Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for November 17, 2021

Calvin, they point the cannon at you…

Calvin might enjoy “Fantasia”.

When originally played in Pyotr’s day, did they ignite cannons without the cannon balls?

Calvin, your ignorance is Pathètique.

The important question is “Why aren’t there more songs with cannons?”

Now, wasn’t this technically the Romantic era? :)

I’ve been part of a high school “symphonic band” that performed it (transcription for winds) inside. No cannons. I’ve seen it performed WITH cannons, but it was outside. Honestly: The cannons were better than the Tympani.

Cannon sometimes, cannon balls, not so much

How about opera, Calvin? Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” with The Anvil Chorus? Cool beans, me lad.

Some people think the 1812 Overture is overrated, but I like it.

And don’t forget Pachelbel’s Cannon. Oh, wait, that’s Pachelbel’s Canon. Never mind.

You must hear Anton Bruckner! This never is boring!!

Love the carpet….

And just how does a stuffed tiger know so much about 19th century Russian classical music?

I love the 1812 Overture.

Every year, during the Wichita River Festival, there is a Pops Concert, playing orchestral versions of popular music. The quality of the selections varies; I almost walked out the year they presented a medley of music from Beverly Hills Cop II – but I stuck it out, because they traditionally end each concert with an impressive rendition of the 1812 Overture, complete with cannons and nearby church bells. I used to attend the festival every year, just to attend the concert because I loved listening to the 1812 Overture, from beginning to end, sound effects and all.

Until they messed with it.

I’d skipped going to the festival for a time, due to money worries and life drama, and I finally attended the concert after an absence of several years, to discover that they had shortened the Pops Concert by an hour or so, and they played an ABRIDGED version of the 1812 Overture! Instead of beginning at the slow, easy beginning, they just skipped to the buildup to the boffo finish, likely to save time.

BLASPHEMY!!

I quit attending the River Festival after that.

I got a lot of my classical music love from cartoons. The Rabbit of Seville (gee, where have seen that), Bugs playing Franz Liszt in Rhapsody Rabbit, etc

I, my wife, and daughter experienced a performance of the 1812 Overture by the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center (an outdoor venue in Ohio) that used French period cannons much like the composer, Tchaikovsky, wrote it.

Seriously impressive.

Imagine an entire theatre as a boom box! :D

A friend of mine who was a U.S. Military Academy graduate told me that he played lead cannon in the 1812 overture. Yes, he really did! Some production company wanted an authentic sound and West Point had the closest thing to artillery of the era.

They also fire them off whenever Army makes a score in football.

When I was a kid in the 1950’s, TV stations played cartoons, some from the 1920’s and 1930’s (silent movies). They played classical music as the background. I actually got to like some pieces.

I wanted the 1812 Overture for my funeral processional (it is quite appropriate!) but there was some quibble about the live cannons in church.

Wait for the William Tell Overture, He will want a Horse!

This is the cereal that shot from guns!

Just seeing the look of fascination in Calvin’s eyes!

The Boston Pops always played this on July 4th, outdoors at the Hatch Shell. Real cannons, too.

Wikipedia, “Their performance of “The Stars and Stripes Forever” is famous for the unfurling of the American flag that occurs as the song enters its final moments”

Hi HO Silver and AWAYYYYY!!! Who was that masked man. Why everybody knows that was the Looone Ranger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XSwVNBeNFw

Nobody has mentioned “Caddyshack” yet?

The hiss and the little pops of the turntable also adds to the listening experience. Interestingly, vinyl is having a mini-comeback moment.

?? That’s the Quaker Oats’ music. Everybody knows that.

Expose him to Wagner and tell him about the helicopters.

I prefer the Myth Busters Symphony in C4 Major. It’s all about the bass.

This is my favorite Calvin & Hobbes strip, ever.

On July 4th, the Colorado Springs Orchestra (usually, not last year) plays the 1812 Overture with cannon accompaniment from Ft. Carson for the fireworks display…

During a production of Henry VIII, a canon was fired backstage, which touched off the burning of the Globe theatre in 1613. I bet Calvin would have loved that.

