1812 Overture

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The 1812 overture complete with cannon fire was performed at the 2005 Classical Spectacular.

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. When performed indoors, orchestras may use computer generated cannon sounds or huge barrel drums. Although the composition has no historical connection with the US-UK War of 1812, 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.

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 ("La Marseillaise") that was heard earlier. ^[1]

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 A Life for the Tsar. In fact, any Soviet-published edition of 1812 Overture 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. 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 recordings 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, by the Ravinia Festival Orchestra at Ravinia Park in Highland Park, Illinois, and by the Oregon Symphony as the finale of its annual Summer concert in Tom McCall Waterfront Park, immediately followed by fireworks. In addition, cannons are used during the Australian Defence Force Academy's annual passing out parade in Canberra, Australia, at the annual "Symphony under the Stars" in Auckland, New Zealand, and at the Canadian Forces annual "Fortissimo" event on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada as well as in Regina, Saskatchewan's annual Mozart in the Meadow orchestral performance. Sydney's annual "Symphony in the Park" concerts use fireworks in addition to the cannons, with the bells of St Mary's Cathedral tolling in the background and is always the crowd favourite finale. Cannon fire is also used during the Wichita River Festival in Wichita, Kansas.

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 parts, and the full chorus was mixed into the winds — the entire orchestra, in fact — in the closing segment. Recordings of this particular arrangement were done by the following orchestras and choruses:

The New Philharmonia Orchestra and the Cathedral and Children's Choirs of St. Ambrose, conducted by Igor Buketoff in 1968 (available on the BMG label)
The Philadelphia Orchestra and the Temple University Singers, conducted by Eugene Ormandy in 1970 (also available on the BMG label)
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chorus of the Vienna State Opera, conducted by Lorin Maazel in 1982 (available on the Sony label)
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Andrew Litton in 1995 (available on the Delos label)
The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, conducted by Erich Kunzel, and the Kiev Symphony Chorus, conducted by Roger McMurrin (available on the Telarc label)

1 Appearances in popular culture
2 Regular & recurring venues
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Appearances in popular culture

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

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Movies

The movie Blown Away features the 1812 Overture.
The film Music Lovers tells the story of Tchaikovsky life and features the 1812 Overture.
The overture is 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 the Old Bailey and is subsequently banned by Chancellor Sutler (it is also heard during the destruction of the Palace of Westminster). The cannon blasts are replaced by the destruction of the building and accompanying fireworks. You can also hear the beginning of the overture in other parts of the movie as well, such as in the score accompanying the Warner Bros. logo and during V's television broadcast.
The overture is used in the ending scenes of Caddyshack and Airplane!.
In Dead Poets Society, Robin Williams' character (John Keating) whistles the overture.
The piece is used in The Beatles' second feature film, Help!.
The piece played a critical role in disguising a group of murders at the start of the film Gorky Park (1983).

[edit] Television

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.
The overture 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.
On an episode of Frasier (season one, episode three, "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?"
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 DangerMouse episode "Play It Again Wulfgang".
In a 1960s commercial for Quaker Puffed Wheat Cereal, with lyrics that touted "It is the cereal that's shot from guns."
Was used during the opening montage of the 2006 special AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers on CBS.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the Australian Army Reserve used it in their television advertising.
Featured in Tiny Toon Adventures during an episode where Babs and Buster Bunny conduct a concert version of the 1812 overture. The gag is that every time the cannons fire, an anvil falls on Plucky Duck no matter how hard he tries to avoid them.
Featured in an episode of Teacher's Pet.
Used during 1st season of Mythbusters to test the myth of "The Mad Trombonist".
Part of this music played in a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, Hide and Q, in scenes involving a group of aliens in 19th century French military uniform.
The Overture is sometimes used on Fox during trailers for upcoming episodes or films.
The cannon fire of the Overture is heard consistently during the Super Bowl, espescially the half-time shows.

[edit] Video games

In the high score screen of the 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.
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.
In the arcade game Battlezone, it can be heard when the player gets a high score and is prompted to enter his/her initials.
Is mentioned in a quote when you die in Call Of Duty 2

[edit] Other

The New England Patriots are considering playing this song after every touchdown scored by the team. ^{[citation needed]}
A tribute to this piece 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.
It has been used as the finale of the annual fireworks display jointly presented by Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario.
The overture's 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.
It is used in part of a guitar solo during Cream's BBC Sessions version of the song "I'm So Glad".
In an episode of the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes, Calvin and his imaginary tiger friend Hobbes finish listening to the 1812 Overture. When Calvin tells Hobbes that he likes the percussion part, Hobbes tells Calvin about the use of cannons during the finale. Calvin exclaims, "And they perform this in crowded concert halls?? Gee, I thought classical music was boring!"

[edit] Regular & recurring venues

National Sylvan Theater, Washington, DC, USA, every August the Overture is performed with real cannon

[edit] 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.