Secretary's Report...
… And Rhythmic Clapping For All
Introduction
The Robert Abramson Dalcroze Institute believes that all can find the artist within themselves and that Rhythm is the powerful force which organizes the mind, body and emotions so that technique and expression can become one smoothly integrated performance. The outcome leads to mastery, spontaneity and joy.1
The home team batter faces a three-two count, and the relief pitcher needs an out to keep the visitors on top. As the reliever steps off the mound to collect his thoughts, fans in one section of the stadium begin a slow rhythmic clap that speeds up as it spreads throughout the stands. By the time the hurler releases the ball, 70,000 eyes are focused on the batter, ready to punctuate the winning hit with a thunderous ovation.
Perhaps you’ve experienced such joy.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the rhythmic clapping experience as it relates to the Baseball Odyssey (BO). This is a preliminary review of a rich and evolving topic, one that adds new chapters with every additional outbreak of the phenomenon. It is both a personal and universal experience, this rhythmic clapping thing.
We proceed with a brief survey of the origins and science of rhythmic clapping and its widespread use across the globe. Then we turn to the role rhythmic clapping has played in the BO to date and speculation about its future.
I’m grateful for the contributions BO participants made to enrich this document, and I look forward to future clapping experiences.
First Claps
Exactly who first clapped in rhythm is a matter of debate. We do know, however, that rhythmic clapping has been going on for a long, long time. Some suggest that children began the practice, having invented songs and games that included rhythmic elements centuries ago. Such “folk” songs and games have evolved and are still practiced across the globe.2 Another theory points to the Tibetan Lamas who have wooed worldwide audiences with their mystical music and dance. A review of a 2000 show in Seattle noted, “The program includes music, dance, and dialogue—an example of teaching through inquiry in which one monk questions a student. The exchange grew to resemble a baseball game, with the interlocutor literally pitching his questions with a slapping action and the ‘fans’ answering with rhythmic clapping.”3
Others point to the “toque de palmas,” element of flamenco, an art form introduced by Gypsies in 15th Century southern Spain. “Although dance is commonly believed to be the heart of flamenco, early flamenco was song — vocal melodies accompanied by rhythmic clapping called toque de palmas.”4 In this once-again popular dance, “the music often conveys tragedy, as in the petenera, the story of a girl who brings disaster to herself and village. But flamenco can also be joyous, heel-stomping music. The rhythm motors on a 12-beat count, with counter-time clapping for additional acceleration. The clapping alone represents what the Spanish call duende - a creative inner force.”5
Other, thinly supported theories about the origins of rhythmic clapping involve Slavic tribes,6 former music teachers,7 science fiction,8 and amateur radio operators.9
In terms of the early days of rhythmic clapping in the ballpark, consider the Japanese:
Find a sports team, musician, or actor who has been lucky enough to inspire a following in Japan, and then marvel at their tales of focused fan adulation, group zeal, and yes, shared dependency.
A famous case is the Hanshin Tigers baseball team. This club is blessed with a hard-core fan base that never ceases to clap, beat drums, chant in unison and wave huge flags — before, during and after each and every game, home and away, season in and season out — in a manner reminiscent of a World Cup Finals.
The fact that they do this regardless of the flow of the game or its outcome leads one to believe they see their performing as essential to the overall event as the pitching, hitting and fielding — in other words, they provide the crucial context in which the game can be played out.
Curiously, the Tigers home ground lies in the shadow of Osaka, where for at least the first half of the 19th century a remarkably similar tradition of fandom existed around the theatre.
As kabuki scholar Andrew Gerstle describes in the catalog for the recent "Masterful Illusions" ukiyo-e exhibit at the Smithsonian, Osaka theatre depended for its vitality on an extended concept of "performance," involving active collaborations among actors, patrons, fan clubs, poetry circles, amateur ukiyo-e artists and print publishers — to name just some of the "players."
Kabuki is actor-centered theatre and each group mentioned by Gerstle (who is building on the pioneering work of the late Matsudaira Susumu) played a key role in continually fanning cult-of-the-actor fervor.
