"And for all my fans out there,"
"you're watching 'My Russian Travels' with yours truly Napoleon Bonaparte."
Tyson!
Wayne!
I done cook yer dinner!
Stupid woman....
I knew I should have soundproofed the trailer before I moved to this neighbourhood.
Mama cooked yer favourite...
Kentucky fried chicken wings.
Quiet, woman!
Some of us are TRYING to watch Napoleon's new travel programme.
Sorry, Mr Tchaikovsky...
the doggies are real hungry this evening.
Woohoo!
Yeh man!
All this banging, all this clanging...
everyday I have to endure!
BLOW IT UP
Get away from my trailer!
Take your guns, take your cannons, and beat it kidlings.
Every night I'm tormented by the noise.
IT GETS TO MY HEAD
Shut up, Mr Tchai.
Yeah, get lost Tchai
and get back to that "music" of yours.
Hear that, Tchai?
That's better music than you'll ever make.
Better music than I'll ever make, huh?
Pyotr Tchaikovsky's born in Russia in 1840.
When he turns 22, he quits his boring civil service job
and enters St Petersburg's music conservatory.
It's a new school established by pianist Anton Rubinstein.
But life as a composer is not all it's hyped up to be,
because Tchaikovsky's a music scene misfit.
Yes he IS.
Every other Russian composer is into nationalism:
music that's earthy, folky and well...
just more Russian!
Tchaikovsky, on the other hand - he's ploughing his own furrow.
It's why international audiences love him but Russian critics hate him.
They say he's overly-reliant on Western melodies and harmonies.
In fact, there's a big debate raging in 19th century Russia
about whether the nation should be accepting Western cultural values at all.
A turning point is a speech in 1880 by the great novelist Dostoyevsky,
who calls for a "universal unity" with the West.
The message spreads throughout Russia
and so too do the Russians start reassessing Tchaikovksy.
Within weeks, Anton Rubinstein's brother Nikolai
a great friend of Tchaikovsky
commissions him to write a patriotic concert overture.
It's to be played at the Moscow Arts and Industry Exhibition
to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Tsar Alexander II.
Pretty convenient too because it's also to coincide with the consecration of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.
It's bleedin' enormous, taken decades to build and is almost finished.
It's a pretty impressive monument to Russia's victory over Napoleon in 1812.
As for Tchaikovsky...
he HATES what he's been asked to do.
"There's nothing worse than composing for the sake of some festivities."
"What's one to write on such an occasion, but predictable, noisy music?!"
"It's music for the purpose of glorifying something that gives me no delight at all."
"Neither in the jubilee of the Tsar, nor in the Cathedral"
"which I don't like at all"
"is there anything that could stir my inspiration."
But one simply doesn't turn down such a prestigious and lucrative offer.
So, despite his loathing, Tchaikovsky accepts and completes the overture in a single week.
It begins with a soulful Russian Orthodox hymn.
Just four cellos and violas play a simple, plaintive melody.
As ordinary Russian folk gather throughout the nation's churches,
they pray for divine intervention.
Why?
Because the French army is on the march.
Napoleon's got this crazy idea to invade Russia and expand his empire.
Well...maybe not THAT crazy because it IS an army of half a million men
and hundreds of state-of-the-art cannons.
The Russians' plea for deliverance becomes increasingly heartfelt as the orchestra swells.
And out of this wistful hymn emerges some tense passages in the strings.
The Russians know their army is only a fraction of the size of the seemingly-invincible French.
Trouble is brewing on the horizon.
Snare drums strike up and we hear the battle theme
aka
It's a strong four-time marching beat.
We hear distant strains of the French national anthem, the Marseillaise.
It becomes more and more prominent as the French near Moscow.
Scene change!
Let's take a look at what's happening in Russia's quaint countryside villages.
A lyrical melody from Tchaikovsky's first opera, the Voyevoda, sings
as the Tsar appeals to his subjects to step up and defend the Motherland.
A bouncing dance, full of energy, answers back like some national wakening.
It's in fact a traditional Russian folk song called "At the Gate".
The restless strings in the orchestra represent the anxious villagers
scurrying to their places in response to the Tsar's impassioned plea.
