Gems from the Diamond The music of baseball For more than a hundred and fifty years Americans have celebrated their national game on and off the field. For many of our great-great grandparents, nine innings or more of devoted rooting was an opportunity for a post-game ball, cotillion, or grand levee. Baseball may be our national pastime, but at mid nineteenth century dance was our national passion. Reconciling both interests, composers provided plenty of dance music with baseball programs. They were also called upon to enliven the trip to the park with marches as well as entertain during the seventh-inning stretch. The theatre, parlor, vaudeville stage, and occasionally the concert hall, also featured baseball songs and musical vignettes. In this program renowned mezzo-soprano D'Anna Fortunato joins the instrumental ensemble for a celebration of our National Game that includes: The Home-Run Quick-Step (1861), Our Orioles Two Step (1894), The Baseball March (1905), They're All Good American Names (1911), Slide, Kelly, Slide! (1889), Base Ball Fever (1867), The Live Oak Polka (1860), That Baseball Rag (1913), Jake! The Yiddisher Ball-Player (Irving Berlin, 1913), Base Ball Polka (1858), and The Base Ball Cake Walk (1905) along with other terrific works from this wellspring of popular culture. back to top |