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.
"La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France.
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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). It became the rallying call of the French Revolution and was so-called 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 in its earliest years the anthem of the international revolutionary movement. After the rise of centralised Communism, the song was largely replaced by "The Internationale" as the unifying song of the international Left. It was the anthem of the Paris Commune. Because great numbers of people on the left around the world, particularly anarchists, took inspiration from the Commune, it became an international symbol of leftism. For instance, in Chicago, Illinois, the Haymarket Martyrs went to their deaths singing the song. In 1917, after the collapse of the tsarist regime "La Marseillaise" and "The Internationale" were both used as national anthems of Russia. However, in a couple 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, France 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 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 the accession of Jean-Marie Le Pen to the second turn of presidential election in 2002.
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"
Fiction
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". [1]
Abel Gance's film Napoléon features a striking scene in which the song is first sung by the French masses.
Music
There are various versions of the music. Sheet music can be found at [2]. 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 6th and 7th) and the first chorus are sung nowadays in France.
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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.
External links
Official French government sites
Other sites
- Sheet music, history, and music files
- Easybyte - free easy piano arrangement of La Marseillaise
- Adminet-France
- Recording of the music by the US Navy band (MP3)