Scene change!
Back to the French.
The Marseillaise is more aggressive this time,
beating down all those pretty pastoral Russian melodies.
And let's just pretend we didn't know that Napoleon in fact BANNED the Marseillaise.
Yep, damn right!
He replaced it with a lesser-known anthem
and the Marseillaise only returned as the French national anthem in 1879
just one year before Tchaikovsky wrote the Overture.
But we can live with this little historical inaccuracy,
because, well...it's an instantly recognisable tune!
Scene change!
Back to the Russians.
There's a return of that pastoral refrain,
but this time we get a tussle between both Russian and French melodies.
They argue in counterpoint:
one warlike, the over relatively peaceful.
This is the Battle of Borodino
the bloodiest conflict of the entire Napoleonic Wars.
The Marseillaise is more prominent than ever
appearing alone in the horns as the French overwhelm the Russians.
Five cannon blasts fire to remind us that
until the Battle of Borodino
artillery battalions had rarely been used on such a grand scale.
Each cannon is timed off-beat
to create the illusion of real atmospheric sound -
that we are actually on a battlefield.
The strings play a frantic run of descending notes
as the Russians retreat back to Moscow with the French in hot pursuit.
When the French eventually reach Moscow
Napoleon just walks through the front door without a fight.
But it's a trap!
The Russians never intended to surrender.
In fact, they've already abandoned the city,
setting it alight and depleting the winter stores.
They've left Moscow barren and desolate.
You hear those bells?
Yep, that's the fire alarm
OR
they symbolise the voice of God
who brings an unprecedented winter freeze on the exhausted and weakened French.
Famine, disease and the bitter chill overwhelms them
and with their supply lines overextended
the French are forced to retreat.
And now for a return of our favourite theme
It's the Russians returning to capture the French cannons stuck in the freezing ground.
They turn them back on the frogs
and eleven cannon shots thunder out.
A brass band plays "God Save the Tsar"
the Russian national anthem in Tchaikovsky's time.
Napoleon's suffered a disastrous defeat and the Russians are victorious.
Now in 1881
the year the Overture was to premiere
things didn't go quite according to plan.
Tsar Alexander II was assassinated
and the Arts and Industry Exhibition was postponed.
Progress on that humongous cathedral slowed too.
The original idea was to perform the piece in front of the completed cathedral
with the bells chiming on cue to the music.
Cannons would be fired from an electric switch panel
synchronising precisely with the score.
The brass band was to march on stage at the climactic finale.
But GUESS WHAT?!?
NONE of that happened.
People were too sad about the tsar's death to partayyyyyy
so the Overture premiered in 1882 in a TENT near the STILL-unfinished cathedral.
No brass band.
No cathedral bells.
And certainly no cannons.
No-one knew how difficult it would be to coordinate the cannonfire with the music.
Don't forget, you gun-toting cowboys:
there's a TIME LAG between releasing the barrel and the shot sounding.
The 1812 Overture cemented Tchaikovsky's status as a Russian hero.
In his music was reflected the three pillars of the nation:
The Russian national anthem for the Tsar
A Russian hymn for the Orthodox Church
And a Russian folk song for the spirit of the Russian people.
In comparison, the piece damned the French, reducing them to a single monotonous theme:
the Marseillaise - persistent, repetitious and aggressive.
The piece also cemented Tchaikovsky's status as an international superstar.
For anyone listening across the world, it presented a clear picture of key historical events:
what we now call "programme music".
The only person who hated it was Tchaikovsky!
"Very loud and noisy"
"and completely without artistic merit"
"because I wrote it without warmth and without love."
The bombastic cannons, the chiming bells and the brass fanfare
all spoke to an audience more interested in theatrics rather than deep personal expression.
He'd be horrified to see the monster his Overture's been turned into.
Appearing in everything from Woody Allen's comedy Bananas
to The Muppet Show and The Simpsons
it's become the ultimate showpiece of the pop classics repertoire.
Most will recognise it from shamelessly overblown renditions with fireworks on US Independence Day.
Tchaikovsky's Overture remains a lesson to us all -
that great music is universal, no matter the story behind it
and that sometimes it's best to leave it to the people to make the final judgement.