Guns in Music

[Katana]

1812 Festival Overture-Pyotr Tchaikovsky

As a child, I would often listen to this piece of western classical music. My father had a penchant for martial music of both the band and pipers variety and the 'bardai' music. Traditional music of the Bhats, Barots, Charans etc eulogising the old clans. Mostly, he leaned more towards Hindustani Classical but apart from that he listened to a lot of political speeches of greats like Churchill, JFK, L B Shastri and such on Long Playing Records. I didn't take a fancy to them then and still remain much apolitical.

Anyway, much later in life, I realised why this odd piece of music fitted into his collection when every other piece was Hindustani Classical or the marching, pipes or brass band type, including music of the Indian armed forces. This one has actual cannon shots in it! The finale consists of 16 cannon shot, that too it is the only known recording of cannon used in music and not percussion (drums). The cannon used was made in Strasbourg, France (paradoxically made by the very country the music was set to commemorate it's defeat by Imperial Russian Forces) and kept at the West Point Academy, US. It also consists of pealing bells of the Harkness Memorial Tower, Yale University.

The original score was set to commemorate the defeat of the Russian forces at the Battle of Borodino and the siege of Moscow and subsequent rout of Napoleon's army and their withdrawal from Russia. Tchaikovsky originally intended to have the cannon fired by some electrical current switched by the conductor and all the bells of the Kremlin to peal in a set manner. If this was actually played out in 1880, when the symphony was supposed to been have played it would have been something to hear!

Antal Dorati was a maverick conductor in the '50s and the early '60's who had his own version setting western classical pieces. The 1812 Overture is one of his masterpieces. Till now, and none after that, the Overture was played with kettle and snare drums to simulate cannon shot and glockenspiel and triangles to simulate bells. But he went one step further and used actual cannon and tower bells. This recording was made in 1955.

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This is culled from youtube, since I can't exactly provide a recording of the LP I have. Nevertheless, enjoy!

[bennedose]

Brilliant stuff. I have listened to this from the time I was a child - like you from my father's LPs at home. But I never knew about the cannons. Of course guns find mention in many songs - but nothing as dramatic as real cannons firing.

[xl_target]

From 1999 to 2009, a nearby town; Mankato, Minnesota, held an annual event in June called Rockin' in the Quarry. Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture was played several times and accompanied by Civil War era cannons. It was quite a treat. I attended twice. The Quarry walls really echoed the cannonade. It was almost overwhelming

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/f ... thequarry/

Apparently no one made a video of it but here (and especially for Nagarifle) is the Japan Self Defense Force playing the 1812 overture accompanied by 105 mm cannon.
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