"know the score"

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

    My colleague, Don Miller (Doctor of Musical Arts; U of Iowa, 2002; specialty: conducting), tells me that "know the score" is today used as a standard expression in reference to a conductor or performer knowing the music very well/having studied it/having done his (or her) homework.

   I asked him for some examples in context, and he said:

1) "It's nice to work with a conductor who knows the score."
2) "Since he composed the piece, one would think that he'd know the score/know his own score."
3) (conductor speaking): "The guest artist knows the score better than I do."

    We therefore see an expression rooted firmly in music, while the sports usage is at best very infrequent and almost never refers to a player having a thorough knowledge of the game. Bearing the sports-score in mind might be especially important in a given situation, but that's not the same as having an impressive knowledge of anything. And in all my years of following sports, I have never--not a single time--heard anyone say of a player "He knows the score", in which the reference would be to knowing that the score was, say, 6-2, and having the  overtones of admiration which come when someone possesses a profound knowledge of something.

     We may safely assume that comments such as the ones in quotes above were made as long as there were musical scores and performers/conductors having varying degrees of  familiarity with them. With the expression overwhelmingly attested in a musical context and at best very infrequently in a sports one, I'm not sure why there might be doubt as to which context provided us the expression.

Gerald Cohen
University of Missouri-Rolla