Let's go children of the Fatherland
The day of glory has arrived!
Tyranny against us
The bloody standard is raised
Do you hear in our countryside
How these ferocious soldiers roar?
They come into your arms.
Slaughter your sons, your companions!
To arms citizens
Form your battalions
Let's march, let's march
Only impure blood
Water our furrows
What does this horde of slaves
Traitors, conspiring kings want?
For whom these ignoble shackles
These irons for a long time prepared?
French, for us, ah! what outrage
What transports should it excite?
It is we who dare to meditate
To return to the antique slavery!
What these foreign cohorts!
Would rule the roost in our homes!
What! those mercenary phalanxes
Would strike down our warrior sons!
Good God! by chained hands
Our brows under the yoke would bend
Vile despots would become
Masters of destiny.
Tremble, tyrants and you treacherous
The opprobrium of all parties
Tremble! your patricidal projects
Will finally receive their prizes!
Everyone is a soldier to fight you
If they fall, our young heroes
France is producing new ones,
Against you all ready to fight.
Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors
Deal or hold back your blows!
Spare these sad victims
Reluctantly taking up arms against us
But these bloodthirsty despots
But these accomplices of Bouillé
All these tigers who, without pity
Tear their mother's breast!
We will enter the quarry
When our elders are no longer there
We will find their dust there
And the trace of their virtues
Much less jealous of surviving them
Than sharing their coffin
We shall have sublime pride
Avenge them or follow them!
Sacred Love of the Fatherland
Lead, support our avenging arms
Freedom, darling Freedom
Fight with your defenders!
Under our flags, may victory
Rush to your male accents
Let your expiring enemies
See your triumph and our glory!
La Marseillaise is the national anthem of the French Republic.
History
Creation
It was written by Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg on the night of April 25 to 26, 1792 following the declaration of war on the Emperor of Austria. It then bore the title of “War Song for the Army of the Rhine”.
The text is very inspired by a propaganda poster distributed at that time. The origin of the music is more controversial, since it is not signed (unlike other compositions by Rouget de Lisle), and it seems too complex to have been written by him, who was not a great musician. It would have been composed by Jean-Baptiste Grisons (1746-1815), choirmaster at Saint-Omer in his oratorio Esther (1775). Listening, inspiration is undoubted.
From revolutionary song to the national anthem
It was on July 30, 1792, when it had been sung by Republican soldiers from Marseilles entering Paris, during the Tuileries insurrection, that it was baptized La Marseillaise. These soldiers had undoubtedly learned this song in the rue du Tapis-Vert where it was sung for the first time in Marseilles.
The seventh couplet, known as the children's couplet, dates from October 1792. It is attributed to Jean-Baptiste Dubois, Marie-Joseph Chénier and Abbé Dubois.
La Marseillaise was declared a national song on July 14, 1795.
Forbidden under the Empire and then the Restoration, it was brought back into the spotlight after the 1830 revolution and once again became the national anthem under the Third Republic. The Ministry of National Education advises practicing singing in schools from 1944, a practice which is now compulsory in primary school (proposal of law of February 19, 2005, adopted on April 23, 2005, modifying the article L321-3 of the Education Code). The Constitutions of 1946 (4th Republic) and 1958 (5th Republic) retain La Marseillaise as the national anthem (article 2 of the 1958 Constitution).
Outdated by the baba-cool generation of the 1970s, La Marseillaise was for a time neglected in favor of nationalists, including the National Front. Since the end of the 1990s, however, La Marseillaise, like the national flag, has clearly returned as strong republican symbols.
On October 6, 2001, during the France-Algeria football match at the Stade de France, La Marseillaise was heavily whistled by some of the French spectators of North African origin. This provoked a strong reaction throughout the country and inspired a law a few years later, especially since in the spring of 2002, certain Corsican supporters of the Sporting club of Bastia again whistled the national anthem on the occasion of the final. of the French Cup. This provoked the ire of President Jacques Chirac, who consequently decided to boycott the presentation of the Coupe de France to the winner.
