La Marseillaise

For other uses, see La Marseillaise (disambiguation).

La Marseillaise

The Marseillais volunteers departing, sculpted on the Arc de Triomphe
National anthem of France
Also known as	Chant de Guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin
Lyrics	Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, 1792
Music	Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle
Adopted	1795
Music sample
La Marseillaise (Instrumental)

Play media

La Marseillaise (1907).

"La Marseillaise" (French pronunciation: ​[la maʁsɛjɛz]) 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 on 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

Rouget de Lisle, composer of the Marseillaise, sings it for the first time at the home of Dietrich, Mayor of Strasbourg (Musée historique de Strasbourg, published 1849, artist Isidore Pils)

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, 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.

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.

Général Mireur, 1770–1798, anonymous, terra cotta, Faculty of Medicine, Montpellier, France.

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. Eight years later, in 1879, it was restored as France's national anthem, and has remained so ever since.

Musical antecedents

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

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.

• FP National anthem (MP3 audio file, music only).

Bold Is Selected Verses Of The Current Anthem

La Marseillaise
French lyrics	English translation
Allons enfants de la Patrie,	Arise, children of our Nation,
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, (bis)	Bloody banner is raised, (repeat)
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 nos bras	They're coming right into our midst
Égorger nos fils, nos compagnes !	To cut the throats of our sons, our women!
Aux armes, citoyens,	To arms, citizens,
Formez vos bataillons,	Form your battalions,
Marchons, marchons !	Let's march, let's march!
Qu'un sang impur	Let an impure blood
Abreuve nos sillons !	Soak our fields!
Que veut cette horde d'esclaves,	What does this horde of slaves,
De traîtres, de rois conjurés ?	Of traitors and conspiratorial kings want?
Pour qui ces ignobles entraves,	For whom are these vile chains,
Ces fers dès longtemps préparés ? (bis)	These long-prepared irons? (repeat)
Français, pour nous, ah ! quel outrage	Frenchmen, for us, ah! What outrage
Quels transports il doit exciter !	What fury it must arouse!
C'est nous qu'on ose méditer	It is us they dare plan
De rendre à l'antique esclavage !	To return to the old slavery!
Aux armes, citoyens...	To arms, citizens...
Quoi ! des cohortes étrangères	What! Foreign cohorts
Feraient la loi dans nos foyers !	Would make the law in our homes!
Quoi ! Ces phalanges mercenaires	What! These mercenary phalanxes
Terrasseraient nos fiers guerriers ! (bis)	Would strike down our proud warriors! (repeat)
Grand Dieu! Par des mains enchaînées	Great God! By chained hands
Nos fronts sous le joug se ploieraient	Our brows would yield under the yoke
De vils despotes deviendraient	Vile despots would have themselves
Les maîtres de nos destinées !	The masters of our destinies!
Aux armes, citoyens...	To arms, citizens...
Tremblez, tyrans et vous perfides	Tremble, tyrants and you traitors
L'opprobre de tous les partis,	The shame of all parties,
Tremblez ! vos projets parricides	Tremble! Your parricidal schemes
Vont enfin recevoir leurs prix ! (bis)	Will finally receive their reward! (repeat)
Tout est soldat pour vous combattre,	Everyone is a soldier to combat you
S'ils tombent, nos jeunes héros,	If they fall, our young heroes,
La terre en produit de nouveaux,	The earth will produce new ones,
Contre vous tout prêts à se battre !	Ready to fight against you!
Aux armes, citoyens...	To arms, citizens...
Français, en guerriers magnanimes,	Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors,
Portez ou retenez vos coups !	Bear or hold back your blows!
Épargnez ces tristes victimes,	Spare those sorry victims,
À regret s'armant contre nous. (bis)	Who arm against us with regret. (repeat)
Mais ces despotes sanguinaires,	But not these bloodthirsty despots,
Mais ces complices de Bouillé,	These accomplices of Bouillé,
Tous ces tigres qui, sans pitié,	All these tigers who, mercilessly,
Déchirent le sein de leur mère !	Rip their mother's breast!
Aux armes, citoyens...	To arms, citizens...
Amour sacré de la Patrie,	Sacred love of the Fatherland,
Conduis, soutiens nos bras vengeurs	Lead, support our avenging arms
Liberté, Liberté chérie,	Liberty, cherished Liberty,
Combats avec tes défenseurs ! (bis)	Fight with thy defenders! (repeat)
Sous nos drapeaux que la victoire	Under our flags, may victory
Accoure à tes mâles accents,	Hurry to thy manly accents,
Que tes ennemis expirants	May thy expiring enemies,
Voient ton triomphe et notre gloire !	See thy triumph and our glory!
Aux armes, citoyens...	'To arms, citizens...
(Couplet des enfants)	(Children's Verse)
Nous entrerons dans la carrière	We shall enter the (military) career
Quand nos aînés n'y seront plus,	When our elders are no longer there,
Nous y trouverons leur poussière	There we shall find their dust
Et la trace de leurs vertus (bis)	And the trace of their virtues (repeat)
Bien moins jaloux de leur survivre	Much less keen to survive them
Que de partager leur cercueil,	Than to share their coffins,
Nous aurons le sublime orgueil	We shall have the sublime pride
De les venger ou de les suivre	Of avenging or following them
Aux armes, citoyens...	To arms, citizens...

English versification, public domain

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.

