Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George(s) (25 December 1745 – 9 June 1799) was a French violinist, conductor, composer and soldier. Moreover he demonstrated excellence as a fencer, an athlete and an accomplished dancer. His historical significance lies partly in his distinctive background as a biracial free man of color.^[a] Bologne was the first classical composer of African descent to attain widespread acclaim in European music. He composed an array of violin concertos, string quartets, sinfonia concertantes, violin duets, sonatas, two symphonies and an assortment of stage works, notably opéra comique.^[1]

Born in the French colony of Guadeloupe, his father, Georges Bologne de Saint-Georges, was a wealthy, white plantation owner, while his mother was one of the Creole people Georges kept enslaved.^[b] At the age of seven, he was taken to France where he began his formal education. As a young man he won a fencing contest leading to his appointment as a “gendarme de la garde du roi” by king Louis XVI.^[3] Having received music and musical composition lessons, he joined the orchestra Le Concert des Amateurs; culminating in his appointment as its conductor in 1773.^[4]

In 1776, Saint-Georges began conducting the Paris Opera. However, this prospect was thwarted by opposition from certain performers who resisted the idea of being led by an individual of color.^[5] Around this time, he shifted his focus to composing operas. In 1781, he joined a new orchestra Le Concert de la Loge Olympique.^[6] By 1785, he had stopped composing instrumental works altogether.^[7] Following the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, Saint-Georges left for England. Upon his return to France, he joined the National Guard in Lille and then served as a colonel in the Légion St.-Georges,^[8] which comprised “citizens of color”. His social and professional ties to prominent figures such as Marie Antoinette and the Duke of Orléans made him a target of the Reign of Terror, culminating in a period of imprisonment spanning at least eleven months.^[9]

Saint-Georges, a contemporary of Mozart, has at times been called the “Black Mozart.” Some have criticized this appellation as racist.^[10][11] Saint-Georges’s life and career are the subject of the 2022 romanticized biographical film Chevalier, with Kelvin Harrison Jr. portraying the composer.^[12]

Early life[edit]

Chevalier de Saint-Georges, also known as Joseph Bologne was born on 25 December 1745 in Baillif, Basse-Terre, the illegitimate son of a settler and planter Georges Bologne de Saint-Georges and Nanon, a 17-year-old enslaved African who served within the family household.^[13] Bologne was legally married to Elisabeth Mérican (1722–1801) but acknowledged his son by Nanon and gave him his surname.^[14][15][16]

In 1747, Georges Bologne was accused of murder and fled to France. The next year he was visited by his wife, Nanon, and his son. After two years he was granted a royal pardon and returned to Guadeloupe.^[17] In August 1753, Joseph aged seven, was taken to France for his education, and installed in a Jesuit boarding school in Angoulême so his uncle Pierre could keep an eye on him. The couple accompanied by Nanon returned to Guadeloupe.^[18] Two years later, on 26 August 1755, listed as passengers on the ship L’Aimable Rose,^[19] Bologne de Saint-Georges and only Nanon landed in Bordeaux.^[20] Reunited with their son Joseph, they moved into a spacious apartment in the 6th Arrondissement (Rive Gauche).^[21][22]

At the age of 13, Joseph was enrolled in a private fencing academy run by Texier de La Boëssière’s in Rue Saint-Honoré across from the Oratoire du Louvre, practising horse riding in the Salle du Manège. According to Antoine la Boëssière, son of the Master, “At 15 his progress was so rapid, that he was already beating the best swordsmen, and at 17 he developed the greatest speed imaginable.”^[23] Bologne was still a student when he defeated Alexandre Picard, a fencing master in Rouen, who had been mocking him in public as “Boëssière’s upstart mulatto“.^[24] That match, bet on heavily by a public divided into partisans and opponents of slavery, was an important episode for Bologne. His father rewarded Joseph with a horse and buggy.^[25]

His father, called “de Saint-Georges” after one of his plantations in Guadeloupe, was a commoner until 1757, when he acquired the title of Gentilhomme ordinaire de la chambre du roi (Gentleman of the King’s Chamber).^[26] On 5 April 1762, King Louis XV decreed that “Nègres et gens de couleur” must register with the clerk of the Admiralty within two months.^[27] Likely because at the end of the Seven Years’ War, blacks and free mulattos were seen as helpful as France was losing the war.^[24] Many leading “Enlightenment” thinkers argued that Africans and their descendants were inferior to White Europeans, as exemplified by Voltaire’s views on race and slavery.^[28]

After defeating Picard in 1761 or on graduating from the academy in 1766, Bologne was made a Gendarme du roi (officer of the king’s bodyguard) in Versailles and a chevalier.^[29][30] He then adopted the suffix of his father’s plantation and was known as the “Chevalier de Saint-Georges“.