The Marseillaise outside France
La Marseillaise is more than the French anthem. As a revolutionary song of the first hour, it has been taken up and adopted by many revolutionaries on all continents. Thus, the Bolsheviks adopted it as their anthem in 1917 before taking up another revolutionary French song, L'Internationale. The latter was written during the Paris Commune of 1871. It tends to replace La Marseillaise among far-left revolutionaries, because by becoming the French national anthem, it is now associated with the state power of this nation. The most left-wing activists therefore prefer this International which is still intact because it is still not used by those they consider their enemies.
In 1931, with the advent of the Second Spanish Republic, some Spaniards, not knowing their new anthem (Himno de Riego), welcomed the new regime by singing La Marseillaise, in a Spanish or Catalan version.
Chinese students demonstrating in Tiananmen Square were also singing La Marseillaise [ref. required]
During the Second World War, the Cherished Liberty Lodge, created in the Nazi concentration camps, takes its name from this hymn of the freedom fighters.
Anecdotal:Arsène Wenger having been coach of the Nagoya football team (in Japan) and having made them win the Japanese football cup, the supporters still encourage their team today to the tune of the Marseillaise.
Performers, adaptations, reuses
Pierre Dupont[1], head of music for the Republican Guard (1927-1944), composed the official arrangement of the national anthem. It is this version that is still currently in use.
But, La Marseillaise has had many performers, including:
* Serge Gainsbourg (1979) under the title of Auxarmes et cætera. This is a reggae version that triggered many emotions to the point that the interpreter was attacked by paratroopers during one of his performances. He bought the original manuscript of the War Song of the Army of the Rhine at an auction in December 1981. "I was ready to ruin myself," he said.
* Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt in the Hot Club de France quintet, title translated into English "Echoes of France" (listen to an extract);
* Mireille Mathieu;
* Marcel Mouloudji;
* Marc Ogeret;
* Edith Piaf;
* Michel Sardou (1976);
* Oberkampf, punk version in 1983;
* The Beatles (introduction to All You Need Is love);
* Jessye Norman, for the commemoration of the bicentenary of the Revolution (1989)
* Jean-Loup Longnon, Brazilian version in the album Cyclades, 1996;
* Rohan, child version 2005;
* Isabelle Hamon, ga version llo 2005;
* Graeme Allwright;
* Ben Heppner, on a French air record;
* Teaching the Marseillaise from Napoleon, conducted by Carl Davis conducting the Wren Orchestra (Silva Screen, FILMCD 149).
We find the outline of the melody of La Marseillaise in Mozart's concerto for piano and orchestra No. 25 (KV 503) composed a few years earlier:the first twelve notes of the hymn are played on the piano by the left hand the end of the first movement allegro maestoso (16th, 17th minutes).
The theme of La Marseillaise was taken up by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in his bombastic 1812 Overture opus 49 celebrating the Russian victory of 1812 over the Napoleonic armies. We can hear the first notes of the melody used as a recurring melodic motif, in contrast to the melodic themes of various Russian patriotic songs.
Mel Brooks also covered it, in the introduction, on his song "It's Good To Be The King"
Charlélie Couture took up the musical theme in 2006 in a song entitled Ma Marseillaise à moi.
Hector Berlioz arranged it for soloists, choirs and orchestra; "for all that has a heart, a voice, and blood in its veins", he writes at the top of his score.
Law
On January 24, 2003, all the deputies adopted, within the framework of the orientation and programming law for internal security (Lopsi) proposed by Nicolas Sarkozy, an amendment creating the offense of "contempt" of the French flag and the national anthem, La Marseillaise. Offense punishable by imprisonment for 6 months and a fine of 7,500 euros. A certain number of citizens and human rights defense associations have protested against what they consider to be a manifest attack on freedom of expression and against the vagueness created by the word "contempt".
