Joseph Boulogne (1745 – 1799)

Chevalier de Saint George

Meta:

Chevalier de Saint-George, Chevalier, de, Saint George, Saint-George, Marie-Antoinette, Valmont, Mozart, Napoleon, Alexandre Dumas, Lafayette, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, , Coleridge, Garant Still, France History, US History, Science, Art, Guadeloupe, Slave, Valmont, French Revolution, Bertrand Delanoe, Smith, Halley, Ribbe, Bourgeois, Concerto #4 for violin in D Major, Concerto in C MajorOp.3, Concerto in C MajorOp.5, Concerto #5 for violin in A Major, Concerto in G MajorOp.8, Concerto in B Flat MajorOp.7

Main link: http://www.chevalierdesaintgeorge.com/

http://www.chevalierdesaintgeorge.com/news/

About Griot:

Griot Entertainment, LLC is a Film, TV, Publishing and Internet development and production company.

Griot Pictures is developing a feature film for theatrical release on the life of the Chevalier de Saint George. (See "Headlines"). With the support of the Friends of Saint George Society, Griot Publishing is also developing several books on the Chevalier

Looking to capitalize on upcoming Sophia Coppola pic, Marie-Antoinette, and recently released Phantom of the Opera, Griot Pictures Entertainment has retained screenwriter Paris Qualles (A House Divided, Tuskegee Airmen) through International Creative Management (ICM) to write “Chevalier”, based on the historical story of Le Chevalier de Saint-George, also known as The Black Mozart

Main Page:

The story of the Chevalier de Saint-George ("Knight of Saint-George") depicts the rise, fall, and rebirth of an athletic, musical, and military hero who became a superstar in 18th century France. Born on Christmas Day, 1745 in the French-Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, to a Senegalese slave and a French colonialist, Saint-George was a breakthrough composer and violin virtuoso who came to be called "Le Mozart Noir". He became the first black man to lead France's most important orchestras. Saint-George was also Europe’s finest fencer, a master horseman, elite musketeer, infamous playboy, and a Colonel who led an army in the French Revolution. Described by poets of his day as a “French Hercules”, “a veritable Mars”, and a “rival of Apollo”, Saint-George stands out as one of the most extraordinary figures of the 18th century.

The "King of Pop" of his age, Saint-George's celebrity was known throughout Europe and word of his fame eventually reached the U.S. John Adams, the 2nd U.S. President, was reportedly given an account of Saint-George by one of his aides:

“He is the most accomplished man in Europe, in riding, running, shooting, fencing, dancing, music. He will hit the button –any button on the coat or waistcoat of the greatest masters. He will hit a crown-piece in the air with a pistol-ball.”

Active Links:

http://chevalierdesaintgeorges.homestead.com/Page1.html

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/halleyjc/fameuxchevalier/

http://www.artaria.com/Composer/FullBios/StGeorges_Full.htm

http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/default.asp?pn=Composers&char=S&ComposerID=1843

http://www.lemozartnoir.com/

http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2498/Saint_George_Boulogne_renaissance_man

http://www.sternsmusic.com/discography/5354

http://www.chez.com/saintgeorge/

http://www.donsmcclureconsultants.com/concept_231.htm

http://www.donsmcclureconsultants.com/concept_232.htm

http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=22438&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE&URL_SECTION=201.html

http://www.rachelbarton.com/mus/mus_06_notes.htm

http://www.histoire-genealogie.com/breve.php3?id_breve=45

http://www.blacksearch.co.uk/new.php?st=date&dt=1115190000

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Based on Antonia Fraser’s novel, Oscar-winner Sophia Coppola is writing and directing Marie-Antoinette staring Kirsten Dunst as the infamous French queen. The shoot has actually begun at the Chateau de Versailles (with the permission of the French government) and is expected to take 11 weeks, until around June 15th.

Curiously, Marie Antoinette’s well documented relationship with Le Chevalier de Saint-George is not mentioned in Fraser’s novel. Nonetheless, the movie should substantially increase interest in the Saint-George story.

BLOG1

Looking to capitalize on upcoming Sophia Coppola pic, Marie-Antoinette, and recently released Phantom of the Opera, Griot Pictures Entertainment has retained screenwriter Paris Qualles (A House Divided, Tuskegee Airmen) through International Creative Management (ICM) to write “Chevalier”, based on the historical story of Le Chevalier de Saint-George, also known as The Black Mozart.

A confidant and music instructor to Marie-Antoinette, Saint-George was a superstar violinist and opera composer who influenced Mozart. He was also Europe’s fencing champion, an infamous playboy, and a military hero in the French Revolution.

Griot producers see “Chevalier” as the natural evolution in the recent explosion of period-piece fare. “Saint-George was adored by the French and British public as a music and fencing superstar, but he is only recently being re-discovered because much of his musical material was destroyed during the French Revolution, and later, by Napoleon’s regime.”

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Guadeloupe, the native French-Caribbean Island of the Chevalier de Saint-George, will be the theater of a world-class symposium in December 2005. The event will bring together many specialists from many different fields: historians, musicians, novelists, and screenwriters. The organizers will offer tourist discovery of the island, in particular around the site where Joseph Boulogne spent his first 10 years. The event, sponsored by the regional government, will mark the inauguration of the official site “Route de Saint-George” in Basse-Terre

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For the commemoration of the Abolition of Slavery,

The General Assembly will host an international exhibition around the Chevalier de Saint-George

The program will include concerts, book forums, short films and lectures.

Attendees:

Jean-Claude HALLEY (Friends of Saint-George Society), Dominique DeLERMA (Music historian, Berkeley), Kwame RYAN (Conductor, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra)

BLOG5

January 2005: History Channel Documentary on the Characters of the French Revolution Premieres. On January 17th at 9pm EST, the History Channel will premiere a two-hour documentary featuring the key characters of the French Revolution. The documentary, which will run multiple times in 2005, should increase interest in the Saint-George story.

DVD available.

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December 2004: Based on the novel by Gaston Leroux and the musical by Andrew Llyod Webber, the film Phantom of the Opera was released. Given the Paris Opera House setting, the music, and the romantic drama, film should increase interest in the Saint-George story

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August 2004: (50.000 tickets SOLD OUT in advance sales). FETES DE NUIT DE VERSAILLES (See Print Review Below) The fountains of Versailles come alive in music and fireworks, in an all-new show featuring the equestrian ballet of Bartabas in Le Chevalier de Saint-George, un africain à la cour. Bartabas, whose equestrian academy is located in the chateau’s royal stables, is a master showman. In an evening worthy of the Sun King, 40 horses and their riders will take to a floating stage surrounding the magnificent Neptune fountain to honor the Chevalier Saint-George, the son of a slave and a celebrated musician. August 28 and 29, September 2, 4, 9, and 11

Biblio Page

Historians:

2005:    Jean-Claude HALLEY            Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges raconté aux enfants 

TBA Editions Harmattan, GRIOT Entertainment.

2004:    Claude RIBBE (Fr)            Le Chevalier de Saint-George

Editions Perrin                         http://www.claude-ribbe.com/

1996:    Emil SMIDAK (Fr, En)       Joseph Boulogne, nommé Chevalier de Saint-Georges

Foundation Avenira

1999:    Alain GUEDE (Fr, En)            Monsieur de Saint-George, Virtuoso, Swordsman, Revolutionary                                                    Editions Actes Sud, Picador

1972:    Odet DENYS (Fr)                   Out of print

1949:    Gaston BOURGEOIS (Fr)                   Manuscript            http://site.voila.fr/gastonbourgeois

1840:    Roger de BEAUVOIR (Fr)            Manuscript            http://site.voila.fr/rogerdebeauvoir

Novelists:

2005:    Daniel MARCIANO            Joseph Boulogne, Son of Naomi

            TBA

2004:    Walter E SMITH (En)            The Black Mozart, Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges

            Editor Authorhouse           

2003:    Daniel PICOULY (Fr)            La teizieme mort du Chevalier

            Editions Grasset

1991:    Roland BRIVAL (Fr)            Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges    

Editions Lattes

Other connected subjects:

1972     D. Rene de Lerma             Black music in our culture (press)

                                                Kent State University Press

http://www.abebooks.fr/servlet/SearchResults?imagefield.x=17&an=Rene+de+Lerma&tn=Black+culture&sortby=3&imagefield.y=16

Music Page:

Saint-George was one of the most talented composers of African descent in the history of classical music, along with England's Samuel Coleridge (1875-1912) and America's William Grant Still (1895-1978).

