David Lang Wins 2008 Pulitzer Prize

New York-based composer David Lang (’74, percussion) has been awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for music for his piece The Little Match Girl Passion, based on the children’s story by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. Co-commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation and the Perth Theater and Concert Hall, the work was premiered in October 2007 at Zankel Hall by the vocal ensemble Theatre of Voices, directed by Paul Hillier. Lang is the co-founder and co-artistic director of the experimental music collective Bang on a Can, which was Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year in 2005.

Scored for four voices and a few percussion instruments played by the singers, The Little Match Girl Passion tells the story of a little girl who freezes to death selling matches on the street during a cold winter’s night. In his program notes, Lang says he was drawn to the story because “all its parts—the horror and the beauty—are constantly suffused with their opposites. The girl’s bitter present is locked together with the sweetness of her past memories; her poverty is always suffused with her hopefulness. There is a kind of naive equilibrium between suffering and hope.” Intrigued by the religious allegory beneath the surface, Lang wrote the text in the format of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, a composition he much admires.

The Pulitzer Prize (which brings $10,000) is awarded to a distinguished musical composition by an American that has had its first performance or recording in the United States during the past year. The Little Match Girl Passion is published by G. Schirmer.