In 1764, his father returned to Guadeloupe, which had been occupied by the British during the Seven Year’s War, to look after his sugar plantations. The following year, he made a last will and testament where he left Joseph an annuity of 8,000 francs and an adequate pension to Nanon, who remained with their son in Paris.^[25] When Georges Bologne died in 1774 in Guadeloupe, he awarded his annuity and two plantations (fr:Habitation-Sucrerie Clairefontaine) to his legitimate daughter, Elisabeth Benedictine. The younger Saint-Georges was ineligible under French law for titles of nobility due to his illegitimate status. Long before her death, Saint-George’s mother recorded a testamentary deed dated 17 June 1778, in which she bequeathed all her belongings to her son as her universal legatee. She signed the document “Anne Danneveau” and her son signed as “Mr De Bolongna St-George”.^[31]

He continued to fence daily in the fencing venues of Paris. There he met the fencing masters Domenico Angelo and his son Henry, the mysterious Chevalier d’Éon and the teenage Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, all of whom would play a role in his future.

On 17 May 1779, John Adams made an entry in his diary that mistakenly described St.-George as the son of a governor rather than a tax collector: “Lee gave Us an Account of St. George at Paris, a Molatto Man, Son of a former Governor of Guadaloupe, by a Negro Woman. … He is the most accomplished Man in Europe in Riding, Running, Shooting, Fencing, Dancing, Musick. 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 Pistoll Ball.”^[32][33]

Musical life and career[edit]

Little is known about Saint-Georges’ early musical training; he was sent to Paris to begin his musical studies at age 7. Given his prodigious technique as an adult, Saint-Georges must have practiced the violin seriously as a child.^[34] Banat discounted François-Joseph Fétis‘s claim that Saint-Georges studied violin with Jean-Marie Leclair.^[17] Some of his technique was said to reveal the influence of Pierre Gaviniès. In 1764, when violinist Antonio Lolli arrived in Paris, he composed two concertos, Op. 2, for him.^[c] In 1766, François-Joseph Gossec dedicated a set of six string trios, Op. 9, to Saint-Georges.^[36] Lolli may have worked with Bologne on his violin technique and Gossec on compositions. In 1769, the Parisian public was amazed to see Saint-Georges, well known for his fencing prowess, playing as a violinist in Gossec’s new orchestra, Le Concert des Amateurs in the Hôtel de Soubise.^[37]

Saint-Georges’s first composition Op. I, probably composed in 1770 or 1771, was a set of six string quartets, among the first in France, published by famed French publisher, composer, and teacher Antoine Bailleux.^[39] He was inspired by Haydn‘s earliest quartets, brought from Vienna by Baron Bagge. Also in 1770, Carl Stamitz dedicated his own set of six string quartets to Saint-Georges.^[40] By 1771, Gossec had appointed Saint-Georges as the concert master of the Concert des Amateurs.^[41]

In 1772, Saint-Georges debuted as a soloist with the Concert des Amateurs.^[42] He played his first two violin concertos, Op. II, with Gossec conducting the orchestra. The concertos garnered a highly positive reception, and Saint-Georges, in particular, was said to be “appreciated not as much for his compositions as for his performances, enrapturing especially the feminine members of his audience”.^[43][44]

In 1773, when Gossec took over the direction of the prestigious Concert Spirituel,^[d] he designated Saint-Georges as the new conductor of the Concert des Amateurs.^[45] After less than two years under Saint-George’s’ direction, the group was described by Jean-Benjamin de La Borde as “performing with great precision and delicate nuances”, who also said it had become “the best orchestra for symphonies in Paris, and perhaps in all of Europe”.^{[46][47][48][e]} Saint-Georges was chosen as the dedicatee of another composition in 1778, violinist Giovanni Avoglio’s set of string quartets, Op. 6.^[50][51]

In 1781, after the Compte rendu detailing the deplorable state of the nation’s finances was published, Saint Georges’s Concert des Amateurs had to be disbanded for lack of funding.^[37][f] Playwright, arms dealer, and Secret du Roi (spy) Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais began to collect funds from private contributors, including many of the Concert‘s patrons, to send aid for the American cause. Saint-Georges turned to his friend and admirer, Philippe d’Orléans, duc de Chartres, for help.^[g] Responding to Saint-Georges’s plea, Philippe revived the orchestra as part of the Loge Olympique, an exclusive Freemason Lodge.^[54] This orchestra was made up of the finest musicians in Paris who could qualify as members in the Freemasons.^[55]

Renamed Le Concert Olympique, with practically the same personnel, it performed in the Théâtre du Palais-Royal.^[56] In 1785, Count d’Ogny, the music coordinator of the Olympic Lodge since 1782 and a member of its cello section, commissioned Haydn to compose six new symphonies for the Concert Olympique.^[h] Anyhow he asked Saint-Georges to write to Haydn and settle the details. Conducted by Saint-Georges, Haydn’s Paris symphonies were first performed at the Salle des Gardes-Suisses of the Tuileries, a much larger hall, in order to accommodate the huge public demand to hear Haydn’s new works.^[58] Queen Marie Antoinette attended some of Saint-Georges’s concerts at the Hôtel de Soubise, arriving sometimes without notice, so the orchestra wore court attire for all its performances.^[21] In 1786 the musicians played “in embroidered suits, lace cuffs, swords at their sides and feathered hats on the benches. Such an orchestra was a sight to behold, and no less pleasant to listen to.”^[59] Brilliant technical effects were made possible by the new bow perfected by Francois Tourte.

