1812 Overture Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in 1840 in Votkinsk, Russia. He was the second child

of six children. When he was eight years old, his father planed on moving to Moscow and

applying for a better job, but the plan fell through. This lead to both he and his older brother

being sent off to boarding school. After completing his schooling he enrolled in the St.

Petersburg School of Jurisprudence . While enrolled in school he worked as a clerk in the

Ministry of Justice . While working for Ministry of Justice he realized that his interest was

elsewhere and not in the study of law. He enrolled in the St. Petersburg Conservatory of music

at the insistence of his music teacher Nicholas Zaremba. He had found calling as a musician

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour which is in Moscow, Russia asked Tchaikovsky to

create the “1812 Overture.” The musical piece was constructed for the celebration of the 70th

anniversary of Russia’s defeat over Napoleon. The piece was created in-between October 12th

and November 19, 1880. Although he was appointed to write the piece, which is considered to

be an honor, Tchaikovsky did not thoroughly enjoy writing the piece because he considered it to

be “very loud and noisy and completely without artistic merit, obviously written without warmth

or love” (Classic FM). It only took him one week to fully complete the 1812 Overture. Although

he did not enjoy writing the piece, it is still considered to be an honored work (Gramophone).

The first performance of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture was August 20, 1882 directed by

Ippolit Altani at the Arts and Industry Exhibition which was delayed by a year. Tchaikovsky had

also asked another conductor Eduard Nápravník to perform his piece in St. Petersburg but he

They were able to pre record actual explosive booms to insert

into the piece (Gramophone). Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture has been played for many years and to this day is still

played. The song is played all across America for the 4th of July. The reason it is played is

because America thinks that the overture portrays the country’s victory over the British during

the war of 1812. Arthur Fiedler who was also a musician, had The Boston Pops Orchestra play

it on July 4, 1974. It was supposed to be an interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, but

for the ending of the musical piece he included fireworks, cannons, as well as a choir. The reason

Arthur Fiedler put more pizzazz into the piece was to increase ticket sales for his performances,

even though Tchaikovsky intended for there to be cannons fired at the end. Americans truly

believed that this piece was written for their victory, but later found out that was written for

Russia and their victory over Napoleon in Moscow (Digital Journal)

A romantic Orchestra was always considered to be much bigger than in the classical

period. They had many more different instruments during their time. The piece was written