In this episode, Dave and Andrew record their first live podcast event! In front of the Kansas City Conducting Symposium, they discuss an unusual work for the Pulitzers in that Michael Colgrass featured the percussion section of the orchestra. Will they enjoy this departure from standard orchestration?

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

1. Colgrass's autobiographies Adventures of an American Composer and My Lessons with Kumi 

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss a Pulitzer winner that has so fallen out of the repertoire that there is no commercially available recording. But that doesn't mean there aren't interesting things to learn about the state of music in the late 1970s! For example, why was there an extra meeting of the jury, and did all the members participate in the deliberations? Listen to find out! 

If you'd like more information about Richard Wernick, we recommend:

1. This interview with Wernick from 2021 with the Network for New Music

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In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore a composer better known for his songs who won for an orchestral work, Ned Rorem. They may enjoy The Nantucket Songs but what will they think about Air Music?

And was Air Music actually supposed to win the Pulitzer Prize??? Tune in to find out.

If you'd like to know more about Ned Rorem, we recommend:

1. Ned Rorem, The Paris and the New York Diaries, 1951-1961, Open Road Media

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore the first song cycle to ever win the Pulitzer Prize, Dominick Argento's From the Diary of Virginia Woolf. Argento always remarked that his music balanced between his desire for fantasy and his need for control. Do Dave and Andrew think this work has that balance?

If you'd like more information about Dominick Argento, we recommend:

1. Jacquelyn Matava's dissertation "Dominick Argento's From the Diary of Virginia Woolf: A Preparation Guide for Performers" (Indiana University, 2014)

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In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss a composer who is usually considered a 12-tone composer, but who also rejected labels. He famously told the New York Times in 1997 that "If anyone writes program notes and says I am a Serial or a 12-tone composer, I am infuriated." How do Dave and Andrew label Martino's music? How does Notturno fit into the style of other winners in the early 1970s?

If you'd like more information about Donald Martino and Notturno, we recommend:

1. James Praznik's 2022 dissertation "Dreaming of Single Hexachords in an Infinite Expanse: An Analysis of Movement II of Donald Martino’s Notturno"

In this episode, Dave and Andrew revisit Elliott Carter, who won his first Pulitzer in 1960. They awarded his String Quartet No. 2 two big thumbs up. Will they be as enthusiastic about Carter's String Quartet No. 3?

If you'd like more information about Elliott Carter and his String Quartet No. 3, we recommend:

1. This performance of the String Quartet No. 3 by the Jack Quartet.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew look through Windows at Jacob Druckman's compositional style and legacy in American music. Druckman taught at Yale and the Aspen Music Festival for years, shaping generations of young composers, and coined the term "New Romanticism" when he curated the Horizons Festivals at the NY Philharmonic in the mid-1980s. Yet today, his attempts to merge modernist techniques with audience-friendly sounds are largely forgotten. Should they be?

If you'd like to know more about Druckman, we recommend:

1. Nicholas Papador's dissertation Jacob Druckman: A Bio-Bibliography and Guide to Research, Northwestern University, 2003.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss the first episode they have a personal connection to as Andrew has performed Mario Davidovsky's Synchronisms No. 6. How does Dave react to the third music winner to incorporate electronic sounds, and how do those sounds hold up 50 years later?

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

1. Wesley True's lecture “Men, Music, and Machines. Some Thoughts Generated by the Practice and Performance of Mario Davidovsky’s Synchronisms #6 for Piano and Electronics” published in the Journal of the American Liszt Society vol. 9 (June 1981): 50-54.

In this episode, Dave and Andrew discuss the first fully electronic work to ever win a Pulitzer Prize, even though it was the only electronic work its composer ever wrote. Did Charles Wuorinen set a new standard for Pulitzer-winning music or was electronic music a flash in the pan?

If you're interested in learning more about Wuorinen, we recommend:

1. Charles Wuorinen's extensive website

In this episode, Dave and Andrew explore a composer renowned today for his works for wind band, but celebrated during his lifetime for music that was, in Nicolas Slonimsky's famous phrase, "oxygenated by humanistic romanticism." Join us as we try and tease out exactly what Slonimsky meant by exploring Husa's String Quartet No. 3.

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

1. Lawrence W. Hartzell's "Karel Husa: The Man and the Music" in The Musical Quarterly Vol. 62, No. 1 (Jan., 1976), pp. 87-104