1218: Unsolemn Overture after Tchaikovsky bristles with wit. Pruden splices the 1812 Overture with popular English songs and nursery tunes, including (amongst others) "Nymphs and Shepherds," "Baa Baa Black Sheep," "Polly put the kettle on," "Boys and Girls come out to play," "Tom, Tom the Piper's Son," "British Grenadiers," "The Agincourt Song," "Country Gardens," and "Summer is icumen in," so that Tchaikovsky's tribute to the Russians' defeat of Napolean becomes a "Merrie England" medley. Pruden allows himself full play, not only by cutting up and reassembling paragraphs from 1812 but also by punningly revisiting the score with tongue-in-cheek subversions of Tchaikovsky's harmonic structure. A piano part is added to the orchestra, plus inventive sound effects such as duck squawks and pistol shots, but a gong replaces the cannon. At the premiere, boys, "armed with bows and arrows and stationed just under the choir stalls of the Christchurch Town Hall," conjured up the age of chivalry by "turning and shooting arrows up towards the organ" during the battle music. Peter Zwartz, who was the Director of the Christchurch Music School and conducted the performance, commissioned the piece for the Christchurch Youth Orchestra. The work was performed as part of a "Hoffnug Concert," which took place on 10 October 1977. Charles Foster Browne described 1218 in the Press review of 11 October as "hilarious ... a much enjoyed riot."