La 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 Rhine Army").

The Marseillaise was a revolutionary song, an anthem to freedom, a patriotic call to mobilize all the citizens and an exhortation to fight against tyranny and foreign invasion. The French National Convention adopted it as the Republic's anthem in 1795. It 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.

History
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, requested his guest Rouget de Lisle 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 in French service from Cham. A plaque on the building on Place Broglie where De Dietrich's house once stood commemorates the event.

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 lyric reflects the invasion of France by foreign armies (from Prussia and Austria) that were 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, only being re-instated 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". 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.

Musical
Several musical antecedents have been cited for the melody:
 * Mozart's Allegro maestoso of Piano Concerto No. 25
 * the credo of the fourth mass of Holtzmann of Mursberg
 * the Oratorio Esther by Jean Baptiste Lucien Grison
 * Recent researches have pointed out that the incipit of "Tema e variazioni in Do maggiore", composed in 1781 by Piedmontese violinist and composer Giovanni Battista Viotti bears a strong resemblance to the hymn

Rouget de Lisle himself never signed the Marseillaise score.

Lyrics
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 the official website of the French Presidency. Verses sung in the contemporary version of the anthem are in bold.

Allons enfants de la Patrie, Le jour de gloire est arrivé! Contre nous de la tyrannie, L'étendard sanglant est levé, (bis) Entendez-vous dans les campagnes Mugir ces féroces soldats? Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras Égorger vos fils, vos compagnes!

Aux armes, citoyens, Formez vos bataillons, Marchons, marchons! Qu'un sang impur Abreuve nos sillons!

Que veut cette horde d'esclaves, De traîtres, de rois conjurés? Pour qui ces ignobles entraves, Ces fers dès longtemps préparés? (bis) Français, pour nous, ah! quel outrage Quels transports il doit exciter! C'est nous qu'on ose méditer De rendre à l'antique esclavage!

Aux armes, citoyens...

Quoi! des cohortes étrangères Feraient la loi dans nos foyers! Quoi! Ces phalanges mercenaires Terrasseraient nos fiers guerriers! (bis) Grand Dieu! Par des mains enchaînées Nos fronts sous le joug se ploieraient De vils despotes deviendraient Les maîtres de nos destinées!

Aux armes, citoyens...

Tremblez, tyrans et vous perfides L'opprobre de tous les partis, Tremblez! vos projets parricides Vont enfin recevoir leurs prix! (bis) Tout est soldat pour vous combattre, S'ils tombent, nos jeunes héros, La terre en produit de nouveaux, Contre vous tout prêts à se battre!

Aux armes, citoyens...

Français, en guerriers magnanimes, Portez ou retenez vos coups! Épargnez ces tristes victimes, À regret s'armant contre nous. (bis) Mais ces despotes sanguinaires, Mais ces complices de Bouillé, Tous ces tigres qui, sans pitié, Déchirent le sein de leur mère!

Aux armes, citoyens...

Amour sacré de la Patrie, Conduis, soutiens nos bras vengeurs Liberté, Liberté chérie, Combats avec tes défenseurs! (bis) Sous nos drapeaux que la victoire Accoure à tes mâles accents, Que tes ennemis expirants Voient ton triomphe et notre gloire!

Aux armes, citoyens...

(Couplet des enfants) Nous entrerons dans la carrière Quand nos aînés n'y seront plus, Nous y trouverons leur poussière Et la trace de leurs vertus (bis) Bien moins jaloux de leur survivre Que de partager leur cercueil, Nous aurons le sublime orgueil De les venger ou de les suivre

Aux armes, citoyens...

Arise, children of the Fatherland, The day of glory has arrived! Against us tyranny's Bloody banner is raised, (repeat) Do you hear, in the countryside, The roar of those ferocious soldiers? They're coming right into your arms To cut the throats of your sons, your women!

To arms, citizens, Form your battalions, Let's march, let's march! Let an impure blood Soak our fields!

What does this horde of slaves, Of traitors and conspiratorial kings want? For whom are these vile chains, These long-prepared irons? (repeat) Frenchmen, for us, ah! What outrage What fury it must arouse! It is us they dare plan To return to the old slavery!

To arms, citizens...

What! Foreign cohorts Would make the law in our homes! What! These mercenary phalanxes Would strike down our proud warriors! (repeat) Great God! By chained hands Our brows would yield under the yoke Vile despots would have themselves The masters of our destinies!

