Tracking down an anthem The Big Red Machine's quest for ‘La Marseillaise'
Enjoy exclusive rehearsal video of the Crestview High School Symphonic Band’s performance of “La Marseillaise” on our Web site, www.crestviewbulletin.com.
When Crestview Mayor David Cadle presented the key to the city to his Noirmoutier counterpart, Mayor Noël Faucher, last evening, it was a rare opportunity for Crestview to exhibit a little diplomatic hoopla for international visitors. The Big Red Machine rose immediately to the challenge.
A weeks-long and diligent search at last yielded arrangements of “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem, for the Crestview High School band to learn and perform at the key presentation ceremony, which was held right before the Bulldogs kicked off against Mosely.
“We’re playing it,” confirmed band director Jody Dunn shortly before another rehearsal of the stirring anthem Thursday morning. “They’ve been working on it for the past few weeks. They’re going to play it very well.”
Dunn had searched archives and music libraries unsuccessfully to find an arrangement of “La Marseillaise” suitable for the Big Red Machine. With time running out as the Noirmoutier delegation’s arrival date drew nearer, he turned to Mayor Cadle, who was his predecessor as band director.
“Mr. Cadle is the one who found it for us,” Dunn said. “I don’t know how he got there, because I was having no luck.”
Cadle’s youngest son, Ben Cadle, has been a member of the prestigious U.S. Army Ceremonial Band since 2003. Surely, it was hoped, given all the diplomatic functions for which the Ceremonial Band plays, its library would contain an arrangement of the French national anthem. However, Ben Cadle was with the band, performing out of town when his father called.
“I knew time was getting to be of the essence,” Cadle said. The mayor started reviewing other sources of band arrangements with which he was familiar from a more than 30-year career at the head of marching bands.
“I just had a hunch that the West Point Music Library would have a copy of this as they are known to have an extensive library of national anthems,” Cadle said. “I took a chance and e-mailed the librarian. The next day I received a reply with each individual band part and the conductor’s score.”
“He came in the band room the other day and he was holding the music and said, ‘Here’s what you were looking for,’” Dunn related.
The Big Red Machine tackled the newest addition to their repertoire with gusto. Soon the notes first penned by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in 1792 were filling the high school band room. Off the trophies, plaques and awards that surround the room echoed one of the world’s most rousing anthems, music that has been sampled, quoted and adopted for everything from the French and Russian revolutions to the film “Casablanca.”
“We’ve talked about it,” Dunn said. “If we were visiting another country and they were honoring us by playing our national anthem, we would want to reciprocate by playing theirs as well as we can. We’re honored to pay tribute to our friendship with our French sister city by playing their national anthem.”
SIDEBAR:
La Marseillaise
Originally called “The War Song of the Army of the Rhein,” the French national anthem was composed in Strasbourg and first played on April 25, 1792. A few days later the city was attacked by Prussian and Austrian invaders, who were successfully repulsed as the French victors sang the song with gusto.
The song was first performed in Paris by volunteers from the southern port of Marseilles as they marched into town during the French revolution, thus giving it a new moniker. It was an instant hit, and was made the official anthem of the nation in 1795.
Though banned under the rules of Napoleon I, Louis XVIII and Napoleon III, it was reinstated in 1879 and has been proudly sung by Frenchmen ever since. Want to sing along? Here are the lyrics, with English translations in parenthses.
Allons enfants de la Patrie (Come, children of the Fatherland)
Le jour de gloire est arrivé! (The day of glory has arrived!)
Contre nous de la tyrannie (Against us, tyranny's)
L'étendard sanglant est levé, (bis) (Bloody banner is raised, (repeat) )
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes (Do you hear in the countryside)
Mugir ces féroces soldats? (Those ferocious soldiers roaring?)
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras (They come up to your arms)
Égorger vos fils, vos compagnes! (To slit the throats of your sons and wives!)
CHORUS:
Aux armes, citoyens, (To arms, citizens)
Formez vos bataillons (Form your battalions),
Marchons, marchons! (Let's march, let's march!)
Qu'un sang impur (May an impure blood)
Abreuve nos sillons! (Water our furrows!)
