We have all seen movies in which Napoleon enters the scene with much pomp and ceremony accompanied to the sounds of "La Marseillaise." This song has been so closely associated with France and Napoleon that Tchaikovsky included it in his 1812 Overture (Beethoven, on the other hand, used the tune "Marlbrouck s'en va t'un Guerre" to typify the French in his piece Wellington's Victory).
However, "La Marseillaise" was, and still is, first and foremost a song of the Revolution. There is some small irony in the story that, in 1917, the crowd at the St. Petersburg railroad station sang "La Marseillaise" as Lenin got off the train that returned him to Russia from exile.
Napoleon as Emperor opposed further revolution or anything that encouraged it. Therefore, according to the late Mrs. Anne S. K. Brown (a founding member of The Company of Military Historians and a Napoleonic scholar), Napoleon hated "La Marseillaise." Napoleon felt himself to be the embodiment of Law and Order and, as such, he wanted nothing at all to do with the mob or the Revolution. Thus, we are left with another irony: Napoleon loathed the very tune that is most often popularly associated with him.
One other popular misconception: some people believe that Napoleon was tone deaf and could recognize only two tunes, one being fire call and other was not. This is, of course, not true. Napoleon enjoyed music but did not take a large interest in it.
More Tales and Trivia
Back to Table of Contents -- Napoleon #3
© Copyright 1996 by Emperor's Press.
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