La Marseillaise

La Marseillaise

English: The Song of Marseille
Rouget de Lisle, composer of the Marseillaise, sings it for the first time at the home of Dietrich, Mayor of Strasbourg (Musée historique de Strasbourg, published 1849, artist Isidore Pils)
National anthem of	France
Lyrics	Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, 1792
Music	Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, 1792
Adopted	1795
Music sample
La Marseillaise (instrumental)

"La Marseillaise" ("The [Song of] Marseille"; French pronunciation: [la maʁsɛˈjɛz]) is the national anthem of France. The name of the song originally was Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin ("War Song for the Army of the Rhine"). It was written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in 1792 and adopted in 1795 as the nation's first anthem. It is also the first example of the "European march" anthemic style. Since being adopted as France's national anthem, the evocative lyrics and instantly recognisable tune of La Marseillaise have led to its use as a revolutionary anthem as well as to the inspiration of many pieces of classical music and popular culture.

History

Rouget de Lisle wrote the song Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin in Strasbourg on 25 April 1792, and dedicated it to Marshal Nicolas Luckner, a Bavarian–born French officer from Cham. The melody is an adaptation of a theme written in 1781 by Giovan Battista Viotti. The melody soon became the rallying call to the French Revolution and was adopted as La Marseillaise after the melody was first sung on the streets by volunteers (fédérés in French) from Marseille. These fédérés were making their entryway into Paris on 30 July 1792 after a young volunteer from Montpellier called François Mireur had sung it at a patriotic gathering in Marseille and the troops adopted it as the marching song of the National Guard of Marseille. A newly graduated medical doctor, Mireur later became a general under Napoléon Bonaparte and died in Egypt at 28.

The song's lyrics reflect the invasion of France by foreign armies (from Prussia and Austria) underway when it was written; Strasbourg itself was attacked just a few days later. The invading forces were repulsed from France following their defeat in the Battle of Valmy.

La Marseillaise was screamed during the levée en masse and met with huge success.

Général Mireur, 1770-1798, anonymous, terra cotta, Faculty of Medicine, Montpellier, France.

"La Marseillaise" was adopted as its anthem by the Paris Commune in 1871

The Convention accepted it as the French national anthem in a decree passed on 14 July 1795, making it France's first; but it was then banned successively by Napoleon I, Louis XVIII, and Napoleon III, only being reinstated briefly after the July Revolution of 1830.^[1] During Napoleon I's reign Veillons au Salut de l'Empire was the unofficial anthem of the regime and during Napoleon III's reign Partant pour la Syrie. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries "La Marseillaise" was recognised as the anthem of the international revolutionary movement and in 1871, it was adopted by the Paris Commune. Eight years later in 1879, it was restored as France's national anthem, and has remained so ever since.

Arrangements

"La Marseillaise" was arranged for soprano, chorus and orchestra by Hector Berlioz in about 1830.

Franz Liszt wrote a piano transcription of the anthem.

During World War I, bandleader James Reese Europe played a jazz version of "La Marseillaise", which can be heard on Part 2 of the Ken Burns TV documentary Jazz.

Serge Gainsbourg recorded a reggae version in 1978.

Henrik Wergeland wrote a Norwegian version of the song in 1831, called "The Norwegian Marseillaise".

In Peru and Chile, both the Partido Aprista Peruano and the Socialist Party of Chile wrote their own versions of "La Marseillaise" to be their anthems.

Musical quotations

During the French Revolution, Giuseppe Cambini published Patriotic Airs for Two Violins, in which the song is quoted literally and as a variation theme, with other patriotic songs.

Gioachino Rossini quotes "La Marseillaise" in the second act of his opera Semiramide (1823).

Robert Schumann used part of "La Marseillaise" for his 1840 setting (Op. 49, No. 1) of Heinrich Heine's poem "Die Beiden Grenadiere". The quotation appears at the end of the song when the old French soldier dies. Schumann also incorporated "La Marseillaise" as a major motif in his overture Hermann und Dorothea, inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and quotes it in waltz rhythm in the first movement of Faschingsschwank aus Wien, for solo piano.

Richard Wagner also quotes from "La Marseillaise" in his 1839-40 setting of a French translation of Heine's poem.

In 1882, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky quoted "La Marseillaise" to represent the invading French army in his 1812 Overture. He also quoted the Russian national anthem he was familiar with, to represent the Russian army. However, neither of these anthems was in use in 1812.

The hit Beatles single of 1967, All You Need is Love, used the opening bars of "La Marseillaise" as an introduction.

In 1896, Umberto Giordano briefly quoted the anthem in his opera Andrea Chénier.

Claude Debussy quotes the anthem in the coda of his piano prelude, Feux d'artifice.

Edward Elgar quoted the opening of "La Marseillaise" in his choral work The Music Makers, Op. 69 (1912), based on Arthur O'Shaughnessy's Ode, at the line "We fashion an empire's glory", where he also quotes the opening phrase of "Rule, Britannia!".

Lyrics

Only the first verse (and sometimes the fifth and sixth) and the first chorus are sung today in France. There are some slight historical variations in the lyrics of the song; the following is the version listed at official website of the French Presidency.^[2]

• FP National anthem (MP3 audio file).

