La Marseillaise

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.

"La Marseillaise" (IPA: [la maʁsɛjɛz]; in English The Song of Marseilles) is the national anthem of France.

History

"La Marseillaise" is a song written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg on April 25, 1792. Its original name was "Chant de guerre de l'Armée du Rhin" ("Marching Song of the Rhine Army") and it was dedicated to Marshal 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.

Re-arrangements

"La Marseillaise" was re-arranged by Hector Berlioz around 1830.

Robert Schumann, while setting some Heinrich Heine poems to music, used part of the Marseillaise for Heine's "The Two Grenadiers" poem at the end of the piece when the old French soldier dies (Opus 49, No.1). Schumann would also incorporate the Marseillaise as a major motif in his other overture, 'Hermann und Dorothea' inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

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.

Serge Gainsbourg recorded a reggae version in the late 1970s.

Historical use and adoption

Now the national anthem of France, the song 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 left-wing supporters around the world, particularly anarchists, took inspiration from the Commune, the song became an international symbol of leftism. For instance, in Chicago, 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 the nascent Soviet Union.[1][2] Within a few years "The Internationale" gradually prevailed and became the only anthem. The Russian lyrics of "Marseillaise", "Otrechemsya ot starogo mira", are quite different from the French. However, both French and Russian lyrics were sung in Russia.

During the German occupation in World War II, the song was the official anthem of both the French State and Free France.

It was banned under the French Empires of Napoléon and Napoléon III.

In France itself, some of the anthem lyrics have come to be considered militaristic in certain circles, and some propositions have been made to change the anthem or the lyrics.[3] However, "La Marseillaise" has been associated throughout history with the French Republic and its values, and it remains very popular.

Confederate artillery Major John Pelham allegedly sang the song cheerfully at the American Civil War Battle of Fredricksburg^[1] as his pair of guns blasted the Army of the Potomac, rendering the Union Army unable to attack. This stalled them to the point of defeat the next day.

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

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 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 Marshal Nicolas Luckner, who was born there[4].
• 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"
• English language 'rugby song' version, as known in France amongst rugby-ites [5]
• In Monty Python's broadway musical Spamalot when confronted by French knights in the song "Run Away!"

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 Demi-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". [6]

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 Escape to 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.

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"

Glass Joe from Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, a Nintendo Entertainment System boxing game, uses part of the song as his ring theme.

Music

There are various versions of the music. Sheet music can be found at [7].

Lyrics

Note 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 [8].

• FP National anthem

Notes

1. ^ Alter, Robert E. Heroes in Blue and Gray. Racine : Whitman Publishing Co., 1965. (Chapter 5, pg. 85, Line 2)
2. ^ The sentence (in French) is inverted, the non-literal translation is : "The bloody banner of tyranny is raised against/before us."
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.

See also

• The "Belarusian Marseillaise", a patriotic song in Belarus.
• National anthem

Wikipedia information about La Marseillaise This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "La Marseillaise". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.