Brabançonne

La Brabançonne (French ) or De Brabançonne ( Dutch) to German "The Song of Brabant", is the name of the national anthem of Belgium. It is this fact since independence, but it was never officially declared it.

1930, for the 100th anniversary of independence, the Belgian national anthem at the Place de Surlet Chokier ( Surlet de Chokierplein ) was established in Brussels a monument in which the opening lines of the song are engraved in French and Dutch.

• 3.1 Criticism of the composition

• 5.1 French Text
• 5.2 Dutch text
• 5.3 German text
• 5.4 Trilingual Text

Formation

The Brabançonne was at the height of the Belgian Revolution. The later Belgium belonged until 1830/1839 to a total Dutch Kingdom. The South felt that time oppressed by the North for political, religious and linguistic reasons.

A performance of the opera La Muette de Portici by Auber in Brussels Théâtre de la Monnaie goaded the audience on such a way that riots broke out across the country, in which erupted in anger over the North Dutch supremacy in the kingdom. In this situation, the French poet Jenneval wrote the text to the François Van Campenhout shortly afterwards composed the melody. The presumed first edition bears the title "La Brabançonne, Chantee au grand théâtre, parole de Jenneval, musique de F. Camp skin [ sic], dediee aux défenseurs de Bruxelles, chez Mme Nolot, Montagne de la cour Bruxelles. Lithography de JB Madou ".

The French version has been revised several times. Today, part of the version of Charles Rogier is still valid, have been made for the later Dutch translations. The German version - German is one of the three official languages ​​of Belgium - is not widespread. The translation is from the period between the world wars, after Belgium had received a German -speaking minority.

Text

Jennevals versions

The author of the original hymn text is Jenneval ( Hyppolyte -Louis -Alexandre Dechet ). During the revolutionary turmoil he wrote in two days four stanzas, in which he gave expression to the demands of legation, who had traveled to the king:

On September 7, 1830, this first version of the Belgian national anthem in the Courrier des Pays -Bas was printed, which was perceived by the North as a further provocation and helped that worsened the situation.

As at 23 September, the troops of William I marched from all sides Brussels, Jenneval wrote, outraged by this aggression, the so-called Nouvelle Brabançonne in which he ( the followers of William ) struck now a much sharper tone against the Orangemen:

Rogiers version

By 1860, this sharp version Jennevals remained. When the nationalist waves smoothed somewhat, but calls were for a more moderate attitude towards the northern low countries towards loud, should not stand in the way an invidious national anthem. In 1852 undertook Louis Hymans an attempt in this direction ( " Ne crions plus mort aux Bataves! Les amis sont libres peuples! "), And other authors tried a new text. None of them, however, had the political influence of Charles Rogier, who was one of the leaders of the revolution and the first Prime Minister of Belgium. With a panel of poets, he worked in 1860 a new version of which was not only completely cleared of their tips against the Netherlands, but also as a signal of reconciliation with the North should be understood.

Criticism of the new text

Relatively promptly written to the original ( plus a fellow Jennevals ), the new text can indeed take a certain authenticity claim for themselves, as seen in literature but the new version is problematic. So the first verse of the new text begins with a crooked picture " of the Belgians, after centuries of slavery / emerged from the grave ... " (who has only survived centuries of slavery, also does not come to the grave, and whoever can emerge from the grave, can not a slave have become ), and later: " and your hand ... coined in your old banner ... " (substance you can not " shape ").

At the modest literary quality to that the fact that the syllables of the new hymn words are not ever one but partially assigned several grades. This the song for the masses is difficult to sing. Jules Geruzet justifies in an issue of Brabançonne the shortcomings of the national anthem as follows:

Nevertheless, voices have been raised time and again, the text is sure to change. Although but since Rogier several - at least five - committees were set up to prepare an amendment to the anthem, there is still no official version. The only, but non-binding directive to this is a circular from the Minister of the Interior dated August 8, 1921 is where the Minister recommends that alone the fourth verse of Rogier version ( "O Belgique, ô mère chérie ... ") as officially consider. A commission appointed in 1951 reiterated this recommendation in 1959.

Dutch text

First Dutch versions emerged in the late 19th century. One of them ( " O Vaderland, O noble land of the Belgae ...") could originate from Servaes van Eesbeeck or Emile Regulus. As an author of another, reasonably well-known verse ( " Juicht, Belgae, juicht " ) of 1918 is Victor Ceulemans ( 1887-1969 ) guaranteed. 1922 wrote the Vlaamse Academy organized a competition for a Dutch version of the anthem, all 161 proposals received were rejected.

