Hearing The Pulitzers hearingthepulitzers

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:
Malcolm Miller, "Between Two Cultures: A Conversation with Shulamit Ran" Tempo, 2004, 58(227):15-32.
"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:
Sally Lamb, “An Analytical Guide to the Works of Mel Powell.” DMA diss., Cornell University, 1988.
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:
Kyle Gann's American Music in the 20th Century (Schirmer, 1997).
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:
Henry S. Jones's dissertation "William Bolcom's Twelve New Etudes for Piano" (Louisiana State University, 1994).
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)
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.