La Marseillaise
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- This article is about the anthem "La Marseillaise". A sculpture popularly called "La Marseillaise" is part of the sculptural program of the Arc de Triomphe.
History
"La Marseillaise" is a song written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle at Strasbourg on April 25, 1792. Its original name is "Chant de guerre de l'Armée du Rhin" ("Marching Song of the Rhine Army") and it was dedicated to Marshall Nicolas Luckner, a Bavarian-born French officer from Cham. It became the rallying call of the French Revolution and got its name because it was first sung on the streets by troops (fédérés) from Marseille upon their arrival in Paris.
Now the national anthem of France, it was also once the anthem of the international revolutionary movement. Indeed, the words of "The Internationale", written in 1870 by Eugène Pottier were originally set to the tune of "La Marseillaise". During the Paris Commune (1871), that was adopted as an anthem; it was only in 1888 that Pierre Degeyter re-set "The Internationale" to the tune known today.
Because great numbers of people on the left around the world, particularly anarchists, took inspiration from the Commune, the song became an international symbol of leftism. For instance, in Chicago, Illinois, the Haymarket Martyrs went to their deaths singing the "Marseillaise". In 1917, after the collapse of the tsarist regime "La Marseillaise" and "The Internationale" were both used as de facto anthems of Russia.[link][link] Within a few years "The Internationale" gradually prevailed and became the only anthem. The Russian lyrics of "Marseillaise", "Otrechemsya ot starogo mira", are very different from the French lyrics; both French and Russian lyrics were sung in Russia.
The song was banned in Vichy France and German-occupied areas during World War II and singing it was an act of resistance (see also Chant des Partisans). It was also banned under the French Empire: the France of Napoléon and Napoléon III either used different anthems or no anthem at all for the period of 1799 to 1870.
"La Marseillaise" was re-arranged by Hector Berlioz around 1830.
In 1882, Pyotr Tchaikovsky used extensive quotes from the Marseillaise to represent the invading French army in his 1812 Overture. This was an anachronism, as the Marseillaise was the French anthem in Tchaikovsky's day, but not Napoleon's.
In France itself, the anthem (and particularly the lyrics) has become a somewhat controversial issue since the 1970s. Some consider it militaristic and xenophobic, and many propositions have been made to change the anthem or the lyrics. However, "La Marseillaise" has been associated throughout history with the French Republic and its values, making a change unlikely.
Recently, and despite the lyrics, it was largely sung by anti-racist protesters after Jean-Marie Le Pen advanced to the second round of the 2002 presidential election.
Unofficial versions
- Yannick Noah, "Oh Reve"
- Django Reinhardt, "Echoes Of France"
- The Beatles, as part of "All You Need Is Love"
- In 1978, Serge Gainsbourg recorded a reggae version, "Aux Armes et cetera," with Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar and Rita Marley in the choir in Jamaica, which resulted in him getting death threats from right-wing veterans of the Algerian War of Independence.
- 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!")
- The Brisbane Lions Australian rules football (AFL) team theme song "The Pride of Brisbane Town".
- The carillon of the town hall in the Bavarian town of Cham plays the Marsaillaise every day at 12.05 p.m. to commemorate the French Marshall Nicolas Luckner, who was born there[link].
- 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"
Fiction
The song's theme was used by Jacques Offenbach in his Opera "Orphée aux enfers" to illustrate a revolution amongst the Olympic gods and goddesses with the lines "Aux armes Dieux et Démi-Dieux".
The song was part of a famous scene in the film Casablanca in which French resistance sympathisers used the song to drown out the Nazi soldiers who were singing "Die Wacht am Rhein". These two songs were juxtaposed in exactly the same way five years earlier, in Jean Renoir's 1937 film Grand Illusion. Renoir traced the history of the song in the film he made the following year, "La Marseillaise". [link]
The British comedy series 'Allo 'Allo! spoofed Casablanca by having the patriotic French characters start singing "La Marseillaise", only to switch to Deutschland über alles when Nazi officers enter their cafe.
Abel Gance's film Napoléon features a striking scene in which the song is first sung by the French masses.
In the 1981 movie Victory, the final scene features the entire crowd of the stadium in occupied Paris spontaneously sing La Marseillaise at the end of the game.
Also featured in Isaac Asimov's short SF story, 'Battle-hymn' about how the national anthem is used as a subliminal advertising ploy.
Music
There are various versions of the music. Sheet music can be found at [link]. An official version from the website of the French President is available as a [MIDI file].Lyrics
Note only the first verse (and sometimes the 5th and 6th) 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 [link].
French lyrics
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English Translation
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(1) The sentence (in French) is inverted, the non-literal translation is : "The bloody banner of tyranny is raised against/before us."
(2) Here and in the next line, this is often sung as "nos" ("our") rather than "vos" ("your"); "vos" remains official.
(3) "la carrière" ("the career"), that is, of being in the army. The seventh verse was not part of the original text; it was added in 1792 by an unknown author.
External links
Official French government sites
Other sites
- [Sheet music, history, and music files]
- [Easybyte] - free easy piano arrangement of La Marseillaise
- [La Marseillaise] History of the French National Anthem in English with a translation of all 7 verses
- [Adminet-France]
- [Sung] by Mireille Mathieu
- [Recording] of the music by the U.S. Navy band (MP3)
- [la Marseillaise], by Gilles Marchal
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