In 1774, Saint-Georges's father died‚ leaving him without an annuity. In order to support himself, he began publishing a great deal of music, much of which featured the violin. Among these works were two sets of string quartets (a genre rarely practiced in France at that early date), a dozen violin concertos, and at least ten symphonies concertantes.

http://www.williamgrantstill.com

http://www.blacknet.co.uk/history/Samuel.html

Historians believe that scores of Saint-George’s music were destroyed during the re-instauration of slavery in France early in the 19th century.

Concerting Quatuors (String Quartets):

Concerto in G Major    Op.2                 (1773)               27:02 (Avenira CD2 #3) to burn 

Concerto #4 for violin in D Major                        (1774)               26:24            Music\StG_VC4D_Rondo.mp3

Concerto in C Major    Op.3                 (1774)               21:44 I havent received the CD yet

Concerto in C Major    Op.5                 (1775)               25:15 (Naxos Red #1,2,3) to burn 

Concerto #5 for violin in A Major                        (1775)               24:35            Music\StG_VC5A_Rondo.mp3

Concerto in G Major    Op.8                 (1780)               21:35 (Naxos Red #7,8,9) to burn

Concerto in B Flat Major            Op.7                 (1782)               24:46 (Naxos Red #7,8,9) to burn

Sonatas for violin and harpsichord

Symphonies:

Symphony in C Major, op. 9, no. 1                      (1777)                           I havent received the CD yet

Symphony in G Major, op. 11, no. 1     (1779)                           I havent received the CD yet

Symphony in A Major, op. 10, no. 2     (1779)               14:40            I havent received the CD yet

Symphony in D Major, op. 5, "Pastorella"             (1782)               15:43            I havent received the CD yet

Operas:

Ballet:   L´Amant Anonyme (the anonymous lover)  (1780)   14:56

Operas:             Ernestine

La fille-garçon            (the girl-boy)                 

We invite you to listen to a radio program dedicated to Saint-Georges produced by WILLfm-90.9 in Chicago, “classically black”, hosted by Roger Cooper.

A handful of musicians or historians have dedicated their energy in the analysis of the major black composers in classical music. Among them: Gabriel Banat (Rollover: won a Grammy Award in 1996 for best Historical production), Dominique Rene de Lerma , and Rachel Barton.  (http://www.rachelbarton.com/mus/mus_06_notes.htm)

Click here for excerpts from Rachel Barton’s analysis:  << >>

…then it opens a pop-up window to the following text: <<pgdn 2 to the bottom>>

List of 11 recordings

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Namedrill;jsessionid=0A7ADA04BCBF237BEAED17B2B416EB33?&name_id=10560&name_role=1

or,

From Amazon.com,

http://www.rock-n-roll-buy-music.com/cgi-local/store-mode-classical-search_type-ArtistSearch-input_string-Joseph+Boulogne+Chevalier+de+Saint-Georges-locale-us.html

1. Naxos: The First Fifteen Years by Gioachino Rossini, Camille Saint-Saens, Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Fryderyk Chopin, Franz Schubert, John Tavener, Dmitry Shostakovich, Jacob Obrecht, Franz Joseph Haydn, Franz Liszt

2. Violin Concertos by Black Composers of the 18th and 19th Centuries

by Chevalier Meude-Monpas, Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Jose White, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Daniel Hege, Rachel Barton

Audio CD (01 November, 1999)

3. Symphonies & Violin Concertos - CD 1

by Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Miroslav Vilimec

Audio CD (25 July, 2000)

4. Violin Concertos - CD 2

by Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Miroslav Vilimec

Audio CD (25 July, 2000)

5. Symphonies and Violin Concertos - CD 3

by Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Miroslav Vilimec

Audio CD (25 July, 2000)

6. Symphonies and Violin Concertos - CD4

by Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Miroslav Vilimec

Audio CD (19 September, 2000)

7. Symphonies and Violin Concertos - Vol.5

by Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Miroslav Vilimec

Audio CD (19 September, 2000)

8. Songs of the Classical Age

by Franz Joseph Haydn, Vincenzo Righini, Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Nicolas Dalayrac, Felice Blangini, Anna Amalia von Sachsen-Weimar, Johann Friedrich Reichardt, Corona Elisabeth Wilhelmine Schroter, Maria Theresia von Paradis, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Audio CD (23 November, 1999)

9. Quatuors Concertants

by Giuseppe Maria Cambini, Hyacinthe Jadin, Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Francois-Joseph Gossec, Zbigniew Kornowicz, Diane Phoenix, Laurent Rannou, Johanna Rezler

10. Quatuors a Cordes : Vachon, Saint-George, Cambini

by Pierre Vachon, Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Giuseppe Maria Cambini, Hajo Bab, Ursula Bundies, Nicholas Selo, Mary Utiger

Audio CD (11 March, 1996)

11 Sonatas for violin and harpsichord

by Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Brigitte Haudebourg, Jean-Jacques Kantorow

12. The Art Of The Violin

by Antonio Vivaldi, Jean-Marie (i) Leclair, Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Luigi Boccherini, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt, Francis Poulenc, Eugene-Auguste Ysaye, Brigitte Haudebourg

13. Concerto for violin in A

by Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Bernard Thomas, Jean-Jacques Kantorow

14. Saint-Georges: Concerto in G Op8/2

by Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Bernard Wahl, Anne-Claude Villars

Audio CD (26 January, 1999)

15. Le nègre des Lumières

by Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Hana Kotkova, Hans Liviabella

Audio CD (17 April, 2001)

A large database of Sheet Music can be found at:            http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/

FAMOUS LIAISONS page

Mozart (1756-1791)    :

Saint-George was a superstar conductor and composer in Paris and as a result Mozart inevitably met him during his various trips to Paris given their similar social circles. Given Saint George’s nomination to the post of director of The Paris Opera, Mozart certainly knew of Saint-George. Saint George was close to Joseph Haydn, and as a result ordered the famous “Symphonies Parisiennes” from him. We know the close ties between Mozart and Haydn. We also know that Mozart composed pieces similar to St-George’s pieces after his trips to Paris. However the exact amount of influence and the nature of the actual encounters between Saint-George and Mozart are still to be documented by historians.

Napoleon (1769-1821)

            Early in the French Revolution, Saint-George formed his famous “Saint-George Legion”, a regiment of 1000 black men (200 Cavalry and 800 Infantry) that helped repel Austrian and Prussian invasions (in support of the Monarchy) of Northern France. Given that Saint-George was a former high-ranking officer of the French Army who had saved the Revolution from the treason of Dumouriez, Napoleon had to know of St-George. At the end of his life, Saint-George traveled to Haiti, during the Haitian revolution led by Toussaint Louverture. Saint-George could have met Pauline, Napoleon's sister, who was the wife of General Leclere, commander of the French mission in Haiti. Upon Saint-George’s return to Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte was on the verge of his meteoric rise to power. In 1802 after the reinstitution of slavery in France by Napoleon, Saint George’s music was banned, and many of his scores destroyed.

Valmont (1741-1803)

Saint-George was a close friend of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, a French official and army general, who was the author of the masterpiece VALMONT that inspired the movie “Dangerous Liaisons”. In a decadent time, some accounts maintain that Saint-George was a notorious playboy and infamous for sleeping with the wives of French aristocrats. Reportedly, Laclos and Saint-George often found themselves in competition for the same women. They also both served the Duke d'Orléans.

John ADAMS (1735-1826)

            The 2nd President of the United States mentioned Saint-George in his diary. During his trip to Paris in 1783, he asked to meet "that famous American who was credited with all these talents". John Adams describes Saint-George as a superman and is reported to have written: “17 May 1779-Landais gave us an account of Saint-George at Paris, - a mulatto man, son of a Negro woman and a former Governor of Guadeloupe. He is the most accomplished man in Europe, in riding, running, shooting, fencing, dancing, and music. He will hit the button,-any button on the coat or waistcoat of the greatest masters. He will hit a crown-piece in the air with a pistol-ball.”