Operas[edit]

Early in 1776, the Académie royale de Musique, the Paris Opéra, was struggling financially and artistically. Saint-Georges was proposed as the next director of the opera. (Perhaps by Denis-Pierre-Jean Papillon de la Ferté, intendant of the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi but does he not mention Saint-Georges at all.^[61]) As the creator of the first disciplined French orchestra since Lully, Saint-Georges was the obvious choice. But, according to Baron von Grimm‘s Correspondance litteraire, philosophique et critique, three of the Opéra’s leading ladies (Marie-Madeleine Guimard, Rosalie Levasseur and Sophie Arnould) petitioned the Queen in January in opposition to his appointment, saying “that their honor and delicate conscience could never allow them to submit to the orders of a mulatto“.^[62][48] The position was given to Antoine Dauvergne instead.^[63][64]

To defuse the brewing scandal, Louis XVI, then only one year on the throne, took the Opéra back from the city of Paris to be managed by his Intendant of Menus-Plaisirs du Roi. Marie-Antoinette preferred to hold her musicales in the salon of her private apartment in the palace or in the recently established Théâtre de la Reine in the gardens of Versailles. She limited the audience to her intimate circle and a few musicians, among them the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. “Admitted to perform music with the Queen,”^[65]}^[66] Saint-Georges probably played his violin sonatas, with the Queen playing the fortepiano.^[i]

The singers’ petition may have ended Saint-Georges’s aspirations to higher positions as a musician. Over the next two years, he published two more violin concertos and a pair of Symphonies concertantes.^[70] Thereafter, except for his final set of quartets (Op. 14, 1785), Saint-Georges abandoned composing instrumental music in favor of opera.^[7] He was still acquainted and remained friendly with several composers (notably, Salieri, Gretry, and Gluck).

Ernestine, Saint-Georges’s first opera, with a libretto by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, the notorious author of Les Liaisons dangereuses, was performed on 19 July 1777, at the Comédie-Italienne. It did not survive its premiere. The critics liked the music, but panned the weak libretto, which was then usually judged more important than the music.^[71][72] The Queen attended with her entourage to support Saint-Georges’s opera but, after the audience kept echoing a character cracking his whip and crying “Ohé, Ohé,” the Queen gave it the coup de grace by calling to her driver: “to Versailles, Ohé!”^[73]

After the failure of the opera, Saint-Georges was in financial trouble. Madame de Montesson, the morganatic wife of the Duc d’Orléans, realized her ambition to engage Saint-Georges as music director of her fashionable private theater. From 5 July to 11 September 1778, Saint-Georges lived at Grimm’s residence in Chaussée d’Antin just as did Mozart who moved in after his mother died;^[74] both left in September. The Duc d’Orléans appointed Saint-Georges as Lieutenant de la chasse of his vast hunting grounds at Raincy, with an additional salary of 2000 Livres a year. “Saint-Georges the mulatto so strong, so adroit, was one of the hunters…”^[75]

Saint-Georges wrote and rehearsed his second opera, appropriately named La Chasse (The Hunt) at Raincy. At its premiere in the Théâtre Italien, “The public received the work with loud applause. Vastly superior compared with Ernestine … there is every reason to encourage him to continue [writing operas].”^[76] La Chasse was repeated at her Majesty’s request at the royal chateau at Marly.^[77] Saint-Georges’s most successful opéra comique was L’amant anonyme, which was premiered in 1780, with a libretto based on a play of the same name by Madame de Montesson’s niece, Madame de Genlis.^[j]

In 1785, the Duke of Orléans died. Madame de Montesson, having been forbidden by the King to mourn him, shuttered their mansion, closed her theater, and retired to a convent for about a year. With his patrons gone, Saint-Georges lost not only his positions but also his apartment. His friend, Louis Philippe, now Duke of Orléans, presented him with a small flat in the Palais-Royal, opposite the Louvre. Saint-Georges was drawn into the whirlpool of political and social activity around Philippe and Brissot de Warville, admirers of the British parliamentary system and the constitutional monarchy, the main opposition to the French absolute monarchy.

