"...I read somewhere that 'The Downfall of Paris' was a popular British army tune, and that the Duke of Wellington forbade the British army bands to play it when they occupied Paris after Waterloo, for fear of pissing off the locals...."

If that was the case, then the association must have been with the occupation of Paris in 1814 as otherwise, only the older members of the population would have any association for the tune, and they would be revolutionary - how many Parisians would know the tune as "Downfall..." as opposed to "Ça Ira"?.<1>

I wonder how they Parisians dealt with the Prussian bands belting out the 'Pariser Einzugmarche' (apologies to all German speakers for the spellimg).

Walrus


<1> That said, Napoleon did have the Revolutionary 'tunes of glory' banned after his coronation - 'Marseillaise' (sp?) was only 're-allowed' in the crisis of 1813/14