Independence Day

Independence Day

Orchestras all over the country traditionally celebrate the annual marker of our sovereignty with a bombastic concert, replete with fireworks and all sorts of other extra-musical hoo-ha. Frequently, Tchaikovsky’s historically inappropriate 1812 Overture gets trotted out.

Written By

Frank J. Oteri

Frank J. Oteri is an ASCAP-award winning composer and music journalist. Among his compositions are Already Yesterday or Still Tomorrow for orchestra, the "performance oratorio" MACHUNAS, the 1/4-tone sax quartet Fair and Balanced?, and the 1/6-tone rock band suite Imagined Overtures. His compositions are represented by Black Tea Music. Oteri is the Vice President of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) and is Composer Advocate at New Music USA where he has been the Editor of its web magazine, NewMusicBox.org, since its founding in 1999.

I’m not a jingoistic patriot—these days, it’s almost unconscionable to be. And while I advocate for the music of American composers on these pages, I listen to music from all over the world every chance that I get. But tomorrow, since it’s the 231st anniversary of the signing of the American Declaration of Independence, I’m keeping it all-American. We need to celebrate the things we can be proud of, and music ranks pretty high on my list. Besides, it won’t really cramp my style; there’s plenty of great music to choose from. Yet, for some reason, many American orchestras still haven’t figured that out.

Orchestras all over the country traditionally celebrate the annual marker of our sovereignty with a bombastic concert, replete with fireworks and all sorts of other extra-musical hoo-ha. But while our native Sousa frequently gets trotted out for this special occasion, more often it’s Tchaikovsky’s historically inappropriate 1812 Overture. In fact, according to the Washington Post‘s Tim Page, 1812 is the only bonafide orchestral composition being played in our nation’s capital during the National Symphony Orchestra’s official July 4 D.C. Mall concert, amidst myriad onstage cameos by various television personalities.

Do those bombastic cannons really evoke something innately American? It would be difficult considering the fact that Tchaikovsky’s overdone kitsch compendium was written about a war that happened 36 years later, as well as somewhere else in the world (the Russian defeat of Napoleonic forces). And besides, shouldn’t national pride demand homegrown music instead? By ignoring our own music on our own day of independence and instead playing music created on another continent, and indeed the one from which we seceded, aren’t we acting like we’re still a colonial territory?

Of course, as Tim Page rightly pointed out, the United States has articulated its independence from Europe through jazz and rock, two American-born musical genres which are now emulated throughout the world. But Americans have also created an enormous amount of worthwhile orchestral repertoire and what musical entity captures the metaphor of disparate colonies coming together as effectively as the multi-timbred union of sonorities that is the orchestra? At least in New York City—despite the fact that New York had actually abstained from supporting the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776—the NY Phil will be playing Sousa tomorrow along with works by fellow Americans Bernstein and Gershwin. Plus they’re doing a world premiere by Kevin Puts: now that’s independent. What is your local orchestra playing tomorrow?