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My journey into exploring hidden gems within the classical music world may have eventually led me to Florence Price and Margaret Bonds, but nearly 150 years before these two debuted their first musical pieces there was the prodigy Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (December 25, 1745 – June 10, 1799). Venturing deeper into independent research showed me cultural historians who were just inspired by his exceptional yet daring life; so I’ve been following his story and the society in which he lived for quite some time now. He was a French Caribbean talent as a champion fencer, classical composer, virtuoso violinist, and conductor of the leading symphony orchestra in Paris. Born in Guadeloupe, he was the son of George Bologne de Saint-Georges, a wealthy planter, and Nanon, an indigenous woman who was described as a slave.
Though it is highly likely The Chevalier crossed paths with Mozart at the Rue de la Chaussée-d’Antin, many have referred to him the Black Mozart. While this may have intended to be a compliment, there’s no need to replace one for the other as The Chevalier de Saint-Georges held his own name, rank and title which should be remembered along with the more well-known greats such as Tchaikovsky and Beethoven who were taught in music appreciation classes through
out western philosophies and theories. The Chevalier de Saint-Georges can be considered the first, if not most prominent classical music composer of Blackamoor ancestry-although his lineage has been erroneously misidentified as African. During the French Revolution, Saint-Georges was colonel of the Légion St.-Georges, the first all-black regiment in Europe, fighting on the side of the First Republic. He was a noted friend of Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne who was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child and youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I. She also attended some of Saint-Georges’s concerts at the Palais de Soubis. While many concert halls were racist against Blackamoors, the Concert de la Loge Olympique was a concert company founded in the 1780s by Charles Marin de La Haye des Fosses and Count Claude-François-Marie Rigoley. The main conductor was of course the legend himself, Monsieur Joseph Bologne de Saint-George. The orchestra was considered one of the best in Europe. It is a shame we don’t already know more about him as people of color have been largely ignored or totally erased from the European history books although their presence was more dominate during Medieval Times.
Well, fast forward to today and he is finally getting his flowers for a whole new generation of classical music lovers to learn and enthusiasts to enjoy. His extraordinary story will hit the big screen with a major theatrical release titled, “Chevalier” from Searchlight Pictures April 2023 so I will be sure to stay up-to-date on the latest.
Inspired by the incredible true story of composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. The illegitimate son of an indigenous slave and a French plantation owner, Bologne (Kelvin Harrison Jr. in a tour de force performance) rises to improbable heights in French society as a celebrated violinist-composer and fencer, complete with an ill-fated love affair and a falling out with Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton) herself and her court.
