Synopsis

In the summer of 1941, the winds of war hadn’t yet blown to Pearl Harbor, the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, and all was pretty much right with the world. The Dodgers were doing well — so well that they would eventually win the pennant, only to lose the World Series to the hated Yankees that October. But in August of 1941, that ignominious defeat was still a few months off, and Brooklyn fans were understandably optimistic.

One of them was the American composer Robert Russell Bennett, whose Symphony in D premiered early in August 1941. The composer let it be known that the D stood for Dodgers. Bennett’s Symphony in D for the Dodgers was performed but never published. We’re not sure if the Dodgers’ eventual defeat had anything to do with that — but let the record state the Dodgers eventually did beat the Yankees in the 1955 World Series.

Another composer and avid baseball fan was John Philip Sousa. Sousa’s march The National Game was composed in 1925 at the request of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, major league baseball’s first high commissioner. In his march, Sousa includes some interesting percussive effects involving, what else, a baseball bat!

Music Played in Today's Program

John Philip Sousa (1854-1932): The National Game; Royal Artillery Band; Keith Brion, conductor; Naxos 8.559092