How did a Russian composition end up the theme for an American holiday?
This is cool. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote the 1812 Overture to commemorate the battle that broke the back of the French invasion under Napoleon. It was commissioned for the completion of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, which Tsar Alexander II meant as a memorial for the battle.
Tchaikovsky considered it crap. A sell-out. None-the-less, it is one of the most played compositions since its introduction to the US in the 1930’s.
Somehow, probably because Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops featured it on a Fourth of July concert, thinking the bells and cannons a nifty way to observe the occasion, we Americans have velcroed it to our summer consciousness in parks and auditoriums and concert halls across the country.
I wonder how many people know they are celebrating the birth of our country with music celebrating the defeat of Napoleon by the Russians?
Here’s Seiji Ozawa…
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