La Marseillaise, the Internationale and The Horst Wessel Song - Essay Example

During different radical and political revolutions occurred in different parts of the world songs are created with motivating lyrics and several propaganda movies have also been produced to influence the behaviors and thoughts of masses(Parker, p126). Some of the popular songs in the history of world revolutionary politics include La Marseillaise, Internationale and The Horst Wessel Song. These songs have been writing during different time spans to advocate the political revolutions of in France, Russia and Germany however these songs are not limited to these countries and nations only but have inspired the whole world through their enthusiastic way of motivating and rousing people towards political changes and revolution.

These songs enjoy worldwide popularity and appraisal and they have become international songs of revolution and radical political movements. The essay discusses the importance and role of these songs in fostering the movements during which they were written and publicized and also illustrates the importance of songs and mass media messages by taking example of Riefenstahl’s political propaganda movie Triumph of the Will. La Marseillaise also called The Marseille song is the national anthem of France.

The song was originally titles as the war song for the Army of the Rhine. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget De Lisle and three years later in 1795 it was adopted as the first national anthem of the country. The melody of the song was adopted from a theme written by Giovan Viotti in 1781. Soon after its composition La Marseillaise received popularity among the masses. People started singing this song on the streets and it became the rallying call to the French revolution (Darnton and Roche, p60).

The lyrics of the songs reflect the French invasion by the foreign invaders that came from Austria and Prussia and later the invading forces were repelled from France after losing the Battle of Valmy. However, later the song was banned by Napoleon I, Louis XVIII and Napoleon III because they viewed the song threat to the stability of peace within country. During the regimes of these rulers other songs were adopted as national anthem of France however, in 1879 it was restored as French national anthem and it was widely accepted that La Marseillaise was not only the anthem of France but it became the anthem of the international revolutionary movements occurred during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Prescott and Nelson, p87).

The song played active role in motivating people and geared up their emotions towards fighting for social and political change in the society. La Marseillaise proved to be an impressive song with strong, passionate, encouraging and emotional lyrics and zealous music composition (Parker, p126). Another important and popular revolutionary song is Internationale that was originally written in French language soon after the demise of the Paris Commune by Eugene Pottier who was a revolutionary exile.

However, the song didn’t remain engaged with the French revolution but it soon became the international anthem of the working class all over the globe. The song gained the attention as the common voice and expression of the people having firm belief upon socialism. The song gained popularity