# Works written for athletic, youth, etc. events



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Lots of good stuff in this category. It was brought to mind by hearing a work by Suk on the radio. I'll start out by mentioning _Javelin _by Michael Torke, written on commission for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Many more, and many are very good! Even the often-dour Shostakovich scores here. Your suggestions?


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

The two that immediately spring to mind are the Chariots of Fire theme by Vangelis and the Olympic fanfare by John Williams.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Prokofieff wrote two Athletic Festival marches for wind band.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

How about the non-Aaron Copland "Fanfare for the Common Man"?






I'm waiting for someone to write Symphonic Variations based on this theme.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Shostakovich's Festive Overture in A major, Op. 96, was written in 1947 to mark the 30th anniversary of the October Revolution. It was later used as the signature music for the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

I might only add that Shostakovich supposedly composed this overture in 3 days. And curiously (or not) the best recording is the one conducted by Williams.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Then there's Kindertotenlieder


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Janacek's Sinfonietta was a response to a commission from the Sokol Gymnastic Festival.


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

Enthusiast said:


> Janacek's Sinfonietta was a response to a commission from the Sokol Gymnastic Festival.


He even wrote a few piano pieces for club-swinging exercises back in the 1890s.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Finnish composer Osmo Tapio Everton Räihälä has written a symphonic poem called _Barlinnie Nine_ which is a tribute to the Scottish football (soccer) player Duncan Ferguson. According to the composer, "[Ferguson] has an aggressive side but there is a lyrical undertone to him, as the fact that he keeps pigeons shows."


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

The Suk piece Ken mentioned in the OP is surely his Towards a New Life March, which incidentally won its composer a silver medal at the 1932 Olympics!

Isn't The Age of Gold by Shostakovich all about a football team and their terrible experiences in the Evil West?


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

RICK RIEKERT said:


> Finnish composer Osmo Tapio Everton Räihälä has written a symphonic poem called _Barlinnie Nine_ which is a tribute to the Scottish football (soccer) player Duncan Ferguson. According to the composer, "[Ferguson] has an aggressive side but there is a lyrical undertone to him, as the fact that he keeps pigeons shows.


_'...a lyrical undertone to him..'_ Ha! Duncan Ferguson was a notorious thug both on the field and off it. Mike Tyson also kept pigeons...at least before he went nuts.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

elgars ghost said:


> _'...a lyrical undertone to him..'_ Ha! Duncan Ferguson was a notorious thug both on the field and off it. Mike Tyson also kept pigeons...at least before he went nuts.


My brother-in-law visited Tyson and his pigeons in Brooklyn several years ago along with Tyson's pigeon coach, Vinnie Torre, and witnessed if not a lyrical undertone in Iron Mike's nature at least a gentle side he never suspected. Maybe Räihälä has a point.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Elgar Pomp and Circumstance March #1. Main theme played at sports events (often things like the Olympics) starts at 1:55:


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

I'd like to think ballets are athletic youth events 

*Petrushka theme plays in head*


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## SuperTonic (Jun 3, 2010)

Honegger wrote a tone poem called Rugby. It's one of his "mouvement symphoniques", a group of works that includes Pacific 231.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

MarkW said:


> Then there's Kindertotenlieder


Your sense of humour is even more bizarre than my own :devil:

Martinů wrote the short piece Half Time, another example a la Honegger's Rugby.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

elgars ghost said:


> _'...a lyrical undertone to him..'_ Ha! Duncan Ferguson was a notorious thug both on the field and off it. Mike Tyson also kept pigeons...at least before he went nuts.


Is this the same Duncan Ferguson who has just won his first game in charge as manager of Everton? Anyone who beats the contemptible Chelski is ok in my book.

Did Tyson bite the ears off his pigeons after he "went nuts"?

Reminds me of the old joke: why does Mike Tyson cry after sex? Because the mace spray really stings......


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Mexican composer Enrico Chapela wrote a work, _Ingueso_, that musically describes a championship soccer match, in Brazil I think. He didn't actually see the match but was inspired by a radio broadcast of the live action by a young lady he had taken a fancy to.

He later wrote _Magnetar_, a concerto for electronic cello, for the LA Philharmonic. It's an impressive work but has not been commercially released.


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## calvinpv (Apr 20, 2015)

I don't know if this was written for the youth, but Janáček wrote a woodwind sextet called Mládí -- literally translated as "Youth".


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## christomacin (Oct 21, 2017)

Wettlauf (Foot-Race) by Franz Berwald:




Feste Romane (Roman Festivals) by Ottorino Respighi


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

CnC Bartok said:


> Isn't The Age of Gold by Shostakovich all about a football team and their terrible experiences in the Evil West?


Indeed it was, but both the plot and its setting were changed completely when the ballet was revived in the early 1980s - football didn't feature.

Charles Ives begun (but never completed) an orchestral depiction of the Yale-Princeton college football game.

Also, William Schuman composed a baseball opera called _The Mighty Casey_, inspired by the Ernest Thayer poem _Casey at the Bat_.


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

RICK RIEKERT said:


> Finnish composer Osmo Tapio Everton Räihälä has written a symphonic poem called _Barlinnie Nine_ which is a tribute to the Scottish football (soccer) player Duncan Ferguson. According to the composer, "[Ferguson] has an aggressive side but there is a lyrical undertone to him, as the fact that he keeps pigeons shows."


The most remarkable thing about this post (unless I am stating the bloody obvious!) is the fact that the Finnish composer's middle name is 'Everton' !!!!!!


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

jim prideaux said:


> The most remarkable thing about this post (unless I am stating the bloody obvious!) is the fact that the Finnish composer's middle name is 'Everton' !!!!!!


I seem to recall that Martinu might have written some shorter pieces concerned with sport......


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

New Zealand composer, John Psathas, wrote this for the Olympics. Not sure if he wrote it specifically for the 2000 Australian olympics or not.

It's pretty darn good!


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

In the late 1890s Edward Elgar composed a song called _He Banged The Leather For Goal_, a tribute to Wolverhampton Wanderers footballer Billy Malpass. Elgar was a keen Wolverhampton Wanderers supporter and would occasionally cycle to Molineux Stadium to see them play, which would have been a round trip of approximately 80 miles.


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