Triumphant Classical Music
1. Ilyich Tchaikovsky: ‘1812 Overture’ (1880)
Perhaps one of the most loved and hated pieces of Russian Romantic music ever written. This work Tchaikovsky composed to commemorate Napoleon’s final retreat from Moscow.
That came as a result of the harsh Russian winter and the burning of everything by the Russian army as they retreated.
Naturally, this overture is categorised as a piece of ‘programme’ music as it depicts the invasion of Russia by the French under command of Napoleon. What makes it a little unusual is that Tchaikovsky added to his already generous orchestra many cannons.
If you don’t believe me, skip on to around the twelfth minute to hear them in full effect. Tchaikovsky makes clever use of ‘leitmotifs’ in the overture that are used to represent aspects of the story. The most famous is the one around four minutes that represents the Russian army.
Other well-known sections of music appear in this overture. They include ‘La Marseillaise’ (French National Anthem), which depicts the French army, and the lesser-known ‘Oh, Lord, Save Thy People’, a reworking of an old Russian hymn.
Near defeat and despair are gradually overlooked for victory and one of the loudest most triumphant conclusions to a piece of orchestral music.
2. Ludwig van Beethoven: ‘Wellington’s Victory’ (Op. 91)
Following the Napoleon motif, this piece leans to the other side of the trenches. Beethoven is known for a time at least, to have held Napoleon in high esteem.
For Beethoven napoleon was the champion of democracy and the common man. This changed in 1804 when Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France and Beethoven famously scratched out the dedication he had written on his Third Symphony.
An innovative gentleman by the name of Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, who was a friend of Beethoven, suggested to the composer that he might like to compose a piece in celebration of the defeat of Napoleon’s army in 1813 at the battle of Vitoria, Spain.
The caveat to the commission was that Maelzel wanted Beethoven to compose the work for his invention he called the ‘Panharmonicon’.
This contraption could apparently reproduce the sounds of the orchestra and, maybe more importantly for this piece, the sound of gunfire. As it transpires, the panharmonicon was not up to the job and Beethoven deferred to the more traditional orchestra.
The piece is a little over fifteen minutes in duration. In a similar way to the later Tchaikovsky work, Beethoven includes quotes from other music. You will hear both the French melody, ‘For he’s a jolly good fellow’, and ‘Rule Britannia’.
Listen for the percussion section exchanging fire. In the second section, you can also listen out for ‘God Save The King’ as the British march to victory over the French.
3. Giuseppe Verdi: Triumphal March from ‘Aida’
Verdi is probably best known for his formidable and compelling operas. ‘Aida’ is no exception. It is a four-act opera set in ‘The Old Kingdom of Egypt’. It was premiered in 1871 as the opening dates saw Paris under siege.
This march slots into the second act of the opera. Radames, Captain of the Guard, has defeated the Ethiopians and leads his Egyptian army as they return to the kingdom.
It offers a spectacular opportunity to impress an audience that was an expectation of opera from this period. Verdi’s orchestration and vocal writing are exhilarating.
The forces Verdi employs are enormous and include optional Egyptian trumpets in A flat and B. The sense of grandeur, splendour, and ultimate triumph make this march one of the best contenders for music in this article.
4. Modest Musorgsky: ‘The Great Gate of Kyiv’ from ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’
This fantastic set of pieces was composed by Mussorgsky in 1874 for piano. It was only in 1922 that Ravel orchestrated the work with such brilliance that only he could achieve, bringing it fully to life.
The ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ is devised around the pictures of artist and architect Viktor Hartman. They had a close admiration for one another’s work and following Hartman’s untimely death, Mussorgsky was inspired to compose the entire set of pieces in around three weeks.
As you can guess from the title of the work Mussorgsky’s music takes us on a walk (promenade), around an imagined exhibition of Hartman’s paintings. The music opens with a ‘promenade’ theme that acts as a musical glue.
It sounds between each viewing of the pictures as we travel around the exhibition, transforming as the walk progresses.
Following the menacing ‘Hut on Fowl’s Legs’, comes the finale, ‘The Great Gate of Kyiv’. It is a fully scored, majestic piece that strongly draws on the opening promenade theme.
Two themes alternate in this piece with the second taking on a hymn-like quality based loosely on a Russian Orthodox Hymn. This brings great solemnity and yet is contrasted further by a third and fourth theme.
The main theme closes the piece at a tempo of ‘Grave’ but despite the slow tempo, there is an overriding sense of reaching the end of a magnificent and successful journey.
5. Richard Wagner: ‘Tannhäuser Overture’ (1845)
This overture, which is frequently performed as a stand-alone piece, comes from one of Wagner’s mature operas. It falls into three acts.
Like many of Wagner’s works for the stage, central themes are love, sacred and profane, and redemption. A colourful array of mythical creatures play out the storyline over Wagner’s extravagant, lavish orchestration.
Leitmotifs that portray characters and often changes in mood, Wagner uses to great effect in the opera. We hear the struggle in the overture that Tannhäuser, the hero, is wrestling with.
Love that is sacred and profane dominates him and is reflected in the music’s slow, pensive opening. This solemnity is characterised by the well-known tune called ‘Pilgrim’s Chorus’. This travels through the entire opera like the ever-present possibility of salvation.
Shortly after there follows the second section of the piece that purposefully gathers momentum and builds in orchestral force. In the hidden realm of Venusberg, the goddess Venus tempts Tannhäuser.
This we hear in the solo clarinet melody that seductively sounds across the opera hall. The build continues towards triumph which ultimately leads into the ballet.