This stately march was composed by Jean-François Lesueur, a former instructor at the Conservatory of Paris who had been discharged in 1802 in reponse to his publication of a pamphlet critical of its methods. He spent the next two years in impoverished circumstances before Napoleon named him to replace the court composer at the Tuileries, a position that enabled him to stage what would become his most famous opera, “Ossian, ou Les bardes,” in July 1804. The work became an instant success as well as a personal favorite of Napoleon, who promptly awarded its author the cross of the Legion d’honneur and commissioned him to compose a triumphal march for the magnificent coronation ceremony to be held on 2 December.
