CHICAGO HONORS 'THE BLACK MOZART' COMPOSER JOSEPH BOLOGNE, LE CHEVALIER DE SAINT-GEORGES

by Judi Strauss-Lipkin

One of the “most unjustly forgotten” and extraordinary composers of the classical period, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, “the Black Mozart,” (1745-1799) has debuted in Chicago!

On September 23-25, 2021, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) under Maestro Riccardo Muti began its performance with the overture to Bologne’s late 18th century comic opera “L’Amant anonyme” (“Anonymous Lover”). The finesse and wit of the piece are distinctive, and its quiescent middle section bespeaks the mastery of a composer with his own clear voice. Muti led a beguiling performance, by turns brisk and vibrant, with luminous playing by the CSO strings.

Next, on February 18-20, Music of the Baroque teams up with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association and The North Shore Center for the Performing Arts for the Midwest premiere of “The Chevalier,” a new concert theater work written, directed and produced by Bill Barclay regarding the life and work of this master composer, virtuoso violinist, friend of Mozart, music teacher to Marie Antoinette, the finest fencer in Europe, general of Europe’s first Black regiment and a crusader for the abolishment of slavery.

Taking a “concert theater” approach, “The Chevalier” features the interplay of four actors with orchestral and chamber music excerpts. Barclay said the production “tells the story of a composer of color who battled injustice in the 18th century, but whose story speaks just as strongly in today’s changing world.” The plot is set in 1778 with a bedridden, bankrupt Mozart being carried into the Chevalier’s kitchen. Despite obvious differences, these two men of genius forge a friendship of equals, navigating the new racial politics of a city hostile to outsiders. At the same time, the Chevalier’s weekly music lessons with Marie Antoinette associate him with the monarchy at a time of civil unrest, and he must choose between his loyalty to the crown and the violent pursuit of abolition.

Dame Jane Glover will conduct the Music of the Baroque Orchestra at all three Chicago-area locations in selections showcasing the breadth of Bologne’s compositional output, from violin concertos to symphonies, string quartets to ballets, with music arrangements by Barclay. Upcoming performances of “The Chevalier” will be at:

• the Kehrein Center for the Arts, 5628 W. Washington Blvd., on February 18 at 7:30 p.m. (baroque. org/chevalier-austin).

• the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, February 19 at 7:30 Alt-J p.m. (northshorecenter.org)

• Symphony Center, February 20 at 8 p.m. (cso.org)

So, are you curious - who was/is Joseph Bologne? Why is he called The Black Mozart? Why now are his life and his music becoming part of our musical repertoire?

Artwork promoting "The Chevalier"

(provided by Music of the Baroque)

“He was a superstar,” says Lincoln University music professor Charles Pettaway, summing up the career of perhaps the most unjustly forgotten composer of the classical period. He was born in 1745 on Guadeloupe as the illegitimate son of a wealthy French plantation owner and an enslaved woman, who was probably from Senegal. When he was a child, he and his mother followed his father and the rest of his legitimate family back to France, where Bologne received an education befitting an aristocrat. He was enrolled in the Académie royale polytechnique des armes et de l'équitation (basically, the Royal Academy of Fencing and Horsemanship). When Bologne graduated in 1766, he became a Gendarme du roi (officer of the King’s Bodyguard) and a chevalier (knight). It was then that he became known as “Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges.”

Artwork promoting "The Chevalier"

(provided by Music of the Baroque)

He was introduced to the frothy upper classes of French society. He danced in glittering ballrooms, conversed in delicately appointed parlors, attended shows at opulent concert halls and was rumored to frequent several ladies’ boudoirs.

Bologne never married, because racial intermarriage was forbidden, but he was rumored to have had a child out of wedlock with the Marquise de Montalembert, although there are no primary documents to back that up, Barclay said in an email. “The pregnancy and love affair nonetheless feature in the full-length version of my play.”

The elder Bologne had provided patronage to several of France’s leading composers, and they schooled the young Joseph Bologne. He is thought to have studied the violin with France’s greatest violinist, Jean-Marie Leclair the Elder. He also mastered the harpsichord. When France’s pioneering symphony composer and most prominent conductor, Francois-Joseph Gossec, founded the Concert des Amateurs series in 1769, he invited Bologne to join as first violinist. Four years later, he was its musical director.

