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Tlie National Music of A merica. I o I
most innocent origin.1 It originated in the fair troubadour land of Provence. Gr6try, the French composer, thought it to be a sailor's song of Marseilles, but it was more probably a country song combined with a dance. It had popular words attached to its measures during the early stages of the American Revolution; all the oppressed people of France were looking toward the cis-Atlantic efforts for liberty, and when the struggle began, a street-singer took up the "Carmagnole" with a new topic, beginning :
" Bon, bon, bon,
C'est a Boston
Qu'on entend le bruit du Canon."
About September, 1792, there were other French topics sung to the familiar melody. The real patriots of France were now rushing forth to defend the country; the scum
1 In Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer's excellent " Scrap-book of the French Revolution" (pp. 177 and 334), the error is made of presenting the " Carmagnole " as " £a Ira." |
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