Perhaps no sport has inspired such a wealth of musical riches as tennis. Many early operas received their first stagings in converted tennis courts, and it was favorite recreational pastime among several composers, from George Gershwin and Arnold Schoenberg (who played regularly at Gershwin’s Beverly Hills home) to Dmitri Shostakovich. With the start of 2015 U.S. Open, here are 11 works inspired by the game.
1. Jeux by Claude Debussy
This commission by Ballets Russes impresario Sergei Diaghilev was a follow up to the success of L’après-midi d’un faune. The ballet, featuring dancing and choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky, followed a male and two female dancers as they searched for a lost tennis ball.
2. Match Point by Gwyneth V. Walker
Comprised of four movements—“Tuning Up,” “Anticipation,” “The Point,” and “Marche Triomphante—Walker’s work encourages an orchestra to milk all connections with the sport, including having the performers dress in tennis whites and the conductor swapping a baton for a racquet. She also calls for percussionists to drop tennis balls on their instruments, and horn players to use them as mutes.
3. 'Tennis at Trianon' by Jean Sibelius
This song, from a collection of six (Op. 36) sets Swedish poet Gustaf Fröding's words to music. It describes a frivolous game watched by members of the French aristocracy as well as a street urchin, who slips away at the end of the game.
4. Le Train Bleu by Darius Milhaud
A star vehicle for Nijinsky’s younger sister, Bronislava Nijinska, this ballet was inspired by the train transporting wealthy and athletic Europeans from Calais to the French Riviera. Nijinska, who choreographed the ballet, danced the role of the French tennis player Suzanne Lenglen in a costume designed by Coco Chanel.
5. Match by Mauricio Kagel
This theatrical performance piece for two cellos and percussion, written in 1964, sets the two cellists in opposition each other in an increasingly intense rally. They trade notes back and forth, while the percussionist officiates.
6. Notation 21 by Arnold Schoenberg
The composer never wrote a piece explicitly about a tennis match, but he did create musical system of symbols that described the game’s aural aspects, which he dedicated to his playing partner: “Music Notation based on Tennis: A Tribute to George Gershwin.”
7. Lawn Tennis by Wilhelm Petersen-Berger
One of the early ambassadors of tennis to Sweden, the composer Petersen-Berger built a tennis court on his property where he would host King Gustav for friendly matches. His love spilled into his compositions, such as the piece for solo piano, “Lawn Tennis” from his collection Flowers from Frösö Island.
8. Tennis: A Portrait of Henry McBride by Virgil Thomson
Among the biographical musical sketches included in his Portraits for Piano Solo, Thomson included this piece about McBride, an art critic and one of his dear friends.
9. Dance of the Tennis Players and Training Session by Dmitry Shostakovich
This number taken from The Golden Age, a ballet about a Russian football club sent to compete against the corrupt teams from Western countries, features a scene during which tennis players get ready for their competition.
10. Le Tennis by Michael Svoboda
A Chicago-born composer and trombonist, Svoboda was inspired by Satie to write a series of French Songs as a response to the original and its notes. Svoboda’s slightly longer version sets Satie’s words to music.
11. Sports et Divertissements by Erik Satie
The final piece of this 21-song collection, “Le Tennis” (it starts at 14:10 of the video) is a bouncy minute-long account of a tennis game. Satie even provided a narrative of the short rally: it starts with a good serve then segues into admiration of the partner’s nice legs and handsome nose before ending with a strong slice. Game!