The Constitutional Council has limited the possibilities of applications:
"[...] are excluded from the scope of the criticized article works of the mind, remarks made in a private circle, as well as acts performed during demonstrations not organized by public authorities or not regulated by them; that the expression "events regulated by the public authorities", enlightened by parliamentary work, must be understood as public events of a sporting, recreational or cultural nature taking place in premises subject by laws and regulations to rules of hygiene and security because of the number of people they accommodate. » Decision No. 2003-467 DC
The Fillon law, aimed at reforming education and adopted in March 2005, made learning La Marseillaise compulsory in nursery and primary classes from the start of the 2005 school year, in accordance with the law of April 23, 2005. This obligation was introduced by an amendment by UMP deputy Jérôme Rivière. We find the obligation to teach the national anthem in other countries, such as the United States, Serbia or Austria.
Several associations, including the teachers' unions of the Basque Country, condemned in 2005 the obligation to learn singing in primary school, encouraging us to "water our furrows with impure blood".
Lyrics
The text has undergone several couplet changes. The majority of the verses are no longer in the "official" version (the one found on the Élysée website) and only the first verse is sung during the events. Two verses (the "children's verses") were added later, one of which has since been deleted from the "official" version. Finally, in view of its religious character, the 8th couplet was suppressed by Joseph Servan, Minister of War, in 1792.
On the original score by Rouget de Lisle, we can clearly see the words “Marchez, Marchez” in the refrain, which agrees with “Formez vos bataillons”, 2nd person plural. The official transcription is however "Marchons, marchons", which would try to establish a rhyme with "battalions" and "furrows".
Controversies regarding the text
The French national anthem is a warrior song inherited from the revolutionary wars. Today, in France, the violence of La Marseillaise is sometimes criticized. At the time of writing, the country was in a very violent context since France had been at war with some of its neighbors for a few months.
It is the verse Qu’un sang impure abreve nos sillons that is particularly decried. For Jaurès, this is an explicit reference to the blood of victims of terrorism. For others [ref. necessary], this verse is a plagiarism of an anti-English song very popular during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). On this occasion, Franco-English hatred reached heights since the Hundred Years' War, and on both sides of the Channel, hateful texts multiplied. This literature calling for resistance is a mine for certain revolutionary authors, Rouget de l'Isle included. " To arms, citizens ! appears in an Ode to the French signed Ecouchard in 1762, while we find this verse invoking impure blood in an Address to the English nation from the pen of Claude-Rigobert Lefebvre de Beauvray in 1757.
But actually this verse refers to the revolutionaries who have impure blood unlike the blue blooded aristocrats. This then means that despite the flowing blood, there will always be one with impure blood who will rise up to fight and march "Let us march, let's walk".
Some leftists will long condemn the call to shed blood contained in this verse:
“But the controversy is not just about the form; it's about ideas. Now, I say that La Marseillaise, the great Marseillaise of 1792, is full of the ideas that are most violently denounced in L'Internationale. What does the famous refrain of "unclean blood" mean? - “Let impure blood water our furrows! “, the expression is atrocious. It is the echo of a thoughtlessly cruel word from Barnave. We know that about some aristocrats massacred by the people, he exclaimed:“After all, is the blood that flows so pure? Abominable remark, because as soon as the parties begin to say that the blood is impure which flows in the veins of their adversaries, they begin to spill it in floods and revolutions become butcheries. But by what right did the Revolution stigmatize with this degrading and barbarous word all the peoples, all the men who fought against it? »
Jean Jaurès, Marseillaise and International, The Little Socialist Republic, August 30, 1903
Because of the violent character of this text, there were several attempts at rewriting. The most notable are those of Alphonse de Lamartine, Victor Hugo, Mireille Mathieu, Serge Gainsbourg and Yannick Noah with Aux rêves, citoyen!
More recently, Christine Boutin, president of the Forum of Social Republicans, proposed changing the order of the verses of La Marseillaise in the event of a presidential election in 2007, considering that:Young people in football stadiums, in suburbs, could feel these words as an aggression.
Even more recently, Pascal Lefèvre, a consulting writer, rewrote a Marseillaise from the original 14 verses, considering that the children's last verse indicated that there would come a time when, when the French no longer had an enemy, they would cease to sing this terrible refrain. You can read and listen to this 21st century Marseillaise on a specially dedicated blog accessible by any search engine.