Constant popular excitement was important to maintain, because it was only through having transcendent experiences with kabuki that Edo period townspeople could come together in a relatively free, classless, fun-filled way, and create for themselves a distinct social identity.
Like some avant-garde Off-Off Broadway experience (or baseball, for that matter), the attraction on center stage served merely as the catalyst or pretext to bring a disparate crowd together and focus it as a community. The true meaning in the event was the social cohesion produced, across class and generation, and the all-important, shared collective memories.
…Sasase-ren (The Bamboo Grass Group) was one of several large fan clubs that supported kabuki in general (as opposed to individual actors), and here we see one of its leaders taking to the stage of the Naka Theatre in Osaka (in the 11th month of 1823) to help welcome the actors back for the start of a new season.
It was the custom at such times for the various support groups to dress up and perform chants and rhythmic clapping, both on stage and from their seats, in the course of a long day of actors" speeches and virtuoso theatrical turns.10
Whatever the origins of rhythmic clapping, it has become a global phenomenon. From fun-loving, Finn track and field fanatics11 to Ukraine little leaguers12 to concertgoers the world round, rhythmic clapping is part of the action. But why do we do it?
Clap Happy
"When CBS first brought me to Yankee Stadium [in 1965], I knew nothing about baseball," says [longtime Yankee organist Eddie] Layton. "I thought a sacrifice fly had something to do with killing an insect. But during the first week, I played the 'Charge' call, the fans started a rhythmic clapping, and I got an immediate raise.” 13
The joy associated with rhythmic clapping is apparently engrained at an early age. Among the advocates of rhythmic activities for children, as young as preschool age, are Susan Kramer and Rudolf Steiner. Kramer, a Dutch educator, has published over one hundred articles and books over the past forty years extolling the virtues of implementing rhythmic activities in the classroom and beyond. Steiner, founder of Waldorf schools, designed his classrooms to include rhythmic exercises each day. Steiner believed these exercises helped wake students up and get them focused on the day’s activity. "We have in human movement a magical effect, a direct intervention of the spirit into bodily movements," he explained.14
A group of education majors at Ball State University found rhythmic clapping and similar actions to be most helpful in gaining third graders’ attention.15 Similarly, a recent study of first graders found that students with developed rhythm skills performed better academically.16
As BO veterans will tell you, it does take a bit of concentration and determination to get a group in rhythm. And, while the “raise” from the resulting sound is undeniable, why go to all that trouble? To answer that question, we turn to science.
Let’s go back to our original scenario of rhythmic clapping at the ballpark. A pitcher is ready to deliver a pitch during a critical moment in the contest. Someone in the crowd begins clapping in anticipation and is quickly joined by a smattering of others within earshot. As more spectators clap, the noise increases, which, in turn, gives other fans the opportunity to join in. As more hands join in on the act, the chance increases that the sound will become synchronized.
This phenomenon starts with randomness. That is, an individual or group of individuals, without prior planning, begins to clap. As others join in the activity, they reinforce the experience of the original clappers, who then reinforce the joiners’ action in return. Without this positive reinforcement, the clapping is replaced with other activities, such as eating popcorn or ordering a beer. But, as additional clappers express their interest in clapping with the original clappers, the activity moves from randomness to pattern. In other words:
Randomness is not only “disorder”. Random perturbations – often created by a system itself - can have an important role in self-organizing systems being the “seeds” needed to start the formation of patterns or structures.
Traffic jams: As long as cars are distributed evenly on a road and all cars are driving at the same speed no traffic jams are formed. But already small fluctuations in traffic density and different velocities of cars serve as “seeds” for traffic jams; positive feedback then accentuates these density fluctuations, making the seeds grow into full-fledged traffic jams….
