This rather unusual disc gathers together a collection of songs
written during the French Revolution (1789-1794). They’re mostly
popular ballads that would have been sung in the streets or,
in some cases, in the private gatherings of those of a particular
political persuasion, such as Royalists who felt unable to articulate
their feelings in public. Most are new words written to accepted
tunes, the better to establish them in the popular consciousness,
and many were written to commemorate significant events. In
fact, this collection runs almost the whole gamut of the revolutionary
experience: there are songs to commemorate the storming of the
Bastille, the establishment of the Republic, the counter-revolutionary
wars and the fall of Robespierre, to name but a few. There are
also songs to engage with the Catholic, Royalist side, lamenting
the end of the monarchy and denouncing the dechristianisation
of France. Most interesting is the final item on the disc, Marseillaise
et Contre Marseillaise, which pairs verses from the French
National Anthem – itself adapted from an armed band, from Marseilles,
that had arrived in Paris to defend the city from the invaders
– with anti-revolutionary propaganda, pitting the two against
each other.
The other interesting thing about the disc is the choice of
musical instruments to accompany the songs. These are as ”authentic”
as it’s possible to get, taken as they are from the collection
of the Musée de la Musique. They include the flageolet, serpent
and, best of all, an organised piano – not a keyboard with a
filofax, but a half-way house between an organ and a fortepiano.
It all adds to the flavour of the disc and it’s worth dipping
into, even if it is primarily of historic rather than musical
interest. Few of the numbers have much real musical merit, though
the Hymne à l’hyver anticipates the nature-worship
of many of the later Romantic composers. Performances are good,
if somewhat limited by ham-acting at times. Alpha have given
us a good historical resource, though I suspect that few people
will want to hear it more than a couple of times.
Simon Thompson
Arnaud Marzorati (baritone); Jean-François Novelli (tenor); Les Lunaisiens