Benjamin FRANKLIN (1706 - 1790)

Franklin visited France in 1766 (the year of Saint George’s historic fencing match with Gianfaldoni) and was enthusiastically received. The King personally received Franklin in his “Bedchamber” in 1778 when Franklin went to ask for France’s help against the British in the American Revolution. (Recall that Saint George’s father was a “Gentleman of the King’s Bedchamber”). Franklin, a violinist aficionado, was part of the US delegation that went to Paris to sign the 1783 Treaty, along with John Jay. During this trip he asked to arrange a meeting with Saint-George, curious about his reputation. It is unclear if they ever met.

La Fayette (1757-1834)

            Just as Saint George was an “American” who left the “new world” in the Caribbean and became an athletic, musical and military hero in France, La Fayette was the Frenchman who left a brilliant position in the Court of Louis XVI to become a hero in the “new world” in The American Revolution. The Marquis was still in France in 1775 when Saint George was nominated to the post of artistic director of the Paris Opera due mainly to Marie Antoinette’s support who was also a friend of La Fayette. In 1777, La Fayette enrolled in the American Continental Army at the age of 19 and became a hero contributing to the military victories of the American rebels, notably at Yorktown in 1781. In 1783 Lafayette returned to France and went on to become the King’s Guard Commander-in-Chief. Both joined the French National Guard in 1789—Lafayette as commander of the Guard in defense of Paris and Saint George quickly promoted to Colonel in 1790.

Ironically it was each man’s return to his origin that would be his final undoing: the black-on-black/mulatto vs. black warfare that Saint George witnessed on a two-year stay in Haiti after his release from prison is widely regarded as breaking his spirit—something racism in Europe never accomplished; after personally saving Marie Antoinette’s from the mobs that marched on Versailles, La Fayette appeared suspect to the French revolutionaries and had to flee abroad during the “Terror” when much of the aristocracy was guillotined. Today La Fayette has a street named after him in Washington D.C. and Saint George has a street named after him in Paris—“Rue Chevalier de Saint George”.

General  DUMAS  ( 1762 - 1806)

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was a general in the French Army. He was of mixed race like Saint-George; his mother was a slave from Haiti. Dumas and Saint-George kept close ties through their whole life, and their careers in the army were almost simultaneous. Towards the end, Saint-George progression was stopped by his prison episode, which made him retire as a Colonel. Dumas became a prized General while leading the Suez campaign. Dumas was the father of the famous writer Alexandre Dumas (Count of Monte Cristo and the Three Musketeers). Some of his characters, like d’Artagnan, were inspired by Saint-George. Earlier in his life Saint-George had been a member of the famous “Corps of Musketeers” an elite unit that formed the King’s Horse Guards.

From Alexandre DUMAS’s biography:

While his grandfather served the government of France as General Commissaire in the Artillery in the colony of Santa Domingo, (today's Dominican Republic but at the time a part of Haiti), he married Marie-Céssette Dumas, a black slave. In 1762, she gave birth to a son, Thomas-Alexandre, and she died soon thereafter.

When the Marquis and his young son returned to Normandy, it was at a time when slavery still existed, and the boy suffered as a result of being half black. In 1786, Thomas-Alexandre joined the French army, but to protect the aristocratic family's reputation, he enlisted using his mother's maiden name. Following the Revolution in France, the Marquis lost his estates but his mulatto son, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, distinguished himself as a capable and daring soldier in Napoleon Bonaparte's army, rising through the ranks to become a General by the age of 31.

General Dumas married Marie-Louise Elizabeth Labouret and in 1802 she gave birth to their son, Alexandre Dumas, who would become France's most commercially successful author. General Dumas died in 1806 when Alexandre was only four, leaving a nearly impoverished mother to raise him under difficult conditions. Unable to provide her son with much in the way of education, it nonetheless did not hinder young Alexandre's love of books and he read everything he could get his hands on. Growing up, his mother's stories of his father's brave military deeds during the glory years of Napoleon, spawned Alexandre's vivid imagination for adventure and heroes. Although poor, the family still had the father's distinguished reputation and aristocratic connections and after the restoration of the monarchy, twenty-year-old Alexandre Dumas moved to Paris where he obtained employment at the Palais-Royal in the office of the powerful duc d'Orléans.

Marie-Antoinette (1755-1793)

The Queen and wife of Louis XVI admired Saint-George's many artistic and physical talents. She attended his swimming exploits across the icy river Seine. She would request to be tutored by Saint-George for her violin practice. She was the main supporter of his nomination for Director of the Paris Opera. The Queen’s personal painter, Vigée Lebrun, made one of the most visible portraits of Saint-George. Historians have found mention of Saint-George in the Queen's diary as "my favorite American". (Although Saint-George was from Guadeloupe in the French-Caribbean the French saw the Caribbean as geographically part of the larger “Americas” and would label anything from North, Central, and South American as well as the Caribbean as “American”.) Knowing her frenetic nightlife, we can only speculate on the nature of the relationship between Marie-Antoinette and Saint-George.

“Let them eat cake”     (Soyon: Keep that in the text of Marie-Antoinette)

During the reign of Louis XIV and his grandson Louis XV, the monarchy had absolute power over the people of France. Louis XIV had been very extravagant, building opulent palaces and gardens at the expense of his subjects. This caused burdensome taxes for the poor peasants and farmers. During Louis XV's reign, corruption in the government was rampant. He continued to live in the same lavish manner as his father, spending tax money on personal items, including expensive gifts for his many mistresses. After enduring heavy taxes, the French people endured hunger, massive unemployment, and extreme poverty. Commoners could scarcely afford the price of bread. At this time, Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV's influential mistress said "Let them eat cake" after being told of her subjects' hardships, not Marie Antoinette as it is commonly believed.

The quotation was first written by French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Confessions. Actually, Rousseau wrote "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche," which essentially means "let them eat a type of egg-based bread". Rousseau claimed that "a great princess" told the peasants to eat cake/brioche when she heard they had no bread.

But Rousseau wrote this in early 1766, when Marie Antoinette was only 10 years old, still living in her native Austria and not yet married to King Louis XVI. So it's highly unlikely that Marie uttered the pompous phrase. Perhaps Rousseau invented them to illustrate the divide between royalty and the poor -- which is certainly how the phrase has been used ever since.

Soyon: Useful links:

Napoleon                       http://www.chateauversailles.fr/en/260_Napoleon_Ier.php

Marie-Antoinette            http://www.myrrhine.net/antoinette/biography.html

http://www.chateauversailles.fr/en/240_Marie-Antoinette.php

http://www.themakeupgallery.info/period/c18/marie/

(Featuring actresses as Marie-Antoinette)

Valmont            http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2588

Lafayette                        http://www.chateauversailles.fr/en/250_La_Fayette.php

General Dumas            http://www.cadytech.com/dumas/

B. Franklin                    http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/

John Adams                   http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ja2.html

Events Page

The multiplying events show global commercial and artistic momentum building for the Saint George franchise and for the period genre.

Dec 2005:            Oscar Winner Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette Likely Released. Based on Antonia Fraser’s novel, Sophia Coppola is writing and directing Marie Antoinette staring Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette. The release will substantially increase interest in Saint George story.

Dec 2005:            Global Saint George Conference In Guadeloupe, French Caribbean.

Guadeloupe, the native French-Caribbean Island of the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, will be the theater of a world-class symposium in December 2005. The event will bring together many specialists from many different fields: historians, musicians, novelists, and screenwriters. The organizers will offer tourist discovery of the island, in particular around the site where Joseph Boulogne spent his first 10 years. The event, sponsored by the regional government, will mark the inauguration of the official site “Route de Saint-Georges” in Basse-Terre.

