

3

Peterson, Wayne, composer, professor emeritus, San Francisco State University

3

Wyner, Yehudi, professor of music, Brandeis University

3

Abrams, Muhal Richard, pianist and composer

2

Cowell, Henry

2

Crumb, George, professor of Music, University of Pennsylvania

2

Druckman, Jacob, composer, (Chairman) of composition dept., school of music, Yale University

2

Gideon, Miriam, composer

2

Guzelimian, Ara, senior director and artistic advisor, Carnegia Hall, (Chairman)

2

Husa, Karel, composer, professor of music, Cornell University

2

Kolodin, Irving, music editor, Saturday Review

2

Kriegsman, Alan M., dance critic, Washington Post

2

Lockwood, Norman

2

Martino, Donald

2

Monson, Ingrid

2

Perle, George

2

Porter, Quincy

2

Reich, Howard

2

Reynolds, Roger

2

Rouse, Christopher

2

Sollberger, Harvey

2

Trimbel, Lester

2

Webster, Beveridge

2

Weisgall, Hugo

2

Zwilich, Ellen Taafe

2

Andres, Dwight

1

Argento, Dominick

1

Babbitt, Milton

1

Blier, Steven

1

Bolcom, William

1

Craft, Robert,

1

Davidovsky, Mario

1

Davidson, Justin

1

Davis, Peter G

1

Eyer, Ronald

1

Fine, Vivian

1

Finney, Ross Lee

1

Freed, Isadore

1

Hanson, Howard

1

Hartke, Stephen

1

Henahan, Donal J.

1

James, Philip

1

Kalodin, Irving

1

LaMontaine, John

1

Ran, Shulamit

1

Rhodes, Willard

1

Riegger, Wallingford

1

Rockwell, John

1

Sargent, Winthrop

1

Schaefer, John

1

Scherman, Thomas C.

1

Schuman, William

1

Sherman, Thomas B.,

1

Steinberg, Michael

1

Stucky, Steven

1

Swed, Mark

1

Thomson, Virgil

1

Tower, Joan

1

Wagenaar, Bernard

1

Wagner, Melinda

1

Wallenstein, Alfred

1

Wen Chung, Chou

1

Wilson, Olly

1

Wuorinen, Charles

1

Zinman, David

1



Updated, April 10: Removed duplicate row.

13 comments:

Empiricus said...

Why, oh why, and when, did Mark Swed get a chance to vote?

A great thinker's review

Lisa Hirsch said...

I can't answer that first question, but as to the second, 2005, the year Steven Stucky's Second Concerto for Orchestra won - premiered by the LA Phil. The nominated finalists that year were You Are by Steve Reich and Dialogues, by Elliot Carter. With the Stucky, those are three rather different places on the new-music spectrum. (Carter: oldest composer ever to be dominated for a Pulitzer.)

Anonymous said...

How come some of the composers have "composer" after their names but many (Riegger, Cowell, Luening, etc etc.) don't?

Lisa Hirsch said...

My sloppy editing of the file I had to work with.

Anonymous said...

Lisa, I can't figure out whether this is inclusive of this year's panel. I know that John Schaefer served this year, but he was also part of last year's Ornette Coleman imbroglio.

That last bit would be an excellent band name, no? "The Ornette Coleman Imbroglio, live at (fill in the blank)!"

Ingrid Monson was on both of those committees, too -- so does this imply she served a third time?

Lisa Hirsch said...

It's inclusive of this year, and Schaefer did not serve on this year's music jury. The Pulitzer web site lists Monson, Dwight Andrews, Steven Blier, Tim Page, and Steven Stucky.

Anonymous said...

You're correct, of course. Mea culpa.

Henry Holland said...

Empiricus, I knew I shouldn't have clicked on your link. Anyone have some brain bleach handy? Even after all these years, I still can't believe that Swed was who the Times chose to replace Martin Bernheimer, who's been on 3 panels.

In any case, the Pulitzer for music doesn't rate at all, in my view. It's the Grawemeyer Award that counts, I'd say. Look at this list of past winners:

2007 Currier: Static
2006 Kurtág: Concertante Op. 42
2005 Tsontakis: Violin Concerto #2
2004 Chin: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
2003 Saariaho: L`amour de loin [GREAT opera]
2002 Kernis: Colored Field
2001 Boulez: Sur Incises [Woo hoo! Boulez!]
2000 Ades: Asyla
1999 Not Awarded
1998 Tan Dun: Marco Polo [Ewww]
1997 Bainbridge: Ad Ora Incerta 1996 Tcherepnin: Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra
1995 Adams: Violin Concerto [Ewww]
1994 Takemitsu: Fantasma/Cantos for Clarinet and Orchestra
1993 Husa: Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra
1992 Penderecki: Adagio for Large Orchestra
1991 Corigliano: Symphony No. 1
1990 Tower: Silver Ladders
1989 Ung: Inner Voices
1988 Not Awarded
1987 Birtwistle: The Mask of Orpheus [Amazing opera]
1986 Ligeti: Etudes for Piano [brilliant pieces]
1985 Lutoslawski: Symphony No. 3 [fantastic piece]

That's some amazing music there, from men *and* women, European and American and Asian, serialist and tonal (sort of!)

Anonymous said...

That's an interesting table. I had to look up a few names, like the top man Chalmers Clifton . BTW, Miles Kastendieck (another unknown) is listed twice, one for 7 times and another for 3.

I'd also have to agree that Henry's list of Grawemeyer Award winners looks more impressive when stacked up against the Pulitzers.

Lisa Hirsch said...

I agree about the Grawemeyer Award.

That Miles Kastendieck thing is an error of some kind, undoubtedly mine. I will investigate and correct it.

He was, I believe, a music critic.

Dan Johnson said...

To be fair, the Grawemeyer is open to everybody, not just American composers, so it's a lot easier for them to pick a piece of music that everybody can look back on 20 years later and say, "Ah! Masterpiece!" Obviously Boulez, Saariaho, Birtwistle, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, et al would never be eligible for a Pulitzer.

That said, it is a little shameful that Tower, Corigliano, Adams, and Currier should ALL be awarded the Grawemeyer before the Pulitzer committee got around to selecting them...

Henry Holland said...

To be fair, the Grawemeyer is open to everybody, not just American composers, so it's a lot easier for them to pick a piece of music that everybody can look back on 20 years later and say, "Ah! Masterpiece!"

Like I did? :-)

Lisa Hirsch said...

The American Grawemeyer Award winner composers overlap a bit with the Pulitzers, but not the partcular works: Kernis, Corigliano, Adams, Husa (a composer I've never heard). I ought to investigate who serves on the Grawemeyer juries.

Miles K. - served seven times. The second row is wrong and I'll remove it.