Brabanconne

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the chicken breed of the same name, see Brabant farm chicken .

La Brabanconne
Title in German	The Brabant Song
country	Belgium
Usage period	1830 - today
Audio files

Monument to the Brabanconne in Brussels.

La Brabançonne (French) or De Brabançonne (Dutch), in German Das Lied von Brabant , is the name of the national anthem of Belgium . In fact, it has been so since independence, although it has never been officially declared.

In 1930, on the 100th anniversary of independence, a monument was erected in the Brabançonne on the Place Surlet de Chokier (Surlet de Chokierplein) in Brussels , in which the first lines of the song are engraved in French and Dutch. At the annual King's Festival on November 15th, the song is sung in French, Dutch and German, often by a well-known singer.

Emergence

The Brabançonne was created at the height of the Belgian Revolution . The later Belgium belonged to an all-Dutch kingdom until 1830/1839. At the time, the south felt oppressed by the north for political, religious and linguistic reasons.

A performance of the opera Die Stumme von Portici von Auber in the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels incited the audience so much that riots broke out across the country, in which displeasure over the northern Dutch supremacy in the kingdom erupted. In this situation, the French poet Jenneval wrote the text, for which François Van Campenhout composed the melody shortly afterwards. The presumed first edition is entitled «La Brabançonne, chantée au grand théâtre, parole de Jenneval, musique de F. Campenhaut [sic!] , Dédiée aux défenseurs de Bruxelles, chez Mme Nolot, Montagne de la cour Bruxelles. Lithography de J. B. Madou ».

The French original text has been revised several times. Part of the version by Charles Rogier , for which Dutch translations were later made, is still valid today . The German version - German is one of the three official languages ​​of Belgium - is not widely used. The translation is from the period between the world wars, after Belgium received a German-speaking minority .

text

An edition of the Brabançonne .

Jennevals versions

The author of the original hymn text is Hyppolyte-Louis-Alexandre Dechet, called Jenneval . In the turmoil of the revolution he composed four stanzas in two days, in which he expressed the demands of the embassy that had traveled to the king:

Dignes enfants de la Belgique
Qu'un beau délire a soulevés,
À votre élan patriotique
The grands succès sont réservés.
Restons armés, que rien ne change!
Gardons la même volonté,
Et nous verrons fleurir l'Orange
Sur l'arbre de la Liberté.

Au cris de mort et de pillage,
Des méchants s'étaient rassemblés,
Mais votre energique courage
Loin de vous les a refoulés.
Maintenant, purs de cette catch,
Qui flétrissait votre cité,
Amis, il faut greffer l'Orange,
Sur l'arbre de la Liberté.

Et toi dans qui ton peuple espère,
Nassau, consacre enfin nos droits;
Des Belges en restant le père,
Tu seras l'exemple des rois.
Abjure un ministère étrange,
Rejette un nom détesté,
Et tu verras mûrir l'Orange
Sur l'arbre de la Liberté.

Mais malheur si de l'arbitraire,
Protégeant les affreux projets,
Sur nous du canon sanguinaire
Tu venais lancer les boulets!
Alors, tout est fini, tout change,
Plus de pacte, plus de traité,
Et tu verras tomber l'Orange,
De l'arbre de la Liberté.

On September 7, 1830, this first version of the Brabançonne was printed in the Courrier des Pays-Bas , which was perceived by the north as a further provocation and contributed to the fact that the situation came to a head.

When Wilhelm I's troops marched on Brussels from all sides on September 23, Jenneval, indignant at this aggression, wrote the so-called Nouvelle Brabançonne , in which he now adopted a much sharper tone against the orangists , the supporters of Wilhelm:

Jenneval recites his poem. Contemporary lithograph by d'Angleur.

Qui l'aurait cru ... de l'arbitraire,
Consacrant les affreux projets,
Sur nous de l'airain militaire,
Un Prince a lancé les boulets.
C'en est fait! Oui, Belges, tout change;
Avec Nassau plus d'indigne traité!
La mitraille a brisé l'Orange
Sur l'arbre de la Liberté.

Trop généreuse en sa colère,
La Belgique vengeant ses droits
D'un Roi, qu'elle appelait son père,
N'implorait que de justes lois,
Corn lui dans sa fureur étrange
Par le canon que son fils a pointé
Au sang belge a noyé l'Orange
Sous l'arbre de la Liberté!