Randomness together with positive feedback leads to such phenomena as rhythmic clapping of an audience. Initially most clapping is unsynchronized but if accidentally some people are clapping simultaneously this often leads - accentuated by positive feedback -to rhythmic clapping.17
As one could imagine, moving hundreds, much less thousands, of people from unsynchronized sound to rhythmic clapping is no easy task. As reported in the American Physical Review E journal in June 2000, researchers have developed a mathematical model to help predict the chances that an outbreak of clapping will become rhythmic:
The emergence of rhythmic behavior from initially random pulses is a phenomenon seen throughout nature, from the beating of heart cells to the flashes of fireflies. Theorists have explained the phenomenon with mathematical models and computer simulations of collections of oscillators coupled to one another, rather like a series of connected, identical pendulums. Under the right conditions, such pendulums become synchronized…
[This] model predicts that rhythmic behavior emerges only when the coupling between oscillators is strong enough: Audience members must be sufficiently aware of changes in the clapping rates of others if rhythmic clapping is to occur. But the model also predicts that this critical coupling level depends crucially on the dispersion of the applause--that is, the spread in clapping rates of the audience. An audience with a wide variety of rates will not be sufficiently well coupled to sustain rhythmic applause.18
The researchers point out that sustaining “spontaneous synchronization” is a complicated matter, relying on controlling the speed and sound level of clapping to keep an audience in synch. This last point may be the key to future success of BO rhythmic clapping events.
Oh, the Applause
CORVALLIS -- It was the top of the ninth inning in Goss Stadium at Coleman Field on Sunday and Oregon State's doors were already well blown off.
USC held an 11-2 lead and was on its way to another run and a 12-2 victory. But the fans in the stands -- most of the stadium-record 2,431 were still in their seats -- started a rhythmic clapping chant.
From his customary position at first base, [Oregon State} Beavers senior Andy Jenkins marveled at the sight and sound of it.
"To see all those fans here," he said, "and to hear them clapping with an 11-2 score, that was amazing. Being a senior, I hope this isn't my last game here, but if it is, it's a good one."19
As stated earlier, many teachers have discovered the positive feedback benefit of rhythmic clapping in the classroom. Athletes, as well as musicians and others in the spotlight, are equally susceptible to such applause. Sports Illustrated went so far as to pronounce that one of the top sporting venues of the 20th Century was Bislett Stadium in Oslo because it “transforms itself each summer into a cauldron of desperate noise and rhythmic clapping that carries runners on invisible wings.”20 Sixty-two world records were recorded at Bislett before the stadium was completely renovated in 2004.
Closer to home, we have the words of Baylor University baseball coach Steve Smith who, in response to an interview question explained, “First of all, I think the rhythmic clapping is great. But just like fans don't like players to wait ‘til the ninth inning to play, players and coaches don't like fans who wait ‘til the ninth inning to clap.”21
Clearly, the coach would like to see fans start clapping early and often. But, to complicate matters, while Coach Smith and others at center stage enjoy the positive reinforcement that comes with spectators’ clapping, not everyone in the stands is always enamored with the phenomenon. One blogger, describing an annoying concert experience, criticized the “Inappropriate Rhythmic Clapping Disease (IRCD) that struck the majority of the audience… IRCD signals a total disrespect for the arrangements that the musicians have chosen, as well as a fundamental lack of consideration for the audience members who want to hear the performers and not a bunch of arrhythmic clap-happy morons.”22
The frustrated writer has a point: there’s a time and place for everything. The art of applause is to anticipate or punctuate a moment in a show or ballgame, not create a distraction from it. Starting a rhythmic clap moments after the visiting team hits a tie-breaking grand slam late in the game is unlikely to catch on. On the other hand, consider a 2 ball-0 strike or 3-1 count for a home team slugger:
… Those are THE two Red Meat hitter's counts, the counts on which batters have statistically the best chances for success (intermediate and beginning fans, if your team has runners on base and the count gets to either 2-0 or 3-1, this is a time to start rhythmic clapping, even if the P.A. system operator doesn't know to put on the claptrack). Hitters try to work a pitcher to get to a 2-0 or 3-1 count because it means the pitcher is overwhelmingly likely to throw a fastball (for most hitters, the easiest, relatively, to hit).23
Or the first rally in a brand new ballpark. It has been documented that at 9:14 p.m. on July 16, 1999, with designated hitter Edgar Martinez’s arrival at the plate following Ken Griffey, Jr.’s leadoff double in the bottom of the seventh, fans started the first rhythmic clapping episode in new Safeco Field’s history.24 As it turned out, the Mariners failed to score that inning and ended up losing their first game. But, let the record show, the fans did their part.
