Ithaca College Music Theory Professor Receives Baseball Research Award

Dave Maley, 7/28/2005

Ithaca, NY--Timothy Johnson, assistant professor of music theory at Ithaca College, has won a 2005 Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research award. Presented by SABR (Society of American Baseball Research), the annual award honors those individuals whose outstanding research projects have significantly expanded knowledge and understanding of baseball.

Johnson received the award for his book, “Baseball and the Music of Charles Ives: A Proving Ground.” The work combines an examination of Ives’s musical compositions with solid research on the composer’s love of baseball. Ives lived from 1874 to 1954, and Johnson examines how the American pastime and the men who played it influenced Ives’s development as a composer. By discussing Ives’s musical depictions of ballplayers who later became Hall of Famers, Johnson gives a unique glimpse of the game as it was seen by baseball fans at the turn of the 20th century.

“I was pleasantly surprised and deeply honored to have my music research recognized by the baseball community,” Johnson says. “My publisher kept telling me that the audience for this book would be limited to Ives scholars and other musicians, but all along I kept thinking that this book would appeal to baseball fans as well.”

A reviewer, writing for “Reference and Research Book News,” backs up Johnson’s claim: “This study delineates how the art and sport of baseball affected Ives and presents analytical and contextual treatments of his musical compositions pertaining to baseball.”

“I was a junior in high school when I first experienced the music of Charles Ives,” Johnson says. “It totally changed my sound world. Given my longstanding admiration for this radical composer and my enthusiasm for baseball, it is a pleasure to be able to combine both these lifelong passions into this book.”

Johnson will receive the award at the annual SABR convention, which will be held Saturday, August 6, in Toronto. SABR will also present research awards to baseball historian Peter Bjarkman for his book, “Diamonds around the Globe: The Encyclopedia of International Baseball,” and to ESPN commentator Rob Neyer and statistical guru Bill James for their book, “The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers.” The work lists specific information on 2,000 pitchers throughout the history of professional baseball.

For more information on Johnson’s book, visit www.scarecrowpress.com.

Johnson may be contacted for interviews at tjohnson@ithaca.edu, (607) 539-9942, or (607) 274-1932.

Originally published in News Releases: Ithaca College Music Theory Professor Receives Baseball Research Award.