Composer/USA
Series IV, Vol. 10, No. 2
Spring-2004
Point of View
Al Benner
“For distinguished musical composition in the larger forms of chamber, orchestral, or choral work, or for an operatic work (including ballet), first performed or published by a composer of established residence in the United States.”
(original requirements)
Pulitzer Changes
It began with Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911) leaving in his will $2 million to establish a graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. The various Pulitzer Prizes came from a portion of this generous donation and were first awarded in 1917. However, music was not originally one of them. Instead, his will called for a scholarship for a music student which came from $500,000 to the New York Philharmonic Society. In 1943, the Pulitzer Board changed this scholarship to a prize. The requirements were: “For distinguished musical composition in the larger forms of chamber, orchestral, or choral work, or for an operatic work (including ballet), first performed or published by a composer of established residence in the United States.” William Schuman was the very first recipient for Secular Cantata No. 2: A Free Song for full chorus of mixed voices, with orchestra. The most recent winner in 2004 was Paul Moravec for Tempest Fantasy for clarinet, violin, cello and piano.
Now I suspect I am like most of you—I know about the prize but don’t really follow it unless something brings it to my attention. That was the case here, first reading through the internet about the recent changes to the above requirements. I was a bit mystified learning that the Pulitzer Board has broadened the definition to include such categories as jazz, film scores and music theater, and no longer require a written score performed for the first time in the United States during the year. A recording will do, thus opening the entrants to those who do improvisation. Alex Ross in his excellent article “And the Pulitzer goes to…” (www.therestisnosie.com) states that “This is apparently a response to John Adams’ fierce critique of the prize last year, in which he complained that maverick composers like Harry Partch, John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Steve Reich, not to mention all the royals of jazz, had never won.” I am sure other factors played a role in the change—the fact that Wynton Marsalis won in 1997 for his jazz oratorio Blood on the Fields, and Virgil Thomson in 1949 for the documentary film score, Louisiana Story. I also suspect that some form of political correctness was also an influencing factor. However, if you are going to change the definition of the prize to emcompass the “Generally Important Person in Music” (Ross), then you are changing what I think it was what made the Pultizer Prize unique—a prize that held onto the notion that writing “classical” music using “classical” forms is still important to the American culture.
Like many of you whose comments I have read, I originally was not happy with the Pultizer Board’s decision, seeing this as another erosion in the ongoing battle of “pop” culture influencing traditional “classical” music. It is as if the purpose is now to recognize someone whom the general public knows and whose music is heard by the masses—as is the case with jazz, theater, and film scoring—as opposed to the relative few that follow classical music. If this change is necessary, then I would rather see the award split into two different categories thus preserving the original intent of the award and support for new classical music. However, I am sure the Board thinks it has good intentions, and until there is a history of non-traditional award winners to judge their new definition, I must trust the Board to use their common sense.
Upon investigating who has actually won the Pulitzer Prize—especially within the last 20 years—I was struck by how much this award appears to be out of the reach of the vast majority of us. The winners seem to have something in common, namely a strong tie to mainly the East Coast and occasionally the West Coast—either through their academic positions, terminal degrees, or connection to prominent ensembles who play their works. There are some exceptions, but they are rare. In the last twenty years the premiere performances of the winning compositions were played in Washington, D.C. (The National Symphony Orchestra), Boston (Boston Symphony Orchestra, New England Conservatory Cantata Singers and Ensemble), New Haven, CT (Yale University), New York City (Merkin Concert Hall—the Lark Quartet, the New York Philharmonic; Avery Fischer Hall—the New York Philharmonic; Morgan Library—Trio Solisti and David Krakauer), Purchase, NY (Westchester Philharmonic), Amherst, MA (Dinosaur Annex, Buckley Recital Hall), San Francisco (San Francisco Symphony), Los Angeles (Los Angeles Philharmonic), Philadelphia (Temple University—Marc-Andre Hamelin; Philadelphia Orchestra), and Louisville, KY (Louisville Orchestra). If you look at the resumes of the majority of winners, you will find the Julliard School, Princeton University, Yale University, Harvard University, Columbia University, New England Conservatory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University, Peabody Conservatory, Mills College, San Francisco State University, Eastman School of Music, among many other connections to New York, Massachusetts and California. Now these aren’t exclusive, but if you visit www.pultizer.org you will see the general concept I am trying to present here—that unless you are connected in some way to the academic field of these institutions either through graduation, teaching position, or an ensemble, it is highly unlikely that you will be winning a Pulitzer anytime soon.
So after initially being a bit disturbed by the changes in the Pulitzer Prize for Music, I came to the realization that those changes don’t really dilute my chances of receiving a Pulitzer Prize because I don’t have much of a chance to win the Pulitzer for I lack any of the “proper” connections. Consequently, like many organizations that give the appearance of an open and equal opportunity for all, in reality if it is not a closed society, it comes pretty close. So be it. Ultimately it is their prize; they can give it to whomever they wish. But hey Pulitzer Board, if you want to consider someone with Louisiana connections, look at a composer in Natchitoches! V