Re: The French National Anthem & Napoleon's March

[Marvin <physchem...>]

It is also significant that Menachem Schneerson studied engineering at the
Sorbonne.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Cohen" <rlcm17 (at) hotmail(dot)com>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2001 3:32 AM
Subject: Re: The French National Anthem & Napoleon's March


> My understanding is that the French National Anthem was introduced to his
> (Chabad/Lubavich) hassidim by the late, last rabbi of Lubavich when a
large
> group, or perhaps several large groups, of hassidim from France joined
their
> Brooklyn community.  He introduced "La Marseillaise," as a wordless
niggun,
> to, as I understand it, make them feel at home.
>
> "Napoleon's March," borrowed from (obviously) an earlier French (military)
> melody and also sung as a wordless niggun, is a totally different matter.
> It is also an established Lubavich/Chabad niggun--indeed, much more
> established.
>
> --Robert Cohen
>
>
> At one point he told us about a very traditional, very old-school Hassidic
> tune, then started to sing it. It was the French national anthem.*
>
> * According to Frank [London], half the Hassidim answer the obvious
question
> with "What's France?" and the other half says it was originally a tribute
to
> Napoleon's pro-Jewish policies.
> >
> >yakov.
> >trombonist, "Kap'n Klezmer and the Klez Kadets"
> >
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>

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