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Pierre De GeyterMusician, author of music for the anthem “Internationale”
Date of Birth: 08.10.1848
Country:  France |
Content:
Biography of Pierre Degeyter
Pierre Degeyter, a musician and composer of the anthem "The Internationale," was born on October 8, 1848, in France, to a working-class family of Flemish ethnicity. After completing evening school, he learned the trade of metal turning and found employment in a factory. At the same time, Pierre developed a passion for music and began attending evening courses at the Music Academy when he was sixteen years old. Eventually, Degeyter became the first conductor of the Lille Musical Society called "La Lyre Ouvrière."
In July 1888, the mayor of Lille, Gustave Delory, approached Degeyter with a task: to compose music for the lyrics written by poet Eugène Pottier, which were dated back to 1871, in order to create a revolutionary song for the French Workers' Party. This marked the birth of "The Internationale." The first performance of this music by the choir of "La Lyre Ouvrière" took place at the congress of the journalists' union in the summer of 1888. Although the composer's name was not mentioned for security reasons (only his surname appeared on the title page), it soon became apparent who was behind this revolutionary song. Degeyter was fired from the factory and put on entrepreneur "blacklists."
Among Degeyter's other notable songs are "Communar" (with lyrics by Pottier), "Forward, Working Class," "Hammer and Sickle," and "Triumph of the Russian Revolution." In 1927, at the invitation of Joseph Stalin, Degeyter visited the Soviet Union to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. The composer was granted a lifelong pension, which became his only source of livelihood in his later years.
