'No Cannons,' He Said?
June 23, 2025 – When Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was commissioned to compose a work which would ultimately become his "The Year 1812, Solemn Overture," he had no interest in such a project. And he had less than zero interest in using actual cannons during its performances, despite those live blasts helping the piece become one of the most-popular of his many popular compositions. The 145-year-old piece is ubiquitous even today in pop culture, from films to television, cartoons to commercials, where it's used to hawk everything from "cereal popped from guns" to video games.
The Mariposa Yosemite Symphony Orchestra performing on the Great Lawn of the Wawona Hotel, Yosemite 6-29-2024 – photo credit: Steve Haze
The Mariposa Yosemite Symphony Orchestra's 7:00 P.M. Saturday, June 28th "Independence Day Spectacular! Concert" will feature "1812 Overture" for the first time in over a decade, with an elegant solution to that explosive dilemma.
According to MYSO Founder/Music Director Les Marsden, "despite what is incorrectly noted online, including on Wikipedia, there was no cannon used in "1812's" long-delayed official premiere 143 years ago. That concert occurred on August 20, 1882, in a temporary tent structure in front of Moscow's still-incomplete Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer nearly two years after "1812's" completion by Tchaikovsky. That premiere performance was conducted by Ippolit Al'tani and the event - a muted affair contrasted with the original, cancelled premiere plans - according to eye-
witness accounts, did NOT use live cannon, refuting the legend that it somehow did. Nor does Tchaikovsky's score even call for actual cannon, and his letters with his publisher make that point clear, in specifying a 'Bombardone' - the large suspended bass drum used backstage during theatrical presentations to create the sound of cannon."
Tchaikovsky aged 46 in 1887 (pictured)
Marsden believes the myth of real cannon being used well over a century ago arose from accounts of the piece's originally-planned, but cancelled premiere. That huge, aborted 1881 concert - part of the gala All-Russian Arts and Industry Exhibition which was to have simultaneously saluted Tsar Aleksandr II's silver anniversary on the throne, consecrated the long-under-construction Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer AND marked the 70th anniversary of Napoleon's defeat at Moscow - had to be called off following the assassination of Aleksandr on March 1, 1881; ten days later, Tchaikovsky's mentor/friend Nikolay Rubinstein, coordinator of the entire Exhibition and commissioner of Tchaikovsky's "1812" Overture: himself died. That 1881 premiere concert was to have been held outdoors, accompanied by the bells of the Cathedral as well as all the cathedrals of Moscow. Tchaikovsky had reluctantly consented to real cannons being used for the piece's designated 16 "shots" - all to be coordinated in an effort to occur where the score required, and fired off via electric signals. No doubt - all accompanied by Tchaikovsky's rolling eyeballs, as he hated any sort of spectacle event, especially when using his music.
As he wrote to his publisher Pyotr Jurgenson, “It seems you think writing ceremonial pieces for an exhibition is some sort of ultimate bliss of which I shall hasten to avail myself …it is impossible to set about without repugnance such 
music which is destined for the glorification of something that, in essence, delights me not at all. Neither in the jubilee of the high-ranking [Tsar Aleksandr II] person (who has always been fairly antipathetic to me), nor in the Cathedral, which again I don't like at all, is there anything that could stir my inspiration.”
Assassinated Tsar Aleksandr II, circa 1880 (pictured)
And to his long-time mentor and financial supporter Nadezhda von Meck Tchaikovsky wrote: “There is nothing more antipathetic to me than composing for the sake of some festivities or other." And though he had not been asked to do so for the premiere, Tchaikovsky found the thought of CONDUCTING any such ‘festival piece’ even more repulsive. "Just imagine, my dear friend! What, for instance, might one write on the occasion of the opening of an exhibition, besides banalities and generally noisy passages? However, I do not have it in my heart to refuse such a request, and so I'm obliged to set about this disagreeable task.”
He completed composing and orchestrating "1812" in a little over six weeks in late 1880, telling von Meck, “The Overture will be very loud and noisy, but I wrote it with little warmth or love; therefore, it will probably have small artistic worth….despite being somewhat averse to the exhibition music, I have quite diligently set about it, in order to quickly remove from my shoulders this burden that weighs heavily upon me”
Though he had grudgingly approved real cannon for that never-occurred 1881 concert, Tchaikovsky stipulated that the score be clear: that the cannon (cannonade) should be “the instrument used in theatres to depict a cannon shot.” That instrument – called a “Bombardone” by Tchaikovsky in the score – was a very large drum. And Tchaikovsky further wrote to Jurgenson, “please learn from the theatre the name of that instrument used – i.e. the large, suspended drum which is beaten like a gran cassa (bass drum.) If it has no name, then instead of Bombardone in the score, list it as Canon, or Colpi di Canone, or Canons, or Coups de canons, or simply our Russian “cannon,” as the existing note on the 1st page of the score will explain that this is not a real cannon, but a drum.”
