In this episode, Dave and Andrew dive into a work inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest. Will the work live up to the Bard's reputation? And does this piece fit into the typical mold of a Pulitzer Prize winning work? 

If you'd like more information about Paul Moravec, we recommend:

In this episode, Dave and Andrew go back to the events of 9/11 and listen to a piece memorializing the day. But will they find the piece moving or maudlin? And how does the piece hold up some 20+ years later? By this point, John Adams was a famous composer, but should this particular piece of his have won the prize? 

If you'd like more information about John Adams, we recommend:

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore the first experimental composer to win the Pulitzer since Charles E. Ives. With that pedigree, what will they think of Henry Brant's Ice Field? And why is this piece called a "spatial" composition?

If you'd like to learn more about Henry Brant and Ice Field, we recommend:

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore the symphony of John Corigliano they don't know. After appreciating Corigliano's first and third symphonies, what will they think of the second? This piece, a rescoring and revision of Corigliano's String Quartet, is another in a recent stretch of winning works that began in a different form. 

If you'd like to learn more about Corigliano, we recommend:

In this episode, Dave and Andrew talk about a curious winner for the year 2000 since it was originally composed 25 years earlier! What will they think about this blast from the past? It's also the first opera to win the Pulitzer Prize in many decades.

If you'd like more information about Lewis Spratlan, we recommend:

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore a concerto featuring an instrument not often put into a concerto setting: the flute. But its title also promises a balance among three forces instead of a featured soloist. What will they think of this contradictory piece?

If you'd like more information about Melinda Wagner, we recommend:

In this episode, Dave and Andrew return to the venerable string quartet for a piece that mixes tonality, modernist music, Baroque dances, and Medieval modality. But will this mixture work for them?

If you'd like more information about Aaron Jay Kernis and the String Quartet #2, we recommend:

In this episode, Dave and Andrew go deep into the tangled history surrounding the first jazz piece to ever win the Pulitzer Prize in Music, Wynton Marsalis's Blood on the Fields. But what will they think of the changes to the Pulitzer that allowed a largely-improvised piece to win an award previously reserved for notated music?

If you'd like more information about Wynton Marsalis, we recommend:

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss a song cycle in all but name, George Walker's Lilacs. From the outside, this win looks like another lifetime achievement award, but is it? And does Lilacs remind them of music from an earlier period in the Pulitzer's history?

If you'd like more information about George Walker or Lilacs, we recommend:

1. Ginger Sharnell Jones-Robinson's DMA document, "An Analysis of Selected Vocal Works by George Walker" from the University of South Carolina, 2023.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss a composer from an earlier generation winning a Pulitzer in the twilight of his career. What will they think of Stringmusic?

If you'd like more information about Morton Gould, we recommend:

1. J. Wesley Flinn's article, "Developing Variation in the Late Work of Morton Gould and Why It Matters" Gamut vol. 10. no. 1 (2021)