Current Attendees: Gabriel BANAT (violin, NY Philharmonic), Michelle GARNIER PANAFIEU (music researcher, Paris), Claude RIBBE (Historian, Philosopher, Paris), Daniel PICOULI (Novelist, Paris), Alain Guédé (Journalist, France), Daniel MARCIANO (Novelist, Screenwriter, Fencing consultant, France), Alain BUFFON (Finance Historian, Guadeloupe), Alexis BIQUE, Allan BADLEY (CEO Artaria music production, NZ), Gérard LAFLEUR (Historian 18th century), Laure TRESSENS (National Archives, Guadeloupe), Mark CLAGUE (Music Historian, LA), Roland BRIVAL (Novelist, Martinique), Bernard MAGNIER (Music critic), Dr Dominique René De Lerma (Professor, Berkeley), Guy MONDUC (Historian of freemasonry), Myriam ALAMKAN (Naval  Historian), Sylvie CHALAYE (Sociologue, Historian of Black Theater, Guadeloupe), H & D PARISIS (Historian of Industrial Architecture), Marie-Christine HAZAËL-MASSIEUX (Historian of Creole Language), Jean-Marie BRETON (Researcher Civil Status in Guadeloupe), Tony DUNOYER (Art Entertainment, NY) , Tom HOPKINS (Film Producer, NY), GRIOT Entertainment (Film Production)

Mar 2005:            New Book on Saint-George “Le Chevalier de Saint-George Raconté Aux Enfants”, by Jean-Claude HALLEY

Jan 2005:            New Book on Saint-George: “Joseph Boulogne, Son of Naomi”, Daniel MARCIANO

 Jan 2005:            History Channel Documentary on the Characters of the French RevolutionPremieres. On January 17th at 9pm EST, the History Channel will premiere a two-hour documentary featuring the key characters of the French Revolution. WWW.historychannel.com/frenchrevolution/. The documentary, which will run multiple times in 2005, should increase interest in the Saint George story.

Dec 2004:            Phantom of The Opera Released. Based on the novel by Gaston Leroux and the musical by Andrew Llyod Webber, the film Phantom of the Opera was released. Given the Paris Opera House setting, the music, and the romantic drama, film should increase interest in the Saint George story

Aug 2004:            Saint GeorgeHorse and Fencing Show in Versailles (50.000 tickets SOLD OUT in advance sales). FETES DE NUIT DE VERSAILLES  (See Print Review Below) The fountains of Versailles come alive in music and fireworks, in an all-new show featuring the equestrian ballet of Bartabas in Le Chevalier de Saint-George, un africain à la cour. Bartabas, whose equestrian academy is located in the chateau's royal stables, is a master showman. In an evening worthy of the Sun King, 40 horses and their riders will take to a floating stage surrounding the magnificent Neptune fountain to honor the Chevalier Saint-Georges, the son of a slave and a celebrated musician. August 28 and 29, September 2, 4, 9, and 11

Article for Le Figaro (August 26, 2004), by Armelle Héliot.

The Spectacle of Versailles

This year, the nighttime entertainment on the grounds of the château is an equestrian and pyrotechnical symphony dedicated to a surprising figure that we have been learning about for some years, Joseph de Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George, a refined swashbuckler and man of the Enlightenment, son of a slave-girl named Nanon and an aristocrat, born in 1745 in Guadeloupe and died in Paris in 1799. A mulatto raised like a prince, intelligent and daring, cavalier of the King's Guard, seducer, secret agent, colonel of a regiment of Africans and Antillese in Revolutionary Year II. He is a cross between Laclos and the

Chevalier d'Eon, General Dumas and Philippe Egalité, Mirabeau and Haydn, since Saint-George was indeed a musician according to his biographer, Claude Ribbe, who also wrote the entertainment's script.

The choreographed horses in the show are the work of Bartabas, founder of the equestrian theatrical group Zingaro and director of the Grande Ecurie at Versailles.

In the court and garden, two horseways lead to a platform, a large surface installed over the Basin of Neptune. [...] On the steps—8,000 spectators, with some on the edge of grass, in the cool air!—they will applaud these colorful scenes (costumes by Marie-Laurence Schakmundès), in a fluid sequence where sounds (the careful and passionate André Serré), voices, music, and not a few horses, Lusitanians, Criollos, Argentines, in the field, in the park, horses from Zingaro and from the Académie, plus those pulling carriages, will call to each other in the night. And the moon will be full, and you will dream of sweetness and wonder.

I've added the links in the quoted sections. I love the fact that this sort of spectacle is being produced again at Versailles, which was created as the grandest possible stage for the day-to-day staged drama that was the life of Louis XIV. It reminds me, but is only a modern shadow, of some of the incredible entertainments hosted by the Roi-Soleil, like Les Plaisirs de l'Isle enchantée, staged from May 7 to 14, 1664. It was the first grand celebration given by the King at his new home, in honor of his mistress Mlle de La Vallière.

Aug 2004:            New Book On Saint George: “Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges”,

by Claude RIBBE

2004:            PBS/Thirteen TV Documentary on Saint George  (Feb-15-04)

Media Group in Toronto produces a one-hour documentary on Saint George, Le Mozart Noir (the Black Mozart), which highlights Saint George’s musical superstardom and asserts that Saint-George directly influenced Mozart. The documentary was shown on PBS in the US and broadcast in France as well.

2003:                New Zealand holds concerts in their regular philharmonic programs.

The multi-year project is a collaborative effort by Naxos with the New Zealand music-publishing firm, Artaria Editions, Ltd. Artaria specializes in researching, editing, and engraving rare and neglected classical music repertoire from the 18th and early 19th centuries. Artaria and its corporate partner, Naxos, are currently engaged in an encyclopedic recording project that -- when complete -- will provide an aural documentary of the development of the symphony and the concerto in 18th century Europe.

After a quarter-century of neglect by the world's major producers of classical music recordings, Saint-Georges' music is again reaching the public due to the efforts of Tennessee-based Naxos USA. A series of compact discs devoted to all of Saint-Georges' violin concertos is in preparation. They are performed by renowned Japanese violinist Takako Nishizaki and the world famous Cologne Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Helmut Müller-Bruhl. The multi-year project is a collaborative effort by Naxos with the New Zealand music-publishing firm, Artaria Editions, Ltd.

2003:                ChicagoRadio Program (WillFM)

WILLfm-90.9 in Chicago produced a radio program dedicated to Saint-Georges, “Classically Black”, hosted by Roger Cooper.

2002:            Paris:Street Named After Saint George

In February 2002, the Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë renamed a street in the memory of Saint-Georges—Rue Chevalier de Saint George

2002:            Toronto Philharmonic special Saint-Georges Tafelmusik has received five Juno Awards for Best Classical Album. The orchestra has also moved into the realm of television with the performance documentary “Le Mozart Noir.” This documentary special on Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a French Black composer contemporary to Mozart, was produced by Canadian producers Media Headquarters for CBC, BBC, PBS, TV5, and ARTV.

2000:            Exhibition in Guadeloupe, French Caribbean. In the Memory of Joseph Bolougne. Artifacts from the French National Archives. Catalogue available.

2000: CBS, Artaria, Naxos

Over twenty-five years ago, CBS Records issued a short-lived series of LP recordings devoted to the music of African-American and African-European composers who were active from the 18th through the 20th centuries. The recordings were conducted by the country's best-known African-American maestro, Paul Freeman. Unfortunately, since the advent of the compact disc and the subsequent purchase of the recording division of CBS by Sony, those rare and now coveted LP releases have been deleted from the firm's catalog and as of this writing, there are no plans afoot to re-release the material on compact disc.

Among the recordings was an album of music by one Joseph Boulogne, called Chevalier de Saint-Georges. After a quarter-century of neglect by the world's major producers of classical music recordings, Saint-Georges' music is again reaching the public due to the efforts of Tennessee-based Naxos USA. A series of compact discs devoted to all of Saint-Georges' violin concertos is in preparation. They are performed by renowned Japanese violinist Takako Nishizaki and the world famous Cologne Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Helmut Müller-Bruhl. The first disc -- released in 2002 as Naxos 8.555040 -- contains two of Saint-Georges' concertos from his Opus 2 set and a single concerto that was published as Opus 8.

The multi-year project is a collaborative effort by Naxos with the New Zealand music-publishing firm, Artaria Editions, Ltd. Artaria specializes in researching, editing, and engraving rare and neglected classical music repertoire from the 18th and early 19th centuries. Artaria and its corporate partner, Naxos, are currently engaged in an encyclopedic recording project that -- when complete -- will provide an aural documentary of the development of the symphony and the concerto in 18th century Europe.

