Carmagnole
The carmagnole [kaʀmaˈɲɔl] is a republican song and dance that emerged in 1792 at the time of the French Revolution . It was sung and danced around the guillotine during the executions . The text, written by an unknown author, mocks the French King Louis XVI, who was already in fact disempowered at the time the song was written . and his wife Marie Antoinette . The title alludes to the town of Carmagnola in Piedmont , which was taken by the French in early 1792. However, a direct connection between the northern Italian town and the text or melody of the song cannot be proven beyond doubt. Two other historical events of the same year that contributed significantly to the spread and fame of the Carmagnole are the Tuileries storm (August 10th) and the Battle of Jemappes (November 6th). After Napoleon became consul, he forbade singing the revolutionary song.
melody
Despite the title, which refers to Italy , the origin of the melody has not been clearly established. The triple meter and similarities in the melodic style also make references to older political mockery songs of other origins, such as the Irish Lillibullero , seem plausible. It is unlikely that the text and melody were written simultaneously and in direct relation to one another. The rhythm of the melody , which obviously runs counter to the flow of the words, speaks against this .
text
With “Madame and Monsieur Véto” Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. meant.
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A symbol of the French Revolution
The name of this revolutionary folk song was subsequently also used as a name for an almost collarless camisole with short tails, as it was worn by workers from Carmagnola in Marseille around 1790 and introduced from there by revolutionaries to Paris . This name meaning was transferred to a particularly radical fraction of the Jacobins , the Carmagnoles , because they wanted to visually demonstrate their closeness to the people by wearing this simple piece of clothing.
The Carmagnole was taken up again and again by later revolutionary movements, especially in France in the 19th century. The text was supplemented by many other stanzas adapted to the respective context.
Along with the Marseillaise and the Ça ira , the Carmagnole is one of the most famous songs of the French Revolution. It therefore appears as a quotation in many later literary and musical works as well as in films that allude to this historical situation, including the opera Andrea Chénier (1896) by the Italian composer Umberto Giordano and Kurt Tucholsky in the Song of Compromise and the novels A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy .