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For quite a few years, I played with a per service orchestra that offered up a free (outdoor) concert (a huge social event.. thousands of people) every year usually sandwiched in between the first and second concerts of the year. It was a bunch of pops stuff with some tidbits of classical and pops stuff that we would be playing later in the year.
Of course, at the end we played 1812 and Stars and Stripes and they shot off a bunch of fireworks...

We had a new music director a little more than a decade ago, and he did a wonderful job on the entire concert but got a little distracted on 1812 and lost his place right before the cannons start (you know, where lower instruments do a descending hemiola and finally the tuba and some other instruments trace that overlapping descending line into the cannon fire section).

(By the way, we had a real carillon - bell tower - and of course we had real cannons).

When he realized he was lost (as that section was sort of repetitive and monotonous) he eyed me with desperation.

I offered back a wink and a smile and he looked up to the sky with a "thank God" look.

Rather than blending in my entrance with the quieter instruments, I went ahead and entered it full volume so there would be no mistaking where we were, and he would be back on track.

It was all good. He and I were buddies after that.
I typically don't think it's a good idea to have a music director as one of my buddies, but that was an exception, I suppose.

This reminds me of two things...

1. 1812 - I played with my home town pickup community band one July 4, and I had my Rudy 5/4. I was 20. After the concert, my mother said, "I was going to compliment your restraint until the end of the 1812 overture." Listen, ok, the town contracted with the local base and got a Howitzer. I had to.

2. College. We were doing Gliere's 3rd Symphony. The fourth movement fell apart on stage. Badly. The tuba has a very quiet but notable entrance towards the end, essentially beginning the coda. On a low B I think. I had been counting with the conductor because there was no way to time the entrance with any of the music going on onstage. When we got to the entrance, he looked back to me, saw me taking my breath, and noticeably relaxed. He and I were never friends before, but we were very close after.

Ahh 1812 - we do it every year. I’m not sure anybody does the total spectacle better than we do it. Cannons, Carillon, Church bells, Choir and people as far as can be seen. It’s pure bedlam. Afterwards the crowd just roars for 15 minutes and we bring the cannoneers up for a bow. It takes a lot of folks to man those things. We do the 4th Concert where it falls on our weekly Thursday Night concert - which this year fell on July 2. We then do a separate Patriotic concert (no 1812) for the fireworks on the 4th which is in a much bigger park. Fireworks draw around a 100,000 people. The traffic afterwards is nothing less than daunting to get out of there.



Our Carillon - I think it’s the 3rd largest in the country. It’s far enough away (about 3/4 of a mile) to be effectively heard. You need some distance from a Carillon to get the full effect.



One of the classic bell steeple tower Churches that we also utilize for 1812 on the perimeter of our performance center.





Canons used to be a total of six 105 Howitzers from the National Guard. Now we use six Civil War cannons with re-enactors. We in addition have our own original Civil War cannon in the park but it is plugged.

I remember playing some version of it with a band, at some decently-sized patriotic event at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. The emcee introduced the piece as being about the American triumph over the British in 1812, right there at Fort McHenry. To which all of the sheeple in the audience smiled, clapped, and murmured "oh wow, I didn't know that." My brain almost exploded from the amount of wrong information conveyed in only a couple of sentences. Then again, there's a reason why I think the motto for Baltimore should be "Not the capital of Maryland."

I've never really understood or liked the association between 1812 Overture and the 4th of July. It's confusing since some parts are directly referential to "La Marseillaise," and frankly nothing about the piece sounds particularly "American" to me. I actually think the bells and the cannons sound more French than anything, which is ironic since the whole piece is about the Russians defeating France. My understanding is that Arthur Fiedler is to credit (blame?) for this 50-year-old tradition, and it was all to boost ticket sales. Which is even more confusing to pick an anthem from a communist country (albeit written during Tsarist rule) during the later years of the Cold War. The whole thing is just weird.

On the flip side, perhaps it's fitting to use the 1812 Overture as a symbol of American appropriation. It's loud and brassy and the ending has explosions. People enjoy it, so keep doing it. Plus, it's public domain, so no need to worry about who gets paid. Win-win.

Fun fact: Tchaikovsky hated the piece. He wrote it because he was commissioned to write it, and even then, only went through with it because it was for a friend.

