Comm; Miscellaneous; Brooklyn Baseball Cantata
- Collection
- Comm
- Series
- Miscellaneous
- Episode
- Brooklyn Baseball Cantata
- Contributing Organization
- WNYC (New York, New York)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/80-73pvn3r7
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- Description
- Description
- Commercial Victor Records recording. Music by George Kleinsinger Words by Micael Stratton Robert Merrill - Bariton Ross Case and his Orchestra Album liner notes: If ever American baseball could be condensed into one specific locale, insofar as rabid enthusiasm is concerned, Brooklyn, New York would be the logical and the ideal choice. For Brooklyn today is not just a part of America where baseball is regarded with approval; Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Dodgers and ebbits Field are synonymous with American baseball. Full aware of these factors, George Kleinsinger in 1937 wrote his Brooklyn Baseball Cantata, using the clever and ingenious lyrics of Michael Stratton as his text. Ten years later, Robert Merrill heard the work for the first time and, being a Brooklyn boy himself, enthusiastically approached RCA Victor to record it. The result can be termed a truly American version of Gilbert and Sullivan; it's an operetta in minature, a slice of real life, the American McCoy! In the ten years that intervened between the composition of the work and its recordin,g the Brooklyn Baseball Cantata enjoyed a varied career. It was first performed on the Columbia Workshop in 1937 and then became part of an ill-fated Broadway musical titled, Of V We Sing. After the show closed, the cantata more or less disappeared from view, although it had already won an enduring place in the affections of all Brooklynites, so much so that Kleinsinger was automatically made an honorary member of the Society for the Prevention of Disparaging Remarks About Brooklyn. An additional outgrowth of its initial success, according to Kleinsinger, was a plea from the Bronx for similar musical tribute. It is especially appropriate that Robert Merrill should choose to record the cantata for not only is Merrill a Brooklyn boy, one of the greatest contemporary American singers and an all-round versatile musician, but he is, to a certain extent, a thwarted second baseman! Like all Brooklyn boys, Merrill from the cradle on was a confirmed Dodgers fan, but unlike other boys who worshipped from afar, Merrill became a member of a non-professional team that actually played on Ebbets Field! Whether he ever entertained serious hopes of becoming a Dodger himself is unknown, for his baseball career was cut short by the manager of the non-professionals who let him know in one syllable words that, as a baseball player, he was a a good singer. So Merrill turned in his uniform and devoted all his energies to singing, which he had taken up several years previously at the urging of his mother, herself a professional singer before her marriage. The subsequent development of Merrill's career was as thorough and systematic as possible, until it was climaxed in 1946 with a Metropolitan Opera contract. Since then. He has acquired an innumerable following of enthusiastic music lovers who thunder applause not only for his operatic and concert achievements but also for his weekly broadcasts over the NBC network as the star of the RCA Victor show. Regardless of the repetoire, Robert Merrill always turns in a sterling performance. His versitility is amazing; his sense of humor second to none. Add these attributes to a great voice and you will see why the Brooklyn Baseball Cantata offer you a healthy portion of good, clean American fun in music!
- Topics
- Music
- Rights
- Transferred from commercial 78 rpm shellac discs. 10-inch.
- Media type
- Sound
- Credits
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- AAPB Contributor Holdings
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WNYC-FM
Identifier: 41892.1 (WNYC Media Archive MDB)
Format: Data CD
Generation: Master
Duration: 00:00:00
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- Citations
- Chicago: “Comm; Miscellaneous; Brooklyn Baseball Cantata,” WNYC, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed April 28, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-80-73pvn3r7.
- MLA: “Comm; Miscellaneous; Brooklyn Baseball Cantata.” WNYC, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. April 28, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-80-73pvn3r7>.
- APA: Comm; Miscellaneous; Brooklyn Baseball Cantata. Boston, MA: WNYC, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-80-73pvn3r7