"Fencing Match between St. Georges and 'La chevaliere D'Eon' on April 9, 1787" by Alexandre-Auguste Robineau
public domain
By Tyler Alderson
May 6, 2020
Has Tom Brady written a symphony? Did Michael Jordan fight in a
revolution? For Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, being a
great athlete, composer, and warrior was just the tip of the iceberg.
If
Dos Equis had to pick a real-life mascot for their “Most Interesting
Man in the World” ads, there would be only one worthy choice, in my
opinion: Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. We know him best as
a composer who wrote music like this, the overture to his opera The Anonymous Lover:
In 18th-century France, though, he was Tom Brady, Andris Nelsons,
Muhammad Ali, and General Patton all rolled into one. From being the
greatest athlete in the country to being so famous as a musician that
even Mozart couldn’t get a note in edgewise in Paris, Joseph Bologne had
plenty of star power. Along the way, he also managed to lead Europe’s
first all-black regiment and become one of the continent’s leading
abolitionist voices. And he did it all while facing a society that all
too often wanted to judge him for the color of his skin rather than his
remarkable talent and character.
Bologne, the Athletic Star
Joseph
Bologne was born in 1745 on the island of Guadeloupe, the son of a
wealthy French settler and a young slave. Most children in the same
situation were immediately disavowed by their fathers, if they were even
acknowledged in the first place. According to the laws in place at the
time, he would have been born a slave just like his mother, and
potentially fated to a hard life toiling in the sugar plantations.
Joseph’s
mother, though, made sure that Joseph was protected from that difficult
life. His father provided for the two of them, and when Joseph was a
young boy they moved to France. Despite harshly racist laws that forced
black people to register with police and restricted their rights, his
father was able to get him into an elite private school in Paris, where
he studied alongside the sons of aristocracy.
One thing was
apparent from an early age: Joseph Bologne was very, very special. As a
teenager he made a name for himself as one of the best all-around
athletes in the country. According to contemporary accounts, he could
shoot individual buttons off of a coat, swim across the Seine with one
hand tied behind his back, and beat just about anyone in the boxing
ring. Running, ice skating, and horseback riding rounded out his
remarkable list of athletic strengths.
One sport, though, stood
above all else: fencing. Seen as the pastime of noblemen and warriors,
fencing was a ticket to fame and acceptance in the most elite circles of
French high society. As you might have guessed from his other talents,
Bologne was the best fencer that anyone had ever seen. One of his
friends and fellow fencers would later write that “no one ever in the
art of fencing displayed more grace or more steadiness. He had superb
style… As one sees him, Saint-Georges had arrived at an ideal
perfection, which up to the present has not been attained by anyone
[else].”
He gained even more fame after a match with fencing
master Alexandre Picard, who had taunted him with racial slurs and
derogatory comments. Spectators wondered whether a man from a supposedly
inferior race could beat a French aristocrat in such a noble sport. As
it turns out, he could, and he did!
Bologne, the Musical Genius
Joseph
Bologne’s athletic exploits may have made him a star, but he was just
getting started. While his musical education isn’t as well documented as
his fencing, he apparently learned to play the violin as a young boy.
By his early 20s, some of the leading composers in France were
dedicating pieces to him. He was also known as a master of the
harpsichord, and soon turned his attention to conducting and composing.
Bologne’s
most popular compositions today are his violin concertos. Filled with
wonderful melodies and devilishly difficult to play, they show a
composer and performer at the height of his powers. He also wrote a
number of hit operas, and was among the first French composers to write
for string quartet. As a conductor, he commissioned six symphonies by
Joseph Haydn, premiering them to audiences that included Queen Marie
Antoinette.
No comments:
Post a Comment