Americans like the 1812 overture on the 4th of July because the composition puts to pure music, without words, the imagery of the scenes sung about in the Star Spangled Banner.
“the twighlight’s last gleaming”
“the dawn’s early light”
“the perilous fight”
“the rockets red glare”
“the bombs bursting in air”
“And [the] “our” [star-spangled] banner in triumph shall wave”
It matters not - to most of us - that the Russian composer wrote the composition in homage to the Russians expelling Napoleon. Without words it “sings” a tune of any great heroic battle, whether our revolutionary battles or others.
Cultural ICONs have a life of their own divorced from their originators; even if just borrowed or adopted by those they speak to in some way.
Maybe in a 100 years, the 1812 Overture will be known globally as “that symphony music Americans play on their Independence Day” more than as “Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture”. Who cares?
It’s also kept the piece alive. Classical connoisseurs hold the piece in very low regard as pure music.
Yet the anthem is specifically tailored from exactly the event I best associate with the overture - battle of Baltimore form the “war of 1812”!
I could but never really put the piece together with the Rev.