Meanwhile, the Duke’s ambitious plans for re-constructing the Palais-Royal left the Orchestre Olympique without a home and Saint-Georges unemployed. Seeing his protégé at loose ends and recalling that the Prince of Wales often expressed a wish to meet the legendary fencer, Philippe approved Brissot’s plan to dispatch Saint-Georges to London. He believed it was a way to ensure the Regent-in-waiting’s support of Philippe as the future “Regent” of France. But Brissot had a secret agenda as well. He considered Saint-Georges, a “man of color”, the ideal person to contact his fellow abolitionists in London and ask their advice about Brissot’s plans for Les Amis des Noirs (Friends of the Blacks) modeled on the English Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

Social life in Paris[edit]

At the fencing academy, Joseph met Chevalier Lamotte, who became a horn player in the King’s orchestra (till October 1789). According to Louise Fusil, a singer, the two were inseparable; she compared them with Pylades and his cousin Orestes.^[78] According to her Saint-Georges was: “… admired for his fencing and riding prowess, he served as a model to young sportsmen … who formed a court around him.”^[79][80] A fine dancer, Saint-Georges was invited to balls and welcomed in the salons of highborn ladies. “He was often indebted to music for liaisons in which love played a part. Gifted with vivid expression he loved and made himself loved.”^[81]

During his time at the opera and before the revolution, Saint-Georges became involved with many women in Paris society. Joseph Bologne is supposed to have had at least one long-term, serious romantic relationship.^[82] One potential suitor of his was the famous, rich and clever dancer Marie-Madeleine Guimard, whose advances he declined.^[83] She became the lover of Papillon de la Ferté. Having been spurned, and with great influence on the Queen’s court, La Guimard, treasurer of the Opera, owner of Hôtel Guimard which included a 500-seat theatre, would come to play a pivotal role in the petition that would deny Joseph’s ambition to become the director of the Paris Opera from ever coming to fruition.^[48]

Pierre Le Fèvre de Beauvray, a gossip writer at the time, and author of a work entitled “Journal d’un bourgeois de Popincourt“, attributes to Saint-Georges a love affair with the Marquise Marie-Josephine de Montalembert, salonnière, and novelist, the young wife of an old general. Her husband (Marc René, marquis de Montalembert) was a general of military engineering in the Queen’s Court; his wife was said to have been drawn to the young composer.^[84] Their affair was discovered and it was rumored by Louis Petit de Bachaumont they had a child.^[k]

St. Georges assaulted[edit]

One evening, around midnight, Saint-Georges (5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m) tall) was attacked in the streets of Paris when returning home (in the Rue de la Chaussée-d’Antin). In his Secret Memoirs, Bachaumont mentions that the attack took place on the night of 1 May 1779. Saint-Georges and his friend valiantly defended themselves and were providentially saved by the night watch and its men-at-arms:

« M. de Saint Georges is a mulatto, that is to say the son of a negress […] Recently, during the night, he was attacked by six men, he was with one of his friends, they defended themselves to the best of their ability against sticks with which the fellows wanted to knock them down; there is even talk of a pistol shot which was heard: the lookout occurred & prevented the consequences of this assassination, – so that Mr. de Saint Georges is freed for bruises & minor injuries; he even shows himself already in the world. Several of the killers have been arrested. M. le Duc d’Orléans wrote to M. le Noir, as soon as he was informed of the fact, to recommend to him the most exact research, and that a striking justice be done on the culprits. After 24 hours Mr. the Duke of Orléans was asked not to interfere in this affair, and the prisoners, who were recognized as policemen, among whom was a certain Desbrugnieres, so renowned in the affair of the Comte de Morangiès, were released, which gives rise to a thousand conjectures. » ^[85]

It was suggested that the Marquis de Montalembert, eager to avenge his honour and punish the “seducer” of his wife by setting up a night operation, might have been behind the nocturnal aggression.^[86] According to Claude Ribbe the attackers were secret policemen from Versailles; the duke of Orléans was asked not to interfere.^[87] Pierre Bardin exhumed from the archives of the Commissaire au Châtelet a document which is not published.^[88] He concluded that there was an “error on the person” that day. It was not Saint-George who was targeted by a scorned husband, but his friend baron Gillier, comte de Saint-Julien? The sponsor of this aggression would be a famous actor, named Gourgaud said Dugazon, the husband of Louise-Rosalie Lefebvre, gifted vocalist, which had made its debut in Paris in “Ernestine” the opera by Saint-Georges.

Two trips to London[edit]

In Spring 1787, Saint-Georges stayed in London with fencing masters Domenico Angelo and Henry, his son, whom he knew as an apprentice from early years in Paris.^[89] They arranged exhibition matches for him, including one at Carlton House, before the Prince of Wales.^[90] After sparring with him, carte and tierce, the prince matched Saint-Georges with several renowned masters. One included La Chevalière d’Éon, aged 59, in a voluminous black frock.^[60] A painting by Abbé Alexandre-Auguste Robineau, violinist-composer, and painter, showed the Prince and his entourage watching Mlle D’Éon score a hit on Saint-Georges, giving rise to rumors that the Frenchman allowed it out of gallantry for a lady.^[91] But, as Saint-Georges had fenced with dragoon Captain d’Éon in Paris, he probably was deferring to her age. Saint-Georges played one of Robineau’s concertos at the Anacreontic Society.^[92] It is supposed he delivered Brissot‘s request to translate the publications of the abolitionists MPs William Wilberforce, John Wilkes, and Reverend Thomas Clarkson into French. Before Saint-Georges left England, Mather Brown painted his portrait and presented it to Henry.^[93] Asked by Mrs Angelo if it was a true likeness, Saint-Georges replied: “Alas, Madame it is frightfully so.”^[94]

