La Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, sometimes spelled de l’Isle or de Lile (May 10, 1760 – June 26, 1836), was a French army officer.
“Marseillaise” is the national anthem of France. The song was written and composed in Strasbourg in 1792, after the declaration of war from France to Austria, and was originally titled “Chant de guerre pour l’Armée du Rhin”. It was a revolutionary song, an anthem to freedom, a patriotic call to mobilize all the citizens and an exhortation to fight against the tyranny and the foreign invasion. The French National Convention adopted it as the Republic’s anthem in 1795. It acquired its nickname after being sung in Paris by volunteers from Marseille marching on the capital.
The song is the first example of the “European march” anthemic style. The anthem’s evocative melody and lyrics have led to its widespread use as a song of revolution and its incorporation into many pieces of classical and popular music (see below: Musical quotations). Cerulo says, “the design of ‘La Marseillaise’ is credited to General Strasbourg of France, who is said to have directed de Lisle, the composer of the anthem, to ‘produce one of those hymns which conveys to the soul of the people the enthusiasm which it (the music) suggests.”