It was probably then but Leo Goemans (1869-1955), in 1933 a fairly literal translation of the French anfertigte ( " O -rocketing baar België ... " ), which was in fact officially as a circular from the Minister of Education from 1938 confirmed. Since the syllables marks distribution of this version is much more plausible than the French version, it has now acquired widespread acceptance in the Flemish population of Belgium.

Walloon text

There is also an unofficial text in Walloon, a Belgian dialect of French, written by Johan Viroux 1996.

Melody

Jenneval put his first version of a music publisher Jean -Joseph Jorez, who suggested that the text on the then-known song Les lanciers polonais of Eugène de Pradel to sing and transform baptized in La Brabançonne as there is a Bruxelloise how Jenneval originally called his poem had already existed. Already on September 12, this version of the tenor Jean -François Lafeuillade sang during intermission of a performance at the Théâtre de la Monnaie. The Brabançonne struck a chord with the audience that she demanded from then on, every night.

The second, still valid today music version sang on September 28, her composer, François van Campenhout the tenor, for the first time at L' aigle d'or, the inn of the host Cantoni in the Rue de la fourche ( Greepstraat ). Between October and December 1830 appeared in print with guitar accompaniment and an epilogue, which cites the Marseillaise. That they should be only one editing the Lancers polonais, is not occupied.

1864 composed the famous violin virtuoso Henri Vieuxtemps the work Ouverture et hymne national belge avec chœur with which he sought to create an alternative to the Belgian national anthem. The composition dedicated to King Leopold I, however, was granted only a temporary success; today it is almost forgotten. For the 50th anniversary of independence in 1880 failed the attempt of another composer to have the national anthem appear dispensable.

Criticism of the composition

The composer Campenhout was accused by many plagiarism. Were named as alleged examples: Boieldieu White Lady, Méhul Joseph, a march from Rossini's Tancredi and Auber Mute Girl of Portici, the song En partant pour la Syrie and the Marseillaise. However, the allegations could not be substantiated itself. The fact that in the hymn echoes of other works, is not surprising, considering that the composer was influenced as an opera tenor of a large repertoire. His sängerisches skill is possibly also the reason that the complex syllables marks distribution and not a few ornaments greater demands on performers put in the original musical text and thus are not suitable for the mass singing.

Edits

• Flor Alpaerts (1876-1954), the main representative of the Belgian Impressionism, wrote in 1929 the expressionist James Ensor Suite, an orchestral suite in four sets to paintings of James Ensor. In the first sentence ( " Christ Intrede van te Brussel " / " Christ's Entry into Brussels " ) sound the trumpets in the first bars of the anthem.
• François Van Campenhout composed for the 10th anniversary of the independence of a requiem, cited the issue of Brabançonne in the " Libera me " the soprano.
• Claude Debussy processed in his piano piece Berceuse héroïque the first bars of the Belgian national anthem. He dedicated the work to the Belgian monarch in 1914 composed Albert I and his soldiers ( " pour rendre hommage à S. M. le roi Albert Ier de Belgique et à ses soldats ") for their brave resistance to the German invaders. In a quiet, dreary march theme, which gets louder and more violent mixes as bugle the anthem theme heard again briefly later in harmonies of redemption. Debussy also created an orchestral version, which premiered in 1915 in the Concerts Colonne - Lamoureux under the direction of Camille Chevillard.
• The romantic -influenced Belgian Léon Jongen (1884-1969) composed in 1934 for the first anniversary of the death of Albert I, the piece In Memoriam Regis for organ (also for orchestra ) in which the first three bars of the anthem are woven to be then varied.
• The Belgian late romantics Ryelandt Joseph (1870-1965) wrote in 1915 ten Scènes enfantines op 60 for piano, in which the last ( " Daniel s'en va -t -en guerre " ) the first four bars of the Belgian national anthem sounded at the beginning and at the end.

Wording

French Text

German translation

Dutch text

German translation

German text

The official printed version of the Belgian national anthem in the national language German:

Trilingual text

Since the Belgian king is obliged to linguistic neutrality, on ceremonial occasions, such as a national holiday on 21 July 2010 in his presence the hymn is intoned in the three national languages:

Other hymns

The two major regions of Belgium, Flanders and Wallonia have their own songs, which serve the purpose of national anthem at official events.

• The national anthem of Flanders, De Vlaamse Leeuw.
• The national anthem of Wallonia is the Chant of the Wallon.