La Marseillaise
French lyrics	English translation
Dieu de clémence et de justice	God of mercy and justice
Vois nos tyrans, juge nos coeurs	See our tyrants, judge our hearts
Que ta bonté nous soit propice	Thy goodness be with us
Défends-nous de ces oppresseurs (bis)	Defend us from these oppressors (repeat)
Tu règnes au ciel et sur terre	You reign in heaven and on earth
Et devant Toi, tout doit fléchir	And before You all must bend
De ton bras, viens nous soutenir	In your arms, come support us
Toi, grand Dieu, maître du tonnerre.	You Great God, Lord of the thunder.
Aux armes, citoyens...	To arms, citizens...
Peuple français, connais ta gloire;	French people know thy glory
Couronné par l’Égalité,	Crowned by Equality,
Quel triomphe, quelle victoire,	What a triumph, what a victory,
D’avoir conquis la Liberté! (bis)	To have won Freedom! (repeat)
Le Dieu qui lance le tonnerre	The God who throws thunder
Et qui commande aux éléments,	And who commands the elements,
Pour exterminer les tyrans,	To exterminate the tyrants
Se sert de ton bras sur la terre.	Uses your arm on the ground.
Aux armes, citoyens...	To arms, citizens...
Nous avons de la tyrannie	Of tyranny, we have
Repoussé les derniers efforts;	Rebuffed the final efforts;
De nos climats, elle est bannie;	It is banished from our climes;
Chez les Français les rois sont morts. (bis)	In France the kings are dead. (repeat)
Vive à jamais la République!	Forever live the Republic!
Anathème à la royauté!	Anathema to royalty!
Que ce refrain, partout porté,	May this refrain sung everywhere,
Brave des rois la politique.	Defy the politics of kings.
Aux armes, citoyens...	To arms, citizens...
La France que l’Europe admire	France that Europe admires
A reconquis la Liberté	Has regained Liberty
Et chaque citoyen respire	And every citizen breathes
Sous les lois de l’Égalité; (bis)	Under the laws of Equality, (repeat)
Un jour son image chérie	One day its beloved image
S’étendra sur tout l’univers.	Will extend throughout the universe.
Peuples, vous briserez vos fers	People, you will break your chains
Et vous aurez une Patrie!	And you will have a Fatherland!
Aux armes, citoyens...	To arms, citizens...
Foulant aux pieds les droits de l’Homme,	Trampling on the rights of man,
Les soldatesques légions	soldierly legions
Des premiers habitants de Rome	The first inhabitants of Rome
Asservirent les nations. (bis)	enslave nations. (repeat)
Un projet plus grand et plus sage	A larger project and wiser
Nous engage dans les combats	We engage in battle
Et le Français n’arme son bras	And the Frenchman does not arm himself
Que pour détruire l’esclavage.	But to destroy slavery.
Aux armes, citoyens...	To arms, citizens...
Oui! Déjà d’insolents despotes	Yes! Already insolent despots
Et la bande des émigrés	And the band of emigrants
Faisant la guerre aux Sans-Culottes	Waging war on the unclothed [lit. without-breeches]
Par nos armes sont altérés; (bis)	By our weapons are withered; (repeat)
Vainement leur espoir se fonde	Vainly their hope is based
Sur le fanatisme irrité,	On piqued fanaticism
Le signe de la Liberté	The sign of Liberty
Fera bientôt le tour du monde.	Will soon spread around the world.
Aux armes, citoyens...	To arms, citizens...
À vous ! Que la gloire environne,	To you! Let glory surround
Citoyens, illustres guerriers,	Citizens, illustrious warriors,
Craignez, dans les champs de Bellone,	Fear in the fields of Bellona,
Craignez de flétrir vos lauriers! (bis)	Fear the sullying of your laurels! (repeat)
Aux noirs soupçons inaccessibles	As for dark unfounded suspicions
Envers vos chefs, vos généraux,	Towards your leaders, your generals,
Ne quittez jamais vos drapeaux,	Never leave your flags,
Et vous resterez invincibles.	And you will remain invincible.
Aux armes, citoyens...	To arms, citizens...
(Couplet des enfants)	(Children's Verse)
Enfants, que l’Honneur, la Patrie	Children, let Honour and Fatherland
Fassent l’objet de tous nos vœux!	be the object of all our wishes!
Ayons toujours l’âme nourrie	Let us always have souls nourished
Des feux qu’ils inspirent tous deux. (bis)	With fires that might inspire both. (repeat)
Soyons unis! Tout est possible;	Let us be united! Anything is possible;
Nos vils ennemis tomberont,	Our vile enemies will fall,
Alors les Français cesseront	Then the French will cease
De chanter ce refrain terrible:	To sing this fierce refrain:
Aux armes, citoyens...	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".

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.

• 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.

• 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.

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.
• 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 cafe.
• 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.

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 acknowledgement 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".

See also

• "Marche Henri IV", the national anthem of the Kingdom of France
• "La Marseillaise des Blancs", the Royal and Catholic variation
• Ça Ira, another famous anthem of the French Revolution
• "Belarusian Marseillaise", a patriotic song in Belarus
• "Onamo", a Montenegrin patriotic song popularly known as The "Serbian Marseillaise"

Further reading

• Charles Hughes, "Music of the French Revolution," Science and Society, vol. 4, No. 2 (Spring 1940), pp. 193–210. In JSTOR.

External links

• La Marseillaise de Rouget de Lisle – Official site of Élysée – Présidence de la République (in French)
• La Marseillaise: hymne national Official site of Assemblée nationale (in French)
• Instrumental Version of the French National Anthem
• Streaming audio of the Marseillaise, with information and links
• La Marseillaise – Iain Patterson's comprehensive fansite features sheet music, history, and music files. A full length six verse version of the anthem performed by David Zinman and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra & Chorus can be found in the Berlioz page.
• Adminet-France
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • La Marseillaise
  • "Marseillaise, The". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. 1907. 
  • "Marseillaise". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.