1812 Overture

The 1812 Overture (originally titled: Festival Overture: “1812”, op. 49) is an orchestral work by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky commemorating the unsuccessful French invasion into Russia, and the subsequent devastating withdrawal of Napoleon's Grande Armée, an event that marked 1812 as the major turning point of the Napoleonic Wars. The work is best known for the sequence of cannon fire, which is sometimes performed, especially at outside festivals, using actual cannons. Although the composition has no historical connection with the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom, it is often performed in the US alongside other patriotic music.

The overture debuted in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow on August 20, 1882.

Overview

The overture is a piece of program music. It opens with the somber tones of a Russian Church chant, recalling the declaration of war announced at Church services in Russia, and is then immediately followed by a solemn chant for Russian success in the war. This announcement and public reaction was captured in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.

A theme representing marching armies follows, performed by the horns. The Russian folk dance theme commemorates the battle beating back Napoleon. The retreat from Moscow late in October 1812 is reflected by a diminuendo. The firing of cannon reflects the military advances toward the French borders. With the conflict over, we return to the chant, this time performed by the full orchestra with a peal of bells for the victory and the liberation of Russia from French occupation. Below the cannon and the marching theme, we hear the Russian national anthem, God Save the Tsar. The Russian anthem is a counterpart to the French anthem that was heard earlier.

In Soviet times, Tchaikovsky's work had to be edited for performances: the God Save the Tsar anthem tune in the overture had to be replaced with choir Glory from Glinka's opera Ivan Susanin. In fact, any Soviet-published edition of "1812" reflects this emendation.

The cannon blasts prescribed by Tchaikovsky (to fall on specific beats of the music as the work reaches its final climax) are usually rendered using a bass drum. Less frequently strongly accented snare drum diminuendos can be heard. Sometimes, a starter pistol firing blanks into a 52 gallon drum is also used. Cannon fire has been used in some cases, however, and was first laid down on a recording by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in the 1950s. Subsequent similar recordings have been made by other groups, exploiting the advances in audio technology, the most notable being the two recording done by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Cannon fire is used annually on the Fourth of July by the Boston Pops during their annual concert on the shores of the Charles River, by the National Symphony Orchestra during their annual concert on the steps of the US Capitol Building and by the Ravinia Festival Orchestra at Ravinia Park in Highland Park, Illinois. In addition, cannons are used during the Australian Defence Force Academy's annual passing out parade in Canberra, Australia and at the annual 'Symphony under the Stars'in Auckland, New Zealand. Sydney's annual "Symphony in the Park" concerts use fireworks in addition to the cannons, with the bell's of St Mary's Cathedral tolling in the background and is always the crowd favourite finale.

In the mid-1960s, Igor Buketoff wrote an arrangement of the "1812 Overture" with chorus. The opening segment was sung by voices as a sung chant instead of being played by cellos and violas, the children's chorus was added to the Flute and Cor Anglais, and the full chorus was mixed into the winds—the entire orchestra, in fact—in the closing segment. A recording of this particular arrangement was done by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra in 2001 and is available on the Telarc label.

Appearances in popular culture

(these appearances mainly refer to the part of the composition in which cannons can be heard)

In the high score screen of a computer game Project-X.
Used as the introduction music of a computer game named Wizkid. In the introduction the main character of the game (Wizkid) is conducting an orchestra (that is not visible) and a pair of cannons (that are visible). When the final chord of the tune is hit, the head of the Wizkid explodes and red bubbles from the head flow in all directions.
Appears in the computer game Fiendish Freddy's Big Top O'Fun during a cannon stage.
Used extensively in the computer game Risk II by Microprose and also in the computer game Hearts of Iron by Paradox.
The Overture was featured twice on The Simpsons. In "Bart the Daredevil", it is played by the school orchestra (complete with cannon fire). In "Lisa the Simpson", it is played during a Fox show about buildings collapsing.
Themes from the piece are used for the background music in the "Waterloo World" level of the Tim Schafer game Psychonauts where the player enters the mind of Fred Bonaparte, a direct descedent of Napoleon, in order to prevent him from going insane.
Made a notable appearance in the fourth season of the scifi show Farscape, where John Crichton (Ben Browder) taught the tune to a small maintenance robot DRD he named "1812" and painted blue, white and red.
Used in the ending scene of Caddyshack.
Whistled by John Keating (Robin Williams) in Dead Poets Society.
On an episode of Frasier (season one, episode three, titled "Dinner at Eight"), Frasier asks Niles, "Remember when you used to think that the 1812 Overture was a great piece of classical music?" Niles slowly shakes his head, and replies, "Was I ever that young?"
On startrek.com, the 1812 Overture was featured in a video along with footage of exploding spaceships from the Star Trek franchise.
A tribute to this song is heard in the overture to Rush's 2112.
On Queen guitarist Brian May's solo concert in Brixton Academy, London, 15th June 1983, a part of the drum solo of the song Resurrection featured the drummer, Cozy Powell, drumming to the 1812 Overture. This is because the drum solo is part of a much longer drum solo by Cozy Powell, from the 1979 song Over The Top, from the album by the same name, by Cozy Powell.
Prominently featured in the 2006 film V for Vendetta. The piece is used as the character V's signature performance, and is played on the street loudspeakers when V destroys a building. The cannon blast is instead done by the destruction of the buildings.
In the arcade game Battlezone, it can be heard when the player gets a high score and is prompted to enter his/her initials.
In all of the "Red" episodes of 2 Stupid Dogs, "Red" "la-la's" it on the way to "Grandma's house".
The closing music in the Danger Mouse episode "Play It Again Wulfgang".
It has been used as the finale of the annual fireworks display jointly presented by Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario.
The Finale is played at the start of the fourth quarter of every Notre Dame home football game to honor the head coach and to rally the team and fans.
In a 1960s commercial for Quaker Puffed Wheat Cereal, with lyrics that touted "It is the cereal that's shot from guns."

Notes

The composition reflects the French and Russian anthems of 1882, not 1812. From 1799 to 1815, France had no national anthem, and "La Marseillaise" was not restored until 1870. "God Save the Tsar" was not adopted as Russia's official anthem until 1833. This is probably a case of artistic license, with Tchaikovsky using musical themes that would have been familiar to his audience.

External link

Article from 2003 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on how “1812” has become a piece of patriotic Americana

Compositions by Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Gourt Home::Gourt :: 1812 Overture

Overview

Appearances in popular culture

Notes

External link