Back in Paris, he completed and produced his latest opéra comique, La Fille Garçon, at the Théâtre des Italiens. The critics found the libretto wanting. “The piece, [was] sustained only by the music of Monsieur de Saint Georges… The success he obtained should serve as an encouragement to continue enriching this theatre with his productions.”^[95]

Meanwhile, having nearly completed the reconstruction of the Palais-Royal, the Duke had opened several new theaters. The smallest was the Théâtre Beaujolais, a marionette theater for children, named after his youngest son, the Duc de Beaujolais. The lead singers of the Opéra provided the voices for the puppets. Saint-Georges wrote the music of Le Marchand de Marrons (The Chestnut Vendor) for this theater, with a libretto by Madame de Genlis, Philippe’s former mistress and then confidential adviser.

While Saint-Georges was away, the Concert Olympique had resumed performing at the Hôtel de Soubise, the old hall of the Amateurs. The Italian violinist Jean-Baptiste Viotti had been appointed as conductor.^[59] On 5 May 1789, the opening day of the fateful Estates General, Saint-Georges, standing in the gallery with Laclos, heard Jacques Necker, Louis XVI’s minister of finance, saying, “The slave trade is a barbarous practice and must be eliminated.”^[96] Choderlos de Laclos, who replaced Brissot as Philippe’s chief of staff, intensified Brissot’s campaign to promote Philippe as an alternative to the monarchy. On 14 July 1789, the fall of the Bastille took place, starting the French Revolution.

As Saint-Georges was seen as a mulatto but actually a free man of color, he was affected by the racism and racist laws in pre-Revolutionary France. After the abolition of feudalism in France Saint-Georges refrained from using his title “chevalier“, and was addressed as “citoyen”. On 26 August 1789, the assembly declared equal rights to all French people but Saint-Georges wasn’t there.

Second trip[edit]

Early August Saint-Georges was sent by Laclos on a secret mission to London for his employer, the Duke of Orléans, Bardin suggests.^[97] (His connections to the court may have played a role to leave the country.) Saint-Georges stayed at Grenier’s an expensive hotel on Jermyn Street which later became patronized by French refugees. Saint-Georges had the idea of establishing in England and was entertaining himself lavishly.^[98] His assignment was to stay close to the Prince of Wales, known for his excessive lifestyle. On 15 August, the Prince took Saint-Georges to his Marine Pavilion in Brighton for a fencing match.^[99] He also took him fox hunting and to the races at Newmarket. After the Women’s March on Versailles, the Duke was accused of initiating it. Marquis de La Fayette, probably jealous of the Duke’s popularity, persuaded the king to send him on a mission to England.^[100] When he arrived on 14 October, he became the Prince’s regular companion. They amused themselves with horse racing, young women, and champagne;^[101] nevertheless Saint-Georges was invited separately.^[102]

On his first trip Saint-Georges passed Brissot’s request to the British abolitionists, they complied by translating their publications into French for his fledgling Société des amis des Noirs. Banat assumes Saint-Georges met with them again,^[103] but Adam Hochschild in Bury the Chains did not find any trace of this. Abbé Grégoire regretted Saint-Georges never joined the radical clubs, like the Jacobins, or the Société des amis des Noirs.^[104] It appears Saint-Georges was more a moderate democrat, influenced by the ideas of the Patriotic Society of 1789.^[105]

In late June 1790, Philippe Égalité, dubbed “The Red Duke” in London, realized that his “mission” there was a ruse used by the French king to get him out of the country. Philippe clung to a vague promise made by King Louis to make him Regent of the Southern Netherlands. Saint-Georges was unable to pay his bill at Grenier’s but found a solution and organized a match.^[106] The next day they traveled to Belgium. On their journey, Saint-Georges was attacked again:

“Early in July, walking home from Greenwich, a man armed with a pistol demanded his purse. The Chevalier disarmed the man… but when four more rogues hidden until then attacked him, he put them all out of commission. M. de Saint Georges received only some contusions which did not keep him from going on that night to play music in the company of friends.” The nature of the attack, with four attackers emerging after the first one made sure they had the right victim, has been claimed to be an assassination attempt disguised as a hold-up, arranged by the “Slave Trade” to put an end to his abolitionist activities.^[107]

In Brussels the people wanted a United Belgium Republic and rejected Philippe. Not long after the Duke went back to Paris, but Saint-Georges decided to join a fencing tournament in Lille.^[108]

Lille[edit]

