Formez vos bataillons
 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K1q9Ntcr5g

La Marseillaise; surely the most stirring national anthem. Vive la France!

OK. So when did you last sing it? Not just the bit at the beginning and the bit at the end: the whole thing.

Those soldats mugissant. Coming in your bras. Egorging your fils and your compagnes (Not campagnes: that's where you hear - or do you? - those mugissant soldats).

Truth is: it's simply unsingable. And not just the tune: no-one who's ever tried singing this repellent piece of pornography can fail to realise it's the most disgusting song any country's ever adopted. Even the Horst Wessel Lied took less pleasure in suffering.

That might be why you never hear any Frenchperson singing the whole thing. Or maybe they all go quiet in the middle because it's just impossible to stay in tune.

Either way: while over half the world's population live in countries that have used God Save Our Gracious Queen/My Country Tis of Thee/ Rust Du, mein Vaterland/ Heil Dir in Siegerkranz/ Molitva Russkikh as a national song, no free society has ever adopted France's hymn to sadism.

Just as only murderous dictatorships have ever taken any lessons from the establishment of a century of oppression the French celebrate today.

"Just as only murderous dictatorships have ever taken any lessons from the establishment of a century of oppression the French celebrate today."

Believe it or not, it's possible to celebrate the storming of the Bastille and the overthrow of the absolute monarchy of the ancien regime without endorsing everything the Jacobins did (much less blaming them for everything that happened in the next hundred years).

Your attitude has been noted by the Committee of Public Safety, citizen.

Well, yes, Flanner. I'll grant you the song is on the bloody side. A century of oppression? Bloody revolution and aftermath, no question. Excesses galore. Don't get me started on Napoleon.

Do you think France would have been better off with a further concentration or wealth and power at the top, even up to the present? Is France now in the habit of fertilizing its fields with enemy blood? I do not advocate beheading anyone ever. Not Marie Antionette, not nobody.

But 'unsingable'? My big accomplishment today, besides making pesto and spending 8 hrs in the salt mines, was learning the first verse through. I sang along with the YouTube version, squeezing syllables in as needed.

I have never had any problem singing La Marseillaise.

Now The Star Spangled Banner - THAT's unsingable!

Not just high notes in Star Spangled, but the violence! Bursting bombs, rockets, and that third perilous verse:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.

Almost reminiscent of the French one.

<i>Then <b>conquer we must, for our cause is just</b>,
And this be our motto--&quot;In God is our trust.&quot;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.</i>

Vive all of us!

Plus, stokebailey, I hear that Monsieur Keys was un peu teepsie that early morning!

tsk. worse and worse.

&gt;Truth is: it's simply unsingable.&lt;

Doesn't matter.

It's the music that is so stirring.

Not to mention the scene in &quot;Casablanca&quot;.

((I))

Love that scene.

It is a tribute to my tenth grade French teacher that nobody in the class was heard to titter about coming in our bras. In fact, I never thought of it until Flanner brought that to my attention. It is good he wasn't in Mlle. Rachlin's class.

&gt;&gt;no free society has ever adopted France's hymn to sadism.&lt;&lt;

Erm.... post-Tsarist/pre-Soviet Russia.

&gt;&gt;while over half the world's population live in countries that have used God Save Our Gracious Queen/My Country Tis of Thee/ Rust Du, mein Vaterland/ Heil Dir in Siegerkranz/ Molitva Russkikh as a national song&lt;&lt;

Use the tune, not the words, which is a different basis of comparison: and I rather dispute the &quot;half&quot;, since at least two of the examples you quote are &quot;unofficial&quot;. One could just as easily point to the bombast of &quot;Land of Hope and Glory&quot; and say it proves something, when it doesn't much.

Most song lyrics don't bear close scrutiny.

&gt;&gt;&gt;Your attitude has been noted by the Committee of Public Safety, citizen.&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;

Ah, Citizen Robespierre, you have finally come out in full regalia, wrapped in the Tri-Color.

Nevertheless, here in USA we have our own watchdog Committee of Public Safety ...U.S. Department of Homeland Security...the only governmental organization headed by a cadaver.

Marche on!Marche on!

Stu T.

I <u>never</u> wear bleu, blanc, or rouge after Bastille Day. <i>Jamais!

I hear that Monsieur Keys was un peu teepsie that early morning!</i>

No comparison to the guys who set it to the tune of an English drinking song.

Robespierre,

Close, but not quite. It's actually &quot;Our cause IT is just.&quot; Necessary for the phrase to scan properly.

But as for singing the Star-Spangled Banner, forget it unless you're a professional singer. And even then, the temptation is to fool around with the melody rather than sing it as written.

I have always despised the lyrics of the Marseillaise. However, since I am not a fan of political correctness and changing history to make it prettier, I would not change the Marseillaise, although I would not at all be against shelving it and composing a totally new anthem for the 21st century containing modern values rather than irrigating the furrows of my fields with impure blood.

I looked at the manuscript at the Library of Congress. The line reads

<i>Then conquer we must <b>when</b> our cause it is just...</i>

So Dr. Asimov (whose text I copy/pasted) didn't do a rigorous job at all.

http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/lo...rom=pageturner

I sang it at the beginning of our Municipal Opera the other day, and did just fine. Luckily there were the other thousands of people in the audience singing, to cover any flaws in my technique.

kerouac, that sounds fine to me. Can we keep the melody, though?

Hi Stu,

&gt;U.S. Department of Homeland Security...the only governmental organization headed by a cadaver.

Are you sure about that?
..................................
K says,

&gt;I would not at all be against shelving it and composing a totally new anthem for the 21st century ...&lt;

Sorry, my French isn't good enough to do it properly, but how about:

Allons enfants de la E Union
Le jour de m&eacute;diocrit&eacute; est pr&egrave;s de;
Contre nous les capitalistes
Vouloir une semaine de quarante-heure
Entendezvous, dans les banlieus,
Mugir ces foules de rue?
Nous voulons une semaine de trente-heure
Nous voulons des vacances plus longues.

Aux armes, citoyens!
Formez vos bataillons!
Marchons, marchons!
Nous voulons salaires du quatorze mois.

((I))

Ira:


&gt;U.S. Department of Homeland Security...the only governmental organization headed by a cadaver.

Are you sure about that?&lt;&lt;&lt;

Now that you mention it, it seems that there are several who may not have the cadaver look as our esteemed Head of Homeland Security has..but they certainly have other &quot;corpse-y features&quot;...like no working brain!
Stu
stu

ira wrote: &quot;It's the music that is so stirring.&quot;

The music was composed by an Italian.

While the sentiments of the lyrics are a bit bloody, I think their sound sits well with the melody.

Hi P,

&gt;The music was composed by an Italian.&lt;

Hector Berlioz was Italian?

((I))

What does Berlioz have to do with the Marseillaise?

It was composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de l'Isle

Hi K,

&gt;What does Berlioz have to do with the Marseillaise?

He wrote the music that one hears today.

((I))

That should teach me not to trust a Frenchwoman! She was on radio in Ireland for Bastille day, and told the people of Ireland that the music was Italian. I presume, after a quick exploration in Wikipedia, that she was referring to Giuseppe Cambini -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Marseillaise

Berlioz did not compose the Marseillaise. He wrote the arrangements for it.

Hi K,

&gt;Berlioz did not compose the Marseillaise. He wrote the arrangements for it.&lt;

Thank you. I stand corrected.

Change &quot;He wrote the music that one hears today&quot; to &quot;He wrote the musical arrangement that one hears today&quot;.

((I))

I understand the red flag was first sung to &quot;roll out the barrel&quot; now that sounds a jolly good way to get a party started