The Face of the Night, the Heart of the Dark

Last updated

The Face of the Night, the Heart of the Dark is an orchestral composition in one movement by the American composer Wayne Peterson. The piece was first performed by the San Francisco Symphony under the conductor David Zinman in October 1991. It won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Music. The title is a quote from the works of Thomas Wolfe. [1] [2]

Contents

Pulitzer dispute

The awarding of the Pulitzer Prize to The Face of the Night, the Heart of the Dark gained considerable notoriety in the classical music community. The music jury, comprising George Perle, Roger Reynolds, and Harvey Sollberger, originally submitted only one work for consideration—Ralph Shapey's Concerto Fantastique —despite Pulitzer rules requiring the jury to submit three works for board consideration. However, George Perle, who had served on previous Pulitzer Prize for Music juries, claimed that he was not aware of such provision. When the Pulitzer board demanded an alternative, threatening to forego a music prize for the year, the jury submitted Peterson's The Face of the Night, the Heart of the Dark. In an upset to the jury, the board selected The Face of the Night, the Heart of the Dark over Concerto Fantastique. [3] [4]

Perle commented on the incident, remarking, "I don't want to belittle the Peterson work, which is marvelous. It is absolutely worthy of a Pulitzer Prize. But the Pulitzer Prize is supposed to be for the single best work of the year, and on this occasion we felt that there was a work that was more impressive. We were entirely unanimous on that point, and we did not expect to be overruled." Reynolds and Sollberger released a similar statement, saying, "The Pulitzer Prize board's action in modifying the music jury's decision this year is especially alarming because it occurred without consultation and without knowledge of either our standards or rationale. Such alterations by a committee without professional musical expertise guarantees, if continued, a lamentable devaluation of this uniquely important award." [3]

Walter Rugaber, then a member of the Pulitzer board, responded, "What all the juries are asked to do is to select three nominees and submit them to us without expressing a preference." He added:

I do not question the validity of Mr. Perle's argument that the jury is vastly more qualified, in a technical and professional sense, to judge a work of music than I am. But the other side of the argument is that the Pulitzers are enhanced by having, in addition to the professional's point of view, the layman's or consumer's point of view. These are works that are performed in concert halls, and which thousands of people hear. And I think it is not inappropriate for people who are not professional musicians, composers or performers to listen to the best that the professionals recommend, and to express an opinion that one is more interesting than the other. But there are a number of issues we have to discuss before next year, and this is first among them. [3]

Peterson himself responded to the controversy, remarking:

I do have mixed feelings about the prize because of this. I have the highest regard for the integrity and musical judgment of the three people on the jury. I think they acted properly and if I had been on the committee I probably would have done the same. And I think that Ralph Shapey has made an outstanding contribution to American music. He has gone his own way, he has a distinctive style, and he has been a major force. So I'm sorry that this situation exists. But I am delighted to be a recipient. I had sent the work in as a lark, and I didn't think I had even a remote chance of winning. I have won other awards, but the prestige of the Pulitzer is greater than that of the others. The controversy has made it a little different. I just hope the pall that it has cast will not jeopardize what the Pulitzer could mean in helping circulate my music. [3]

Recording

Following its premiere by the San Francisco Symphony, the work was not performed again until 2010, when the Boston Modern Orchestra Project performed it, releasing it on a CD in 2017. [5] [6] [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pulitzer Prize</span> Award for achievements in journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States

The Pulitzer Prizes are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters." They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pulitzer Prize for Drama</span> American award for distinguished plays

The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year. It recognizes a theatrical work staged in the U.S. during the preceding calendar year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pulitzer Prize for Music</span> American award for musical works

The Pulitzer Prize for Music is one of seven Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually in Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first given in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year, and this was eventually converted into a prize: "For a distinguished musical composition of significant dimension by an American that has had its first performance in the United States during the year."

Shulamit Ran is an Israeli-American composer. She moved from Israel to New York City at 14, as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music. Her Symphony (1990) won her the Pulitzer Prize for Music. She was the second woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first being Ellen Taaffe Zwilich in 1983. Ran was a professor of music composition at the University of Chicago from 1973 to 2015. She has performed as a pianist in Israel, Europe and the U.S., and her compositional works have been performed worldwide by a wide array of orchestras and chamber groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Perle</span> American composer

George Perle was an American composer and music theorist. As a composer, his music was largely atonal, using methods similar to the twelve-tone technique of the Second Viennese School. This serialist style, and atonality in general, was the subject of much of his theoretical writings. His 1962 book, Serial Composition and Atonality: An Introduction to the Music of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern remains a standard text for 20th-century classical music theory. Among Perle's awards was the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Wind Quintet No. 4.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mel Powell</span> American composer

Mel Powell was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, and the founding dean of the music department at the California Institute of the Arts. He served as a music educator for over 40 years, first at Mannes College of Music and Queens College, then Yale University, and finally at CalArts. During his early career he worked as a jazz pianist. His classic Big Band compositions include "Mission to Moscow", "My Guy's Come Back", "Clarinade", "The Earl", and "Bubble Bath".

