A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Ça Ira
ÇA IRA. The earliest of French revolutionary songs, probably first heard on Oct. 5, 1789, when the Parisians marched to Versailles. The words were suggested to a street-singer called Ladré by General La Fayette, who remembered Franklin's favourite saying at each progress of the American insurrection. The burden of the song was then as follows:—
'Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira!
Le peuple en ce jour sans cesse répète:
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira!
Malgré les mutins, tout réussira.'
At a later period the burden, though more ferocious, was hardly more metrical:—
'Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira!
Les aristocrat' à la lanterne;
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira!
Les aristocrat' on les pendra.'
The tune—the length and compass of which show that it was not composed for the song—was the production of a certain Bécour or Bécourt, a side-drum player at the Opera; and as a contre-danse was originally very popular under the title of 'Carillon national.'
