Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle

Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle was a French army officer of the French Revolutionary Wars. Lisle is known for writing La Marseillaise and it became the French national anthem.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.

From the period sources

Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle, celebrated for authoring the “Marseillaise,” was a captain of engineers stationed in Strasbourg when, during the night of April 24, 1792, he composed both the words and music of the “Chant de guerre aux armées” in a “fit of enthusiasm” (Grove’s Dictionary, 1904). This act followed a discussion with Mayor Dietrich, who lamented the lack of a patriotic song for soldiers marching to war. The song, initially dedicated to Marshal Luckner, was first performed at Dietrich’s home the very next day and quickly gained traction, becoming known as “La Marseillaise” after volunteers from Marseilles sang it upon entering Paris in July 1792 (Biographie universelle, Vol. 7, 1866; Grove’s Dictionary, 1904). Its “prodigious effect” on the courage of the Republican armies earned him the moniker “Tyrtée de la France” (Biographie universelle, Vol. 7, 1837).

Despite his patriotic contribution, Rouget de Lisle, a royalist, refused to swear an oath against the crown, leading to his imprisonment during the Reign of Terror. He was only released after Robespierre’s fall, an event he commemorated with a “Hymne dithyrambique” (Grove’s Dictionary, 1904). Later, he provided the text for Hippolyte Chelard’s opera Macbeth, which, though containing “belles choses,” was deemed a “flat failure” in Paris in 1827, partly due to Rouget de Lisle’s “mediocre” reduction of Shakespeare’s work (Biographie universelle, Vol. 3, 1837; A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900). He also wrote the text for Jules Massenet’s incidental music to Les Erinnyes in 1873 (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900).