Facsimile of works published in 1899 by Constant Pierre - Historical notes by Patrick BRASART and Didier REBUFFEL
The songs of the French Revolution are little known and especially seldom sung.
"La Marseillaise", of course. But which french citizen is capable of saying the text of three verses, even two? For "Le Chant du départ", it's even worse. There is still "La Carmagnole": but who goes beyond the first sentence?
Let's not talk about the songs that surrounded the plantations of the "Trees of Liberty"... These are historical references. It is curious to observe how much, at that time, ideas prevailed over the heritage.
This collection, with the historical reminders for each song (all texts in french), will revive this heritage.
We present these pieces in the version of Constant Pierre, published in 1899. These simple pages can be sung in unison with piano accompaniment, like songs. By linking them with the very well conceived texts of presentation of Patrick Brasart and Didier Rebuffel, one can realize a panoramic picture which says, in songs, what was the French Revolution.
Constant Pierre's catalog, which is an authority, lists more than two thousand songs of the revolutionary period. To retain only twelve of them is necessarily to commit injustices. Suffice it to say that the criterion that governed their choice was above all historical, whether they were songs that were among the most often taken up (1 - 2 - 3 - 8 - 10 - 12), or songs related to events or mentalities characteristic of the time (4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 9 - 11).
Summary :
Ah! ça ira (Becourt/ Andre) - unison and piano (harpsichord) - 1790
Hymne à la liberté (Dalayrac/ Girey-Dupre/ François Joseph Gossec ) - SATB and piano (orchestra reduction) - 1792
La Carmagnole (anonymous) - unison and piano - 1792
Hymne sur la reprise de Toulon (Catel/ M. J. Chenier) - TTB or SMA a cappella - 1793
Hymne des Versaillais (Giroust/ Delrieu) - unison and piano (orchestra reduction) - 1793
Le salpêtre républicain (anonymous lyrics, Luigi Cherubini) - unison and piano (orchestra reduction) - 1794
Hymne à l'Être Suprême (François Joseph Gossec/ Théodore Desorgues) - SATB and piano (orchestra reduction) - 1794
Le chant du départ (Mehul/ M. J. Chenier) - SATB and piano (orchestra reduction) - 1794
Aux mânes de la Gironde (François Joseph Gossec/ Coupigny) - SATB and piano (orchestra reduction) - 1795
Le Réveil du peuple (P. Gaveaux/ Jean Marie Souriguière) - unison and piano - 1795
Plantation de L'arbre de la Liberté (André Modeste Gretry/ Maherault) - unison and piano (orchestra reduction) - 1799
La Marseillaise (Hymne A La Liberté) (J. Rouget De L'Isle/ François Joseph Gossec) - SATB, soloists and piano (orchestra reduction) - 1792
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