La Marseillaise

"The Marseillaise" () is the national anthem of France. The song was made by Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg on 26 April 1792, after France declared war against Austria. It was first called "Chant de guerre pour l'armée du Rhin" (meaning "Marching Song of the Rhine Army").

It was first adopted in 1795 as the national anthem of the French First Republic by the French National Convention.

History

As the French Revolution roared on, monarchies from countries next to France grew worried that the ruckus would come into their territories. To stop the French Revolution from spreading, the War of the First Coalition began, in which Coalition armies invaded France. On 25 April 1792, Strasbourg mayor Baron Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich 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," which he dedicated to Baravian Marshal Nicolas Luckner. De Dietrich was executed, however, the next year during the Reign of Terror.

The tune of the song became an "anthem" for the French Revolution. The name of the song was then changed to the title "La Marseillaise", after it was first sung on the streets by volunteers from the city of Marseille at the end of May. They were entering the capital city of Paris on 30 July 1792, and troops adopted it as the marching song of the National Guard of Marseille.

"La Marseillaise" is France's first ever anthem and was accepted as the French national anthem by the National Convention on 14 July 1795. It later lost its status under Napoleon I, and the song was banned by Louis XVIII and Charles X. It regained its status as national anthem right after the July Revolution of 1830. During Napoleon I's reign, "Veillons au salut de l'Empire" (meaning "Let's Ensure the Salvation of the Empire") was the unofficial anthem of his reign, and under Napoleon III's control, it was "Partant pour la Syrie" (meaning "Leaving for Syria"). Eventually, the French government brought back "La Marseillaise" to try to spread patriotism to the French people during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. A year later, after that war ended, "La Marseillaise" was adopted by the Paris Commune, although it had new lyrics under the title "La marseillaise de la Commune" (meaning "The Marseillaise of the Commune"). Eight years later, in 1879, it was one again the national anthem of France, and has remained so ever since.

Lyrics
The lyrics mention about the time when France was being invaded by Prussia and Austria, while it was written. The city of Strasbourg in eastern France was attacked a few days later. The invading forces were kicked out of France following their defeat in the Battle of Valmy. As the majority of Alsatians did not speak French, a German version titled "Auf, Brüder, auf dem Tag entgegen" was published in October 1792 in Colmar.

Only the first stanza (and sometimes the fourth and sixth) and the first chorus are sung today in France. There are some slight historical variations in the words of the song; the following is the version listed at the official website of the French presidency.

Original lyrics

Children's verse (1792)

Additional verses
These verses were removed from the national anthem.

Adaptations into regional languages
France is a country made up of various ethnicities on which they have historically settled. As such, many regional languages are spoken to this day. These languages include Alsatian (a German dialect spoken in the east of France), Basque (a language isolate spoken in the southwest of France), Breton (a Celtic language spoken in the northwest of France), Catalan (a language intelligible between French and Spanish, spoken in the south of France), Corsican (a language similar to Italian, spoken in the Mediterranean), Occitan (a language similar to Catalan, also spoken in the south of France), and Walloon (a language similar to French, spoken in the Wallonia region in Belgium).

The popularity of this anthem has spread across the globe. It has been translated into several languages by known poets over the course of its existence.

Basque variant
The Basque poet Joan Batista Arxu published a version in his 1848 collection Kantu patriotak (meaning "Patriotic songs").

Wallon variant
The French national anthem has been the basis of a couple patriogic songs written in the Walloon language as part of the Walloon Movement.

Other variants based on "La Marseillaise"
There have been many different variants of the song, including:
 "Belarusian Marseillaise", a Belarusian patriotic socialist song
 "Deutsche Arbeiter-Marseillaise", a song created for the General German Worker's Association
 "La Marseillaise de la Commune", the anthem of the Paris Commune in 1871
 "La Marseillaise des Blancs", the royalist and Catholic variation
 "Onamo", a Montenegrin patriotic song also known as the "Serbian Marseillaise"
 "The Pride of Brisbane Town", the official team song of the Brisbane Lions
 "The Internationale", a communist and socialist anthem
 "The Women's Marseillaise", a women's suffrage song
 "Worker's Marseillaise", a socialist song of the Russian Revolution

Russian variant
In Russia, "La Marseillaise" was used as a republican revolutionary anthem by Russian French speakers in the 18th century. In 1875 Peter Lavrov wrote the original Russian text (not translated from the French lyrics) to the same tune, known as the "Worker's Marseillaise", which became very popular in Russia and was used in the Russian Revolution of 1905. After the February Revolution, it was used as the semi-official national anthem of the Russian republic, and after the October Revolution, it was official along with The Internationale.

Quotation in music
Composers have often quoted "La Marseillaise" in their music; for example, Tchaikovsky uses it in the 1812 overture.

References

Notes

Symbols of France
French anthems