NATIONAL ANTHEMS OF FRANCE: LA MARSEILLAISE | THE MARSEILLAISE

"La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by France against Austria, and was originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin" (War Song for the Army of the Rhine).

The French National Convention adopted it as the Republic's anthem in 1795. The song acquired its nickname after being sung in Paris by volunteers from Marseille marching to the capital. The song is the first example of the "European march" anthemic style. The anthem's evocative melody and lyrics have led to its widespread use as a song of revolution and its incorporation into many pieces of classical and popular music.

As the French Revolution continued, the monarchies of Europe became concerned that revolutionary fervor would spread to their countries. The War of the First Coalition was an effort to stop the revolution, or at least contain it to France. Initially, the French army did not distinguish itself, and Coalition armies invaded France. On 25 April 1792, Baron Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich, the mayor of Strasbourg and worshipful master of the local masonic lodge, asked his freemason guest Rouget de Lisle to compose a song "that will rally our soldiers from all over to defend their homeland that is under threat". That evening, Rouget de Lisle wrote "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin" (English: "War Song for the Army of the Rhine"), and dedicated the song to Marshal Nicolas Luckner, a Bavarian freemason in French service from Cham. A plaque on the building on Place Broglie where De Dietrich's house once stood commemorates the event. De Dietrich was executed the next year during the Reign of Terror.

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 by the end of May. These fédérés were making their entrance into the city of 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 age 28.

The song's lyrics reflect the invasion of France by foreign armies (from Prussia and Austria) that was under way 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. As the vast majority of Alsatians did not speak French, a German version (Auf, Brüder, auf dem Tag entgegen) was published in October 1792 in Colmar.

The Convention accepted it as the French national anthem in a decree passed on 14 July 1795, making it France's first anthem. It later lost this status under Napoleon I, and the song was banned outright by Louis XVIII and Charles X, being re-instated only briefly after the July Revolution of 1830. During Napoleon I's reign, "Veillons au salut de l'Empire" was the unofficial anthem of the regime, and in Napoleon III's reign, it was "Partant pour la Syrie", but the Government brought back the iconic anthem in an attempt to motivate the French people during the Franco-Prussian War. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, "La Marseillaise" was recognised as the anthem of the international revolutionary movement; as such, it was adopted by the Paris Commune in 1871, albeit with new lyrics under the title "La marseillaise de la Commune". Eight years later, in 1879, it was restored as France's national anthem, and has remained so ever since.

Several musical antecedents have been cited for the melody:

• Tema e variazioni in Do maggiore, a work by the Italian violinist Giovanni Battista Viotti (composed in 1781); the dating of the manuscript has been questioned.

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Allegro maestoso from the Piano Concerto No. 25 (composed in 1786).

• The oratorio Esther by Jean Baptiste Lucien Grison (composed in 1787).

Other attributions (the credo of the fourth mass of Holtzmann of Mursberg) have been refuted. Rouget de Lisle himself never signed the score of "La Marseillaise".

LYRICS OF NATIONAL ANTHEMS OF FRANCE:

Allons enfants de la Patrie,

Arise, children of the Fatherland,

Le jour de gloire est arrivé!

The day of glory has arrived!

Contre nous de la tyrannie

Against us, tyranny's

L'étendard sanglant est levé,

Bloody standard is raised,

L'étendard sanglant est levé,

Bloody standard is raised,

Entendez-vous dans les campagnes

Do you hear, in the countryside,

Mugir ces féroces soldats?

The roar of those ferocious soldiers?

Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras

They're coming right into your arms

Égorger vos fils, vos compagnes!

To cut the throats of your sons, your women!

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Aux armes, citoyens,

To arms, citizens,

Formez vos bataillons,

Form your battalions,

Marchez, marchez!

March, march!

Qu'un sang impur

Let an impure blood

Abreuve nos sillons!

Water our furrows!

*

Aux armes, citoyens,

To arms, citizens,

Formez vos bataillons,

Form your battalions,

Marchons, marchons!

March, march!

Qu'un sang impur

Let an impure blood

Abreuve nos sillons!

Water our furrows!

VIDEO OF NATIONAL ANTHEMS OF FRANCE:

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