Friday, July 14, 2023

Bastille Day

 

La Marseillaise.

Aux armes, citoyens
Formez vos bataillons
Marchons, marchons!
Qu’un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons!

Viva La France!

On this French National Day, the French National Anthem is sure to be played.  As you listen, remember that it is about the love of any country.  In the film Casablanca, its playing is led by a Czechoslovakian resistance leader in an American Club in French Morocco while the resistance leaders Norwegian wife looks on and a Spanish guitarist lustily joins in.  The song is sung to drown out the singing by the Nazi soldiers.  But it is because of a love of country.  The song inspires the phrase Long Live France, not Death to Germany”.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOeFhSzoTuc

On the US's Independence Day, the Boston Pops plays the 1812 Overture which also features the melody of the French National Anthem.  But in this case it is first played triumphantly and then as a fading melody to symbolize the retreat of Napoleon’s invading Army.   This same Anthemn can symbolize love of country in the face of domination, or the failed domination by an invader.  Sing this stirring Anthem with love, and oppose domination.

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