Music rec for the French Revolution

[regshoe]

Reading Ninety-Three inspired me to go and listen to some of the songs from the Les Misérables musical in the original French, to get an appropriate sense of revolutionary fervour for the mood and setting of the book. I've been listening to this one again today to distract myself from some of the more upsetting aspects of my current book, and it really is a good thing.

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I think the original lyrics are better than the English version (I don't actually speak French beyond osmosis of common words and spotting things that look similar to English equivalents, so I'm going by the translations on the internet), and more appropriately Hugo-ish (Moi je veux être le premier/Le premier nom gravé/Au marbre du monument d'espoir... that's the spirit!) This is the original concept album version, and they seem to have changed some of the lyrics later on—the later version is more similar to the English one, but I know the French musical went through several versions and I don't know which came first—anyway, this is my favourite version of this song I've heard so far.

Comments

[theseatheseatheopensea]

Yesssss I love this concept album! There is something about the album that makes it sound very realistic and heartfelt, kind of folk/protest songs (which the French are sooo good at!) The whole bombastic musical style is not a bad thing, and Les Mis is actually one of my favourite musicals ever, but I feel that the themes of the book shine more in the concept album! <3

I've been listening to this one again today to distract myself from some of the more upsetting aspects of my current book,

ETA: Oh no... is it very sad? *sends more tissues*

[regshoe]

I see what you mean! I haven't listened to all the songs, but yes—this one certainly comes across as a protest song, and with the kind of philosophical depth that makes Hugo's writing about revolution so interesting. 'Donnez, Donnez' is another good one—the Gavroche is great—and I was enjoying the oddly disco-y version of 'Les Amis de l'ABC' earlier today. :D

Oh no... is it very sad? *sends more tissues*

Not sad as such (at least not yet—I have suspicions about where the ending is going...), but thematically unsatisfying in a way that's upsetting me a bit. More in the review, no doubt...!

[sailorkitty]

"Another day" in French is said to be a lot more about living everyday life rather than the idea that something has to change, which I really like since the common people aren't the ones leading the revolution, it's not a thing in their minds because they have other stuff to do.

The 'final' musical version in English is a lot more dramatic since it foreshadows what's going to happen, and I suppose that works well on stage, but I really think not focusing on the 'something has to change' part gets through the sense of the period better, if that makes sense.

(Disclaimer that I might be misremembering, it's been a while since I read about it)

[regshoe]

Huh, that's interesting—I'll have to give that one a listen too!

[iberiandoctor]

So this is my fave Les Mis song on any given day, and I agree it's even more rousing in the original Boublil/Natel French lyrics. I can't say I know that much about the original French music or cast, nor is my French good enough to delve into the intricacies of the French lyrics vs the English ones, but imo À la volonté du peuple /With the volition of the people is even more Hugolian and Republican than the more watered-down English version "Do you hear the people sing?"

Are you enjoying Ninety-Three? That's next on my French Romantics list, though I've taken a detour into Restoration era politics with Balzac's Une ténébreuse affaire (it's going very slowly, though; perhaps I'll be persuaded to give Jacobean romance a try!).

[regshoe]

even more Hugolian and Republican than the more watered-down English version "Do you hear the people sing?"

Oh, yeah, definitely :D And now I'm listening to the finale reprise, which may be even better—the English version really waters that one down by making it all about heaven, but the French is very much about the continuing fight for change on Earth. Hugo would approve!

I really liked Ninety-Three! (I wrote a post about it here). It is a lot—very much Hugo grappling with what he sees as the most important thing in history—and has some amazing character moments and imagery. Apart from Hugo I haven't read much French fiction at all—I might have to delve into other French Romantics if they're anything like this.

[garonne]

I'm not at all familiar with the musical of Les Misérables (in any language) but the music is certainly pretty rousing!

Actually after you posted about Ninety-three the other day I tried to think of or find other thematically similar books, but was not really successful. There's Les Dieux ont soif by Anatole France which looks interesting but pretty grim. After lots of googling I also found Les Chouans by Balzac which seems to be more on the Royalist side of things (as the title also seems to suggest). There must surely be others but I cannot find them...

(Obviously I am excluding books like The Scarlet Pimpernel, which I would not exactly consider to be thematically similar to Ninety-three *g*)

[regshoe]

The Les Misérables musical is really good. It does a lot of condensing of the book, inevitably, but the songs really bring the story to life, and it does some really interesting things with musical motifs and repetition. And, yeah, rousing is right for this song :D

Ooh, Les dieux ont soif sounds very interesting, although yes, grim. I may give it a go at some point!