CHRONOLOGY page            http://www.fact-index.com/1/17/1794.html

France History (11 dates)

1754 (Aug-23)                Louis XVI birth

1756 (Nov-2)                  Marie-Antoinette birth

1756 (May-15)                Britain declares war on France (starting the 7year war).

1763 (Feb-10)                 Treaty of Paris                 (ending the 7year War)

France cedes Canada and India to England.

                                                France cedes New-O and Louisiana to Spain

                                                France keeps Guadeloupe, Martinique.

France regains it’s sovereignty from the English Kingdom.

1763 (Jun-23)                 birth of Josephine de Beauharnais (Empress of Napoleon)

1769 (Aug-15)                birth of Napoleon Bonaparte

1774 (May-10)                Louis XVI becomes King of France

1793 (Jan-21)                  Louis XVI is guillotined

1794 (Feb-4)                   France abolishes slavery (re-instated in 1802 by Napoleon, then abolished in 1848)

1799 (Nov-9)                  Napoleon overthrows the French Revolutionary Government (18th Brumaire)

1803 (Apr-7)                   Death of Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803), leader of the slave revolt in Haiti

American History (19 dates)

1760                             The Great Fire of Boston destroys 350 buildings

1763 (Jul-17)                  birth of John Jacob Astor

1775 (Mar-5)                  The Boston massacre marks the start of the Revolutionary War.

1775 (Apr-19)                 Battles of Lexington and Concord

1781 (Oct-19)                 British troops surrender in Yorktown, the final battle of the War.

1783 (Spe-3)                   England signs the Paris Treaty, setting the end of the War.

1776 (Jul-4)                    Declaration of Independence (13 States separate from the British Crown)

1785 (Jul-6)            the dollar is adopted as money unit by the US, making the US the first with a decimal coinage

1787 (Sep-17)                 The US constitution is adopted.

1787 (Dec-7)                   Delaware ratify the Constitution and becomes the 1st US state.

1789 (Feb-4)                   George Washington becomes the 1st president of the Union

1792 (Oct-13)                 Construction of the White House begins (painted in white only in 1814, after a fire)

1793 (Jul-9)                    Canada abolishes slavery

1793 (Oct-8)                   death of John Hancock, the 1st person to sign the US Declaration of Independence

1794 (May-27)                birth of Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877), who died as the richest man in the world

1799 (Mar-29)                 the State of New York votes the 1st anti-slavery law (fully abolished in 1827)

1799 (Dec-14)                 death of George Washington

1800 (Nov-1)                  John Adams is the first president to take residence in the White House

1803 (Apr-30)                 Thomas Jefferson buys French territory of Louisiana from Napoleon for $15 million

Music and Art History (8 dates)

1745 Dec            Birth of StG

1746 Mar            Birth of painter Goya

1770                 Beethoven (1770-1826)

1750                 JS Bach death (1685-1750)

1756                 Mozart            (Jan 27 1756 – Dec 5 1791)

1757                 Scarlatti death (1685-1757)

1786                 1st performance of Mozart’s Figaro in Vienna

1799                 Aleksandr Pushkin (May 26 1799-Jan 29 1837)

Science Events (4 dates)

1765     1st self-propelled mechanical vehicle, or “automobile”, is created by French inventor Nicolas Cugnot.

1771     Oxygen discovered by Swedish scientist Scheele (later named O2 by French chemist Lavoisier)

1783     1st hot-air balloon flight in France by the brothers Montgolfier

1792     France invents The Semaphore line, a communication system predecessor of Morse’s electric telegraph

Chevalier de Saint-Georges history

1711                 Birth of Georges Bologne, Chevalier’s father. Georges was a wealthy planter in Guadeloupe.

1721                 Birth of Nanon, Chevalier’s mother. Nanon was one of Georges’s domestic servants.

1745 (Dec 25th)            Birth of Joseph Boulogne, later known as Chevalier de Saint-George

1748 (Mar 31st)            Joseph’s father is sentenced to death after being wrongfully accused of murder

1749 (Sep)            Georges obtains the King’s pardon, and then sails back to Guadeloupe to regain his property

1753 (Aug 12th)            Joseph arrives in Bordeaux, after crossing the Atlantic with his father

1755 (Aug 26th)            Nanon arrives in Bordeaux two years after Georges and Joseph

1761     at 16, Joseph becomes a member of the Kings National Guard, which entitles him to bear the distinction of Chevalier, despite the strict slavery laws.

1765     StG enters Fencing Hall of Fame after challenges by masters Picard (Fra) and Gianfaldoni (Ita).

1769     StG joins the Concert des Amateurs, as Lead violin. He becomes Director of the orchestra in 1773.

1772     StG composes his 1st major pieces, the Violin Concertos Op.2

1775     StG is named Director of the Royal Academy of Music (the Opera)

1776     After a standoff with the Opera’s employees, the King yields and leaves the post of Director vacant

            His father’s death 2years before would add to his sorrow.

1777     StG composes his 1st opera, Ernestine

1781     StG founds a new Orchestra that would become the most acclaimed in France, the Concert de la Loge

1786     StG travels to Austria to commission the renowned Six Parisians Symphonies from Josef Haydn

1787     StG resides more in London where he earns a living by giving fencing exhibitions

1791     StG enrolls the Revolutionnary Army, heading a regiment of 1000 men of color in the Northern fields

1794     After being accused of treason by his detractors, he is imprisoned for 18months

1793     StG unfolds a plot by General Dumouriez to free the Royal Family and re-instate the Monarchy.

1796     unable to re-join the army, StG goes to Haiti, and leaves disillusioned by the violent civil war.

1799     1 year after returning from Haiti, and after a long illness, StG dies on Jun12th, alone and poor.

Example of chrono pages

http://www.legalarts.com/pages/articles/ctimelines.htm

http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2498/Saint_George_Boulogne_renaissance_man

Biography Page

The Biography of Joseph Bologne (The Chevalier de Saint George)

The Remarkable Life of A Superman Revisited

Edited By Tony Dunoyer and Thomas Hopkins

Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-George, was born on Christmas day, 1745, on the French-Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. His mother was a young Senegalese slave of remarkable beauty. Joseph’s father, George de Bologne Saint-George, a descendant of the ancient house of Bologne in Italy, was a wealthy sugar and coffee plantation owner and a former “Gentleman in the King’s Chamber” in the court of Louis the XVI, King of France.

Musically Saint George may very well have been the “King of Pop” of his age; militarily he helped prevent what could have been the early collapse of the French Revolution. The vicissitudes of his journey are dramatic: from a young outsider in Paris to the dizzying heights of superstardom in pre-Revolutionary France (“The Famous Saint George”) to an utterly tragic end in which a man whose company had once been fought over by royalty and great aristocrats, died alone, unmarried and destitute. In his lifetime Saint George was a an elite musketeer of the King’s Horse Guard; a master-swordsman and Europe’s fencing champion; a composer, violin impresario, and opera director that influenced Mozart; a playboy; and a military hero in the French Revolution—ironically all in an age when slavery was endemic and white superiority was dogma

Mother and Father

Not much is known of Saint George’s mother who was given the name “Nanon”. However, she must have been one of the Bologne-Saint-Georges’s household slaves. The famous swordsman Henry Angelo claimed that Saint George’s mother Nanon was "one of the most beautiful women that Africa has ever sent to the plantations" and that "St-Georges combined in his person his mother’s grace and good looks and his father’s vigor and assurance". It is unclear as to whether Nanon was born in Guadeloupe or if she survived the hellish three-month “middle passage” in the hull of a slave ship. However given numerous accounts of her as “Senegalese” it is likely that she did endure the “middle passage” as young girl because the original African homeland of slaves that were born locally on plantations was rarely referred to.