It's an excuse to fire cannons.
There's no other reason for it, and it has nothing to do with Americana, other than the fact that it has become Americana.

tofu wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2026 12:28 amCivil War cannons with re-enactors

I stopped doing that gig years ago, but I still have the earplugs in my tuba bag!

I really like 1812 as a brass quintet. Just play the important parts, and having a competent tuba player handling the cannon shots.

bloke wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2026 8:34 am It's an excuse to fire cannons.
There's no other reason for it, and it has nothing to do with Americana, other than the fact that it has become Americana.

And I’m okay with that.

It brings people out. That’s a good thing. They meet their neighbors, they find out there is a band, there are regular concerts, they are free, they now know where and when they happen, they have a great time while behaving themselves - (which in and of itself seems like a remarkable thing these days), they learn about a lot of different forms of music as this concert will have patriotic pieces from all time periods of the USA and in all styles. In turn, this leads to us always playing to full houses inside and outside throughout the year and citizens that make it known they support the band. People who move here often state one of the reasons were the band concerts and how that made a big very modern large (165,000 population) sophisticated town with a well preserved historic district -still feel like friendly small town America. This also leads them to voting a band tax upon themselves and in turn the band having a city provided budget that rivals a good sized symphony. City council doesn’t balk when the band asks for 40 grand to go play at something like TMEA down in Texas - which we did a couple years back.

Plus, we have our own modern venue and rehearsal space designed by us and built by the city which contains two rehearsal spaces, a library, kitchen and multiple storage rooms. We also take the time before the piece is played to explain to people why it was written, for what and by who. So, nobody in this audience is fooled into thinking this is something other than exactly what it is. Sure -people absolutely come for the canons - it’s a spectacle - that’s pretty much what the 4th and Fireworks are. And it beats the heck out of people sitting at home listening to rap, yelling at themselves and their neighbors or worse getting in their cars, driving around while randomly shooting at people. There are plenty of pieces that one can quarrel with being appropriate - SSB - the national anthem is -a bar drinking song.

Bringing people out for concerts is half the battle for music organizations playing music from other eras and one of the things Orchestras particularly struggle with - which in turn those organizations find themselves struggling to stay relevant and in business. We however, to paraphrase the Statue of Liberty are happy to take the huddled masses yearning to be free and able to hear cannons in a nice park on a warm summer evening. Doesn’t get any more American than that.

We could all petition our towns to program the 1712 Overture by PDQ Bach instead. Same idea. More on-point themes.

bloke wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2026 3:38 pm 1812 memories

I didn't realize you were that old.

arpthark wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2026 6:29 am

bloke wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2026 3:38 pm 1812 memories

I didn't realize you were that old.

He's not, he just forgot the comma.

1,812 memories

arpthark wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2026 6:29 am

bloke wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2026 3:38 pm 1812 memories

I didn't realize you were that old.

He's older. He's the one who straightened the Pilgrim's horns out when they got banged up on the crossing using water power and blacksmith tools during their summer vacation.

windshieldbug wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2026 9:40 am

arpthark wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2026 6:29 am

bloke wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2026 3:38 pm 1812 memories

I didn't realize you were that old.

He's older. He's the one who straightened the Pilgrim's horns out when they got banged up on the crossing using water power and blacksmith tools during their summer vacation.

Typical young scholars...

arpthark wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2026 9:52 am

windshieldbug wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2026 9:40 am

arpthark wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2026 6:29 am

I didn't realize you were that old.

He's older. He's the one who straightened the Pilgrim's horns out when they got banged up on the crossing using water power and blacksmith tools during their summer vacation.

Typical young scholars...

In response to that, I've got nuthin'...
...so I guess I'll do like people do on social media when they have nuthin and type

EPSTEIN FILES !!!

Back on topic, it's kind of a tradition around here for the Coast Guard Band to play 1812 Overture at the conclusion of their Labor Day concert, held on the coastal lawn of Branford House at Avery Point in Groton, CT:





This was a wealthy railroad magnate's mansion that he bequeathed to the state, which was used as a Navy base during WWII and has now been developed as a satellite campus of the University of Connecticut. I used to work in the mansion, actually. (Third floor, second window from the left.)

They bring in the Artillery Company of Newport, Rhode Island for the cannon fire. It's always a great concert and a great way to end the summer.