Carmagnole

"La Carmagnole", the name of the short jacket worn by working-class militant "sans-culottes", [Jennifer Harris, "The Red Cap of Liberty: A Study of Dress Worn by French Revolutionary Partisans 1789-94" "Eighteenth-Century Studies" 14.3 (Spring 1981:283-312) p. 286] is the title of a French song created and made popular during the French Revolution, based on a dance of the same name. It originated as a song in August 1792 and was successively added to in 1830, 1848, 1863-64, and 1882-83. The authors are not known. [Gilchrist J., and W.J. Murray: "The Press in the French Revolution". St. Martin's Press, 1971] This song is triumphantly sarcastic about the fates of the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, and those who support the French monarchy. ["'The Carmagnole.' Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. Exploring the French Revolution." George Mason University. 12 October 2007. http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/browse/songs/# ] It is mentioned in "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens, "The Scarlet Pimpernel" by Baroness Orczy and plays an important role in "The Song at the Scaffold", a book written by Gertrud von LeFort. La Carmagnole is also sung by the chorus in Act III of Umberto Giordano's opera Andrea Chenier.

History

There are varied accounts of this song and where it was sung. It was mainly sung as a rallying cry or as entertainment among a group of pro-revolutionaries. It was also used as an insult to those who did not support the French Revolution. Popular punishment was to make them “sing and dance the Carmagnole,” which could be done to marquises, dames, princes, monks, bishops, archbishops, and cardinals, to name a few. [Gilchrist J., and W.J. Murray: "The Press in the French Revolution" 312-323, St. Martin's Press, 1971] La Carmagnole has also been documented as a rallying cry in battle. At the battle of Jemappes it is written that, "the sans-culottes in the army rushed the enemy singing "La Marseillaise" and "La Carmagnole." It was a great republican victory, and all of Belgium fell to the revolutionary armies." [Jordan, David P: "The King's Trial: The French Revolution vs. Louis XVI," 64, University of California Press, 1979.] When not sung during an actual battle, the Carmagnole was often sung after political or military victories. Once such event occurred after the storming of the Tuileries Palace on the night of August 9-10, 1792. The radical people of Paris asserted their power by forcing the king to flee to the nearby National Assembly. After storming the palace and massacring the King's personal Swiss Guard, the mob of Paris was "drunk with blood, danced and sang the Carmagnole to celebrate the victory." [Padover, Saul:The Life and Death of Louis XVI, 277-278. Alvin Redman Limited, London, 1965.] The song was also more generally associated with grassroots popular displays, such as festivals or the planting of liberty trees. It was common to include public singing at these symbolic events, and over the course of the Revolution "some 60,000 liberty trees were planted" [Jones, Colin: "The Great Nation: France From Louis XV to Napoleon, 1715-1799," 530. Penguin Press, London, 2002.] giving the people many opportunities to sing.

Importance

Song was a very important means of expression in France during the Revolution. The Marseillaise, which has since become the French National Anthem, was written during this period. It has been written that, "Frenchman took pride in their habit of singing and regarded it as one source of their success." In France, heroism was linked to gaiety. In the preface to the Chansonnier de la République there are questions that the French Republic poses to the world: "What will the ferocious reactionaries, who accuse France of unity, say when they see them equal to the heroes of antiquity in singing the Carmagnole? What will they say when they hear on the battlefields of the republicans these patriotic refrains, which precede and follow the most bloody combats?" [Rogers, Cornwell: The Spirit of the Revolution in 1789, 17. Princeton University Press, 1949.] La Carmagnole, and revolutionary song in general, was viewed as an important part of the new French Republic, and of being a Frenchman. La Carmagnole was particularly popular because, like the song Ça Ira ("It'll do", "Everything will be OK"), it contained simple lyrics that illiterate people could easily learn and understand, and therefore participate in singing. ["The Carmagnole." Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. Exploring the French Revolution. George Mason University. 12 October 2007. http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/browse/songs/# ]

Lyrics

* [http://vandaliabutlerschools.org/wellbaum/Audio_Video/La_Carmagnole.mp3] (MP3 audio file of a shorter version)

Other Versions

*La Nouvelle Carmagnole
*La Carmagnole des royalistes

References