To arms, citizens...

Tremble, tyrants and you traitors The shame of all parties, Tremble! Your parricidal schemes Will finally receive their reward! (repeat) Everyone is a soldier to combat you If they fall, our young heroes, The earth will produce new ones, Ready to fight against you!

To arms, citizens...

Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors, Bear or hold back your blows! Spare those sorry victims, Who arm against us with regret. (repeat) But not these bloodthirsty despots, These accomplices of Bouillé, All these tigers who, mercilessly, Rip their mother's breast!

To arms, citizens...

Sacred love of the Fatherland, Lead, support our avenging arms Liberty, cherished Liberty, Fight with thy defenders! (repeat) Under our flags, may victory Hurry to thy manly accents, May thy expiring enemies, See thy triumph and our glory!

To arms, citizens...

(Children's Verse) We shall enter the (military) career When our elders are no longer there, There we shall find their dust And the trace of their virtues (repeat) Much less keen to survive them Than to share their coffins, We shall have the sublime pride Of avenging or following them

To arms, citizens...

The United States Library of Congress holds the following English translation.

Ye sons of France, awake to glory, Hark, hark! what myriads bid you rise! Your children, wives and white-haired grandsires. Behold their tears and hear their cries! (repeat) Shall hateful tyrants, mischiefs breeding, With hireling hosts, a ruffian band, Affright and desolate the land, While peace and liberty lie bleeding?

To arms, to arms, ye brave! The avenging sword unsheath, March on, march on! All hearts resolv'd On victory or death!

Now, now, the dangerous storm is rolling Which treacherous kings confederate raise! The dogs of war, let loose, are howling, And lo! our fields and cities blaze! (repeat) alt: And lo! our homes will soon invade! And shall we basely view the ruin While lawless force with guilty stride Spreads desolation far and wide With crimes and blood his hands embruing?

To arms, to arms, ye brave!...

With luxury and pride surrounded The vile insatiate despots dare, Their thirst of power and gold unbounded, To mete and vend the light and air! (repeat) Like beasts of burden would they load us, Like gods would bid their slaves adore, But man is man, and who is more? Then shall they longer lash and goad us?

To arms, to arms, ye brave!...

O Liberty, can man resign thee Once having felt thy generous flame? Can dungeons, bolts or bars confine thee Or whips thy noble spirit tame? (repeat) Too long the world has wept, bewailing That falsehood's dagger tyrants wield, But freedom is our sword and shield, And all their arts are unavailing.

To arms, to arms, ye brave!...

Additional verses
These verses were omitted from the national anthem.

Dieu de clémence et de justice Vois nos tyrans, juge nos coeurs Que ta bonté nous soit propice Défends-nous de ces oppresseurs (bis) Tu règnes au ciel et sur terre Et devant Toi, tout doit fléchir De ton bras, viens nous soutenir Toi, grand Dieu, maître du tonnerre.

Aux armes, citoyens...

Peuple français, connais ta gloire; Couronné par l'Égalité, Quel triomphe, quelle victoire, D'avoir conquis la Liberté! (bis) Le Dieu qui lance le tonnerre Et qui commande aux éléments, Pour exterminer les tyrans, Se sert de ton bras sur la terre.

Aux armes, citoyens...

Nous avons de la tyrannie Repoussé les derniers efforts; De nos climats, elle est bannie; Chez les Français les rois sont morts. (bis) Vive à jamais la République! Anathème à la royauté! Que ce refrain, partout porté, Brave des rois la politique.

Aux armes, citoyens...

La France que l'Europe admire A reconquis la Liberté Et chaque citoyen respire Sous les lois de l'Égalité; (bis) Un jour son image chérie S'étendra sur tout l'univers. Peuples, vous briserez vos fers Et vous aurez une Patrie!

Aux armes, citoyens...

Foulant aux pieds les droits de l'Homme, Les soldatesques légions Des premiers habitants de Rome Asservirent les nations. (bis) Un projet plus grand et plus sage Nous engage dans les combats Et le Français n'arme son bras Que pour détruire l'esclavage.

Aux armes, citoyens...

Oui! Déjà d'insolents despotes Et la bande des émigrés Faisant la guerre aux Sans-culottes Par nos armes sont altérés; (bis) Vainement leur espoir se fonde Sur le fanatisme irrité, Le signe de la Liberté Fera bientôt le tour du monde.

