Who was the Chevalier de Saint-Georges?
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (c. 1745–1799) was a composer, violin virtuoso, conductor and celebrated fencer in pre-revolutionary France — and one of the most conspicuous figures in Parisian public life of his generation.
His origins. Born in Guadeloupe, the son of a French plantation owner and an enslaved Senegalese woman named Nanon. His father brought both mother and son to France and had him educated, which placed him in an unusual and precarious position: accepted in elite society, and legally and socially constrained by his ancestry under the racial codes of the period.
Fencing first. He trained under the fencing master La Boëssière and became famous for it while still young, at a time when fencing was a serious public spectacle. A widely reported match against the Chevalier d'Éon drew enormous attention. His title of chevalier came from a royal appointment.
Music. He was a formidable violinist and became concertmaster and then director of the Concert des Amateurs, one of the finest orchestras in Europe. He composed string quartets, violin concertos, symphonies concertantes, sonatas and operas — the concertos in particular written for his own considerable technique.
He was closely connected to the Parisian musical establishment, and it was the orchestra he later directed, the Concert de la Loge Olympique, that commissioned Haydn's Paris symphonies.
The Opéra appointment he lost. He was proposed as director of the Paris Opéra, and a group of singers petitioned the queen refusing to be directed by a man of his ancestry. The appointment did not proceed.
The Revolution. He supported it and commanded the Légion Saint-Georges, a regiment of Black and mixed-race soldiers. He was nonetheless imprisoned for a period during the Terror, and died a few years after his release.
Why he vanished from the repertoire. His music went largely unpublished and unperformed for two centuries. The nickname "the Black Mozart", frequently attached to him now, is a modern label many scholars dislike as diminishing.