Song for the Festival of Old Age
This song was composed for one of the many Directorial festivals that were not overtly political. Several, like the festival for which this song was composed, celebrated important moments in the life cycle.
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/619/
619
Hymn for the Festival of Marriage
Although festivals drew much smaller audiences during the final years of the Revolution, the government continued to celebrate them. Now, however, they tended to commemorate apolitical events: thus a festival, and hymn, devoted to the subject of marriage.
1798
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/618/
618
Hymn of 9 Thermidor
This hymn commemorates the overthrow of Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety by the men of the National Convention. It had its debut performance on the first anniversary of that event (27 July 1795).
1795-07-27
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/617/
617
Patriotic Song on the Unveiling of the Busts of Marat and Le Pelletier (1793)
This song illustrates the fluid boundary between "high" and "popular" musical forms. Althought these lyrics were set to a new composition by Joseph Gossec, they could also be sung to a tune already familiar to many French men and women. The song honors journalist Jean–Paul Marat and deputy Michel LePelletier, both of whom had been assasinated and were considered martyrs to the Revolution.
1793
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/621/
621
Song of the Marseillaise of the Federation of 10 August, Year II
One of many hymns that was composed by rhyming new lyrics to the wildly popular tune of the "Marseillaise," this song was performed at a festival celebrating the first anniversary of the republican revolution of August 10.
1793-08-10
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/615/
615
The Marseillaise (War Song for the Army of the Rhine)
Composed by Joseph Rouget de Lisle when he learned that France had declared war on Austria, the Marseillaise quickly became the anthem of the republican Revolution. it remains the French national anthem today. A republican anthem, the Marseillaise was considered suitable for all sorts of revolutionary events. While it was often sung casually in streets and parks, its learned composition also facilitated its adoption as a hymn by formally–trained musicians and singers.
1792
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/625/
625
The Carmagnole
Sharing its name with a popular dance, this song heaps scorn upon the queen<em> (Madame Veto),</em> believed to be a traitor, and the "aristocrats" who support her. Like "It’ll Be Okay", the simple tune of the "Carmagnole" permitted even the illiterate to learn lyrics with which to proclaim their conviction in the Revolution’s progress.
1792-08-00
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/624/
624
Oh Richard, Oh, My King!
This aria from the Gretry opera,<em> Richard the Lion–Hearted, </em>was adopted by royalists during the early years of the Revolution. The song’s accusation that the king had been abandoned by all but his most devoted followers made it a suitable counter–revolutionary anthem.
1785
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/622/
622
Remonstrance by the <i>Parlement</i> against the Denial of Sacraments in Orléans
In 1713, the Pope had issued a bull entitled<i> Unigenitus, </i>condemning as heretical 101 beliefs held by some French Catholic priests who were known as "Jansenists." To Jansenists, this bull, or "constitution," was the religious equivalent of absolutism—an order from on high that quashed all opposition. By contrast, the bishops of the Catholic Church in France, mostly from the Jesuit order, received the bull as an encouragement to attack the Jansenists on doctrinal matters and to diminish Jansenist influence in France. To this end, in 1730, the archbishop of the city of Orléans ordered that all clergy in his diocese should adhere to the bull, which many took to mean denying sacraments to Jansenists. When the priest of the parish of Saint–Catherine refused to read last rites to a parishioner, Madame Dupleix, the magistrates of the <i>Parlement</i> of Paris weighed in with the following "remonstrance," or protest, to the King (technically known as an "appeal against abuse" of power). In this remonstrance, the magistrates insist that the King fulfill his responsibility of defending all His Majesty’s subjects, including protecting Jansenists from Rome’s persecution. Despite this reliance on the monarchy, some no–so–subtle criticisms appear here.
Jules Flammermont,<i> Remonstrances du Parlement de Paris au XVIIIe siècle, </i>vol. 1 (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1888–98), 243–80.
July 24, 1731
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/243/
243
Remonstrance on the Refusal of Sacraments (1751)
In June 1749, the priest of the St.–Etienne–du–Mont parish in Paris, acting on instructions from the Archbishop of Paris, refused the Eucharist and last rites to one of his parishioners who could not produce a "certificate of confession" proving his adherence to the bull <i>Unigenitus</i>. The man, Charles Coffin, could not produce such a certificate, so the priest left him to die without benediction—setting off a mass of protests in the capital. The magistrates of the <i>Parlement</i> of Paris, who knew Coffin personally since he had served as rector at the church–run University of Paris and later was a clerk to the <i>Parlement</i> itself, joined in the protests, issuing this strongly worded "remonstrance" to the King.
Jules Flammermont, <i>Remonstrances du Parlement de Paris au XVIIIe siècle,</i> vol. 1 (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1888–98), 414–43.
1751
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/244/
244