There’s also the adolescent rhythmic-clapping-as-provocation technique that’s often employed at amateur events, such as NCAA basketball contests or Red Sox-Yankee games. Go on-line and read the elaborate rap sheets created by student groups at Division I schools in preparing for a basketball opponent. These groups use clapping as the exclamation point at the end of chants developed to point out some unique or uncomplimentary personal information about an opponent as he or she steps to the free throw line. A parallel process exists between fans of rival baseball teams:
BIGNateDawg: Q: What kind of "counter-chant" should the Fenway faithful use when the series comes back [to] the Hub?
Tom_Caron: Good question. How about "HIT THE WALL" (w/ the appropriate rhythmic clapping afterwards) as Brown takes the mound Friday night? Maybe "Four More Years" in honor of no World Series win since 2000?25
To which, a Yankee fan may retort: “You girls keep working on your chants and your rhythmic clapping.”26
Returning to higher ground, it is important to remember that, from Japan to Texas, creative, enthusiastic fan involvement really does make a difference. In fact, sometimes, the fans are the difference in an individual or team’s success. Which is just one of the reasons that makes rhythmic clapping such serious business.
Synchronicity
“It is with great pride that members of the Baseball Odyssey initiate a Rhythmic Clap and, upon the conclusion of said clap, have garnered the participation of a much wider audience. This is extremely satisfying and on many occasions, when a particularly robust and well accepted rhythmic clap has been completed, it is not uncommon to find the initiator wiping tears of joy from his or her eyes.”27
We’ve discussed the origins and uses of rhythmic clapping throughout the baseball world today. Now we’re going to explore its history and role in the context of Baseball Odyssey (BO). BO has been influenced strongly by rhythmic clapping’s historical role in the game. One BO veteran remembers his early trips to the ballpark:
I truly cherish the rhythmic clap and have fond memories of my first experiences with it. It goes back to Fenway Park in the days of Yaz, Rico P, Reggie Smith, Tommy Harper, and Bill Lee. The chaos of Red Sox fans - eating dogs, drinking beer, streaking naked through stands, increasing a 7 year-old's vocabulary with clever 4-letter words directed at misplaced Yankee fans - would momentarily be interrupted by church-like organ chords. Bahm, bahm, bahm, bah; Bahm, bahm, bahm, bah; Bahm…. People would stop what they are doing and begin clapping to the organ, slowly at first, but gradually increasing until the noise was so loud I wondered how the batter and pitcher could hear themselves think. It would last for maybe 20-30 seconds. Doesn't sound long, but it was. I remember how cool it was that so many people would break from their activity (recording stats, breaking peanut shells, streaking naked) to join in. As more people joined and as the speed of the clap increased, the roar became awesome. And, my hands would get so sore trying to do my part. PISSER!28
Participants whose profession or passion has been rhythm have also influenced the BO. Kommisar Jeff Haynes explains:
Doug Christianson who participated in BO ’01 is an accomplished drummer whose work with the bands ‘Global Theatre’ and ‘Thin Men’ and with professional endeavors such as ‘Rhythm Pulse’ has cast his place in the Rhythm Nation. Additionally, Will Jacobsen, a BO veteran, whose musical credits include the bands ‘Global Theatre’, ‘Thin Men’ and, more recently, his project ‘Duct Tape Mummy’ prides himself in the use of syncopated rhythms and complex percussive patterns in his body of work.
The BO has also benefited from the musical talents of other members, including “Captain Clue and the Ideas” band mates Tim and Chris Haynes.