The New York New Music Ensemble (NYNME) is an American contemporary music ensemble. Since 1976, the group has commissioned, performed and recorded works by both emerging and prominent living composers. Its performances have been featured at several major music festivals including the Ravinia Festival, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, June in Buffalo, the Pacific Rim Music Festival, and the Thailand International Composition Festival (TICF). NYNME has also been recognized and supported by many significant American foundations, including the Jerome Foundation, the Fromm Foundation at Harvard, the Mary Flagler Cary Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the Koussevitzky Foundation, and the NEA and NYSCA. The group has held numerous residencies at universities, such as Rice University, Emory University, Brandeis University, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the University of Pittsburgh, and Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study. Over the years, NYNME has premiered over 140 works, the vast majority of which were written specifically for the group. Among the prominent composers with whom the group has enjoyed longstanding associations are Elliott Carter, Jacob Druckman, Charles Wuorinen, Mario Davidovsky, Harvey Sollberger, Joan Tower, George Perle, Rand Steiger, John Eaton, and David Felder. The group's activities have also included tours in Europe, Asia, and South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Shapey</span> American composer and conductor

Ralph Shapey was an American composer and conductor.

Wayne Peterson was an American composer, pianist, and educator. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for The Face of the Night, the Heart of the Dark in 1992, when its board overturned the jury's unanimous selection of Concerto Fantastique by Ralph Shapey.

Harold Meltzer was an American composer. Harold was inspired by a wide variety of stimuli, from architectural spaces to postmodern fairy tales and messages inscribed in fortune cookies. In Fanfare Magazine, Robert Carl commented that he "seems to write pieces of scrupulous craft and exceptional freshness, which makes each seem like an important contribution." The first recording devoted to his music, released in 2010 by Naxos on its American Classics label, was named one of the CDs of the year in The New York Times and in Fanfare; new all-Meltzer recordings issued from Open G Records (2017), Bridge Records (2018), and BMOP/Sound (2019). A Pulitzer Prize Finalist in 2009 for his sextet Brion, Meltzer has been awarded the Rome Prize, the Barlow Prize; a Guggenheim Fellowship, and both the Arts and Letters Award in Music and the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

The Group for Contemporary Music is an American chamber ensemble dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music. It was founded in New York City in 1962 by Joel Krosnick, Harvey Sollberger and Charles Wuorinen and gave its first concert on October 22, 1962 in Columbia University's MacMillin Theatre. Krosnik left the ensemble in 1963. It was the first contemporary music ensemble based at a university and run by composers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierrot ensemble</span> Type of musical ensemble

A Pierrot ensemble is a musical ensemble comprising flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano. This ensemble is named after 20th-century composer Arnold Schoenberg’s seminal work Pierrot lunaire, which includes the quintet of instruments above with a narrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012 Pulitzer Prize</span>

The 2012 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded on April 16, 2012, by the Pulitzer Prize Board for work during the 2011 calendar year. The deadline for submitting entries was January 25, 2012. For the first time, all entries for journalism were required to be submitted electronically. In addition, the criteria for the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting has been revised to focus on real-time reporting of breaking news. For the eleventh time in Pulitzer's history, no book received the Fiction Prize.

Wind Quintet IV (1984–85) is George Perle's (1915–2009) fourth wind quintet. He was awarded the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Music for the piece.

Robert Miller was an American pianist and attorney.

The Concerto for Orchestra No. 1 is a concerto for orchestra by the American composer Steven Stucky. The work was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra with contributions from Johnson & Higgins for the bicentennial of the United States Constitution. It was composed from September 1986 through April 1987 and premiered October 27, 1988, with the Philadelphia Orchestra performing under conductor Riccardo Muti.

Concerto Fantastique is an orchestral composition in four movements by the American composer Ralph Shapey. The work was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, who first performed the work under the composer on November 21, 1991. It was a finalist for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

The Flight into Egypt is a composition for solo soprano and baritone, chorus, and chamber orchestra by the American composer John Harbison. The work was commissioned by the Cantata Singers and Ensemble, of which Harbison was a former music director. The piece won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

The Concerto for Cello, Piano, and String Orchestra is a composition for solo cello, piano, and a large string orchestra by the American composer Ralph Shapey. The work was composed for the cellist Joel Krosnick and the pianist Gilbert Kalish and was first performed at Tanglewood in 1989. It was first performed by Krosnick, Kalish, and the Berkshire Music Chamber Orchestra under the composer on July 31, 1989. The piece was a finalist for the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Music and shared the top Kennedy Center Friedheim Award prize with William Kraft for Veils and Variations for Horn and Orchestra.

Charles Clement Fussell is an American composer and conductor of contemporary classical music. He has composed six symphonies and three operas. His symphony Wilde for solo baritone and orchestra, based on the life of Oscar Wilde and premiered by the Newton Symphony Orchestra and the baritone Sanford Sylvan in 1990, was a finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Music. He received a citation and award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1992.

References

  1. ↑ Henken, John (April 8, 1992). "Peterson: A Bay Area Music Fixture". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved December 26, 2015.
  2. ↑ "HAS WINNING THE PULITZER MADE A DIFFERENCE? WAYNE PETERSON, WINNER OF THE 1992 PULITZER PRIZE IN MUSIC". NewMusicBox . June 1, 2000. Retrieved December 26, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Kozinn, Allan (April 9, 1992). "A Pulitzer Dispute: Should Music Prize Be Left to Experts?". The New York Times . Retrieved December 26, 2015.
  4. ↑ MacMinn, Aleene (April 9, 1992). "Music". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved December 26, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Boston Modern Orchestra Project honored for highlighting overlooked American composers". Wbur.org. 21 October 2021. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  6. ↑ "Classical Music Review: BMOP's 'Band in Boston'". Artsfuse.org. 27 January 2010.
  7. ↑ "Wayne Peterson" (PDF). Bmop.org. Retrieved 14 March 2022.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.