Bologne de Saint-Georges, Joseph

The black paternal ancestors of Mozart , the Dutch Protestants , settled in the West Indies in 1645 . He himself - the son of a French planter and his black slave, in other words - was born a slave. After a false accusation of murder, his father was forced to flee to France with his wife and son in 1747 , where he was forgiven by the king two years later at the request of his brother, adviser to the king Pierre de Bologne, and was able to return to Guadeloupe. In 1753, he forever sent his son to Paris, in 1757 received an aristocratic title.

Joseph made both a military and musical career. The article was different (it had a height of 1 m 80 cm). From the age of thirteen, he studied fencing art with the famous fencer Nicolas Texse de la Boessiere, and also studied horseback riding, literature, playing the violin and harpsichord. In 1761 he was admitted to the royal gendarmerie . He studied music with Jean-Marie Leclair . Gavigne probably influenced him ^[3] . In 1763, he bought himself a place as adviser to the king and a knighthood. For him, a violin virtuoso, they wrote music by Antonio Lolly , Karl Stamitz , Francois-Joseph Gossek , he gave concerts in England and France.

In 1769, he became a member of the Concert des Amateurs orchestra created by the State Secretary , and soon became its conductor. In the journal Musical Almanac ( 1775 ), the orchestra was named the best in Paris, and perhaps in Europe. He then led the Masonic Olympic Box Orchestra (he was one of the first black masons in France). The orchestra ordered Haydn six symphonies (the so-called Paris Symphonies , 1785 - 1786 ) and - under the direction of the Chevalier de Saint-Georges - became their first performer. At the premiere was attended by Marie Antoinette , she liked the 85th symphony, which was therefore called the Queen . Louis XVI was about to appoint Chevalier de Saint-Georges as director of the Royal Opera, but the appointment did not take place due to the protest of several artists (in particular, Sophie Arnoux and Marie-Madeleine Guimard ), who considered it less than their dignity to serve under the guidance of a mulatto ; This is how Baron Frederick Melchior von Grimm sets out this story in his Correspondence .

Alienated from music, Chevalier gave all his strength to the art of fencing and gained fame as a brilliant fighter. Known for his battle with the legendary Chevalier d'Eon in the presence of the Prince of Wales, the future King George IV ( 1787 ). He was the first black colonel of the French army ( 1792 ). He fought with the Austrians. Under his leadership, served Tom-Alexander Dumas , also a mulatto, the father of the future author of the Three Musketeers . After the Revolution, he was demoted for closeness to the royal court, arrested ( 1793 ), spent about a year in the prisons of Chantilly and Odenville ( department of Oise ). Since 1797, he led the Harmony Circle orchestra.

Author of concert symphonies, string quartets, violin concerts, sonatas for violin and harpsichord, musical comedies of Ernestin ( 1777 , libretto by Choderlo de Laclos ), Hunt ( 1778 ) and other compositions. He directed the private musical theater of Madame de Monteson, wife of the Duke of Orleans . In 1779, he gave music lessons to Marie Antoinette .

In 2001 , Rischans street between the first and eighth districts of Paris was renamed the street of Chevalier de Saint-Georges. An exhibition dedicated to him was held in Guadeloupe, in 2009 an international music festival of his name was established, and the Society of Friends of the Composer operates. In France, in Guadeloupe, in Cuba, dramatic and musical performances are staged about him. His music is performed and recorded, several of his violin concerts were recorded by Jean-Jacques Cantor , string quartets - the Apollo quartet. In Russia, one of his violin concerts was performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra ( 2006 ).

As a colorful figure of the era is mentioned in the novels of Dumas ( Queen's Necklace , Daughter of the Marquis , etc.), the novel by Thackeray Virginians . Several novels and plays are composed personally about him:

• Beauvoir R. de. Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Paris: H.-L. Delloye, 1840 (reprinted 1869)
• Brival R. Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Éditions Lattès, 1991.
• Picouly D. La treizième mort du chevalier. Paris: Grasset 2004
• Marciano D. Le chevalier de Saint-Georges, le fils de Noémie. École-Valentin: Thepsis, 2006

There is also the musical comedy by Melville and R. de Beauvoir “Chevalier de Saint-Georges” ( 1840 , reprint. 2001 ), the opera Alain Godet “Black in the Age of Enlightenment” (post. 2005 , 2009 ), Cuban ballet “Black Mozart” ( 2006 )

• Guédé A. Monsieur de Saint-George, le Nègre des Lumières. Arles: Actes Sud, 1999 (reprint 2001, English transl. 2003)
• Ribbe Cl. Le Chevalier de Saint-George. Paris: Perrin, 2004
• Smith WE The black Mozart: le Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Bloomington: AuthorHouse, 2005
• Bardin P. Joseph, sieur de Saint-George: le chevalier noir. Paris: Guénégaud, 2006
• Banat G. The Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Virtuoso of the Sword and the Bow. Hillsdale: Pendragon Press, 2006
• Brewster H., Velasquez E. The other Mozart: the life of the famous Chevalier de Saint-George. New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2007
• Cline-Ransome L., Ransome J. Joseph Boulogne, chevalier de Saint-George. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books, 2010

• [1]
• [2]
• Music on line
• Canadian Documentary TV Movie about the Composer, 2003
• Telefilm on the IMDB website