“On Thursday 8 July 1790, in Lille’s municipal ballroom, the famous Saint-Georges was the principal antagonist in a brilliant fencing tournament. Though ill, he fought with that grace that is his trademark. Lightning is no faster than his arms and in spite of running a fever, he demonstrated astonishing vigor.” Two days later looking worse but in need of funds, he offered another assault, this one for the officers of the garrison. But his illness proved so serious that it sent him to bed for six long weeks.^[109] The diagnosis according to medical science at the time was “brain fever“. Unconscious for days, he was taken in and nursed by some kind citizens of Lille. While still bedridden Saint-Georges began to compose an opera for Lille’s theater company. Calling it Guillome tout Coeur, ou les amis du village, he dedicated it to the citizens of Lille. “Guillaume is an opera in one act. The music by Saint-George is full of sweet warmth of motion and spirit…Its [individual] pieces are distinguished by their melodic lines and the vigor of their harmony. The public…made the hall resound with its justly deserved applause.”^[109] It was to be his last opera, lost, including its libretto. He participated in local events and took charge of the music.^[110]

The singer Louise Fusil, who had idolized Saint-Georges since she was a girl of 15, wrote: “In 1791, I stopped in Amiens where St. Georges and Lamothe were waiting for me, committed to giving some concerts over the Easter holidays. We were to repeat them in Tournai in June.^[111] But the French refugees assembled in that town just across the border, could not abide the Créole they believed to be an agent of the despised Duke of Orléans. St. Georges was even advised [by its commandant] not to stop there for long.”^[112] According to a report by a local newspaper: “The dining room of the hotel where St. Georges, a citizen of France, was also staying, refused to serve him, but he remained perfectly calm; remarkable for a man with his means to defend himself.”^[113]

Fusil describes the scenario of Saint-Georges’ “Love and Death of the Poor Little Bird,” a programmatic piece for violin alone, which he was constantly entreated to play, especially by the ladies. Its three parts depicted the little bird greeting the spring; passionately pursuing the object of his love, who alas, has chosen another; its voice grows weaker then, after the last sigh, it is stilled forever. This kind of program music or sound painting of scenarios such as love scenes, tempests, or battles complete with cannonades and the cries of the wounded, conveyed by a lone violin, was by that time nearly forgotten. Fusil places his improvisational style on a par with her subsequent musical idol, Hector Berlioz: “We did not know then this expressive …depiction a dramatic scene, which Mr. Berlioz later revealed to us… making us feel an emotion that identifies us with the subject.”^[114][115]

Military career[edit]

On 22 May 1790 the right to declare war was given to the king, St. Georges decided to serve the Revolution as a citizen-soldier. In September 1790, having recovered, Saint-Georges was one of the first in Lille to join its Garde Nationale.^[116] But not even his military duties in the Garde Nationale could prevent St. Georges from giving concerts. Once again he was building an orchestra which, according to the announcement in the paper, “Will give a concert every week until Easter.” At the conclusion of the last concert, the mayor of Lille placed a crown of laurels on St. Georges’ brow and read a poem dedicated to him.^[117]

In April and June 1791, the Parliament recruited (400,000) volunteers from the entire French National Guard for the French Revolutionary Army. Leopold II (1747-1792), (sensible) brother of the Marie Antoinette, became increasingly concerned although he still hoped to avoid war.

With 50,000 Austrian troops massed on its borders, the first citizen’s army in modern history was calling for volunteers. Saint-Georges was appointed captain and colonel in the following year.^[119] It was believed he died in a pistol fight in Koblenz,^[120] but on 7 September 1791 he published a letter announcing he wasn’t dead.^[121]

On 20 April 1792, compelled by the National Assembly, Louis XVI declared war against Archduchy of Austria. General Dillon, commander of Lille, was ordered to attack Tournai, reportedly only lightly defended. Instead, massive fire by the Austrian artillery turned an orderly retreat into a rout by the regular cavalry but not that of the volunteers of the National Guard.^[122] Captain St. Georges commanded the company of volunteers that held the line at Baisieux near the Belgian border. Mid August Marquis Lafayette hoping to travel to the United States, was taken prisoner by the Austrians.

On 7 September 1792 Julien Raimond, leader of a delegation of free men of color from Saint-Domingue (Haiti), petitioned the National Assembly to authorize the formation of a military legion of volunteers. The next day, the Parliament established a light cavalry in Lille consisting of volunteers from the French West Indies and Le Midi. The name of it was “Légion franche de cavalerie des Américains et du Midi“; after 7 December it was referred to as “American Legion” and “Légion de Saint-George“, attached to the Army of the North (France).^[l][123] Banat described it as “probably the first all non-white military unit” (in Europe).^[124] The legion comprised seven companies, of which only one was made up of colored men, while the remainder comprised European-whites.^{[125][126][127][128]} On 25 September the Austrian army started to bombard Lille.^[129] In February 1793, lacking not only infantry, but equipment and officers, the American Legion changed its name and became “13e régiment de chasseurs à cheval“.