Fiers Brabancons, peuple de braves,
Qu'on voit combattre sans fléchir,
You scepter honteux des Bataves
Tes balles sauront t'affranchir.
Sur Bruxelles, aux pieds de l'archange
Son Saint Drapeau pour jamais est planté.
Et fier de verdir sans l'Orange,
Croît l'arbre de la Liberté.

Et vous, objet de nobles larmes,
Braves, morts au feu des canons,
Avant que la patrie en armes
Ait pu connaître au moins vos noms
Sous l'humble terre où l'on vous range
Dormez martyrs, battalion indompté,
Dormez en paix, loin de l'Orange
Sous l'arbre de la Liberté.

Rogier's version

This sharp version of Jenneval persisted until 1860. When the nationalist waves settled down a bit, calls for a more moderate attitude towards the northern Dutch, which a spiteful national anthem should not stand in the way, were heard. Louis Hymans made an attempt in this direction as early as 1852 ("Ne crions plus mort aux Bataves! Les peuples libres sont amis!") , And other authors also tried a new text. But none of them had the political influence of Charles Rogier , who was one of the leading figures of the revolution and the first prime minister of Belgium . With a commission of poets he worked out a new version in 1860, which was not only completely cleared of its tips against the Netherlands, but was also to be understood as a signal of reconciliation with the north.

Après des siècles d'esclavage,
Le Belge sortant du tombeau,
A reconquis par son courage,
Son nom, ses droits et son drapeau.
Et ta main souveraine et fière,
Désormais peuple indompté,
Grava sur ta vieille bannière:
«Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté! »

Marche de ton pas energy,
Marche de progresses en progresses;
Dieu qui protège la Belgique,
Sourit à tes mâles succès.
Travaillons, notre labeur donne
À nos champs la fécondité!
Et la splendeur des Arts couronne
Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté!

Ouvrons nos rangs à d'anciens frères,
De nous trop longtemps désunis;
Belges, Bataves, plus de guerre
Les peuples libres sont nos amis.
À jamais resserrons ensemble
Les liens de la fraternité,
Et qu'un même cri nous rassemble:
Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté!

Ô Belgique, ô mère chérie!
À toi nos cœurs, à toi nos bras.
À toi notre sang, ô Patrie!
Nous le jurons tous, tu vivras!
Tu vivras toujours grande et belle,
Et ton invincible unité
Aura pour immortelle:
«Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté! »

Criticism of the new text

Written relatively close to the original (and also by a colleague of Jenneval's), the new text can claim a certain authenticity, but from a literary point of view the new version is problematic. The first stanza of the new text begins with a crooked image: "After centuries of slavery / the Belgians emerged from the grave ..." (those who have survived centuries of slavery will not go to the grave; those who can climb out of the grave cannot be slaves have become), and later: "And your hand ... embossed on your old banner ..." (You cannot emboss fabric).

In addition to the modest literary quality, there is the fact that the syllables of the new hymn words are assigned not one, but sometimes several notes. This makes the song difficult to sing for the masses. Jules Geruzet justifies the shortcomings of the national anthem in an edition of the Brabançonne as follows:

“The Brabançonne, this Belgian national song from 1830, was, like all other works of its genre, born in a moment of popular rage, of patriotic excitement: its cradle was a barricade, its rattle was the Tyrolean carbine of our Freikorps, and its wrap was that Tricolor that was to replace the one that the powers of the Congress of Vienna in 1815 had forced upon us shortly afterwards. "

Nevertheless, voices were repeatedly raised that the text should definitely be changed. Although at least five committees have been set up since Rogier to draft a novella of the hymn, there is still no official version. The only, but not binding, guideline on this is a circular issued by the Minister of the Interior on August 8, 1921, in which he recommends that only the fourth stanza of the Rogier version ("O Belgique, ô mère chérie ...") be considered official . A commission set up in 1951 reaffirmed this recommendation in 1959.

Dutch text

The first Dutch versions were made towards the end of the 19th century. One of them (“O Vaderland, o noble land of Belgen”) could come from Servaes van Eesbeeck or Emile Regulus. Victor Ceulemans (1887–1969) is vouched for as the author of another, somewhat well-known stanza ("Juicht, Belgen, juicht") from 1918. In 1922, the Vlaamse Akademie announced a competition for a Dutch version of the hymn, and all 161 proposals received were rejected.