Aux armes, citoyens...

À vous ! Que la gloire environne, Citoyens, illustres guerriers, Craignez, dans les champs de Bellone, Craignez de flétrir vos lauriers! (bis) Aux noirs soupçons inaccessibles Envers vos chefs, vos généraux, Ne quittez jamais vos drapeaux, Et vous resterez invincibles.

Aux armes, citoyens...

(Couplet des enfants) Enfants, que l'Honneur, la Patrie Fassent l'objet de tous nos vœux! Ayons toujours l'âme nourrie Des feux qu'ils inspirent tous deux. (bis) Soyons unis! Tout est possible; Nos vils ennemis tomberont, Alors les Français cesseront De chanter ce refrain terrible:

Aux armes, citoyens...

God of mercy and justice See our tyrants, judge our hearts Thy goodness be with us Defend us from these oppressors (repeat) You reign in heaven and on earth And before You all must bend In your arms, come support us You Great God, Lord of the thunder.

To arms, citizens...

French people know thy glory Crowned by Equality, What a triumph, what a victory, To have won Freedom! (repeat) The God who throws thunder And who commands the elements, To exterminate the tyrants Uses your arm on the ground.

To arms, citizens...

Of tyranny, we have Rebuffed the final efforts; It is banished from our climes; In France the kings are dead. (repeat) Forever live the Republic! Anathema to royalty! May this refrain sung everywhere, Defy the politics of kings.

To arms, citizens...

France that Europe admires Has regained Liberty And every citizen breathes Under the laws of Equality, (repeat) One day its beloved image Will extend throughout the universe. People, you will break your chains And you will have a Fatherland!

To arms, citizens...

Trampling on the rights of man, soldierly legions The first inhabitants of Rome enslave nations. (repeat) A larger project and wiser We engage in battle And the Frenchman does not arm himself But to destroy slavery.

To arms, citizens...

Yes! Already insolent despots And the band of emigrants Waging war on the unclothed [lit. without-breeches] By our weapons are withered; (repeat) Vainly their hope is based On piqued fanaticism The sign of Liberty Will soon spread around the world.

To arms, citizens...

To you! Let glory surround Citizens, illustrious warriors, Fear in the fields of Bellona, Fear the sullying of your laurels! (repeat) As for dark unfounded suspicions Towards your leaders, your generals, Never leave your flags, And you will remain invincible.

To arms, citizens...

(Children's Verse) Children, let Honour and Fatherland be the object of all our wishes! Let us always have souls nourished With fires that might inspire both. (repeat) Let us be united! Anything is possible; Our vile enemies will fall, Then the French will cease To sing this fierce refrain:

To arms, citizens...

Notable arrangements
"La Marseillaise" was arranged for soprano, chorus and orchestra by Hector Berlioz in about 1830.

Franz Liszt wrote a piano transcription of the anthem.

During World War I, bandleader James Reese Europe played a jazz version of "La Marseillaise", which can be heard on Part 2 of the Ken Burns TV documentary Jazz.

Serge Gainsbourg recorded a reggae version in 1978, titled "Aux armes et cætera".

Jacky Terrasson also recorded a jazz version of "La Marseillaise", included in his 2000 album "A Paris".