Recent research has established that Saint George’s father was George de Bologne Saint-George, (b. 1710) a former Gentleman of the King’s (Louis XVI) Bedchamber and an important planter at Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe. George de Bologne was the son of Pierre de Bologne I, a wealthy colonist and major in the Lonvilliers regiment in Guadeloupe. According to a petition Pierre de Bologne II, George’s elder brother, made in 1769-1770, the family traced its descent from the "noble and ancient house of Bologne, originating in Italy, and from the city of that name". The younger Pierre de Bologne acquired a significant reputation as a poet and was admitted to the Academy of the Inestricati of Bologne in Italy. The Bologne family owned thriving sugar and coffee plantations and many of them held senior ranks in the colony’s armed forces.

George de Bologne Saint-George (b.1710) married Elizabeth Françoise Jeanne Mérican on 8 September 1739 and on 21 January 1740, a daughter was born, Elizabeth Bénédictine de Bologne, the only child whose name appears in any of the existing documentation concerning the family. There is, however, one exception to this. In a statement written around 1782 in connection with a dispute between the parish and the Bologne family over its burial rights in the chapel of the Holy Virgin of the church of St-François in Basse-Terre, the parish priest wrote that Bologne St-George had two children, a girl and a boy, "both living in France". The boy is believed to be Joseph de Bologne Saint George, the famous swordsman and composer.

In 1747, while paying a visit to his uncle Samuel de Bologne, George de Bologne became involved in a scuffle with a fellow guest. Le Vanier St-Robert was wounded on the nose but was able to return home unaided. Three days later St-Robert died, probably of infection rather than from the wound itself, and George found himself accused of murder. He fled Basse-Terre and on March 31, 1748 was convicted and sentenced in absentia to "be hanged and strangled until death ensues on the gallows erected in the corner of the public square in this town of Basseterre". George had all of his goods confiscated. The hanging was carried out in effigy on 25 October 1748. It is believed that George spent his exile on St. Domingue (now called Haiti) although no documentation has been found to confirm this. A note appended to his dossier tells us that he was subsequently pardoned – the date is not recorded – but it must have been before 1755 when he is known to have been back in Basse Terre.

In many respects the story of Saint George is that of the son of Nanon given that the father had a daughter with his legal wife who, despite her privileged life, left no record of remarkable achievement or exhibited any of the extraordinary talents of Saint George.

Elite Education In Paris-The Call To Adventure and Nobility

In 1759, when Saint-George was 14, his father returned to Paris taking his legal wife and daughter as well as Nanon and the young Saint-George. The domestic situation of George Bologne seems to have been unconventional to say the least. Whatever the relationship he enjoyed with his legal wife it seems odd given the rigid social etiquette of the class to which he belonged that George should have brought his illegitimate son and his slave mistress to France at the same time as his wife.

It is likely that George’s behavior was grounded in affection for Joseph and Nanon. Not only did George allow Joseph to use the family name–evidence that he acknowledged his paternity, which was unusual for slave owners--but he also paid large sums of money for the boy’s education. It is likely that Joseph gave signs of his precocious gifts at a very early age, even before the family returned to France and knowing that in the colonies this remarkable boy would be condemned to a life of humiliation and casual brutality, his father likely opted to bring him to France where he would have greater opportunities and suffer less overt prejudice. It is not necessarily overly idealistic to attribute such motives to the father since the evidence of young Joseph’s special treatment is undeniable. George’s decision to give his son the best possible education was vindicated early on by his spectacular achievements.

Doubtless George hired private tutors to prepare Saint George for entry to a regular educational institution and to ensure that he would be able to mix with ease with members of the aristocratic class to which he belonged. His father, perhaps intending him for a military career, boarded Saint George with the Master of Arms La Boëssière. In fact the earliest biographical sketch of Saint-Georges, the “Notice Historique” by his friend La Boëssière, asserts that Joseph’s facility for learning astounded those who were engaged to teach him. La Boëssière’s son, also a famous swordsman, trained from boyhood alongside Saint-Georges. In his foreword to the second edition of his father’s La Traité de l’Art des Armes, La Boëssière writes:

“From the age of eight when my father first put the foil in my hand I had the inestimable advantage of being trained under his instruction and brought up with M. de Saint-Georges, who was my friend and companion in arms right up to his death…”

The morning was devoted to Saint George’s education and the rest of the day was spent in the exercise hall. The young Chevalier developed superlative speed and by his late teens he had made such rapid progress that he could beat the strongest fencers in Europe.

Reportedly he was relatively tall, slim and had an astonishing agility. His stance was superb and with his hand held high he could always exploit the faults of his opponent. His left foot was firm and never wandered, and his right leg stayed absolutely straight. This combination gave him the poise he needed to recover his position and go back on to the attack with the speed of lightning.

Saint-George also excelled in riding and the Chevalier Dugast, principal of the Tuileries Riding School, one of the royal academies controlled by the Grand Ecuyer de France, thought him one of his best pupils. According to 19th century biographer Fetis, “he [Saint George] was an excellent horseman who could ride the most difficult of horses bareback and render them docile”.

Around the time he entered La Boëssière’s establishment, Saint-Georges took the first step in his military career by becoming a member of the Gendarmes de la Garde du Roi (King’s Guard). Saint George also went on to join the Musketeers—the King’s Horse Guards. The fact that Saint George was allowed into the Guards proves that despite his color he was recognized as a member of the nobility and was accorded his rights as the son of a Gentleman of the King’s Chamber. The young outsider from the colonies was quickly becoming an insider in French society’s most elite circles.

A Fencing Champion and “God of Arms”

Henry Angelo, who ran a famous fencing academy in London, wrote an account Saint-George’s athletic prowess:

"Never did any man combine such suppleness with so much strength. He excelled in every physical exercise he took up, and was also an accomplished swimmer and skater…He could often be seen swimming across the Seine with only one arm, and in skating his skill exceeded everyone else’s. As to the pistol, he rarely missed the target. In running he was reputed to be one of the leading exponents in the whole of Europe".

Inevitably the exotic prodigy Saint-George soon dazzled Parisian society and his company was fought over. When he was confronted, as he was from time to time, by jealous hostility, his charm and impeccable manners soon disarmed his opponent. Few would dare challenge him to a duel and on one occasion, when he was slapped by a well-known violinist, he declined to fight on the grounds that he had far too much respect for his opponent.

However in 1765 a master of arms from Rouen and former officer, named Picard, challenged Saint George to a duel with a racial insult calling him “La Boessiere’s mulatto”. Saint George declined, but his father insisted and promised him an English style cabriolet if he won. Saint George went to Rouen and easily defeated Picard. Picard was forced to acknowledge Saint George’s superior skills.

A year later, in 1766, Saint George distinguished himself again against celebrated Italian fencer Giuseppe Gianfaldoni in a match that took place before an exceptionally grand audience of Europe’s leading aristocracy and swordsmen. It ended with four hits to the credit of the master Gianfaldoni and two for the young St. George. However Gianfaldoni heaped praise on Saint George granting him incredible speed and strength and describing his parries as “almost impenetrable”. Gianfaldoni predicted that Saint George would become the best swordsman in Europe.

Gianfaldoni was right, Saint George quickly became known as one of the leading authorities on the art and science of arms, taught as a master and was admitted to the Royal Academy as a professor. The Academy’s official certificates were issued bearing Saint George’s effigy. He became known as the “god of arms”. To have achieved such prominence at an early age must have involved an enormous amount of effort even given his great natural ability, but what is even more remarkable is that his time cannot have been devoted entirely to these activities since all the time he was developing his formidable technique as a swordsman he must have been making astounding progress in his musical studies.

Le Mozart Noir (“The Black Mozart”)

Early accounts of Saint-Georges’s life claim that he first studied violin with Platon, his father’s estate manager, and later, in France, took lessons with Leclair and possibly Lolli. He certainly enjoyed a close professional relationship with Gossec and indeed the older composer might have given him composition lessons at some stage. A musical education of sorts was considered de rigueur for members of the nobility and some individuals are known to have played to a professional standard. Saint-Georges’s father was a notable patron of musicians and received dedications from a number of composers including the Italian violinist Antonio Lolli and Carl Stamitz. In 1770 the latter dedicated his Six Orchestral Quartets Op.1 "To Monsieur Bologne de St-George, who brings to his good fortune as a lover of the arts the pleasure of also understanding them, and who has given us artists an invaluable gift in the person of his son". Joseph also received a number of dedications early in life, notably the two Violin Concertos, Op.2 by Lolli (1764), and Gossec’s Six Trios, Op.9:

To M. de Saint-George, Ecuyer, Gendarme in the King’s Guards.