But then it was probably Leo Goemans (1869–1955) who made a very faithful translation of the French in 1933 ("O dierbaar België") , which in fact became official, as a circular issued by the Minister for Education in 1938 confirmed. Since the syllable-note distribution of this version is much more plausible than that of the French version, it has meanwhile gained widespread acceptance in the Flemish population of Belgium.

Walloon text

There is also an unofficial text in Walloon , a Belgian dialect of French, written by Johan Viroux in 1996.

melody

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Campenhout sings his Brabançonne at L'Aigle d'Or. Contemporary lithograph.

Jenneval submitted its first version to the music publisher Jean-Joseph Jorez, who suggested that the text of the then famous song Les lanciers polonais by Eugène de Pradel be sung and that it be renamed La Brabançonne , since it was a Bruxelloise , as Jenneval originally called his poem had already existed. Tenor Jean-François Lafeuillade sang this version as early as September 12th during a break in a performance at the Théâtre de la Monnaie. The Brabançonne hit the nerve of the audience, which from then on demanded it every evening.

The second, now valid musical version was sung by its composer, the tenor François van Campenhout, for the first time on September 28th in L'aigle d'or , the inn of the Cantoni innkeeper on Rue de la Fourche (Greepstraat). It appeared in print between October and December 1830 with guitar accompaniment and an epilogue quoting the Marseillaise . It has not been proven that it is merely an adaptation of the Lanciers polonais .

In 1864 the famous violin virtuoso Henri Vieuxtemps composed the work Ouverture et hymne national belge avec chœur , with which he sought to create an alternative to the Brabançonne . The composition dedicated to King Leopold I , however, was only a temporary success; today it is almost forgotten. For the 50th anniversary of independence in 1880, another composer's attempt to make the national anthem appear dispensable also failed.

Criticism of the composition

The composer Campenhout was accused of plagiarism by many. Alleged role models were named: Boïeldieu's White Lady , Méhuls Joseph , a march from Rossini's Tancredi and Auber's Mute from Portici , the song En partant pour la Syrie and the Marseillaise . The allegations could not be substantiated. The fact that echoes of other works can be found in the hymn is not surprising when you consider that the composer as an opera tenor was influenced by a large repertoire. His singing ability may also be the reason that the complicated syllable-note distribution and the not a few ornaments in the original musical text place greater demands on interpreters and are therefore not suitable for mass singing .

Edits

• Flor Alpaerts (1876–1954), the main exponent of Belgian Impressionism , wrote the expressionist James Ensor Suite in 1929 , an orchestral suite in four movements about paintings by James Ensor . In the first movement (“Intrede van Christus te Brussel”, “Entry of Christ in Brussels”) the first bars of the hymn sound in the trumpets.
• François Van Campenhout composed a requiem for the 10th anniversary of independence , in whose Libera me the soprano quotes the subject of the Brabançonne.
• Claude Debussy processes the first bars of the Brabançonne in his piano piece Berceuse héroïque . He dedicated the work, composed in 1914, to the Belgian monarch Albert I and his soldiers ("pour rendre Hommage à S. M. le roi Albert Ier de Belgique et à ses soldats") for their brave resistance against the German invaders. In a calm, dreary march theme that gets louder and more violent, the hymn theme mixes as a trumpet signal, which is heard again shortly afterwards in harmonies of redemption. Debussy also created an orchestral version that premiered in 1915 in the Colonne-Lamoureux Concerts conducted by Camille Chevillard .
• The romantically influenced Belgian Léon Jongen (1884–1969) composed the piece In Memoriam Regis for organ (also for orchestra) in 1934 on the first anniversary of Albert I's death , in which the first three bars of the hymn are woven and then varied .
• The Belgian late romanticist Joseph Ryelandt (1870–1965) wrote ten Scènes enfantines op. 60 for piano in 1915 , the last of which (“Daniel s'en va-t-en guerre”) features the first four bars of the Brabançonne at the beginning and at the end .

text

Text and notes of the national anthem

French text

Ô Belgique, ô mère chérie,
À toi nos cœurs, à toi nos bras,
À toi notre sang, ô Patrie!
Nous le jurons tous, tu vivras!
Tu vivras toujours grande et belle
Et ton invincible unité
Aura pour devise immortelle:
«Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté! »

German translation

O Belgium, O beloved Mother,
our hearts to you, our arms to
you, our blood to you, O fatherland!
We all swear to you: you will live!
You will always live big and beautiful.
And your inviolable unity
may be the motto:
"King, law, freedom!"

