Something for the weekend. Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. Written in 1880 to commemorate the victory of Russia over Napoleon, its composition was due to the fact that the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, commissioned by Tsar Alexander I in thanksgiving for the victory, was nearing completion. As it happens, Tchaikovsky did not think much of what would become his most famous piece, writing that it was noisy and lacked all artistic merit and was written by him without love. Oddly enough, it has become associated in this country with the Fourth of July, as I have heard it performed on several Independence Day celebrations.
Although it has been endlessly parodied, “the cereal that’s shot from guns”, I have always liked it. Listening to a great piece of music like this, I wonder if the below humor piece does not possess a rare insight:
Go here to read the rest.
Love those canons!
Military pieces are rarely the composer’s best. Beethoven admitted that “Wellington’s Victory” was “sh*t” but that his sh*t was better than other composers best music.
My reaction when I first heard it was, “Wut? Beethoven wrote ‘The Bear Went Over the Mountain’?”
If there’s a composer whose name can be mentioned in the same breath as Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, it’s Tchaikovsky. He suffers from the same dilemma as Mozart: he’s often so accessible that people overlook his skill. In Mozart’s case, the more you study music, the more impressive he gets. In Tchaikovsky’s case, I think that people who study Russian music in greater depth become enchanted with later, less accessible composers.
“As it happens, Tchaikovsky did not think much of what would become his most famous piece, writing that it was noisy and lacked all artistic merit and was written by him without love.”
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If anyone would like to hear what Tchaikovsky considered his love, listen to his Serenade for Strings Op 48 (the 1812 Overture is Op 49, both were written in 1880). The two have similarities, but the Serenade is a very beautiful work, one of the best ever.
very interesting article– the “hologram” of great music seems possible ! 🙂
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I have always been drawn to pre-Soviet music, prose and poetry…that Russian spirit is also close the the heart of our blessed Mother, I think