The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Tomorrow is the Fourth of July, or Independence Day in the U.S. So how did Russian music such as the “1812 Overture” by Tchaikovsky – which will be featured at tonight’s patriotic Concert on the Square by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and at the competing Rhythm and Booms celebration — become such a popular and all-American event?

By Jacob Stockinger

Tonight, Wednesday, July 3, at 7 p.m. on the King Street corner of the downtown Capitol Square  in Madison, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s second Concert of the Square (below), under conductor Andrew Sewell — a native New Zealander who is now a naturalized American citizen — will celebrate the Fourth of July.

Also tonight, with fireworks beginning at 9:30 p.m., the radio-broadcast soundtrack for the gigantic regional celebration Rhythm and Booms show (below) in Madison’s Warner Park will no doubt include the same piece, or at least its finale.

For more information about that event, including the official traffic plans,  here is a link: http://www.rhythmandbooms.com

And tomorrow night, Thursday, July 4, at 7 p.m., Wisconsin Public Television will also broadcast PBS’ live coverage of “A Capitol Fourth,” the Fourth of July concert from Capitol Hill and the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Here is a link with information about the event and the performers, who include singers Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow and Jackie Evancho as well as composer John Williams conducting the National Symphony Orchestra.

http://www.pbs.org/capitolfourth/bios.html

And like Fourth of July concerts all over the country, all of those concerts or musical celebrations  will likely once again end with a rousing version of the “1812 Overture” by Tchaikovsky (below) with cannon shots booming and church bells ringing – perhaps with a Sousa march for an encore. (At bottom is the most popular YouTube video of The 1812 Overture that has more than 1.5 million hits.)

The rest of tonight’s Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s “Red, White and Blue” program features piano soloist Michael Mizrahi (below) playing what The Ear calls The Gershwin Card. (Next spring, the Madison Symphony Orchestra will also play The Gershwin Card to close its upcoming season that will mark the 20th anniversary of maestro John DeMain‘s tenure.)

I use the term The Gershwin Card to mean a kind of appealing crossover programming of the tuneful  and jazzy music by George Gershwin (below) that draws big audiences like pops and is easy to digest like pops, but also has a more serious side and is closer to having a classical pedigree than being pops.

In particular, the WCO concert features Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and “I Got Rhythm” Variations as well as Robert Lowden’s “Armed Forces Salute.”

So far, so American!

But how did music celebrating a Russian victory over Napoleon (below, seen in painting retreating in defeat from Moscow) and the French army in 1812 become so emblematic of the Fourth of July and American independence?

Well, like the American Revolution itself, the musical tradition started in Boston.

Only much, much later.

Care to take a guess?

Here is a link to the story as told to NPR’s Scott Simon on last Saturday morning’s “Weekend Edition”:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2013/06/29/196682351/why-tchaikovskys-bells-and-cannons-sound-every-july-4

For more information about this second Concert on the Square go to this page, which also has information about the entire series and the remaining four concerts:

http://wcoconcerts.org/performances/concerts-on-the-square/59/event-info/