SAINT-GEORGES
Antoine Dauvergne
About SAINT-GEORGES
Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges (Guadeloupe, 25th december 1745 – Paris 12th june 1799), nickname ‘The black Mozart’, was a French composer, violist and famous fencer. De Saint-Georges was a mulatto from French-African origine. His mother was a slave, his father was the Frenchman Georges de Boulogne Saint-Georges, a planter. At the age of 13 Saint-Georges became a pupil of La Boëssière, a master of arms, and excelled in all physical exercises, especially fencing. He also studied literature and horseback riding, and became an exceptional violinist. On graduating, at the age of 19, he was made a Gendarme de la Garde du Roi and dubbed chevalier. Saint- Georges was known as much for his virtuosity as for his compositions. After having played first violin for several years, in 1773 he was appointed to maestro of Le Concert des Amateurs a relatively large orchestra of 70 members, amateurs as well as professionals. In the book Foil and Bow we read; Together with Gossec, Saint-Georges was one of the first composers of string quartets and one the pioneers in composing ‘symphony concertantes’, a genre that was very popular in Paris in the last part of the 18th century. Saint-Georges is nowadays fallen into oblivion. Probably only one thirth of his compositions has been saved. The oeuvre of Saint-Georges consists of symphonies, violin concertos, string quartets and more.
Taken from Last.fm
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