Young Saint-Georges in 1768, aged 22. The three roses on his lapel were a Masonic symbol.

(public domain)

His first public and critical success as a composer came with two violin concertos, which he premiered in 1772 with Concert des Amateurs. As the French newspaper Mercure de France proclaimed, “These concertos were performed…by the author himself, who received great applause as much for their performance as for their composition,” said Music of the Baroque’s Jennifer More. The careful attention to balance, symmetry and melody were said to be on par with the works of Mozart and Haydn. Mozart later indicated that his ballet score for “Le Petit Riens” (Little Nothings) was inspired by a Bologne melody.

"Fencing Match between St.-Georges and 'La chevalière d'Éon'" on April 9, 1787

by Abbé Alexandre-Auguste Robineau (public domain)

Between 1775-78, Bologne wrote at least eight symphonies concertantes for violin and orchestra. French concertgoers dubbed him “Le Mozart Noir” because the two musicians were given equal billing together and the title has stuck.

Despite his renown, Bologne was still vulnerable to racial prejudice. He began writing operas and suffered a serious setback when he was nominated to head the prestigious Paris Opera in 1775, only to have his candidacy challenged by divas who argued that they could not be expected to, as they put it, “submit to the orders of a mulatto.” Louis XIV had approved the appointment, but the divas’ objections won out, and to avoid embarrassing the Queen, Marie Antoinette, he withdrew his name. He went on to write operas and to direct the Marquise de Montesson’s prestigious musical theater instead.

When the French Revolution erupted in 1789, Bologne joined the Garde Nationale (similar to the Reserves today) and by 1794 became colonel of the first cavalry brigade of “men of color” – the St. Georges’ Legion – which was the first Black regiment in Europe. He was wrongly imprisoned for 11 months and threatened with execution after returning from military duties. After his release, he lived in semi-retirement, unfortunately with health problems. He did, however, become more devoted to his violin during this time saying, “Never before did I play so well.” He died in 1799 in Paris at age 53.

Bologne’s music suffered the ill effects of the Revolution no less than his person. Many of his manuscripts were destroyed during the early years of unrest, and later, under Napoleon’s government, performances of those few of his works that did survive were banned.

While politics played a role, changing artistic tastes were also a large factor.

“Tastes were changing very fast in the period of the French Revolution, due to Mozart and Haydn's innovations and Beethoven just starting - meanwhile Bologne gave up composing to fight in the war,” Barclay said. “With artist institutions completely at the whims of the politics du jour, most French composers of the time disappeared from premieres, and the development of French music took a long hiatus, essentially until Berlioz in the 1820s.

“His work has not so much been rediscovered as we in the 2020s have realized that we have neglected to honor the extraordinary story of his life and music,” Barclay added.

Although Bologne’s music has been played more often in the last two years, Barclay said that the emphasis has been on the same two pieces: the overture to his opera "L'amant anonyme" and his Violin Concerto in A. “There is so much more, however! "The Chevalier" attempts to introduce audiences to a much wider range of his musicianship.”

The production is also closely allied with the promotion of anti-racism in concert music. It helps raise money for the Sphinx National Alliance of Audition Support, which helps young musicians of color with the cost of auditioning for jobs in American orchestras. Commissioned by the Boston Symphony in 2018, “The Chevalier” premiered at Tanglewood in 2019 and was a recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Grant in 2021. There is also a biopic in progress on Chevalier de Saint-Georges, to be released and financed by Searchlight Pictures.

Dr. Judi Strauss-Lipkin is the owner of Strauss Tax Service in Chicago. She is an Enrolled Agent and was a professor of management at Benedictine University and George Williams College. In addition, she was president of the Phi Beta Kappa Association of Chicago and treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Chicago.

Bill Barclay as novelist Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

(Brownwen Sharp photo)

RJ Foster as Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges

(courtesy photo)

David Joseph as Mozart

(courtesy photo)

Merritt Janson as Marie Antoinette

(Stan Demidoff photo)

Brendon Elliot as the violinist Bologne

(courtesy photo)