I believe! I believe we will win! I believe we will win!
It's a catchy chant, but it is certainly neither the first nor the last. Football chants, or soccer chants for Americans, have been a fixture of the sport at least since Sir Elgar's tribute to the Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1898. Since the American National Women's Team has now progressed to the finals for the World Cup, it might be a fitting time to explore music and football, er... I mean soccer.
What many people might not expect is the history of music and football that has developed since Elgar's time; everything from two Shostakovich pieces to an entire opera have been written on the subject. That might seem odd, but then again, when one considers the drama and conflict involved in sports, and football especially; it makes sense. There is a sort of tribalism that accompanies sports. The air is rung with chanting and singing that sounds like a raucous opera gone awry.
1.) Sir Edward William Elgar's He Banged the Leather for Goal is often considered the first football anthem to be penned. The famous English composer composed the piece for his favorite team, the Wolverhamption Wanderers in 1898; specifically for the team's striker, Billy Malpass. In fact, Elgar would often cycle from his home in Malvern, Worchester to Wolverhampton in the West Midlands to see the team play. That's nearly 50 miles on a 19th Century bicycle.
Another of Elgar's works has been adopted by football fans the world over; Land of Hope and Glory. You might recognize it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYqGYQGgF-g
2.) Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich had something of an on-again, off-again relationship with the Soviet government, but his love of football was never jeopardized. In fact, Shostakovich wrote an entire ballet as well as a piece of incidental music actually entitled, "Football."
In 1930, Shostakovich composed music for the ballet, The Golden Age, with librettist Alexander Ivanovsky. The ballet in three acts follows the story of a 1920s Soviet football team that embarks on a trip to the European West. It is essentially an anti-Western, pro-Russian nationalistic propaganda which depicts a West full of political pitfalls and characters of ill-repute. The team is jailed by unjust police activity and only released when the capitalists are overthrown by the local workers. Seriously.
I guess America has Top Gun, and Soviet Russia has The Golden Age. So it goes.
3.) Michael Nyman is an English minimalist composer, librettist and musicologist with a knack for film scores. He is also the composer of the 1996 album, After Extra Time which featured on the soundtrack for the film, The Final Score, the 1991 film by Matthew Whiteman about the Queen's Park Rangers football team.
6.) Bohuslav Martinů, December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959, was a modern Classical composer from Czechoslovakia who is known to have written 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores as well as many orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. More importantly for this list, he wrote a Rondo for Large Orchestra entitled, Half-Time (Polocas, in Czech) The piece was inspired by a specific game; the 1924 match between Czechoslovakia and France.
7.) Jocelyn Pook's opera, Ingerland, follows the internal quandries of football players, their families, and their fans. Pook was commission to compose music for the opera by the Royal Opera House's Linbudy Studio in London as part of a trio of operas designed to bridge the gap between music theatre and non-operatic subjects. Her inspiration for the work came from the noisy clamor of the Arsenal stadium near her home:
"Living near Arsenal stadium I would often hear the distant roar of a mass of voices on the wind; thousands of people singing their hearts out in unison with a fervour and commitment rarely heard outside a concert hall."
Remember, the American National Women's team plays in the World Cup this Sunday. I'll certainly be listening to a few pieces by these composers before I catch the game.
I believe! I believe we will win!