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La Marseillaise
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Source
The words and music of the French national anthem,La Marseillaise, are from Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle, 1792.
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Play: La Marseillaise (Original)
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Themes
La Marseillaise offers beautiful and passionate themes with potential for a truly
great anthem.
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Revision
La Marseillaise offers powerful themes, but it is a recitativo, rather than a song,
and seems rather improvised and formless. Without symmetry or disposed entities, each
melodic motif (usually of 4 bars but two of them only 2 bars) appear only once. The
lyrics are also not set to the level of the French "Liberté, Fraternité, Egalité"
(Freedom, Brotherhood, and Equality) standards. Various groups likeLa nouvelle Marseillaise Association, are also working to reform the lyrics of the French national Anthem to "better reflect
the spirit of our modern democracy". With such an interesting project and challenge,
balancing musical structure with tradition, for such a well known song, our specialists,
coordinated by Jean-Claude Belanger havedevelopedthis proposal for the new French Anthem:
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La Citoyenne
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Music
The new version is betterstructuredand offers improved musicality. It is easier to learn and remember, as well as easier
to sing and perform, especially for crowds or groups of children.
Lyrics
The new lyrics paraphrase the original and, inspired by other lyrics revision work,
offer better prosody, on an improved structure, while definitely better reflecting
the spirit of modern democracy.
Title
Having reworked both words and music, our team proposes calling the new version "La Citoyenne", to better reflect the spirit of modern democracy, while protecting the identity
of the initial La Marseillaise for study, reference, and history.
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Lyrics
Allons enfants de la patrie
Les jours d'espoir sont arrivés
Voici les temps pour une vie
D'égalité, de liberté
Contre toutes les tyrannies
L'étendard de France est levé
Ses cohortes se sont réunies
Pour la paix, dans la fraternité
Ensemble, citoyennes
Ensemble, citoyens
Marchons, marchons
Vers l'avenir de la nation
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Polyphonic Duo
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2 Voice Canon
While themain melodystands on its own, highlighting the beauty of the traditional anthem themes, La Citoyenne,
can also besung in harmony, by a crowd (ex: men/women), or in duo, to fully enjoy its harmonic richness, all
while still easily recognized by everyone as the famous traditional French anthem.
Evolving Canon
In most cases, evolving (Pachelbel) canons are presented as separate pieces. However,
in the case of the French national anthem, the three 2-voice evolving canons were
incorporated into the reconstruction, not only in the vocal part, as a polyphonic
possibility, but also as an integral part of theinstrumental version for concert band.
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Samples
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 La Citoyenne, 4 Part Choral, Instruments
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 La Citoyenne, Concert Band, Instruments
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La Citoyenne, Solo, Human Voice
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La Citoyenne, Solo, Instruments
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La Citoyenne, Duo, Human Voice
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La Citoyenne, Duo, Instruments
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Evaluation
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Try it
Try therevisedversion and compare it to theoriginal, compare theoriginalto theduoversion of La Citoyenne, listen and tell us which do you prefer. Try and comment some
of the other variations, also available from links on this page. Compare also thechoraland theconcert bandversions.
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Voice your analysis
Contribute your analysis and see and hear what others think : joinMusicNovatory.com'sAnalysisJudges, and submit your appreciations and suggestions, as well as contribute to the
appreciation statistics available on that site's page proposing to replace the French
Anthem, La Marseillaise, by La Citoyenne, a revised, modernized, and improved version.
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Links
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La Marseillaise
French National Anthem, documenting "La Marseillaise"
La nouvelle Marseillaise Association, revising the lyrics of "La Marseillaise"
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Music
MusicNovatory, encyclopedic reference document
Analysis, provide a forum for everyone to analyze and evaluate the revisions and originals
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