Open Writing

The Year of 1812

This deservedly popular work by Tchaikovsky celebrates the victory of the Russian nation over Napoleon's huge Grande Armée. It has been variously called a solemn overture and a festival overture, but it was originally conceived as the overture "The Year of 1812". Thus it is concerned not merely with the battle of Borodino but with the entire campaign.

In 1807 following war with France and heavy Russian losses an alliance was forced by Napoleon on the Tsar, and the consequent imposition of the notorious Continental System of trade meant the loss of Russia's former best customer, Britain. This was disastrous for the Russian economy, and a number of other factors led to increasingly icy relations between the two nations. Napoleon, the alarmingly ambitious and self-centred career soldier who had taken over the French Revolution entirely for his own purposes, had nothing of morality about him, only expediency and self-interest. How does the Revolution equate with acceptance of an Emperor's crown, the restoration of hereditary peerages and the appointment of his own family to monarchies? Beethoven might have been fooled by him, but many people must have seen through him as through a piece of glass.

By early 1812 preparations were being made for war by both sides. Napoleon set off with around 600,000 soldiers from many nations, as he did not hesitate to plunder the flower of manhood for his own ends from subject countries. Although he is said to have understood the implications of a war against Russia, the logistics of supply, the Russian winter and so on, there were problems. Indeed, some soldiers starved or died of thirst crossing inhospitable, barren terrain. Disease, desertion, suicide all took their toll. In addition, apart from the odd skirmish the Russians would not stand and fight but kept withdrawing to Smolensk where an indecisive battle was fought. At one stage the marshal of the army, Barclay de Tolly was dismissed and replaced by the elderly Mikhail Ilarionovitch Golenischev-Kutusov, Prince of Smolensk, who was not the Tsar's favourite general but had recently led a victorious campaign in Turkey. His approach to war was to save the army, using all tactics from concealing his direction of marching to avoidance of parade ground smartness in the field. How could a soldier get up fresh and fight in the morning if he had been up half the night polishing his boots? The opposing generals each had character-based titles for the other. Napoleon called Kutusov "The Fox of the North", whilst he called Napoleon "that robber".

Kutusov continued to withdraw through Moscow, and effectively made a gift of it to Napoleon. At Borodino he stopped and fought, this was the point at which a stand had to be made to prevent Napoleon advancing any further. The battlefield was very constricted, and the two armies could do nothing but bludgeon away at each other, suffering heavy losses on both sides, 30,000 French and 50,000 Russians. Eventually the Russians left the field and the French were too exhausted to pursue them.

The Governor of Moscow ensured the city was set alight to leave no quarters in which the Grande Armée could stay . Napoleon waited for the Tsar to send asking for peace terms, but the Tsar did not oblige and the French thereby incurred a five week delay. The Russian winter obligingly arrived six weeks ahead in early November, the earliest it had been for forty years. The retreat started and the Russian army harassed the dispirited French all the way. Units of Cossacks trailed along at the side of the road in the woods, and any Frenchman wandering more than a hundred yards from the road did not return. The bedraggled army crossed the icy river Beresina under fire from the Russian cannons, and of the 600,000 men of the original Grande Armée a mere 50,000 returned. Napoleon's star was on the wane, although he would waste the time, lives and property of hundreds of thousands of people before the allies, with a sigh of relief, imprisoned him on St. Helena in 1815.

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The Overture

To commemorate the 1812 Battle of Borodino, the cathedral of Christ the Saviour was nearing completion and was to be consecrated amid great festivities in the presence of Tsar Alexander II on the 70th anniversary of the battle. The composer Nikolai Rubinstein suggested to Tchaikovsky that he write a suitable piece for the celebrations, and in October and November of 1880 Pyotr completed his overture, which doubtless would have made use of cannons and the new cathedral bells as they were to be part of the festivities. Unfortunately the Tsar was assassinated and the festivities postponed indefinitely. The first performance took place at an all-Tchaikovsky concert at the Moscow Exhibition in August 1882. (The cathedral itself had a chequered history, having fallen down several times over the years, as it was built on a swamp. Stalin had one lot of ruins removed and a sports stadium built on the site. This also fell down. In recent years another effort has been made and so far the latest Cathedral still stands).

Tchaikovsky's ingredients for the overture are impressively appropriate. A chant-like melody, a folk song, the national anthems of both countries, a quote from one of his own operas, and a battle theme combine to make a recognisable programme.

The quiet opening theme is an ancient Byzantine Troparion or religious chant, "Spasi, Gospodi, ludi Tvoya” or “Save, O Lord, Thy people”, a prayer for victory to the orthodox Christians over their adversaries. The text is worth quoting as it shows why Tchaikovsky chose this tune to open the overture:

Save, O Lord, Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance. Grant victories to the Orthodox Christians over their adversaries, and by the virtue of Thy Cross preserve Thy habitation.

In the sixties of last century, an American conductor of some repute, Igor Buketoff, made an arrangement of the overture in which a choir sang the words of the chant twice, and those of the anthem, God Save the Tsar.

The initial heavy use of the Marseillaise in the work might mean little resistance as Kutusov drew Napoleon deeper into the trap. Then the increasing use of the battle theme is the hardening of Russian resolve and the start of serious hostilities. With the cannon comes out and out war, the last stand at Borodino, and victory is initially represented, not by "God Save The Tsar", but the now triumphant return of the opening theme, this time as a prayer of joyous thanksgiving. This shows the devout Russian tendency at the time to thank the heavens for salvation, as when the otherwise worldly Kutusov went down on his knees after the battle and thanked St. Mary for saving their beloved Russia. Then of course comes the anthem "God Save the Tsar" leading to a glorious finish.

The use of the anthem might be considered anachronistic as it did not exist in 1812, but the overture was written for a national and imperial celebration in 1882, and Tchaikovsky would hardly have omitted it. In 1812 less than half a dozen countries had national anthems, some (including Russia) asked the Deity to save their own monarch to the tune of our own "God Save The King", and one or two had national melodies with no words. It appears that at one time the Troparion “Spasi, Gospodi” also stood in the stead of a national anthem. In 1833 the Tsar Nicholas II asked Lvov, the director of the Imperial court choir to write an anthem for Russia, and the result was "God Save the Tsar", known to most as the "Tsarist National Anthem". Tchaikovsky was very interested in the Russian Orthodox liturgy, indeed in his later years he took an interest in old Orthodox chant. He also wrote his own setting of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Unfortunately, he neglected to obtain the necessary permission of the Imperial Chapel, but was able to clear things by directly approaching the Senate.