Cinquante chants français, mis en musique par Rouget de Lisle

1825 edition, here lacking its title page, in which the celebrated lyricist claimed for the first time, explicitly and in writing, to be the sole composer of La Marseillaise, that is, the author of both the music and the words. He would make this claim on only one other occasion, in a letter of 5 January 1829 to M. Beuchot. In its early years, France's national anthem was the subject of a genuine controversy over its authorship, particularly regarding the musical composition, that would persist long after 1825, notwithstanding the declarations contained in this edition. Hector Berlioz was among those who regarded Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle as the author.

Contemporary half brown sheep binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt fleurons and fillets, marbled paper boards, original wrappers preserved.

Lower headcap bumped, upper joint split over 5 cm, paper losses on board edges, corners worn.

Scattered foxing as is common in nineteenth-century books, small tear to the fore-edge margin of the front wrapper.

In addition to La Marseillaise, presented here in a highly developed version, enriched with several improvements not all of them in Rouget de Lisle's own hand, the volume contains the scores of the following songs:

• No. 1 Roland à Roncevaux
• No. 2 Olivier
• No. 3 Eginard et Emma
• No. 4 Chant Chevaleresque
• No. 5 Raoul de Coucy, ou la Croisade
• No. 6 Chanson Attribuée a Thibaut IV. Comte de Champagne
• No. 7 Chant de la nourrice. Iselle et Gaston
• No. 8 La Blanche Marguerite, Romance
• No. 9 Du Guesclin
• No. 10 Agnès Sorel
• No. 11 Charles VII
• No. 12 Mécompte d'amour, Epigramme
• No. 13 Chanson spirituelle
• No. 14 Bayard, Chant Héroïque, Aux Manes des Braves
• No. 15 Vers de François Ier
• No. 16 L'amour et l'honneur
• No. 17 Adieux de Marie Stuart
• No. 18 Henri IV. Chant Heroïque
• No. 19 Viens, Aurore!
• No. 20 Chanson de Roland
• No. 21 Paul et Virginie, Romance
• No. 22 Hymne au Soleil couchant
• No. 23 Hymne des Marseillais
• No. 24 Le Vengeur, Scène héroïque
• No. 25 La Jeune Captive
• No. 26 Mont Jourdain, Romance
• No. 27 Chant du neuf thermidor
• No. 28 Hymne à l'Espérance
• No. 29 Hymne à la Liberté
• No. 30 Vengeance
• No. 31 Le chant du combat
• No. 32 Kléber
• No. 33 L'hymne à la paix
• No. 34 Enguerrand de Crécy
• No. 35 L'émigré montagnard
• No. 36 Montaigu
• No. 37 Chant du Jura
• No. 38 Plus de politique
• No. 39 Dieu conserve le Roi!
• No. 40 Ma République
• No. 41 Isolier
• No. 42 Si j'étais petit oiseau!
• No. 43 L'Aveugle de Bagnolet
• No. 44 La petite Fée
• No. 45 Les Vétérans
• No. 46 La Sainte Alliance des Peuples
• No. 47 Les enfants de la France
• No. 48 Mon dernier Voeu
• No. 49 Chant des Industriels
• No. 50 Le Voyageur

In 1825, approaching his sixty-fifth year, Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle gathered into a single volume a collection of songs, his own alongside other celebrated works. Among the scores, at p. 84 under No. 23, stands his masterpiece: La Marseillaise, here entitled L'Hymne des Marseillais. Eleven lines of introduction precede it, in which the author recounts the genesis of his hymn, composed in 1792. Yet the most famous of all symbols of the French Republic had originally appeared anonymously, with no lyricist or composer named:

• May 1792, first edition, no name given, published with words and music: Chant de guerre pour l'armée du Rhin, De l'imprimerie de Th. J. Dannbach
• 26 June, publication of the words but not the music, with the tune attributed here to Sargines rather than Rouget de Lisle: Chant de guerre aux armées des frontières, "Journal des départements méridionaux et des Débats des amis de la Constitution." A separate printing was subsequently issued for the new recruits of the Marseille battalion.
• 7 July, publication of the words, without name and without the music: Chant de guerre pour l'armée du Rhin, Affiches de Strasbourg
• Late July: Parisian newspapers publish the song, again without name and without the music.
• 27 August: "La Chronique de Paris" attributes the music in an article to a certain Allemand.
• September 1792, second edition, in which words and music appear together, still without any name: Marche des Marseillais, Département de la guerre
• 28 September 1792: first decree of the Convention concerning La Marseillaise; Rouget de Lisle is not mentioned.
• 29 October: Hymne des Marseillois appears in the "Annales patriotiques," reproducing the words and music of the Département de la guerre edition.

(Non-exhaustive list compiled from the research of Arthur Loth in Le chant de la Marseillaise, 1886)

After October 1792, the first references to the name Lisle began to spread through contemporary printed sources, where he was credited as both lyricist and composer. On 14 July 1795, a second decree concerning the Hymne des Marseillais was promulgated, making Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle the sole official author of La Marseillaise, three years after its creation.

A fine work of major musical significance, containing the principal compositions of Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle, described in 1878 by the monthly review "La Musique à Bordeaux" as his "poetic and musical testament."