Quotations in other musical works

 * During the French Revolution, Giuseppe Cambini published Patriotic Airs for Two Violins, in which the song is quoted literally and as a variation theme, with other patriotic songs.
 * Ludwig van Beethoven quotes "La Marseillaise" in his Wellington's Victory overture, op. 91, composed in 1813.
 * Gioachino Rossini quotes "La Marseillaise" in his 1813 opera, L'italiana in Algeri, during the choral introduction to Isabella's 2nd act aria "Pensa alla patria" and in the second act of his opera Semiramide (1823).
 * Robert Schumann used part of "La Marseillaise" for "Die beiden Grenadiere" (The Two Grenadiers), his 1840 setting (Op. 49, No. 1) of Heinrich Heine's poem "Die Grenadiere". The quotation appears at the end of the song when the old French soldier dies. Schumann also incorporated "La Marseillaise" as a major motif in his overture Hermann und Dorothea, inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and quotes it, in waltz rhythm, in the first movement of Faschingsschwank aus Wien, for solo piano.
 * Richard Wagner also quotes from "La Marseillaise" in his 1839–40 setting of a French translation of Heine's poem.
 * In Orphée aux enfers (1858), Jacques Offenbach quotes it in the "Choeur de la Révolte" (Revolutionary Chorus) in Act I, Scene. 2
 * Giuseppe Verdi quotes from "La Marseillaise" in his patriotic anthem Hymn of the Nations, which also incorporates "God Save the King" and "Il Canto degli Italiani". In his 1944 film, the Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini also incorporated "The Internationale" for the Soviet Union and "The Star-Spangled Banner" representing the United States.
 * Greek composer Pavlos Carrer quotes "La Marseillaise" in the overture of his 1873 opera Maria Antonietta (libretto by Count Georgios Romas).
 * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky quotes "La Marseillaise" to represent the invading French army in his 1812 Overture (1882). He also quotes the Russian national anthem he was familiar with, to represent the Russian army. However, neither of these anthems was actually in use in 1812.
 * In 1896, Umberto Giordano briefly quotes the anthem in his opera Andrea Chénier.
 * Claude Debussy quotes a fragment of the anthem marked "de très loin" in the dreamlike and dissonant coda of his piano prelude, Feux d'artifice.
 * Flemish composer Peter Benoit quotes "La Marseillaise" in the overture of his 1876 opera Charlotte Corday.
 * Edward Elgar quotes the opening of "La Marseillaise" in his choral work The Music Makers, Op. 69 (1912), based on Arthur O'Shaughnessy's Ode, at the line "We fashion an empire's glory", where he also quotes the opening phrase of "Rule, Britannia!".
 * Felix Weingartner incorporated fragments of the "Marseillaise", as well as of the Russian anthem God Save the Tsar!, the Kaiser's anthem Heil dir im Siegerkranz and of the Austrian anthem Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser in his concert overture Aus ernster Zeit, reflecting the major opponents of World War I.
 * Heitor Villa-Lobos quotes "La Marseillaise" in his 3rd ("War") and 4th ("Victory") Symphonies (both 1919). In the finale of No. 3, fragments of it form a collage with the Brazilian national anthem.
 * Dmitri Shostakovich quotes "La Marseillaise" at some length during the fifth reel of the film score he composed for the 1929 silent movie, The New Babylon (set during the Paris Commune), where it is juxtaposed contrapuntally with the famous "Infernal Galop" from Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld.
 * Gottfried Huppertz quotes "La Marseillaise" in his score for the 1927 film Metropolis over scenes of rioting workers.
 * Max Steiner weaves quotes from "La Marseillaise" throughout his score for the 1942 film Casablanca. It also forms an important plot element when patrons of Rick's Café Américain, spontaneously led by Czech underground leader Victor Laszlo, sing the actual song to drown out Nazi officers who had started singing "Die Wacht am Rhein", thus causing Rick's to be shut down. The scene is reminiscent of one in Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion, in which French and British prisoners of war performing amateur theatricals to a mixed audience of guards and fellow-prisoners sing the song aggressively at the Germans upon hearing of a minor French victory.
 * Django Reinhardt uses the theme in "Échos de France."
 * The Beatles hit single of 1967, "All You Need Is Love", uses the opening bars of "La Marseillaise" as an introduction.
 * The Slovenian music group Laibach released the album Volk in 2006, which featured interpretations of various national anthems and included "Francia", a song inspired by "La Marseillaise".
 * In Peru and Chile, both the Partido Aprista Peruano ("La Marsellesa Aprista"), and the Socialist Party of Chile ("La Marsellesa Socialista"), wrote their own versions of "La Marseillaise" to be their anthems. Both use the original tune.
 * The Canadian post-hardcore band Silverstein uses the English translation of the first two choruses of "La Marseillaise" in their song "La Marseillaise". The song is featured on their album Short Songs.
 * Hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest uses the opening bars of "La Marseillaise" as an outro to their song "Push It Along" on their 1990 album People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.
 * American song parodist and comedian Allan Sherman, on his album My Son, the Nut, uses the tune of "La Marseillaise" as part of the opening of his song "You Went the Wrong Way, Old King Louie" (a French Revolution-themed parody of You Came a Long Way from St. Louis), solemnly intoning "Louis The Sixteenth was the king of France, in 17–89..."

