2016-06-04 In The Shadow of Beethoven – Oregon Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra
Grab your headphones – it really does make a difference here.
This was an interesting piece to play. The 1812 Overture isn’t the only piece that has cannons!
Written by Ludwig van Beethoven, this piece details the the battle between the British (lead by the Duke of Wellington) and the French (lead by Joseph Bonaparte) in 1813 in Spain. It starts off with a drum and bugle fanfare from the British (on the left), then Rule Britannia. Then, the French (on the right) respond with their own drum and bugle call, followed by Marlbrough s’en va-t-en guerre (a tune later combined with the lyrics, “For he’s a jolly good fellow”). The French bugler gives one final call, which the British bugler tauntingly repeats a third higher, then the battle breaks out with musket and cannon fire overlaying the music. As the battle and the piece wind to a close, you can hear that only the British continue to fire.
I was asked to design, build, and play the cannons and muskets for this piece. The score has it for four percussionists (two bass drums and two ratchets). I ended up programming a drum pad and pedals with cannon and musket samples and running it to two pairs of massive speakers, then writing my own color-coded part to get all 4 parts onto one sheet. Oh, and I was also doing the recording, as well. Definitely quite an undertaking, but everyone, musicians and audience alike, had a lot of fun with it.
Fun fact: in response to negative criticism of this piece, Beethoven himself memorably commented, “What I sh*t is better than anything you could think up!”