With a critical mass of musicians and an enthusiastic supporting cast, it’s no wonder that BO has developed a Rhythmic Clap (RC) of its own. The BO RC may begin while seated during a game or at a campsite in anticipation of an announcement from Der Kommisar. It starts very slowly (how slowly seems to be a matter of debated) and the tempo gradually increases until members are whipping their hands together in a synchronized fury. When executed in a tight circle or joined in on by thousands of innocent bystanders in a ballpark, it is accompanied with broad smiles.
BO veteran Tim Haynes remembers the BO RC as an evolutionary process. “As rookies, we could barely get others to join. But the prowess grew as we learned to clap between batters and at strategic moments in the game. Before long, we could catalyze the entire stadium into a rhythmic clapping frenzy. And, when we took it outside to the parking lot, the aura increased and the legend grew.”
Der Kommisar remembers the parking lot outbreak this way:
I do recall a particular moment following the Cardinals' game [8/20/04] where in a nearly vacant parking lot a couple of blocks from Busch Stadium, under the cover of St Louis darkness, the BO '04 contingent broke into a spontaneous bout of Rhythmic Clapping. It is my impression that the Rhythmic Clap was institutionalized at that very moment into the vast consciousness of the Baseball Odyssey. That is not to say that there were not sporadic episodes of Rhythmic Clapping prior to that moment. But certainly the overall importance of Rhythmic Clapping to the Baseball Odyssey experience took its rightful place on that humid St Louis evening.
It should be noted that the evening of the parking lot RC also happened to be the BO with the highest number of youth BO participants to date, with 7 clappers under the age of thirteen. This is not surprising, given some of the theories about how such things as rhythmic clapping got started in the first place. It also provides context for comments made by several veteran BO participants such this admission from Chris Haynes: “I’ve developed calluses and flatter palms from the repeated ‘spontaneous’ claps begun by either those Tonachel kids or that Sam [Haynes].”
Since then, the BO RC has turned many a head and started several section- (if not stadium-) wide spontaneous synchronization events. It has been used as both a cheering mechanism and a most effective Call to Order. By circling up under the grandstand before or after a game and initiating RC, BO participants can gather in quick order and give the passing fans another memory to take home.
Despite its increased use and community-building effect on the BO family, there are some dark clouds on the BO RC horizon. It has been noted that, during last year’s trip, some RC outbreaks lasted only a few seconds and failed to pull in all BO participants, much less outsiders. There was speculation that the clapping had lost its luster and that people no longer wanted to be bothered.
In reflecting on this critique, I found myself going back to the mathematical models discussed earlier. Remember that, in order to sustain applause, a significant number of clappers must maintain identical clapping rates. This is an area in which we need more practice. At times last summer, we seemed to have dueling claps going, even within our own group. Some wanted to start slow and gradually speed up, others wanted to speed up more quickly, and still others found the whole thing too drawn out and tiring. Some of that may just be a lack of training. But it may also signal a need for more agreement on a clapping pattern before we take our show on the road.
Nevertheless, where there’s a will (and a Will, for that matter), there’s a way. And BO participants have consistently and successfully overcome bigger obstacles, including making a fine meal without proper cookware and figuring out how to properly clean out an RV’s septic system. So, it is easy to conclude that the BO RC’s best days are ahead. With another baseball season just around the corner, there’s plenty of opportunity for mastery, spontaneity, and joy.
See you at the ballpark!
March 19, 2006
Andrew Tonachel
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1 http://www.dalcrozeinstitute.com/ This is part of the Institute’s mission statement.
2 http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/2249/ or check out Texas Toys and Games, Abernethy, Francis E., ed., ISBN: 1574410377
3 http://www.seattleweekly.com/arts/0040/arts-kurtz.php
4 http://www.gwu.edu/~bygeorge/020305/flamenco.html
5 http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/lifestyle/bal-to.flamenco24jan24,1,6724044.story?coll=bal-artslife-today
6 http://www.idlewords.com/weblog.01.2004.html
7 BO participant Luke Tonachel suggested via email on 9/10/05, that it started in Ms. Carr’s music class, Hood Elementary, North Reading, MA, circa 1973.
