1812 overture

[imperialbari]

Best 1812 I ever saw (in person) was a University of Californa Berkeley marching band show in the late 1970s (as I recall.) The ROTC was in charge of the cannons but there was a wired switch on the conductor's platform to trigger the blasts.
When the first button was pushed all of the connons went off at the same time - blowing out the bass drum and ending the performance instantly. I cannot find any record of this in the Cal Band history, but it did happen.

Wouldn’t old Joseph have loved this effect for #94?

Klaus

[J.c. Sherman]

First, historically speaking, Chris is right on the money.

That said, Russian music has a scoring which I think has always had the greatest clarity and beauty when recorded my English groups, often with Eb. But that sort of tonal sensibility is exactly what this calls for... (or to paraphrase, clarity, with some bigness).



In all seriousness, Russia was not all that uniform in its complement of brasses available. Use what makes the sound in your head, but remember there's a bass trombone there too and s/he's important too. Join them, don't ostracize them.

J.c.S. (who would use a 4/4 CC in this neck of the woods...)