Morning Edition; David Mugar Interview on Boston's Fourth of July Pops Fireworks

Tonight the city of Boston hosts the biggest event of the year the July 4th Pops Fireworks Spectacular 800000 people are expected to line the esplanade in about eight million more able be viewing the proceedings nationally on CBS. I always wondered why one of America's most renowned July 4th observances had as its centerpiece the performance of a piece of Russian classical music. In this case Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture it was written in 1880 commemorating Russia's defense of Moscow against Napoleon's advancing Grand Army at the Battle of Bahrain Deano. So I investigated. It seems Esplanade concerts began back in 1989 when a young violinist with a BSOD named Arthur Fiedler overcame the doubts of many skeptics when his summertime classical concerts by the Charles actually succeeded. But by the 1960s and 70s the popularity of the Esplanade concerts waned and that concerned Fiedler and his close friend David Muir Gar. He knew why I love the concerts and we had become good friends by that time. A love of food. We went to his coffee and in his together and things like that and chased fires. A very unusual

hobby but I would drive him around many times and go to various buyers and police calls and. But anyway we were all chasing fires one night and I remember quite distinctly we were on Commonwealth Avenue and I said Hey Mr Peter I've got an idea you know the Esplanade concepts of sort of fallen on hard times it's a declining population attending the concerts. I've got an idea why don't you think of playing the 1812 Overture. And if you do then I will try to find some real cannons to go along with it. Some church bells may be in the area. And how about we throw some fireworks in at the end. He said she sounds great. I said Now look I can't read music I don't know what to do all this and how to bring in the various elements he says I don't worry about I just let all hell break loose at the end of the piece and so that's essentially what captains in the I don't think the public cares that the everything isn't exactly on cue alowe the national guide and others that help out with that try very hard to get the cannon

shots as they should and they're pretty damn good at it. And the church bells were rung by the nearby church of the Advent right over the cross of our drive over there to the closest church to the head shell. It's one of the very few churches in Boston that has a ringing society where some young people actually ring the bells they do it once a week. But there are some huge church bells there and they keyed in the same key that the 1812 Overture was. Yes it was school royal In other words it hops. There isn't that sort of it's like this all just comes together perfectly. Let me ask you the 1812 overture for a July 4th. How did you come up with that. Probably because I know very little about music and I just know as a fan that it is of course a terrific piece of music by Peter alias Tchaikovsky and it is one that is very rousing and I knew it has a lot of excitement for people. I had seen and heard it before many times in the hall and I thought that it actually bringing all these elements together at the end of the 1812 would just excite the public and give them

something to really get them up on their feet. Well you are right. Yes early years a lot of people criticized us what are we doing playing a Russian ham on the Fourth of July. Wait a minute this doesn't belong and we took a number of hits in the press about that and it's an interesting point but honestly all that has just faded away and now we get the exact reverse that the 1812 is a great patriotic number. Wonder what Tchaikovsky would say Yeah I think Peter might say yeah he might be rather amazed that I got a hunch you'd really like it. In the documentary that you made along with Bill Cosell at WGBH in the late 70s about Arthur Fiedler call me maestro. There's a scene where where he is led up to the top of one of these buildings here and he takes in the crowd which must have been quite an experience it was and that confidence and mentally he has readily called it during his lifetime he called it his greatest concert and most of the people acknowledge the same the concept when it was 1976 the bicentennial the concert went into the Guinness Book of World Records

as the largest classical concert in the history of the world. And he got up to the top of the roof and looked over the edge and he says oh my god look at all these people. My God. Look at time. In the middle. TWO HOURS TO GO. To. The. Coming by. The road. They say what the. Hell Are they out of town. What to. Do Until I can follow. The belief that. This is his little Esplanade concert in Woodstock. Yeah exactly is it B had become exactly that type of an environment it was a Woodstock Woodstock of sorts because the population for these concerts the audience was middling to like a few thousand and suddenly you have half a million people. Well it grew over the years it's happened nice and steadily and amazingly one third of all of the people that attend the July 4th concert come from outside the England not outside 120 to 495 a Massachusetts but outside New

England west of the Hudson River. Now you know early on Fiedler had to overcome some opposition to even doing concerts here and I know there's been concern about rowdy behavior and crowds getting out of control. That never has seemed to happen with this event. Why do you think. I think people realize it's the nation's birthday this is their chance to come out and celebrate America's independence day and they treat it with a degree of reverence it's very interesting as to how this has evolved. So David Mubarak we have you to thank for the 1812 Overture the cannons the church bells and of course Arthur Fiedler saying that's a great idea. I happen to have gotten lucky and created an interesting idea that said hey let's go with it. And it worked and here we are. Have a happy Fourth of July. David Newdow thanks very much you too. And to everybody. Eh eh. Eh eh.

Eh eh.