What Were the Songs of the Paris Commune?
Transi quand il gèle / »Sans gête souvent / »J’ai dans la cervelle / »Des mots et du vent… Ah ! je l’attends, je l’attends !
There are many ways for historians to trace the motives of the popular insurrection of the Paris Commune, but it is in the songs of the time that we find the clearest and most readable manifestations of this collective anger that seizes the Parisians. The songs, but also music in all its forms, orchestras, opera, music criticism, and concerts are analyzed in this issue of Euphonia produced by Marc Dumont in 1991.
What Were the Songs of the Paris Commune?
In his company, we explore the beginnings of the Commune through the songs that were sung in this capital that was preparing to resist for 72 days. A program first broadcast on May 23, 1962 on France Culture.
On January 18, 1871, a new spreads like wildfire in the streets of Paris: as if the humiliating defeat of Napoleon III’s armies was not enough, the German Empire is proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. Ten days later, an armistice is signed.
Songs Remain the Most Tangible Trace of the Commune
Paris, bombed, besieged, starving, sees this abandonment by the government of national defense as a betrayal, becoming, in everyone’s mouth, the government of national defection. Anger grows among the Parisians, deserted by their leaders, having survived a harsh and deadly winter for nothing, and feeling scorned by the royalist assembly, elected by the provinces and deciding to lay siege to Versailles.
In a Paris already filled with insurrectionary currents, from the Blanquists to the Proudhonians, this final blow to their pride is the spark that ignites the revolutionary fire. In this issue of Euphonia, the historic event is analyzed through the songs and music of the time.
- By Marc Dumont
- With Claude Willard (historian) and Joseph-Marc Bailbé (musicologist)
- Euphonia – Prelude to the Commune (1st broadcast: 29/04/1991)
- INA Archive – Radio France
