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| Fireworks on July the 4th |
Here comes July the 4th, we celebrate the Independence Day every year, year after year. To most people, this is a cook out day, BBQ in the backyard or go out attending some open field concert. After that, we watch the firework. This happens everywhere. The spectacular firework usually is held in a big city near bay, river or near the park, so it accommodates a lot of people near open space under big sky. With this kind national fanfare, music is a must and so band and orchestra are highly demanded and they are busy on the Independence Day.
The most common music played is march of course. The most and usually played last is 'The Stars and Stripes Forever', an immortal work of Sousa. In addition, they play Manhattan Beach, El Capitan, Washington Post ... etc etc etc. Meanwhile among all these fanfare, it is almost a must to play "1812 Overture". This one is really odd and peculiar as this Tchaikovsky's master work really has nothing to do with America and its tune is Russian or French at best. The only reason to play it is the cannon scene near the end of the music. Per history, it was Arthur Fiedler, the conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, wanted some special effect in his outdoor performance near Boston on the 4th of July. He staged a real cannons, lined them up near the park and fired them synchronously with the orchestra playing the '1812 Overture'. People loved it when they saw the fire, smoke and loud explosions while the music raced to the final moment.
Arthur Fiedler's performance was a single successful event. It was so spectacular that people remember it well. After that year, this '1812 Overture' is played year after year and becomes a tradition. It sounds like the 'Nutcracker' played each year near the Christmas Season, a traditional event for ballet lovers and dancers . Nutcracker sounds more reasonable as it is a story about a girl's dream after Christmas Eve party. But '1812 Overture' has nothing to do with American Independence. The cannon is just too awkward to be the main reason. Some people think this '1812 Overture' has something to do with the war between America and British in 1812 AD. Actually no American composes anything for it as this war has nothing to celebrate for. Remember that British Soldiers got into White House and a lot of American fled the city in 1812. Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer. He composed '1812 Overture' to commemorate the event of Russian defeated Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The music contains the tunes of French and Russian national anthem with cannon explosion and fireworks. Here let's take a look at it on YouTube:
(0:42-2:04) "La Marseillaies", French National Anthem
(0:09-2:24) "God Save the Tsar", Former Russian National Anthem
Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture (conclusion part of the overture)
(0:01-1:12) Pastoral scene of the Russian countryside
(1:15-2:07) Russian folk tune and dance, 'At the Gate'
(2:08- 2:41) Introduction of La Marseillaies, French soldiers marching
(2:42-2:55) La Marseillaies, French National Anthem
(2:56- 3:37) Music winding down like elevator music, signifying the retreat of Napoleon
(3:38-4:40) Victory celebration in Orthodox Church with bell ringing
(4:41-4:51) Victory to the Russian finally
(4:52-5:07) God Save the Tsar, National Anthem of former Imperial Russia
If I were a French American, I would be embarrassed or humiliated by this 1812 Overture playing La Marseillaise (French National Anthem) in a retreated fashion and faded into the oblivion while celebrating the American Independence. Russian used to be a communist country with cold war animosity with America. Even today Americans don't have good opinion about the Russians on human right record. Playing old Russian national anthem, 'God Save the Tsar' on American Independence day is odd and weird at best.
I think Sousa should have composed some cannon march or added some cannon section in his 'The Stars and Stripes Forever'. Even with his genius, Sousa seems missing the opportunity as it would have been the most spectacular fanfare at the final moment of the Independence Day Concert. Also there have been many well-known American composers like Aaron Copland who composed 'Fanfare for the Common Man'. I wonder why he also missed the opportunity to compose something like 'Fanfare for the American Independence'.
1 comment:
Arthur Fiedler was famous for conducting Boston Pops Orchestra in 1970's. His 1976's performance, celebration of the US Bicentennial was a great success due to the cannon firing of the "1812 Overture".
For some other related reason, he is also a target of some jokes. We EE majors in the college used to ask:
What is Semiconductor?
The answer is "Arthur Fiedler loses half of his orchestra.
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