Related: Enjoy the Mariposa Yosemite Symphony Orchestra's Independence Day Spectacular! Concert Near Yosemite National Park on Saturday, June 28, 2025
The composer himself would conduct the piece on nine occasions throughout Europe and Russia during his remaining 11 years of life - more than any of his other pieces, despite his antipathy for his "1812 Overture." He was frequently asked to include the "1812 Overture" on concerts featuring his own works – strictly indoor concerts at that, and it ultimately became not only one of his most popular works but one of his most lucrative as well. But at one concert in Frankfurt, the orchestra’s board of representatives timidly asked the composer at the conclusion of the rehearsal to consider removing "1812" from the program due to its startling, thunderous finale. Tchaikovsky was pleased to comply.
For the Mariposa Yosemite Symphony Orchestra's on Saturday, June 28th outdoor concert at the Episcopal Conference Center Oakhurst - ECCO, located about five miles north of Oakhurst at 43803 Highway 41 North (95366) - the performance will include 16 digitally-recorded actual cannon shots, utilizing the same software created by Mariposa resident David Budries for use by the Boston Pops in its performances of "1812 Overture," who will also oversee the outdoor amplification of the orchestra.
Full concert information, links to discounted advance-purchase tickets and Marsden's extensive program notes for the entire concert may be found at the orchestra's website: http://MYSO.live. Tickets are only $10 for Adults and $8 for Students if purchased in advance online; prices rise substantially to $15/Adults and $10/Students at the door at the night of the concert.
The concert is the last event of the orchestra's 20th Anniversary 2024-2025 Season, and will also include all five "Pomp and Circumstance Marches" by Sir Edward Elgar, as well as that composer's "March of the Mogul Emperors" from his "Crown of India" Suite. Also to be performed will be traditional Independence Day musical works including the late Dr. Phil Smith's "Armed Forces Salute" and John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever March."
The Collaborative Arts & Culture Foundation is the 501(C)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor for the Mariposa Yosemite Symphony Orchestra. EIN 27-2143755. All donations and ticket purchases are tax-deductible.
So just how and when did the use of real cannons in "1812 Overture" begin? For more than any other reason, probably a landmark 1954 Mercury Living Presence recording of the piece by Antal Dorati with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (later re-recorded in stereo in 1958.) The recording paired a carefully-taped shot from an actual West Point U.S. Military Academy 12-pound bronze siege cannon, repeated 16 times. That cannon shot itself was painstakingly recorded in the field until just the right sound was obtained. A recording of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Carillon at Yale University's Riverside Church supplied the sound of the bells Tchaikovsky's score requested - in a big way. That 71-year-old recording, the first ever to pair cannon and music, has continuously been available since its original release - is still considered an audiophile showcase. It opened the floodgates to other conductors and orchestras, with literally every international major and many minor symphony orchestras having followed Dorati's lead.
Napoleon's retreat from Russia - Adolf Northen (1828-1876) painted 1866 (pictured)
But how did a piece celebrating the 1812 victory of Russia over the French Napoleon's Grand Armée, composed by a Russian 70 years after the fact, containing incongruous tunes representing Russia which weren't even in use in 1812 - ever become a staple of American Independence Day Concerts? That relatively recent development only goes back about a half century - and is attributable to one man: Boston millionaire David Mugar. A good friend of longtime Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler, he persuaded Fiedler to present the piece at one of the orchestra's summer concerts on the Boston Esplanade. Fiedler programmed it for the 1974 Fourth of July concert and thinking it would REALLY make an impression if accompanied by fireworks, could not have been more spot-on: the orchestra's annual Fourth of July concert audience had dwindled down to a mere 15,000 - but that year the promise of 1812 with cannons and fireworks swelled the turnout to an astounding 75,000 and a tradition was born.
And after all: as a melting pot, America can claim the music of just about any nation as part of its own tradition - especially when such music can really stir an audience to a frenzy of excitement all on its own!
Source: Mariposa Yosemite Symphony Orchestra
MYSO 20th Anniversary Season - Season-Closing "Independence Day Spectacular!" Concert