Do Pulitzers Proclaim The Best In American Music?

What to think about Steven Stucky winning this year’s Pulitzer for music? Particularly after last year’s decision to broaden the definition of music eligible for the award? Frank Oteri chews on it: “I do think in some ways, we music folk are a little too obsessed with other people determining for us what the best is—residue from Beethoven and the gang, which is the same “masterpiece syndrome” that keeps so many in the classical community from ever paying attention to any new music in the first place. I sincerely wonder if novelists and poets scratch their heads in dismay every year when their favorite writer fails to win a Pulitzer. So then, what to make of the results of the 2005 Pulitzer jury?”