Historical use in Russia

In Russia, the Marseillaise was used as a republican revolutionary anthem by those who knew French starting in the 18th century, almost simultaneously with its adoption in France. In 1875 Peter Lavrov, a narodist revolutionary and theorist, wrote a Russian-language text (not a translation of the French one) to the same melody. This "Worker's Marseillaise" became one of the most popular revolutionary songs in Russia and was used in the Revolution of 1905. After the February Revolution of 1917, it was used as the semi-official national anthem of the new Russian republic. Even after the October Revolution, it remained in use for a while alongside The Internationale.^[5]

In popular culture

Music

• Django Reinhardt, Échos de France
• The Beatles, as an introduction to All You Need Is Love
• The anarcho-punk band Crass used the main theme and other extracts in both unaltered form and variations in their song Bloody Revolutions.
• Thunderclap Newman incorporated the song into their 1969 single "Something in the Air".
• Neil Hannon used the primary melody for The Divine Comedy's 1996 single Frog Princess
• Jimi Hendrix during an 1967 Paris concert, played a psychedelic version of the anthem. A video recording of the concert was immediately confiscated by the French government due to the perceived insult to national heritage.
• Frank Sinatra, as part of French Foreign Legion
• In 1978, Serge Gainsbourg recorded a reggae version, "Aux armes et cætera", with Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar and Rita Marley in the choir in Jamaica, which resulted in him being threatened by members of an association of former paratroopers, who wanted to prevent him from singing it in a public concert.
• The Slovenian industrial/techno music group Laibach’s album Volk features a version, with Laibach’s own lyrics. The album Volk (album) is entirely composed of songs which are based on various national anthems.
• Allan Sherman, You Went the Wrong Way, Old King Louie begins with a parody of the Marseillaise before heading into a recitative and then settling into a parody of You’ve Come a long Way from St. Louis. His version begins, “Louis the Sixteenth was the king of France in 1789 / He was worse than Louis the Fifteenth, he was worse than Louis the Fourteenth, he was worse than Louis the Thirteenth/He was the worst, since Louis the First!”)
• There are various versions of the music. Sheet music can be found at [1]. An official version from the website of the French President can be found at the wayback machine's archive here: Wave File (660 KB).
• The German industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten use a piece of the Beatles' introduction to All You Need Is Love in their song Headcleaner I on the album Tabula Rasa which also contains lyrical references to the earlier mentioned Beatles song.

Miscellany

• La Marseillaise was famously used in Casablanca at the behest of Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) to drown out a group of German soldiers singing Die Wacht am Rhein.
• La Marseillaise was used in the film, Escape to Victory; the film is better known as 'Victory'; it starred Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, Pele, and a number of well-known football players.
• The Brisbane Lions Australian rules football (AFL) team theme song "The Pride of Brisbane Town" is sung to the music of La Marseillaise. This song was adapted from the Fitzroy Lions song, also sung to the same music, used since the 1950s.
• The carillon of the town hall in the Bavarian town of Cham plays "La Marseillaise" every day at 12.05 p.m. to commemorate the French Marshal Nicolas Luckner, who was born there.^[6]
• Hong Kong singer Hacken Lee integrated the anthem as an opening to his World Cup 1998 theme song "The Strange Encounters of a Soccer Fan."
• An English language 'rugby song' version exists, as known in France among rugby fans.^[7]
• In Monty Python's Broadway musical Spamalot when confronted by French knights in the song "Run Away!"
• The 19th-century Labour movement used a "Worker Marseillaise" (written 1864 by Jakob Audorf) that was later replaced by The Internationale. It was famously sung on the way to the gallows by those sentenced to death after the Haymarket Riot.
• The song's theme was used by Jacques Offenbach in his Opera "Orpheus in the Underworld" to illustrate a revolution amongst the Olympic gods and goddesses with the lines "Aux armes Dieux et Demi-Dieux".
• The British comedy series 'Allo 'Allo! spoofed Casablanca by having the patriotic French characters start singing "La Marseillaise", only to switch to Deutschlandlied when Nazi officers enter their cafe.
• Also featured in Isaac Asimov's short science fiction story Battle-hymn about how the national anthem is used as a subliminal advertising ploy.
• Featured in the Monty Python sketches, "A Man with a Tape Recorder up His Nose" and "A Man with a Tape Recorder up His Brother's Nose"
• In the cartoon I Am Weasel, when the character I.R. Baboon tries to make a transatlantic bridge from the United States to France, he mistakenly builds it to Mexico. When he reaches the end, he sings a song with a similar tune.
• In the game Populous, when a map is played on the Française landscape it opens with the first ten or so seconds of La Marseillaise.
• Pro wrestler Dino Bravo used it as his entrance theme in the WWE.
• In the Irish comedy Father Ted, Father Jack Hackett stands up and puts his hand on his heart any time that he hears it played.
• The former Belgian Prime minister Yves Leterme sang the first line as a joke when he was asked by a Wallonian journalist if he knew the Belgian anthem (La Brabançonne). The joke was badly received in the Wallonian media and by Wallonian politicians and Leterme was forced to make a public apology.
• It is used in the Punch-Out series, as the French boxer Glass Joe's intro music
• In the Mr. Otis Regrets episode of Cheers, after Sam lies about a tryst with Robin Colcord's French mistress enough to make Rebecca insecure enough to get Sam to teach her, he says he's going to "invade France!" in turn Cliff, Norm, Frasier, and the rest of the bar line up, humming La Marseillaise, as he marches in front of them then into Rebecca's office.

See also

• "La Marseillaise des Blancs", the Royal and Catholic variation
• "Dari Sabang Sampai Merauke", a patriotic song in Indonesia
• "Belarusian Marseillaise", a patriotic song in Belarus
• "Onamo", a Montenegrin patriotic song popularly known as The "Serbian Marseillaise"

References

External links

• French Presidency website
• Instrumental Version of the French National Anthem
• Mireille Mathieu sings La Marseillaise
• La Marseillaise performed by Roberto Alagna
• La Marseillaise - Iain Patterson's comprehensive fansite features sheet music, history, and music files. A full length six verse version of the anthem performed by David Zinman and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra & Chorus can be found in the Berlioz page.
• Adminet-France