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]