La Marseillaise is rightly considered the most beautiful national anthem in the world. Most listeners believe it was composed on the night of 25 April 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, a great patriot who died in poverty because of his honesty. Yet few people know that this music has Italian origins and that our beloved French cousins borrowed it.
It is also thought to be Napoleonic music, yet Napoleon Bonaparte, I could not stand it. It was then banned during the Restoration by King Louis XVIII. With Napoleon III’s ascent to the throne, La Marseillaise was set aside, as the French national anthem at that time was Partant pour la Syrie.
La Marseillaise returned to popularity during the days of the Paris Commune in 1871 and was officially declared the French national anthem in 1879. But who wrote this music? I think there is no doubt: it was Giovanni Battista Viotti, who composed it in 1781, eleven years before Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
Giovanni Battista Viotti was born in Fontanetto Po, a small village of 1,200 people near Vercelli, Piedmont, in 1755 and died in London in 1824. He was the director of the King’s Theatre in London, then moved to Germany for two years (1798–1800); finally, he returned to London, where he remained until his death, except for a brief period in Paris, where he was director of the Théâtre des Italiens.
Viotti is now considered one of the greatest violinists of all time, but he was also a great composer. During his long career, he wrote 29 concertos, which are rarely performed today.
Here is the link to Viotti’s composition that so strongly reminds us (come on… it is the same thing!) of the powerful anthem of France.
