{"id":43161,"date":"2020-11-13T17:20:40","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T16:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=43161"},"modified":"2025-11-13T04:32:43","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:32:43","slug":"the-little-known-relationship-between-spain-and-the-famous-marines-hymn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2020\/11\/13\/the-little-known-relationship-between-spain-and-the-famous-marines-hymn\/","title":{"rendered":"The little known relationship between Spain and the famous Marines' Hymn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Marines' is the oldest and most famous of the official military hymns of the United States Armed Forces. Do you know what its origin is?<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2019\/08\/23\/the-painting-of-kristopher-battles-the-last-combat-artist-of-the-us-marines\/\">The painting of Kristopher Battles: the last combat artist of the US Marines<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2019\/03\/26\/the-colorful-spanish-detail-of-the-caps-of-the-destroyer-uss-carney-of-the-us-navy\/\">The colorful Spanish detail of the caps of the destroyer USS Carney of the US Navy<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p><big>A song featured in an Offenbach operetta<\/big><\/p>\n<p>Paradoxically, the author of the score of The Marines' Hymn was not an American, but <strong>a famous French Catholic composer of German origin: Jacques Offenbach.<\/strong> And what relationship did this man have with the Marines? Well none. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hqmc.marines.mil\/hrom\/New-Employees\/About-the-Marine-Corps\/Hymn\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Marine Human Resources website<\/a> explains what happened:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><strong>\"The music is from the Gendarmes' Duet from an 1867 revision of the 1859 opera Genevi\u00e8ve de Brabant by Jacques Offenbach<\/strong>, which debuted in Paris in 1859. Correspondence between Colonel Albert S. McLemore and Walter F. Smith (the second leader of the Marine Band) traces the tune: <strong>\u201cMajor Richard Wallach, USMC, says that in 1878, when he was in Paris, France, the aria to which the Marines' Hymn is now sung was a very popular one.\u201d\"<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>You can hear here the Marine Band performing that aria from Offenbach's \"Genevi\u00e8ve de Brabant\"<\/strong> at a concert in Chicago on December 14, 2016:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OvI2xgxS2Zg\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>The original aria was sung in French by two gendarmes.<\/strong> You can listen here to the original French version of that song, performed during a performance of that comic operetta at the Festival des Ch\u00e2teaux in Bruniquel (France) three years ago. The song starts at point 3:51 (I've inserted the video to play from there):<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RVNesL7rrMQ?start=231\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Unlike the heroic Marines' Hymn, <a href=\"https:\/\/mudcat.org\/thread.cfm?threadid=40711\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the original lyrics of this French song left the gendarmes on the floor<\/a>, presenting them as cowards who only dared to be brave with women and children.<\/p>\n<p><big>The possible Spanish origin of the music of the Anthem of the Marines<\/big><\/p>\n<p>The most curious thing about this case is that the aforementioned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hqmc.marines.mil\/hrom\/New-Employees\/About-the-Marine-Corps\/Hymn\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marines' website<\/a> collects this testimony of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marineband.marines.mil\/About\/Our-History\/History-of-the-Assistant-Directors\/Walter-F-Smith\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Walter F. Smith<\/a>, who was the second director of the Marine Band between 1899 and 1921:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\"Major Wallach is to be congratulated upon a wonderfully accurate musical memory, for the aria of the Marine Hymn is certainly to be found in the opera, 'Genevieve de Brabant'... The melody is not in the exact form of the Marine Hymn, but is undoubtedly the aria from which it was taken. <strong>I am informed, however, by one of the members of the band, who has a Spanish wife, that the aria was one familiar to her childhood and it may, therefore, be a Spanish folk song.<\/strong>\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There are hardly any sources that shed a little light on this. <a href=\"https:\/\/foro.todoavante.es\/viewtopic.php?f=185&t=3686\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">In 2009 they addressed this issue at the Forum of Naval History of Spain<\/a>, talking about <strong>a Carlist version of the song<\/strong> that spoke about the capture of Colonel Navarro and his troops by Carlist general Antonio Dorregaray in the Battle of Eraul (1873), in Navarra, during the Third Carlist War (1872-1876).<\/p>\n<p><big>The Carlists used that music before the Marines<\/big><\/p>\n<p>The first version of Offenbach's \"Genevi\u00e8ve de Brabant\" is from 1859. <strong>Since the Carlist song refers to events that occurred 14 years later, it is surely a version of Offenbach's song<\/strong>, which by then would have become popular beyond the French borders. In the aforementioned Naval History forum they point out that the French composer's operetta <em>\"had a lot of acceptance - and from very shortly after its premiere - in the North of Spain.\"<\/em> <strong>You can listen here to the Carlist song in question, entitled \"When Navarro a Era\u00fal ascended\":<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-5ohxFs9FrI\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>If it is true that Major Wallach heard the Offenbach song in Paris in 1878, <strong>everything seems to indicate that the Carlists used the music of this song before the Marines.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><big>The Marines' Hymn and its current lyrics<\/big><\/p>\n<p>The USMC officially adopted it in 1929, with <strong>lyrics of unknown author that underwent some modifications in that year and again in 1942<\/strong>, in the latter case to incorporate a reference to the air component of the Corps. I leave you, without further ado, with the sung version of the famous hymn:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qdN8YrUVZSs\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is <strong>the lyrics:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>From the Halls of Moctezuma<br \/>\nTo the shores of Tripoli;<br \/>\nWe fight our country's battles<br \/>\nIn the air, on land, and sea;<br \/>\nFirst to fight for right and freedom<br \/>\nAnd to keep our honor clean;<br \/>\nWe are proud to claim the title<br \/>\nOf United States Marine.<\/p>\n<p>Our flag's unfurled to every breeze<br \/>\nFrom dawn to setting sun;<br \/>\nWe have fought in every clime and place<br \/>\nWhere we could take a gun;<br \/>\nIn the snow of far-off Northern lands<br \/>\nAnd in sunny tropic scenes,<br \/>\nYou will find us always on the job<br \/>\nThe United States Marines.<\/p>\n<p>Here's health to you and to our Corps<br \/>\nWhich we are proud to serve;<br \/>\nIn many a strife we've fought for life<br \/>\nAnd never lost our nerve.<br \/>\nIf the Army and the Navy<br \/>\nEver look on Heaven's scenes,<br \/>\nThey will find the streets are guarded<br \/>\nBy United States Marines.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defense.gov\/observe\/photo-gallery\/igphoto\/2001149466\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">United States Department of Defense<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Marines&#8217; is the oldest and most famous of the official military hymns of the United States Armed Forces. Do you know what its origin is?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,11545],"tags":[14434,14437,14436,673],"class_list":["post-43161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-navy","tag-jacques-offenbach","tag-the-marines-hymn","tag-united-states-marine-band","tag-us-marine-corps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}