Seeing a record player in 2021 really feels different now.

DRD 1812 was quite useful.

Armorer assures cold cannons.

1812 Overture was great to play on the kettle drums! Boom boom booooom!

On Monday I expressed the view that Calvin and Hobbes are a lot like Bill and Tom Watterson as kids. Someone reminded me that Bill Watterson claimed in his tenth anniversary collection that he was much quieter than Calvin and “in some ways the direct opposite of Calvin”. That is true but Watterson also claims that some of the strips reflect on his own childhood. The GROSS club is based on a club between Watterson and the boy next door. Other strips such as those with Calvin and Hobbes sharing a bedroom seem to have been inspired by memories of himself and his brother. He certainly claims that the camping trips were based on those of his childhood so Hobbes is certainly representing Tom Watterson there.

This is the cereal that’s shot from guns! Anyone remember that?

Live cannons in a concert hall would be a stretch, but at an outdoor football stadium — with fireworks to boot — it’s magical.

I’m kind of surprised that nobody has mentioned Beethoven’s Battle Symphony, Opus 91, “Wellington’s Victory”. It was prominently featured as the B side on an album I appreciated as a young man, called “Booming Smash”.

Ever think about how baby boomers learned the wonders of the worlds most beautiful symphonic music? Disney’s Fantasia and Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny were huge contributors for making music fun!

Heck, even Springfield Elementary School’s band incorporated real cannons into their performance of the “1812 Overture”!

I saw the Pittsburgh Symphony play the 1812 many years ago in the old Three Rivers Stadium complete with an array of cannons in the outfield and a marching band. When they started firing those cannons, the entire stadium shook. I’m sure they wouldn’t have been using full powder charges, so you have to wonder what real warfare must be like. Deafening, no doubt.

1812 is great.

It’s not really classical music; it’s romantic music. And no, Calvin, it’s not boring. In the Marines, we would do this every 4th of July and use Howitzers. Our instrument tech had been in artillery and knew how to time his fire commands so that the audience heard the blasts from the canons at the right time in the music.

During the Vietnam era I attended an outdoor performance of the 1812 Overture, with the local military howitzers. The conductor reminded us that it was written to celebrate the end of a war. When the cannons started the crowd of several thousand stood up and cheered and screamed and nearly drowned out the cannons. The conductor asked if anyone would like a repeat of the end, we all loudly agreed and we drowned out the cannons again.

Some classical music is great and some will put you to sleep. Now if my old and feeble mind is correct, the 1812 overture was a theme song for The Lone Ranger.

the Marche Slav is right up there

I “played” that percussion in the 1812 Overture… firing .30-06 blanks into a garbage can. (They fully understood the extent of my musical abilities.)

I played the tuba in high school. When we played the 1812 Overture I always came close to passing out from hyperventilating when playing the last part of the song which consisted of running eighth notes played at fortissimo (which means playing as loud as you can).

One of the many many sins that history will lay at the grave of the Soviet Union is that it denied the Russian people access to their greatest composer, Piotr Ilyich Tschaikovsky, simply because he had built the czarist national anthem into so much of his music.

Somewhere, some symphony is using synthesizers to make the cannon sounds.

Lock up the cannons.

Not boring at all. You haven’t lived until you hear it outside with real howitzers.

I remember a TV broadcast from, I believe, the ‘60s (it was in black and white) of a concert that ended with the 1812 Overture. Instead of cannons they used shotguns backstage. When it was time to fire the “cannons” they switched to a camera backstage showing a couple of guys firing the guns into a mattress. What they didn’t realize was that shotgun shells don’t use smokeless powder. When they switched back to the onstage camera I could see smoke wafting into the orchestra from backstage.

Calvin, all the best Warner Brothers cartoons had classical music. You like classical music better than you know!

Richard Wagner’s Ride off the Valkyrie.

The William Tell Overture and The Lone Ranger.

toccata and fugue in d minor, J.S. Bach

I think they only do that at outdoor concerts anymore.

BAM BAM BAM!