Featured Book: Tchaikovsky by David Brown (cont'd)

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Mr. Brown writes about the 1812 Overture: "Back in June [1880] … news arrived … of a commission for a piece to grace an Exhibition of Industry and the Arts which would take place in Moscow the following year … [H]e delayed until October before starting, by which time it had been agreed his contribution would instead be to celebrate the opening of the new Cathedral of Christ the Saviour … built to commemorate the events of 1812, when the Russian army and people … had driven the invading French forces of Napoleon out of Russia. … The opposing sides are represented by their national anthems, the French by the 'Marseillaise', the Russian by their national hymn 'God save the Tsar', which, at the work's triumphalist end, combines with Tchaikovsky's own jogging cavalry tune (plus bells … and even real cannon) to bring this celebratory piece to the loudest of possible conclusions. In addition to this borrowed material, there is a Russian folksong, an extract from Orthodox chant … and an adaptation of part of a duet for two women from Tchaikovsky's own first opera, The Voyevoda" (pp. 223-224).