Claude Joseph Rouget De Lisle

Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (May 10, 1760 – June 26, 1836), was a French composer who in 1792 wrote La Marseillaise, the French national anthem.

Rouget de Lisle was born in Lons-le-Saunier, Jura. He entered the army as an engineer and attained the rank of captain. The song that has immortalised him, La Marseillaise (based on Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25), was composed at Strasbourg, where Rouget de Lisle was quartered in April 1792. He wrote the words in a fit of patriotic excitement after a public dinner.

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