Friday, December 9, 2022

Fire those cannons

You're probably familiar with the magnificent "1812 Overture" by Tchaikovsky.

This long piece of music culminates, of course, with a crash of cannon and ringing of church bells. Understandably for most performances, these are usually played with timpani drums for the cannon and deep chimes for the church bells.

But once in a while – you get the real thing. And when you do ... well, wow. Just wow.

I found a YouTube video showing the tail end of the Overture played by the Boston Pops Orchestra in 2019, where some military personnel are shooting actual cannons at the appropriate place in the music. Want to see how it's done? Watch starting at about the 50-second mark in the video below. Fascinating.

 

For decades, the Boston Pops was led by the legendary Arthur Fiedler. Under his leadership, the orchestra became one of the best-loved and most-recorded orchestras in the world. When I was a kid, we often watched the performances on television, which no doubt helped cement my love for classical music.

8 comments:

  1. During my band days in high school, 1975, we did the 1812 with reenactor team and black power civil war muskets inside the auditorium. The school smelled like black powder for a week. Then as a Marine field musician on Okinawa, 1979, we did it with 5 gun battery of 105 howitizers. That was an impressive three gun battery to keep up the tempo. Well done crew.

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  2. Decades ago I was involved with living history reenacting, both as a member of Co. "I", First US Dragoons [1830's-1860 on the frontier, with an additional specialty of Dragoon Artilleryman with a 12 lb. Mountain Howitzer, and I helped friends with the 5th US Artillery for Civil War era with crewing a 3" Ordnance Rifle. All muzzle-loading black powder of course. Also, at the request of the Ranger there, I gave a quick class in muzzle-loading artillery to my fellow tourists at Chalmette Battlefield [battle of New Orleans] when we visited. One of the biggest gatherings I was part of was one 4th of July in Denver where we did the 1812 Overture with the Colorado Symphony, with each volley cued by an assistant director. It was fantastic.

    Incidentally, at the conclusion a bunch of us reenactors went to a nearby burger restaurant [not fast food]. We were all still in our various uniforms from different eras and nationalities. I admit it was interesting sitting in a booth with my saber hanging from my belt. We baffled the staff and other customers.

    Subotai Bahadur

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  3. My love of classical came from my mother a classical violinist.

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  4. I was at a performance by the San Antonio Symphony (a wonderful orchestra) where soldiers from Fort Sam Houston fired howitzers . Very impressive.

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  5. I was at a performance of the Boston Pops on a field trip to Boston in the early 80s when John Williams was the conductor. It was fabulous and I loved every minute of it! XaLynn

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  6. Two of my sons were in sea cadets( Canada). During our Canada Day in Victoria, B.C. they got to shoot the canons during the 1812 Overture. They loved it and it sounded spectacular

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  7. When my son was in H.S. he had to give a short story set to music. His story was aout him and a friend deer hunting. He had it timed for his friend to shoot his deer just as the cannons started to explode. The class was roaring and his teacher fell out of his chair from laughing so hard. In the end the deer got away,

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  8. I used to work for Boston's Office of Emergency Management back in 2011-2013 ( I have since relocated away from that madness), but each year we would part of the show for the 4th of July. When it came time for this performance the doors were thrown open so we could here it live as they did a fantastic job and this signaled the beginning of the fireworks show. Glad I was there, but also glad I relocated.

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