Marseillaise

The name by which the grand song of the first French revolution is known. The circumstances which led to its composition are as follows. In the beginning of 1792, when a column of volunteers was about to leave Strasburg, the mayor of the city, who gave a banquet on the occasion, asked an officer of artillery, named Rouget de Lisle, to compose a song in their honor. His request was complied with, and the result was the Marseillaise,—both verse and music being the work of one night. De Lisle entitled the piece “ Chant de Guerre de l’Armée du Rhin .” Next day it was sung with that rapturous enthusiasm that only French men can exhibit, and instead of 600 volunteers, 1000 marched out of Strasburg. Soon from the whole army of the North resounded the thrilling and fiery words, Aux armes! Aux armes! Neverthele , the song was still unknown in Paris, and was first introduced there by Barbaroux, when he summoned the youth of Marseilles to the capital in July, 1792. It was received with transports by the Parisians, who—ignorant of its real authorship—named it “ Hymne des Marse ill a is ,” which name it has borne ever since.