CHEVALIER DE SAINT-GEORGES

'Joseph Boullogne', the 'Chevalier de Saint-Georges' (sometimes spelled Saint-George) (December 25, 1739 – June 10, 1799) was one of the most important figures in the Paris musical scene in the second half of the 18th century, he was also famous as a swordsman and equestrian. Known as the ''"Black Mozart"'' or the ''"Voltaire of music"'' he was one of the earliest musicians of the European classical type known to have African ancestry.

Contents

Youth

Career

Works

References

External links

Youth

Joseph Boullogne was a mulatto born out-of-wedlock in Guadeloupe to Nanon, a former slave of black African descent, and a white French plantation owner of noble birth, Guillaume-Pierre Tavernier de Boullogne. The child was named after his uncle George de Boullogne Saint-Georges. At the age of ten he accompanied his father to France and was enrolled in a private academy. Schooled in both the fine and martial arts, he soon distinguished himself by his extraordinary skill on horseback, in sports, fencing, and music.

Career

While still a young man, he acquired multiple reputations; as the best swordsman in France, as a violin virtuoso, and as a composer in the classical tradition. While learning how to play the violin he received private instruction from such distinguished composers as Lolli and Gossec.
He composed and conducted for the private orchestra and theatre of the marquise de Montesson, the morganatic wife of the King's cousin, Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans. In 1771, he was appointed maestro of the Concert des Amateurs, and later director of the Concert de la Loge Olympique, the biggest orchestra of his time (65-70 musicians). This orchestra commissioned Joseph Haydn to compose six symphonies (the "Paris Symphonies" Nr. 82-87), which Saint-Georges conducted for their world premiere. Renowned both for his skill as a composer and musician, he was selected for appointment as the director of the Royal Opera of Louis XVI. But this was prevented by three Parisian divas who petitioned the King in writing against the appointment, insisting that it would be beneath their dignity and injurious to their professional reputations for them to sing on stage under the direction of a "mulatto".
Thwarted in his musical career, Saint-Georges earned fresh renown as a competitive fencer. He had already been dubbed "chevalier" by appreciative crowds at the Palais Royal. There is a famous portrait of him crossing swords in an exhibition match with the daring transvestite spy, the chevalière d'Eon, in the presence of George of Hanover, the Prince of Wales and Britain's future king.
Although the son of a nobleman and accustomed to life among the aristocracy of the court at Versailles, Saint-Georges served honourably in the army of the Revolution against France's foreign enemies, although he is not known to have joined the domestic revolutionary struggle prior to the imprisonment of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. He was appointed the first black colonel of the French army, and commanded a regiment of men of colour volunteers, largely consisting of former slaves from the region of his birth. Repeatedly denounced, however, because of his aristocratic parentage and past association with the royal court, he was later expelled from the army, arrested, and died destitute in Paris in 1799.

Works

Saint-Georges wrote symphonies, roughly 25 concertos for violin and orchestra, string quartets, sonatas, seven operas, and songs in the style of Mozart, Haydn and the composers of the "Mannheim school".

References

Guédé, Alain. ''Monsieur de Saint-George: Virtuoso, Swordsman, Revolutionary''. New York: Picador, 2003.

External links

★ Le Mozart Noir Film: Reviving a Legend

★ Life and list of works (fr): [1] (engl.:)[2] [3]