Scan 35
Voice and violin : sketches, anecdotes, and reminiscences, 1898
12 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 15. See the scan on archive.org.
1Boucher then hummed the march as he had originally written it.
3"Tiens, tiens! how did you come by it?" inquired the astonished author of the words; and when Boucher told him how it was he himself who had composed the march, Rouget de l'Isle threw his arms round the neck of the violinist and said to him, "Your music and my words go so well together that if I were to proclaim to the world my indebtedness to you I should never be believed."
5"Keep it, keep it, by all means," said Boucher, moved by the other's candour; "without your genius my march would be quite forgotten ere now. It shall be yours for ever!"
7This scene, although related by Boucher himself, is believed in France to be a perfectly accurate account; and I am of opinion that we must look upon it as historical.
9The artillery officer, Rouget de l'Isle, must have written his poem with the din of the march constantly ringing in his ears, and finally noted down this very music to which his words were afterwards sung. He was evidently somewhat of a musician, and up to the year 1860 he was generally credited with the words and the music of the "Marseillaise."
11Anyhow, the words, though rather sanguinary, are perhaps worth more than the music, which is certainly a very mediocre piece of composition,
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