Notable use in other media

 * Stefan Zweig narrates the creation of the anthem by Rouget De Lisle in one of the Decisive Moments in History, as does Alexandre Dumas in The Countess de Charny, claiming his account comes from Rouget de Lisle's own mouth.
 * In the 1987 NES video game Punch-Out!!, the French boxer Glass Joe uses an arrangement of "La Marseillaise" as his intro theme.
 * The 1938 film La Marseillaise shows the Marseille fédérés marching to Paris and singing the anthem.
 * In the RKO film Joan of Paris (1942), "La Marseillaise" is sung by a classroom full of young schoolchildren as the Gestapo hunts their teacher, a French Resistance operative.
 * "La Marseillaise" was famously used in Casablanca at the behest of Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) to drown out a group of German soldiers singing "Die Wacht am Rhein". It was also played during the closing card of the movie. Earlier, it appeared in Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion in a similar defiant fashion, sung by French and British POWs.
 * The British sitcom 'Allo 'Allo! spoofed Casablanca by having the patriotic French characters start singing "La Marseillaise," only to switch to Deutschlandlied when Nazi officers enter their café.
 * On the January 24, 1977 episode of the Steve Allen PBS fantasy/history talk show Meeting of Minds, Empress Marie Antoinette (played by Allen's wife Jayne Meadows) is introduced and walks onstage to "La Marseillaise", and immediately expresses outrage and distress, explaining that the anthem was that of the revolutionary movement that dethroned and executed herself and husband Louis XVI. Allen as host apologizes profusely for the faux pas.
 * Vanessa Redgrave sings "La Marsellaise" (in French) in the closing scene of Playing for Time, a 1980 CBS television film about the Auschwitz concentration camp.
 * "La Marseillaise" was used in the film Escape to Victory, also known as Victory.
 * In the biopic La Vie en Rose, chronicling the life of Edith Piaf, ten-year-old Edith is urged by her acrobat father to "do something" in the middle of a lackluster show, and she amazes the audience with an emotional rendition of "La Marseillaise."
 * The carillon of the town hall in the Bavarian town of Cham plays "La Marseillaise" every day at 12.05 pm to commemorate the French Marshal Nicolas Luckner, who was born there.
 * The first part of the "La Marseillaise" was used in the film's opening scene in the 2007 Disney's Pixar film, Ratatouille.
 * Some of the verses of "La Marseillaise" are spoken by a French soldier in "They Shall Not Pass", the DLC trailer for the 2016 game Battlefield 1.

Historical use in Russia
In Russia, La Marseillaise was used as a republican revolutionary anthem by those who knew French starting in the 18th century, almost simultaneously with its adoption in France. In 1875 Peter Lavrov, a narodist revolutionary and theorist, wrote a Russian-language text (not a translation of the French one) to the same melody. This "Worker's Marseillaise" became one of the most popular revolutionary songs in Russia and was used in the Revolution of 1905. After the February Revolution of 1917, it was used as the semi-official national anthem of the new Russian republic. Even after the October Revolution, it remained in use for a while alongside The Internationale.

Criticism and controversy
The English philosopher and reformer Jeremy Bentham, who was declared an honorary citizen of France in 1791 in recognition of his sympathies for the ideals of the French Revolution, was not enamoured of La Marseillaise. Contrasting its qualities with the "beauty" and "simplicity" of "God Save the King", he wrote in 1796: "The War whoop of anarchy, the Marseillais Hymn, is to my ear, I must confess, independently of all moral association, a most dismal, flat, and unpleasing ditty: and to any ear it is at any rate a long winded and complicated one. In the instance of a melody so mischievous in its application, it is a fortunate incident, if, in itself, it should be doomed neither in point of universality, nor permanence, to gain equal hold on the affections of the people."

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, a former President of France, has said that it is ridiculous to sing about drenching French fields with impure Prussian blood as a German Chancellor takes the salute in Paris. A 1992 campaign to change the words of the song involving more than 100 prominent French citizens, including Danielle Mitterrand, wife of then-President François Mitterrand, was unsuccessful.

The historian Simon Schama discussed La Marseillaise on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on 17 November 2015 (in the immediate aftermath of the Paris attacks), saying it was "... the great example of courage and solidarity when facing danger; that's why it is so invigorating, that's why it really is the greatest national anthem in the world, ever. Most national anthems are pompous, brassy, ceremonious, but this is genuinely thrilling. Very important in the song ... is the line before us is tyranny, the bloody standard of tyranny has risen. There is no more ferocious tyranny right now than ISIS, so it's extremely easy for the tragically and desperately grieving French to identify with that".