Dutch text

O dierbaar België, O holy land of the vaad'ren!
One goal en ons hart zijn u gewijd!
Aanvaard ons kracht en het bloed van onze aad'ren,
Wees ons doel in work en in strijd!
Bloei, o land, in eendracht rivet te breken;
Wees always U zelf en ongeknecht,
Het woord getrouw, dat Ge onbevreesd may say:
“Voor Vorst, voor Vrijheid en voor Recht!”
German translation
O dear Belgium, O holy land of the fathers!
Our soul and our heart are consecrated to you!
Take on our strength and the blood of our veins,
Be our goal in work and struggle!
Blossom, O land, in unbreakable harmony;
Always be yourself and unslaved, true
to the word that you should fearlessly exclaim:
"For the prince, for freedom and for justice!"

German text

The official text version of the Belgian national anthem in the national language German :

O dear country, o Belgium earth,
our heart to you, our hand to
you, our blood to you, o homeland,
we swear to you, o fatherland!
So bloom joyfully in full beauty,
To which freedom raised you,
And from then on your sons sing:
“Law and king and freedom high!”

O Belgium, O dear mother,
our hearts, our arms , belong to you !
Our blood belongs to you, fatherland!
We all swear to you: you will live!
You will always live big and beautiful.
And the motto of your
inviolable unity will be:
For king, law and freedom!

Trilingual text

Since the Belgian king is obliged to be linguistically neutral, on official occasions, for example on the national holiday on July 21, 2010, the anthem is intoned in the three national languages ​​in his presence:

O dierbaar België, O holy land of the vaad'ren!
One goal en ons hart zijn u gewijd!
À toi notre sang, ô Patrie!
Nous le jurons tous, tu vivras!
So bloom happily and in full beauty,
To which freedom raised you,
And from now on your sons sing:
«Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté! »
Het woord getrouw, dat Ge onbevreesd moogt speak:
“ Voor Vorst, voor Vrijheid en voor Recht! ”
“ Law and King and freedom high! ”
“ Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté! »

Other hymns

The two large regions of Belgium, Flanders and Wallonia , have their own songs that serve as a national anthem at official events.

• The national anthem of Flanders is De Vlaamse Leeuw .
• The national anthem of Wallonia is the Chant des Wallons .

See also

• List of national anthems

literature

• Xavier Maugendre: L'Europe des Hymnes dans leur contexte historique et musical. Sprimont, Mardaga 1996.
• B. E. M. Speybroeck (Ed.): L'hymne national. Origine avatars et réhabilitation de la Brabançonne. Supplement to the Journal du Corps of June 15, 1987, Brussels (?) 1987.
• Sebastien Dubois, Jeroen Janssens, Alfred Minke: La Belgique en Scène. Symboles, Rituels, Mythes (1830–2005). Brussels 2005.
• Harry D. Schurdel: National Anthem of the World. Atlantis Schott, Mainz 2006.

Publications in which the national anthem appears with text and melody:

• Michael Jamieson Bristow: National Anthems of the World. 11th edition London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2006. (piano reduction with voice.)
• National anthems. Texts and melodies. 11th edition. Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 2006. (Voice alone; the texts reproduced there do not correspond to those mentioned here, which are currently considered official.)

Web links

• Original text of the Belgian national anthem, as it was printed on September 7, 1830 in the Courrier des Pays-Bas , at: magasinpittoresque / La Brabançonne . ( Less than two weeks after the performance of the opera Die Stumme von Portici and a few days before the first performance of the Brabançonne on September 12, 1830 in the Brussels Opera House , the text is still relatively orange-friendly. The song was sung to the melody Air des Lanciers Polonais .)
• La Brabançonne
  Richly illustrated information page of the Compagnie Royale des Francs Arquebusiers on the national anthem (French) with sound files.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Original text of the Belgian national anthem, as it was printed on September 7, 1830 in the Courrier des Pays-Bas , at: magasinpittoresque / La Brabançonne .
2. ^ Official German version of the Belgian national anthem.
3. ↑ Belgian television recording of the 2009 national holiday on YouTube.