Pulitzer Prizes in Music

Note: Although Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in other fields from 1917, 1943 is the first year for the award in music. Also, special awards went to George Gershwin in 1998 and Duke Ellington in 1999.

The Pulitzer Prize is an award for lifetime achievement as well as recognition for a single, great piece. Sometimes, a work is so influential as to direct it to this arena; however, most of the time, the winners seem to be the result of unseen or draconian politics and Eastcoast prejudice. "Music that is good for you," on many occasions will take center stage, perhaps as the result of a conscience of self criticism from modernist judges. Of course, in recent years political correctness, the new warm and fuzzy mantle of fame, has generated a slew of famous artistic nonentities, or crossover artists which do not write real concert music.

The Prize has been awarded for many years before music garnered any attention: it is too bad that one was not awarded in 1939, when Samuel Barber with his Violin Concerto, Roy Harris and the monolithic Third Symphony, or Copland's western ballet, Billy, the Kid would all be in contention. It would then be like in 1940, where William Saroyan, John Steinbeck, and Mark Van Doren all won in their respective literary genres.

Well: here it goes, my totally biased and irreverent commentary on the alleged "great" works of the last 60 odd years and their composers.





1943: Secular Cantata No. 2 A Free Song, by William Schuman