Ice Field

Ice Field is a musical composition by Henry Brant, for large orchestral groups and organ, commissioned by Other Minds for a December 2001 premiere by the San Francisco Symphony.^[1] It was awarded the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Music,^[2][3] and premiered on December 12 at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.^[4] A, "'spatial narrative,'"^[4] or, "spatial organ concerto,"^[5] and thus an example of Brant's use of spatialization, the work utilizes more than 100 players.^[6]

It was the strong feeling of the Jury that the Brant score was an extraordinarily powerful statement, the culmination of a life's work. His control of diverse instrumental groups in a spatial environment coalesces into powerful and coherent musical expression. Here, Brant, in his ninth decade, has refined his techniques of spatial music, embracing all of his experience to produce a remarkable vision, with increased vitality and creative imagination.

— The Pulitzer Prize Board^[7]

The piece was, "inspired by his experience, as a 12-year-old in 1926, of crossing the Atlantic by ship, which navigated carefully through a large field of icebergs in the North Atlantic."^[8]

Sources

1. "Henry Brant: Ice Field". Other Minds. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
2. Uncle Dave Lewis. Henry Brant at AllMusic. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
3. Hill, Brad (2006). American Popular Music: Classical, p. 37. ISBN 978-0-8160-5311-7.
4. Anon., "Brant's Field Wins Pulitzer" (2002). Billboard Vol. 114, No. 16 (April 20), p. 13. ISSN 0006-2510.
5. (2008). Musicworks, no. 100, 101, or 102, p.41.^{[full citation needed]} The Music Gallery.
6. Gagné, Nicole V. (2011). Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music. ISBN 978-0-8108-6765-9.
7. Fischer, Heinz Dietrich (2010). The Pulitzer Prize Winners for Music, p. 250. ISBN 978-3-631-59608-1.
8. Allan Kozinn (2008). [Obituary]. The New York Times (April 30), quoted in 21st Century Music, Volume 15, Issue 6, pp. 10–11, quotation on p. 10.