On 20 March 1793 the National Convention send Danton, the instigator of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and Delacroix to Leuven to investigate Dumouriez during War with the Dutch Republic and his generals.^[m] At the end of the month four commissioners (led by Pierre de Ruel, marquis de Beurnonville) were sent to question and arrest him.^[132] [133] Dumouriez sensed a trap and invited them to his headquarters at Saint-Amand-les-Eaux and had them arrested at Orchies. They were escorted by Saint-Georges, who immediately drove back.^{[134][135][136][137]} On 2 April the city of Lille was successfully defended by Saint-Georges against Jozef Miaczinsky who was sent by Dumouriez to seize the city, to arrest the other commissioners and save the “treasure”.^{[138][139][140][141]} His troops were forced to camp outside the city walls.^[142]

Because of a ceasefire no troops were allowed the cross the border. Dumouriez’ plans to reinstall the French Constitution of 1791, and restore the monarchy in Paris (with Duke of Chartres who had to marry Marie-Thérèse, Duchess of Angoulême imprisoned in the Temple, Paris) fell apart.^[141][130] On 4 April the convention declared Dumouriez a traitor and outlaw and put a prize on his head.^[143] Dumouriez’s defection on the next day changed the course of the events for the Brissotins.^[n] Robespierre was convinced Brissot and Dumouriez wanted to overthrow the First French Republic.^[145] On 6 April the Committee of Public Safety was installed. Philippe Égalité was then put under continuous surveillance.

On 6 May Saint-Georges was invited by the accusateur public to Paris to witness against Miaczinsky.^[146] On 4 and 10 May he was accused by Stanislas-Marie Maillard,^[147] and Louis Héron.^[148] On 16 May his house was searched and bonds were found belonging to Philippe Égalité and Dumouriez.^[149][o] On 17 May the trial against general Miaczinsky started (headed by Jacques-Bernard-Marie Montané); Captain Collin was interrogated.^[151] On 18 May Saint-Georges, dressed civilian, performed a requiem by Gossec for the murdered general Théobald Dillon and the other victims in Lille.^[152][153] In the following weeks Saint-Georges was accused of misusing government funds, and the Legion disbanded.^[154] On 25 September 1793 Saint-Georges and ten of his officers were dismissed.^[155]

On 29 September he was arrested without specific charges according to Banat.^[156] (On 17 September, the Law of Suspects was passed, which authorized the imprisonment of vaguely defined “suspects”.) It is supposed he was suspected of having been friendly with Marie-Antoinette, Brissot, and Philippe Égalité, all executed in the following weeks.^[157] Saint-Georges was sent to Chateau de Chantilly which served as a prison for political opponents (the Girondins) and then to Hondainville at chateau Saint-Aignan, formerly owned by the Comte de Saint-Morys.^[158] Early December 1793 it seems, he was condemned for being involved in non-revolutionary activities such as music events,^[149] but not much is known about a trial; maybe there never was one.^[159] He was released after eleven months on 24 October 1794 and asked to be reinstated in the army on 3 April 1795.^[160] One month later he was arrested again,^[161] when White Terror was sweeping the country but released on 15 May.^[149] Five days later the Sans-culottes were defeated (in the Revolt of 1 Prairial Year III); on 22 August 1795, the Constitution of the Year III established a bicameral legislature, intended to slow down the legislative process.

On 19 October all the officers in the army, also the ones who were dismissed, had to clarify for the Committee of Public Safety where they were on the days around 13 Vendémiaire.^[162] On 24 October Saint-Georges was dismissed.^[161] On Sunday 25 October the National Convention declared itself dissolved and voted for a general amnesty for “deeds exclusively connected with the Revolution”.^[163] A slimmed down government (the Directoire) started working and appointed Napoleon as General in Chief of the Interior and 2 March 1796 of the Army of Italy.

On 3 May 1797, Saint-Georges tried to join and signed his petition “George”.^[164] He wrote:

“I continue to show loyalty to the revolution. Since the beginning of the war, I have been serving with relentless enthusiasm, but the persecution I suffered has not diminished. I have no other resources, only to restore my original position.”^[165] However, his application to Rewbell, a member of the French Directory, failed again.

One of the decisions of Napoleon as First Consul for life was the re-establishment of slavery (Law of 20 May 1802) revoking the Law of 4 February 1794 which had abolished slavery in all the French colonies.

Possible Saint-Domingue visit[edit]

Some biographers claim that St. Georges would have stayed in Saint-Domingue where he would have met with Toussaint Louverture. However, the stay of Saint-Georges in Saint-Domingue, after his imprisonment, is uncertain.^[166] There may be confusion with another legend, his stay on the island of Martinique in December 1789. A newspaper mentioned that on request of Martinique Saint-Georges arrived there with 15,000 rifles in early December 1789.^[167] In fact he was with the Duke of Orléans in London and afterward Lille.

