# Baseball and the Symphony



## timothyjuddviolin (Nov 1, 2011)

A new Listeners' Club post. Here are some of my thoughts on what makes a symphony so fun to listen to:

http://www.timothyjuddviolin.com/2013/04/15/baseball-and-the-symphony/


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

It's alright, except I'd much rather sit through 10 performances of Mozart's 40th symphony than sit through a singe baseball game.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

I love baseball because it's not time dependent. The game just unfolds until it's done. A lot like a symphony. Except one can drink beer during a baseball game.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Very nice essay, thanks!

More directly, from Wiki: "Casey at the Bat" was adapted into a 1953 opera by American composer William Schuman. Allen Feinstein composed an adaptation for orchestra with a narrator. An orchestral version was composed by Stephen Simon in 1976 for the bicentennial; Maestro Classics' has recorded it with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Stephen Simon conducting with Yadu (Dr. Konrad Czynski) narrating. An orchestral adaptation by composer Frank Proto has been recorded by the Cincinnati Pops orchestra conducted by Erich Kunzel with baseball star Johnny Bench narrating. The Dallas Symphony commissioned an arrangement of "Casey" by Randol Alan Bass in 2001 which he later arranged for concert band. A version for wind band and narrator by Donald Shirer based on "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" had its world premiere in July 2008.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Yes, a nice post. Always nice to see a packed Wrigley Field as well. Love to hear an opera based on the life and times of one of the sport's more prickly characters like Ty Cobb or Earl Weaver.


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## jtbell (Oct 4, 2012)

Don't forget "New Horizons in Musical Appreciation" from _The Wurst of P.D.Q. Bach_.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

zONG:

yet another sports analogy: 

Sports analogies as to 'how far along we are in this war,' to sports analogies as to why listening to a symphony is fun. 

Sports Sports Sports Sports, as if every adolescent male never got beyond the high point of their personal thrill and participation in gym class or on the team, and the rest of life, all the way through, and whatever is examined, is always compared to and spoken of in sports analogies.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

violadude said:


> It's alright, except I'd much rather sit through 10 performances of Mozart's 40th symphony than sit through a singe baseball game.


Yea, and I'd rather watch Cricket than baseball but might even watch Mozart in preference to Cricket!


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

KenOC said:


> The Dallas Symphony commissioned an arrangement of "Casey" by Randol Alan Bass in 2001 which he later arranged for concert band.


I went to college (CCM) with Randy Bass...


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

I wouldn't say sport is an art, it's rooted in the moment. Of course you can replay something and enjoy it but it is forever tied to when it happened. It's a competition between people at a particular time and place, whereas art isn't a competition but if anything is a collaboration. And it's not simply about virtuoso feats of invention within strict competitive rules but about something more universal and broader in scope. I like sport for the entertainment it is, but art is definitely more than simply a vicsceral thrill or admiration of skill, it's something which we interact with on a more intellectual level.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

David Mahler: "One Banned Man" from Paul Taub's flute CD _Ooo-eee_ is about Joe Jackson...


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

Both baseball and music have superstars named Wagner (Honus and Richard), Williams (Ted and Ralph Vaughan) and Davis (Willie and Miles).

George Grove wrote the book on musicians. Lefty Grove "wrote the book" on how to pitch.

Alban Berg was a great composer. Moe Berg was a spy, spoke many languages fluently, and was a catcher in the major leagues.


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