A Nation Is Born

It's been a while since I've written anything.  But since this is the month Canada Day and Independence Day are celebrated, I will share a short playlist consisting of 3 patriotic tracks, one of which has nothing to do with Canada or the US, but RUSSIA.  A little background: in  1880, Tsar Alexander II commissioned a big cathedral to be built to commemorate the Russian victory over Napoleon.  A friend of Tchaikovsky suggested he write a commemorative piece for the festivities so he started work on it intending for it to be played in the square outside the completed cathedral.  He wrote the piece  in 6 weeks but it was never played because Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 before the cathedral was even finished and most of the energy that went into the project died with him.  Tchaikovsky himself hated the piece and considered it one of his weakest works saying it was "very loud and noisy, but [without] artistic merit, because I wrote it without warmth and without love."  It is still one of his most recognized works and frankly one of the most badass pieces of music ever written, simply because it requires a carillon (bell tower) and a cannon to be played as originally written.  It is of course played indoors without these, but it's way cooler when you've got the real thing, right?  So the piece is structured like this:
1)Strings playing a hymn symbolic of the Tsar telling the people of Russia to pray
2)The approach of the French symbolized by the French anthem
3)Cuts back to people in villages praying and praying symbolized by the violins and Russian folk song (with the tambourine).  This happens a couple of times.
4)Battle of Borodino symbolized by French anthem and Russian tunes and lots of cymbals
5)The defeat of Napolean symbolized by the successive canon shots and music going lower and lower
6) Triumph symbolized by pealing bells and following Russian march and underlying God Save the Tsar (because God had answered their prayers)
Anyway, the Boston Pops started playing this on July 4th in 1974 because of the built in fireworks and it was such a hit that they've been doing it ever since.  Plus it is very patriotic sounding, no matter where you were born.

So here's your July patriotic playlist
1)Oh Canada
2)1812 Overture
3)Star Spangled Banner Nothing more American than the National Anthem sung by the armed forces choirs before the start of a Superbowl between the Patriots and the Eagles.