Monsieur,

In view of the reputation you have acquired through your talents and the support you have accorded to artists, I allow myself the liberty of dedicating this work to you, out of homage to an enlightened music-lover. If you lend it your approval its success is assured. I am, Sir, with respect, your very humble servant.

F-J Gossec, d’Anvers

It speaks volumes for Saint-Georges’s reputation that two such distinguished composers should choose to dedicate works to him well before his twentieth birthday.

Saint-Georges’s musical career was launched in the late 1760s. In 1769 he joined the Concert des Amateurs as first violin (leader). This orchestra had just been assembled under the direction of Gossec thanks to the support of patrons such as Baron d’Ogny and, perhaps, Saint-Georges’s father. The twelve weekly performances of the Amateurs took place from December to March at the town house of Charles de Rohan-Rohan, Prince of Soubise and Epinoy. The concerts were open to subscription and largely featured new music, in particular, symphonies, concertos and symphonies concertante. According to Gossec they provided the opportunity to hear "the most skilful performers of Paris in all parts of the orchestra". The most famous instrumentalists of the Opéra and Court took part as well as celebrated foreign virtuosos.

Saint-George made his public début as a soloist with the Concert des Amateurs in 1772, performing his two Violin Concertos Op.2. According to the Mercure de France the works "received the most rapturous applause, both for its excellent execution and for the composition itself". When Gossec left the Amateurs in 1773 to take over the Concert Spirituel, Saint-Georges, aged twenty-eight, succeeded him as director of the orchestra. The orchestra, which was unusually large for the period numbering up to 76 players with 40 violins, won its great reputation during Saint-George’s eight-year directorship and it was this orchestra – and not the Concert Spirituel – which introduced Haydn’s symphonies to Parisian audiences.

Soon word of Saint George’s amazing performances reached Versailles, and in 1774 young Queen Marie Antoinette invited the Chevalier to come and play music with her. Saint George became Marie Antoinette’s musical adviser and even her teacher for some time. Right up to the Revolution Saint George enjoyed a privileged relationship with the Queen who would regularly travel to Paris to attend his concerts, even going to watch him skate on the frozen Seine. One of the most well known portraits of Saint George was made by the Queen’s personal painter, Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun. Historians found mention of Saint George in the Queens diary as “my favorite American”. (The French and many other Europeans referred to subjects born in the “new world” colonies in the Caribbean, North, Central, and South America and as “Americans”.) Given her frenetic nightlife, one can only speculate on the nature and extent of Marie Antoinette’s relationship with Saint George.

That same year, in 1774, Saint George’s father, George Bologne de Saint George died in Guadeloupe. In 1764 the father had taken out a large loan of 500,000 livres, reportedly to “buy Negroes and improve his property on the island of Guadeloupe”. At some point after Saint George’s matches with Picard and Gianfaldoni his father returned to Guadeloupe for good, leaving his son, Nanon, his legal wife and his daughter in Paris. His death created a major dispute between his creditors and his sole heirs—his widow Elizabeth Merican, and her daughter Elizabeth Benedictine now married. Nanon and Saint George, who had survived on an annuity of 7000-8000 Francs each from Bologne, now had to survive on what Saint George could earn because there was no official recourse for them and it is unclear as to what would have been left after the creditors even if there had been recourse.

In 1775, two years after the publication of Op.2, the publisher Bailleux acquired a six-year copyright on Saint-Georges’s future concertos. Saint-Georges had become so well established as a composer, soloist and orchestra director that he was considered for the post of artistic director of the Royal Academy of Music, the Opéra, due mainly to the request of Marie Antionette.  According to Baron von Grimm in his Correspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique (1776), Saint-Georges’s nomination collapsed in the face of strong opposition from some of the female artists at the Opéra, including the famous singers Sophie Arnould and Rosalie Levasseur. Baron Grimm described Saint-Georges to his readers as:

"a young American known as the Chevalier de St-George, who combines the most gentle manners with incredible skill in all physical exercises and very great musical talent…”, but the artists nevertheless at once addressed a petition to the Queen to beg Her Majesty “that their honor and the delicacy of their conscience made it impossible for them to be subjected to the orders of a mulatto".

We do not know how Saint-Georges reacted in the face of such obvious discrimination but it must have been a devastating reminder that however brilliant his achievements he would always be regarded by many as a freak, a half-breed, or even a “nigger”.

Of course Saint George was spectacularly equipped to deflect physical attacks--his sword alone was a fearsome reminder of the respect due to him; and those attackers unfortunate enough to not know who he was, were quickly beat down. According to the sketch “Duel a l’ecumoire” (Duel with the Skimmer), Saint George was dinning with the Prince de Conti at the Isle Adam, and went into the kitchens to complain about a dish that had not found pleasure among the guest. The butler, who must have been new and ignorant as to who he was, called him a “nigger” and attacked him with a knife. With customary agility, Saint George seized a skimmer, and using this as an unconventional sword boldly parried the butler’s attack and disarmed him, to the enthusiastic applause of the other guests who had come running to watch the spectacle.

However, despite his enormous ability to defend against the external, on the inside there must have been great pain. Despite all of his success, Saint George has been described as occasionally  “vulnerable”,  “lonely”, and “melancholic”.

In 1777 Saint-Georges made his début as an opera composer with Ernestine at the Comédie-Italienne. As is the case with many composers, the dramatic flair which served him so well in instrumental music proved largely unsuited to the theatre and although the work was applauded in private performances at the theatre of Mme de Montesson, who was secretly married to the Duke of Orleans, it lasted but a single night at the

Music at the Comédie Italienne. Nonetheless, both the Mercure de France and Le Journal de Paris found things to praise in the music and hoped Saint-George would continue to write for the theatre. Saint-George’s affiliation with the Duke of Orleans went much deeper than music and the duke became a patron and put him in charge of his hunting retinue at his seat in Le Raincy.

After the disbanding of the Amateurs in January 1781, probably due to financial problems, Saint-George founded the Concert de la Loge Olympique, the orchestra for whom Count d’Ogny commissioned Haydn to compose his brilliant set of six ‘Paris’ symphonies. Saint-George acted as the go-between and actually traveled to Austria to meet the most famous composer in Europe.

Given the ties between Mozart and Haydn, Mozart’s many visits to Paris, and the fact that Mozart composed pieces similar to Saint George, it is very likely that Mozart and Saint George met at some point. Given his nomination as Director of the Paris Opera by the King and Queen of France, Mozart certainly knew of Saint George. In any case, Saint-George rehearsed the six symphonies and directed their triumphant premieres at the end of 1787.

In the years immediately preceding the French Revolution Saint-George was at the zenith of his fame as a composer and performer. He had still to achieve great success with a theatrical work although La fille-garçon was reasonably well received. His musical output was steady, but no doubt his other activities prevented him from devoting the greater part of his time to composition.

Beyond his ethnicity, Saint George’s musical legacy is that his violin concerti contain virtuosity that was extreme during his time. No doubt his fencing and other athletic endeavors had an influence on the style of his play. However audiences were most impressed by the feeling and expression that Saint George put into his performances. 

He is noted as being able to use one excellent melodic line after another in a single work. His thematic ideas seemed endless and effortless, and sometimes he employs so many fine passages in a row that he almost seems wasteful. But apparently, he never had to concern himself with exhausting his wealth of musical creativity. One can only wonder what influence the African and Caribbean rhythms of Saint George’s youth had on his music--and therefore ironically on what we call “classical music”. Today Saint George is remembered mainly for his quartets and violin concerti, but his operas were quite popular. His musical style was naturally suited to operatic and theatrical music, and it is believed that some other operatic works of his have been lost to time.

