Pastime: A Salute To Baseball

ABOUT THE COMPOSITION

Shortly after receiving the commission for “Pastime” from the Santa Clara County (California) Band Directors Association, I had the opportunity to visit Candlestick Park for a Giants baseball game. I was shocked to hear that after the 1999 baseball season, Candlestick would be razed for a new stadium. My thoughts took me to the 1962 World Series between the Giants and the Yankees. I realized that it was the first World Series I could remember (I was eight years old). I decided there in Candlestick Park that I would write a work that highlighted the 1962 Giants and baseball in general. This was early in the summer of 1998. Little did I know what a terrific baseball season it would be. Therefore, I have incorporated salutes to the 1962 Giants with accolades to the 1998 baseball season, all loosely woven around two motives from the anthem of the seventh inning stretch “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” A highlight of the “baseball salutes” in “Pastime” follows:

Measure numbers parallel player numbers and/or record numbers.

Measure 19—The great Don Larsen (Number 19) was ending his career with the Giants in 1962. In 1956 he pitched a World Series no-hitter with the Yankees. It's the only no-hitter in World Series history. Therefore, in measure 19 everything stops!

Measure 23—This is Felipe Alou’s number. In this bar the horns play the rhythm of Alou’s name.

Measure 24—Everyone knows that this was the great Willie Mays’s number. There is a mighty arrival of E-flat major to celebrate one of the greatest players of the game.

Measure 25—This is Barry Bonds’s current number. I live near Pittsburgh, the city that Bonds left for the Giants and a larger salary. The most dissonant chord in the entire piece occurs here.

Measure 27—The pitching ace of the 1962 Giants, Juan Marichal (Number 27), was known for his high leg kick. The melody is transformed to wider intervals to “salute” Marichal’s patented kick.

Measure 30—The trumpets play a fanfare in a “salute” to Orlando Cepeda (Number 30) who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in July 1999.

Measure 44—The great slugger Willie McCovey (Number 44) is highlighted here. The slapstick, woodblock, and rimshots imitate the crack of the bat.

Measure 60—The flute and bells play the notes “B-A-B-E” for the Bambino’s record which was to fall again!

Measure 61—I use an F major chord with an added 6th and 9th. The woodwinds set up an ostinato on the notes G, D, and F. The G is the 9th, for Roger Maris’s number, the D and F represent the 6th and the 1st notes of the scale for 61 home runs.

Measures 63–69—The tune “Meet Me in St. Louis” honors the great Mark McGwire.

Measures 65–66—The piccolo and bells play an “SOS” on the note “A” to honor the superb Sammy Sosa.

Measure 70—A fanfare “explosion” honoring Mark McGwire’s tremendous accomplishment concludes the numerical “salutes.”

The remainder of the work is a contrapuntal “tour de force” with two fugues based on motives from “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

I dedicate this work to Frank Battisti. Mr. Battisti, long time conductor of the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble is retiring this year (1999). He has been the conscience of the American school band movement and is an avid baseball fan. The work was commissioned by the 1999 Santa Clara County Band Directors Association and was premiered on January 24th with the composer conducting.

—Jack Stamp

INSTRUMENTATION

2 – Piccolo

3 – 1st Flute

3 – 2nd Flute

2 – 1st Oboe

2 – 2nd Oboe

2 – English Horn

2 – Eb Clarinet

2 – 1st Bb Clarinet

3 – 2nd Bb Clarinet

3 – 3rd Bb Clarinet

2 – Bb Bass Clarinet

2 – 1st Bassoon

2 – 2nd Bassoon

2 – 1st Eb Alto Saxophone

2 - 2nd Eb Alto Saxophone

2 – Bb Tenor Saxophone

2 – Eb Baritone Saxophone

2 – 1st Bb Trumpet

3 – 2nd Bb Trumpet

3 – 3rd Bb Trumpet

2 – 1st F Horn

2 – 2nd F Horn

2 – 3rd F Horn

2 – 4th F Horn

2 – 1st Trombone

2 – 2nd Trombone

2 – 3rd Trombone

2 – Euphonium B.C.

2 – Bb Euphonium T.C.

3 – Tuba

2 – Timpani

2 – Percussion I: Xylophone, Vibraphone

2 – Percussion II: Bells

3 – Percussion III: Crash Cymbals, Bass Drum

2 – Percussion IV: Snare Drum, Tambourine

2 – Percussion V: Castanets, Slapstick, Tambourine, Tom-tom, Triangle, Wind Chimes, Woodblock