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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is the Fourth of July – a celebration of Independence Day when the United States officially declared its separation from Great Britain in 1776.
The day will be marked by picnics and barbecues, by local parades and spectacular fireworks – and this year by armored tanks and fighter jets in yet another expensive display of military power by You Know Who: that loudmouth man who overcompensates for dodging the draft by acting more like King George than George Washington.
The “Salute to America” sure looks like it is really going to be a “Salute to Trump.”
But whatever your politics, your preferences in presidents or the festive activities you have planned for today, there is classical music to help you mark and celebrate the occasion. Just go to Google and search for “classical music for the Fourth of July.”
Better yet, tune into Wisconsin Public Radio, which will be featuring American classical music all day long.
In addition, though, here are some oddities and well-known works that The Ear particularly likes and wants to share.
The first is the Russian immigrant composer and virtuoso pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff playing his own version of our national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” something he apparently did out of respect for his adopted country before each recital he played in the U.S.:
And the second is by another Russian immigrant and piano virtuoso, Vladimir Horowitz, who was a friend and colleague of Rachmaninoff. Here he is playing his piano arrangement, full of keyboard fireworks that sound much like a third hand playing, of “The Stars and Stripes Forever” by American march king John Philip Sousa. Horowitz used the patriotic march to raise money and sell war bonds during World War II, then later used as an encore, which never failed to wow the audience:
For purposes of artistic and political comparisons of presidents, you will also find Aaron Copland’s “A Lincoln Portrait” – with famous actor and movie star Henry Fonda as the narrator of Honest Abe’s own extraordinary oratory and understated writing — in the YouTube video at the bottom.
And in a ironic twist The Ear can’t resist, here are nine pieces — many orchestral and some choral –chosen by the official website of the BBC Music Magazine in the United Kingdom to mark and honor American Independence Day. It has some surprises and is worth checking out:
http://www.classical-music.com/article/nine-best-works-independence-day
If you like or favor other works appropriate to the Fourth of July or have comments, just leave word and a YouTube link if possible, in the Comment section.
The Ear wants to hear.
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To celebrate America’s descent into totalitarianism (the Trump tanks and jet flyovers should underline this even to the most dull-witted) how about:
The “Horst-Wessel-Lied” or “Deutschland über alles”:or “Giovinezza”
Let’s face it: America has changed since the young days of Rachmaninoff and Horowitz.
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Comment by fflambeau — July 4, 2019 @ 9:32 pm
Lots of versions of Lincoln Portrait out there, all dependent on the celebrity voice. The one I still like most (and listened to at LU) was Adlai Stephenson with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
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Comment by Robert Suettinger — July 4, 2019 @ 10:40 am
And here again is my all-time favorite on the Fourth of July, what almost became our national anthem, Chester, composed by William Billings but brilliantly adapted in 1944 by William Schuman, performed here by the Wheaton College Symphonic Band recently. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8oiH0CZhME
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Comment by Ronnie — July 4, 2019 @ 8:58 am
I was lucky to hear Edmund Muskie narrate “A Lincoln Portrait” at an outdoor concert in Portland, Maine, and Ted Kennedy narrate it at Symphony Hall in Boston.
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Comment by Ronald McCrea — July 4, 2019 @ 8:21 am
Good selection. Question: When did an orchestral piece by a Russian Composer celebrating the defeat of a French emperor become a piece for the Fourth of July. ? I realize that Cannons keep it in the Holiday Repertoire.
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Comment by powelsj — July 4, 2019 @ 6:38 am