The “Famous Saint George”, Accounts of a Playboy, and A Baby’s Death

As a superstar athlete and musician, Saint George’s celebrity and “exotic looks” inevitably attracted many ladies of the French aristocracy. To get an idea of the Chevalier’s celebrity at its peak, in today’s terms Saint George would be as popular as Tiger Woods and P. Diddy combined. Therefore it is easy to understand why he would have been successful with women. However depictions of his romantic relationships and sexual prowess border on stereotype. Bachaumont author of the gossip paper of the day, Memoires Secrets, refers to Saint George as a “black Don Juan” and as a “very valorous champion of love”. Other biographers have maintained, “he was the lover of an incalculable number of marquises, countesses, duchesses, and other fine ladies”.

Indeed Saint George was a close friend of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, a French official and army general who was an author of the masterpiece Valmont, upon which the film Dangerous Liaisons was based. Reportedly they found themselves in competition for the same women. Furthermore, according to La Boessiere’s son, who was even closer to saint George, the Chevalier was “sought after everywhere in society”, “often had his music to thank for relations in which love was not far away” and “given his lively temperament, he loved and was loved.” 

However, if Saint George was a playboy, can his behavior be explained in the context of his celebrity and the decadent times of pre-revolutionary France, or was it because that, although he may have wanted a wife above all else, marriage was forbidden him by both written and unwritten laws. Saint George’s love affairs were likely condemned at outset because as Swiss historian Smidak put it:

“Because of his color, any notion of lasting union was forbidden for Saint George, partly because marriage between white and colored people was formally prohibited in France from 1778, and partly because none of the noble families with whom he mixed would have wanted to introduce a mulatto descendant into their family tree.”

Certainly in the colonies any sexual relationship between a black man or a “mulatto” and a white woman was punishable by death. 

The artificial complexities that dogged Saint George’s romantic life and the inability to have a normal relationship would have the gravest of consequences. In at least one account, Saint George is reported to have fathered a baby—a son—with the wife of a French Aristocrat. Suspecting that the baby was not his, the Aristocrat had the servants ignore the baby and let it die from neglect and starvation. 

Turning Revolutionary, Answering the Call for Liberty, “The Saint George Legion”

Saint-George was still active as a swordsman and made several trips to London to fight in exhibition matches in 1787 where he took on not only the Prince of Wales, the future George IV, but also a personality who had become, like Saint George, a legend in his lifetime. This character was the cross-dressing Chevalier (or Chevaliere) d’Eon a transvestite, secret agent of Louis XV. These matches were detailed in the London Newspapers.

Historians believe that Saint-George met with progressive political elements while in England, particularly those campaigning for the abolition of slavery. Within six months of the outbreak of the French Revolution, the Loge Olympique was dissolved and Saint-George returned to England in the company of the young Duke of Orleans, Philippe-Egalité who urged Saint George to join the abolitionist movement and the egalitarian aspirations of the French Revolution.

The last decade of Saint-George’s life was dominated entirely by the French Revolution.

Having been born of a slave mother, Saint-George was well aware that every advantage he had enjoyed initially was due solely to the kindness and goodwill of his father, and then later partly due to his talent. As a mulatto he had greater legal rights than a slave, but in spite of his name and in spite of his fame, he would forever be at the mercy of whites to some extent. When the French Revolution proclaimed the equality of all men on August 26, 1789, Saint-George embraced its cause and decided to offer his services to the Revolutionary Army when the chance arose.

Saint George returned to Paris in 1790, but finding the state of affairs unsatisfactory undertook a tour of northern France with the young actress Louise Fusil and the horn player Lamothe. In June 1791 the Assembly ordered the immediate levy of 91,000 volunteers into the ranks of the National Guard throughout the whole of France. In Lille, where Saint George had settled, he was one of the first to sign up. As a brilliant horseman, god of arms and former member of the Royal Guard, Saint-George must have been a very welcome recruit. He worked hard to forge his troops into a well-trained fighting unit, but still found time occasionally for musical activities.

In September 1792 the Assembly decreed the formation of a corps of light troops consisting of black and” mulatto” men and comprising 1,000 soldiers, of whom 800 were foot soldiers and 200 mounted cavalry. They first received the name ‘Légion franche de cavalerie des Américains et du Midi’ but later were more commonly referred to as the ‘Légion St-George’ after their famous colonel. Among those Saint George appointed as squadron commander was a certain “Dumas”—who was none other than Alexander Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, a “mulatto” born in Haiti, and the future father and grandfather of the two authors called Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers, Count of Monte Cristo.)

Under Saint George’s leadership, the Legion helped General Menou turn back the Austrian invasion of Northern France, in Lille.  The Legion also helped General Dumouriez defeat pro-Monarchy forces in Belgium. In probably his most important contribution to the Revolution, in 1793 Saint George may have helped prevent its early collapse by undoing the treasonous plot of Dumouriez who had secretly turned against the Convention. Leaving General Miaczinsky to consolidate Lille and the North, Dumouriez wanted to descend on Paris, free the imprisoned Royal family, bring back Louis XVI’s son to the North and declare him King. According to Dumouriez’s own memoirs, the Revolution had Saint George to thank for spoiling his plan:

“ This wretched officer (General Miaczinsky) did not fully grasp the importance of his mission and revealed to all and sundry, including the famous mulatto Saint George, colonel of a regiment of hussars. Saint George betrayed him and enticed him into Lille with a very small escort; as soon as he was inside, the gate was closed on him. He was arrested and taken to Paris where he was beheaded.”

Miaczinsky likely could not have grasped how deeply Saint George had come to embrace the egalitarian and abolitionist sentiments of the Revolution: to Miaczinsky’s eyes Saint George was an aristocrat’s aristocrat who had been friends with the Royal family. What Miaczinsky missed was that Saint George was also the son of a slave. Saint George had super-successfully answered his father’s early call to the adventure of nobility; by defending the Revolution the Chevalier was now answering the call of Nanon and her people for freedom.

With his treason exposed, the Convention declared Dumouriez a traitor and outlaw, promising 300,00 livres to anyone taking him alive or dead. There is no record of any reward or promotion for Saint George’s heroism and loyalty to the Revolution in outing Dumouriez. In fact Saint George’s actions may have sealed his doom: ironically, the disclosure of Dumouriez’s plan to re-establish the Monarchy resulted in a fanatical witch hunt (“The Terror”) for those who had been in any way been related to the Aristocracy and Royal Court. Quickly many of Saint George’s old friends and patrons—Choderlos de Laclos, Madame de Montesson, and Philippe of Orleans--were hunted down and arrested, then subsequently imprisoned, exiled or beheaded.

The Revolution Turns On Saint George

Saint-George, like most talented and all brilliant men, had his detractors and was eventually denounced for un-revolutionary behavior. He undoubtedly made enemies by exposing Dumouriez’s plot. After a denunciation to the Minister of War by Commissar Dufrene on May 2, 1793, Saint George was brought before the revolutionary tribunal in Paris on May 11, 1793 and wrongfully accused of a misappropriation of funds intended for the troops, and therefore disloyalty to the nation. Dufrene claimed:

“Saint-George is a man to be watched. Heavily in debt, he had the idea of raising an army corps; the nation has, I believe, allocated and paid him 300,000 livres to equip his soldiers, but in spite of this they remain in desperate need! In my view not even 100,000 livres was used for the requirements of this corps, and the remainder has served to pay the debts of M. Saint George, who parades an extravagant life-style and has, it is said, more than 30 horses in his stables, of which several are worth 3,000 livres each: what a disgrace!”

Saint George was stripped of his command and imprisoned for 18 months. After a lengthy and Byzantine appeal process he was released but not reinstated in his command in spite of the overwhelming support of his men and junior officers. He was also ordered not to associate with his former comrades. In the circumstances he was extraordinarily lucky to escape the guillotine.

Unemployed again, Saint-Georges led a vagabond existence with Lamothe and returned for a time to St. Domingue (Haiti) where a fierce civil war was in progress between Revolutionary forces from which Toussaint would emerge and reactionaries like the mulatto general, Rigaud, who wished to restore the old order including the reintroduction of slavery.

Saint-George was bitterly disappointed by what he saw in St-Domingue (Haiti) and returned to France disillusioned and disorientated. Ironically, the return to the region of his origin would be Saint George’s final undoing: the black-on-black/mulatto vs. black warfare that Saint George witnessed on a two-year stay in Haiti after his release from prison is widely regarded as breaking his spirit—something racism in Europe ne