Anthems (2) – The 1812 Overture and a Few Inaccuracies

Just finished listening to (about half, actually, of) Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.”  I was listening to a version including cannons—not too unusual, that—but one that also included choirs to sing the prayers at the beginning and end, “God Save the Czar,” and the children’s song that occurs about halfway through—this is not so common.

At the end I was simply stunned.  Of course, I was also watching an accompanying slide show of paintings dealing with Napoleon and his invasion of Russia.  But I just sat there for about half a minute afterwards, recovering.

This is probably the first piece of classical music I ever heard.  I think I listened to it on 78 rpm vinyls, back when I was around five (ie. 1956).

One of the things about anthems is that they can transport you into a patriotic or religious space.  Tchaikovsky’s overture certainly has done that for me, over the years.  During the years I was growing up at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, every Fourth of July my family would drive the few miles to Fort Monroe for the Independence Day celebration, including the Overture and the cannon.  It was years before I understood that Tchaikovsky had incorporated national anthems into his music.

In time, while learning French, I also learned “The Marseillaise,” the French national anthem, alluded to several times by Tchaikovsky.  Much later, I discovered that one of the themes Tchaikovsky used at the climax of his overture was the Russian national anthem, “God Save the Czar.”  So the “1812 Overture” symbolically pits the French anthem against the Russian.  And how stirring it is!

But—Tchaikovsky is technically inaccurate in both cases.  “The Marseillaise,” after becoming France’s first national anthem during the French Revolution, was discarded by Napoleon.  During most of the 1800s it was actually not France’s anthem—and was actually banned some part of that time.  So it would not have been used by the French during their invasion of Russia.

Russia, meanwhile, did not yet have a national anthem in 1812.  “God Save the Czar” was chosen as the winner of a competition and became the anthem in 1833 – twenty-one years after the French invasion.

So anthems can stir us, can arouse us to great passion—but can also perhaps mislead us.  Not a bad thing to remember.