8 BO veteran Christopher Haynes shared the following theory via email on 9/12/05: “Remember Stanley Kubrick's movie 2001 A Space Odyssey? (Note the similarity in the movie title and the BO) At the beginning cavemen learn to survive by developing tools from bones and rocks (actually weapons, but lets overlook that detail). After driving off their enemies and securing food using these new tools, I think the tribe of cavemen begin a spontaneous clap-like beat - clearly the roots to today's spontaneous clapping.”
9 http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2004/10/10/1/ asks “Do the baseball fans of today realize that the rhythmic clapping that they do at the ballpark to inspire their team comes from the early days of the game when fans would clap out DAH-DAH-DI-DI-DIT DI-DI-DI-DAH DAH, the telegraphers shorthand 73 meaning best regards?”
10 http://www.osakaprints.com/content/information/articles/article_texts/fans.htm This source speculates that, based on the celebrity status attained by the “cheer-meisters” of the day, why shouldn’t the modern-day fan leaders of the Hanshin Tigers find their likeness on next year’s baseball cards. I say, dream on, Sam Haynes, dream on. In http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/16820/the_social_impact_of_japanese_baseball.html?page=12, the author surmises that the cheers in Hanshin and Hiroshima are modeled on medieval agricultural song cycles. For a treatise on the intricacy of Hanshin cheers, see Peter Hughes at http://www.fivetools.com/baseball/2002/041302.htm
11 http://www.elitetrack.com/main/content/blogsection/0/9/8/8/ regarding the IAFF World Championships. This passage is noteworthy for its final sentences: “If you are a Finn fan, you have blue and white hats, shirts, and flags. It's kinda like a Finish version of a Boston Red Sox fan.”
12 http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/1997/439722.shtml
13 http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0124,ryan,25520,3.html The connection between organist and rhythmic clapping is strong and worthy of its own investigation. One amusing take on this link, in the world of hockey, is provided at http://www.dribbleglass.com/articles/hockey_dory.htm While the old-time organists would play off the crowd as much as lead it, a more sinister view of the current state of affairs is noted at http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=article&DocID=393
14 http://www.consciouschoice.com/2000/cc1308/waldorfschools1308.html Similarly, at http://www.awsna.org/education-class.html, the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America states that “lively rhythmic activities get the circulation going and bring children together as a group.”
15 http://www.acei.org/elementaryfall03.htm
16 http://www.amc-music.com/research_briefs.htm This source, the American Music Conference provides many examples of the benefits of music education for young people.
17 http://www.ifi.unizh.ch/ailab/teaching/AL00/chap3.pdf Thanks to award-winning BO participant Brannon Claytor for sharing this important research.
18 http://focus.aps.org/story/v5/st27
19 http://www.oregonlive.com/beavers/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/sports/1116842166210310.xml&coll=7, reported 5/23/05.
20 http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/centurys_best/news/1999/06/02/top_venues/ The article goes on to state that “Lynn Jennings, the 10,000-meters bronze medalist in the 1992 Olympics, once called it a distance runner's Fenway Park.”
21 http://www.fansonly.com/schools//bay/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/031802aaa.html
22 http://www.fluxblog.org/2003_10_10_newflux_archive.html Please note that this writer wraps his disdain for rhythmic clapping in many, let’s say, explicit phrases. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
23 http://cmdr-scott.blogspot.com/2004/09/minnesota-twins-knowledge-management.html
24 http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/safeco/openingday/firsts1.shtml
25 http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2004/10/13/tc_transcript_101304/
26 http://www.soxaholix.com/tp/2005/10/oh_fer_21st_cen.html
27 This and all subsequent quotes are from BO Kommisar Jeffrey A. Haynes, via email on 9/10/05.
28 This and subsequent quotes are from BO veteran Tim Haynes, via email on 9/10/05.