It stands to reason that Julien Raimond would want to take St. Georges, an experienced officer, with him to Saint-Domingue, then in a civil war. While we lack concrete evidence that St. Georges was aboard the convoy of the commission, the fact that we find Captain Colin, and Lamotte (Lamothe) on the payroll of a ship of the convoy to Saint-Domingue, confirms Louise Fusil’s account.^[168] So does Lionel de La Laurencie‘s statement: “The expedition to Saint-Domingue was Saint-Georges’ last voyage,” adding that “Disenchantment and melancholy resulting from his experiences during that voyage must have weighed heavily on his aging shoulders”^[169] Anyhow, the memoirs of Louise Fusil are full of inaccuracies, errors, or counter-truths.

It seems unlikely that St. Georges has been a part of the official delegation of commissioners civilians sent to Saint-Domingue with their head Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, the friend of Jacques Pierre Brissot, the founder of the Society of the Friends of the Blacks. Historians have found to this day no trace of St. Georges in the press of the time, or in the archives of the manifests of ships bound for French ports for Saint-Domingue or making trips back in France. This leads us to think that after his ouster of the armies of the Revolution, Saint-Georges would not have left Europe.

On 16 December 1795, his mother died, and on 29 March 1796, he signed as the executor of her will.^[170] It is likely he inherited some money and property. On 19 April 1796 he and Lamothe, the horn player, gave a concert, for the impoverished Carl Stamitz.^[171]

St. Georges was again building a symphony orchestra. Like his last ensemble, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie was also part of a Masonic lodge performing in what was formerly the Palais Royal. The founders of the new Loge, a group of nouveau riche gentlemen bent on re-creating the elegance of the old Loge Olympique, were delighted to find St. Georges back in Paris. On 11 and 28 April 1797 he gave concerts in the Palais-Égalité.^[172][173] According to Le Mercure Français, “The concerts … under the direction of the famous Saint Georges, left nothing to be desired as to the choice of pieces or the superiority of their execution”. More concerts took place in July and August 1798.^[174]

Death[edit]

According to a number of his biographers, at the end of his life, St. Georges lived in abject poverty, but the Cercle did not sound like the lower depths. Rejected by the army, St. Georges appealed again saying “I have no other resources” but was still rejected. Instead, at the age of 51, he found solace in his music. Sounding like any veteran performer proud of his longevity, he said: “Towards the end of my life, I was particularly devoted to my violin,” adding: “never before did I play it so well!”^[165] Two of his contemporary obituaries reveal the course of his illness and death.

La Boëssière fils: “Saint-Georges felt the onset of a disease of the bladder and, given his usual negligence, paid it little attention; he even kept secret an ulcer, source of his illness; gangrene set in.^[175]

J.S.A. Cuvelier in his Necrology: “For some time he had been tormented by a violent fever … his vigorous nature had repeatedly fought off this cruel illness; [but] after a month of suffering, the end came on 21 Prairial [June 9] at five o’clock in the evening. Sometime before the end, St. Georges stayed with a friend [Captain Duhamel] in the rue Boucherat. His death was marked by the calm of the wise and the dignity of the strong.”^[176][177]

Captain Nicholas Duhamel, an officer in Légion St.-Georges and aide-de-camp of General Miaczinsky, was his friend until his death.^[178] Concerned about his old colonel’s condition, he stopped by Chevalier’s small flat on rue de Chartres-Saint-Honoré and, having found him dying and alone, took him to his apartment where he stayed and was cared for until his death, Saint-Georges’s died aged 53 in June 1799. His death certificate was lost in 1871 when the city archives were destroyed; what remains is a report by the men who removed his body on the next day.^[179]

Home[edit]

From 1757, Saint-Georges lived at 49, Rue Saint André des Arts with his parents. In 1774 he lived at Rue Guénégaud (also 6th arrondissement of Paris) with his mother.^[149] In 1777 he lived at Rue des Fontaines-du-Temple, in 1778 at Rue Saint Pierre, both in Le Marais; in 1779 he moved to 5, Chaussee d’Antin.^[180] After 1785 he lived in the Palais Royal.^[181] In September 1789 he stayed at Grenier’s in Jermyn Street (Westminster) patronized by French refugees. In 1791 he lived at 550, Rue Notre-Dame, Lille.^[182] On 17 May 1793 he appeared as a witness at the Tribunal Révolutionnaire in a case against the Polish general Jozef Miaczinsky and gave his address at Rue des Filles-Saint-Thomas.^[135] In March 1796 he lived at rue Jean Fleury (near Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois).^[183] In 1799, when he was sick he lived Rue de Chartres-Saint-Honoré across the Palais-Royal but this street disappeared. On 9 June 1799, Saint-Georges died at his friend’s Duhemal apartment Rue de Boucherat 13, (Le Marais).^[177] He was buried at Cimetière Sainte-Marguerite.^[184][185]