Classical Music for Sports Games

It's World Cup time: when soccer teams from 48 countries compete. What kind of music might bhe played? Classical music played at sports games features bold, triumphant themes designed to build tension, hype up the crowd, or signal victory.  For some of the most iconic classical tracks that get crowds roaring and athletes motivated, these are some standout pieces and their sports contexts:

High-Energy Stadium Anthems

• "Dance of the Knights" from Romeo and Juliet by Sergei Prokofiev: This heavy, imposing, and dramatic piece is a popular choice for building tension during team introductions or pre-game walkouts.
• "William Tell Overture" (Finale) by Gioachino Rossini: An upbeat, relentless, and galloping track that has been a long-time favorite for sports like baseball (often played during a home team rally) and hockey.
• "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff: A massive, booming choir and orchestral piece that screams "epic moment," making it perfect for crucial fourth downs, sudden shifts in gameplay, or player introductions.
• "Also sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss: Famous for its blazing brass intro, it is the ultimate "walk-on" theme to establish dominance.

Triumphant and Ceremony Music

• "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" by John Williams: Composed for the Olympics, this brass-heavy, victorious tune instantly screams sports championship.
• "Zadok the Priest" by George Frideric Handel: This sweeping, royal coronation anthem served as the direct inspiration for the famous UEFA Champions League Anthem, making it synonymous with European football. 
• "Nessun Dorma" from Turandot by Giacomo Puccini: A soaring, emotional tenor aria that became forever tied to sports after Luciano Pavarotti’s legendary performance at the 1990 World Cup.

Classical Pop

Tomoko’s heart lies in classical music. It comes alive in her hands on the piano. Classical piano music also comes alive in the hands of contemporary composers, who have inspired enough to adapt their music to their own pieces.

The opening of the final movement of Italian composer 17^th century Clementi’s Sonatina in G minor, Op. 36, No. 5 echoes in Phil Collins' “A Groovy Kind of Love.”

Billy Joel credited Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata in his album An Innocent Man for the chorus of “This Night.” Joel stated that his classical training has impacted his compositions.

When Yoko Ona played Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, John Lennon asked her to play the chords backwards, which resulted in the basis of “Because.”

Barry Manilow thought he had created impressive chords when composing “It Could It Be Magic,” when he realized that he had been playing Chopin's Prelude in C Minor No. 20 earlier that day. Chopin's chords moved from Manilow's subconscious to his writing instrument.

Pop music Ted Mossman based the song “Till the End of Time” (lyrics by Buddy Kaye) on Chopin's Polonaise in A flat major, Op. 53. Singing is as a softer, reflective piece, Perry Como made it a hit tune. The song's introduction is a direct echo of Chopin's composition.

Robbie Williams' “Party like a Russian” duplicates the hard beat of Prokofiev's “Dance of the Knights.”

To the classical year, Eric Carmen's “All by Myself” immediately recalls Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, including the melancholy feeling.

Hiphop rapper Nas sampled Beethoven's Für Elise in his performance of “I Can.”

Electronic music has sampled the classics too, as exemplified by Alan Walker ad Sophie Simmons' s “Lovesick.” The tune's chorus transforms Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No. 5. for the current audience.

AND a Broadway musical example is Rodgers and Hammerstein's tune “March of the Siamese Children,” inspired by Grieg's Wedding Day at Troldhaugen.

So if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then several classical composers are indeed complimented.

April Modern Classical Composers

 

If April showers bring may flowers, do piano composers born in April bring music that seems to bloom? You decide about these comparably modern classical musicians.

Sergei Rachmaninoff was born April 1, 1873 in Russia. His compositions exemplified late Romanticism.  His famous piece of voice and piano, “Spring Waters” from his 12 Romances, Opus 14, was dedicated to his first formal teacher: Anna Ornatskaya. At the age of 19, Rachmaninoff performed his first concert, where he premiered his Trio elegiaque No. 1. Besides his impressive compositions, Rachmaninoff was also considered one of the best pianists of his day.

Sergei Prokofiev was born April 23, 1891 in Krasne, Ukraine. His compositions crossed a number of musical genres, although he is considered a key early Modernist. His piano works consisted of five piano concertos and nine piano sonatas. His first piano concertos, which he performed, were controversial because of their innovation and dissonance.

Only eight years late, on April 29, 1899, Duke Ellington was born in Washington, DC. He is now considered a classical jazz composer, and he led the movement to regard jazz as a respected art form. He too was a highly esteemed pianist. Ellington wrote or collaborated on more than a thousand compositions: the largest recorded personal jazz legacy.

Fruitful Music

 

Fruit probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about piano music – except maybe the advice of the piano teacher who recommends playing the piano with hands curved as if holding an orange. Nevertheless, piano composers have been inspired by fruit, as evidenced in the following pieces.

Speaking of oranges, Prokofiev wrote the farcical fairy tale opera For the Love of Three Oranges. In this story, the cursed prince has to search for three oranges and finds love in the process. In one production, the audience received “scratch'n'sniff” cards to get more engaged. Piano arrangements are available, but not while sniffing....

It's a bit of a stretch, but Tchaikovsky's “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from his Nutcracker Suite does have a sweet sound. In this case, plums have been “dressed up” for the holidays as was the suite itself.

Plums, especially within the context of cooking, also inspired Bernstein. His work La Bonne Cuisine (Four Recipes) has as its fist “Plum Pudding,” which was composed for voice and piano. The lyrics were adapted from Emile Dumont's 1899 cookbook

Satie took a tongue-in-cheek approach to incorporating fruit in his piano suite Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear. There are actually seven pieces, and they have surprising features. As for the pear, the suite was compased for a piano duet: a pair of performers. So not really about fruit – but maybe he sounds a bit fruity.

Obviously, grapes consitute the basis for wine, which then led to several other music, but we'll let that vein age for now...

If Music Be the Food of Love, Play On

 In the play "Twelfth Night," Shakespeare wrote: "If music be the food of love, play on." In reality, food can inspire composers. Tomoko appreciated good food herself, and likely played to fuel her own soul Here is a sampling for you to taste.

Probably the most famous food-related piece -- and comic opera -- is Bach's Coffee Cantata. Bach himself liked coffee, and it is told that this piece was performed in a coffee house. The underlying story tells of a young woman's obsession with coffee, which her father wants to curb. 

Prokofiev's opera (which has been arranged for piano) Love for Three Oranges tells a fanciful tale of a prince cursed by a witch to search for three oranges, and finds love on the way.

Another performance piece, in this case a ballet, that food inspired is Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, especially "The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies." The then new piano-like instrument the celeste, with its high-pitched glittery tone, evoked the crystalline texture of sugar plums.

Schubert was inspired by the unlikely food-related song "The Trout", which used the metaphor of fishing as a girl "hooked" a mate. He transformed the piece into The Trout Quartet, which is performed by a piano and four stringed instruments. The work is rather melancholy, as was Schubert at the time. 

Want to play a piano duet about food? Taste-test Satie's piano suite Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear (which actually includes ten morsels). It's a very playful set of miniatures with a surprising variety of moods. Get you get the joke about pears and (piano) pairs?

The (food) take-away? Food-inspired music can be a buffet of delight to feed the soul.