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Iowa Composer Vies for Pulitzer Prize
When
Dan Knight premiered The Whitman Suite, his work for solo piano
and spoken word on February 4, 2006, the performance was the culmination
of 30 years of effort to provide a musical setting for the poetry of Walt
Whitman.
“I was extremely happy,” he said. “It was just one of those things where I really felt at rest with the whole thing and did it to my satisfaction as well.”
The piece has brought satisfaction to listeners, too—the piece recently received a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in music from Richard Rives Bird, president of acoustic design and consulting firm Rives Audio in Coralville.
“To be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, you have to do something outside the boundaries that are normally there; you have to do something remarkable,” Bird said. “I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t strongly feel that this is remarkable work. In my business, I hear a lot of live music, a lot of jazz; we know this stuff fairly well.”
Columbia University, on the recommendation of The Pulitzer Prize Board, annually awards a Pulitzer Prize in music of $10,000 “for distinguished musical composition by an American that has had its first performance or recording in the United States during the year.” The Pulitzer Prize Board is a distinguished committee of Pulitzer Music jurors.
Knight drew the inspiration for his work from Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and Specimen Days.
“The early efforts were mostly me trying to make the words of Walt Whitman into lyrics for songs,” Knight said. “I had some success but wasn’t really happy with it.”
About a year ago, Knight again picked up the project and recognized he’d made a mistake. Instead of trying to alter Whitman’s words, he decided to create a musical setting that would highlight them in their native poetic form.
“The second I started doing it, the thing just started to fly,” he said.
The final result has been what Knight called not just a musical composition, but a theatrical production as well.
Throughout his career as a professional musician, Knight has released more than a dozen CDs of his solo and combination work and performed in locations around the world.
In August, Knight will perform in London and teach in Edinburgh, Scotland before he begins recording a new Christmas CD and a new trio CD in the fall.
It’s a schedule busy enough to keep Knight occupied until the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for music is announced in the spring of 2007.
“If you’re a professional musician and you make your living doing that anyway, then you’re used to a life of apprehension,” Knight said.
Dan Knight is a member of the Iowa Arts Council’s Performing Artists
Touring Roster. View his profile at: http://www.iowaartscouncil.org/publications_&_resources/directories_&
_rosters/iowa_arts_on_tour_roster/artists/knight_dan.htm or visit Knight’s
Web site at www.danknight.com.
