Charles Pettaway Presents "The Black Mozart" Joseph Bologne Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges

[Applause] [Music] i'm very pleased to be here this evening i'd like to discuss a remarkable frenchman he was a great fencer he was a composer he was a conductor he was a violinist and artful equestrian he was an exceptional marksman he was an elegant dancer he was an accomplished man who knew many important people such as the duke of aliyah who was his protector and also the duke was the cousin of louis the 15th he also knew the prince of wales who was a very good friend of his who later became king george iv also knew marie antoinette and her husband king louis xvi he was able to dress in a way that made heads turn everywhere so he was a fashion plate so think about it here we have a fencer we have a dancer a marksman an artful equestrian he did all of these things an elegant dancer and with all of that he was spoken of highly to or with the bourgeoisie of france as i said he walked among royalty and he became known as the greatest fencer in france he also served as a french colonel in the army during the french revolution serving under him was the lieutenant colonel alexander dumas who was the father of alexander dumas the author of the three musketeers the count of monte cristo and other great literary works he was known as a kind gentle generous man as i said he was constantly discussed with or between the bourgeoisie because of his exotic look because of his manner because of his class matter even the future president of the united states john adams second president of the united states in his diary of may 17 17 19 1779 wrote sanjors is the most accomplished man in europe in running in riding in fencing and dancing and of course in music adam says he could hit the button any button on the coat of the greatest fencing masters he will hit a crown piece a coin and the head of that coin with a pistol ball a handgun so he was able from a distance to point a gun and shoot at the head and get it every time he was quite a marksman on christmas day 1745 on the island of guadalupe which was a french island in the west indies he was born his father was a wealthy planter from a very prominent family the father's name was georges george bologna de san jorge his mother name was nano she became known as la belle nano his mother was a slave let me introduce to you joseph bologna le cevalier de son george a man for all seasons [Music] now listening to that one might think gosh that sounds a lot like mozart or even hide again it was written during the classic period actually the classic period began in 1750 and ended about approximately 1820 some people say 1827 but basically it began in about 1750. it was a period based on balance and symmetry we'll talk a little more about that later but before i do that this black man joseph bologna does los amalia de san george as i said was born in the french island of guadalupe his father wanting the best for his son recognized that guadalupe would not recognize him and he could never take his place as a landed gentry or a gentleman in france slavery had been outlawed though it still existed in the french colonies such as guadalupe where planters made fortunes from slave labor george joseph's father had taken steps with the authorities to make sure that his son and nano his mistress were no longer slaves george loved his son even though george was married to a woman by the name of elizabeth a french woman and she also had a daughter named eliza elizabeth as well he decided as i've said that guadalupe was not a place to raise his son so therefore he moved the entire family joseph nano his wife and his daughter now you know that gets a little you know shaky in there but nevertheless he did it and nobody raised an eyebrow about it because quite frankly in the books that i've read there's not a lot of mention of the elizabeth in his life it all seems to be centered around son george so he decided to sell his plantation and move to france where he would be accepted as a gentleman before leaving for paris george wanted a title for his son his new name would be joseph bologna le cevalier de son george now what is a chevolier that is tantamount to a english knight so he would really be known as sir joseph sir joseph now why could the father get away with this because the father worked for the king louis xv he was uh he had a job in his service so he was an aristocrat and was able to do many things that aristocrats were able to do in paris status was everything to be rich was important but being an aristocrat was even better george the father was determined that his son joseph would excel at all the pastimes of a chevalier at 13 joseph was sent to board at one of france's most prestigious fencing schools and this academy was run by a master swordsman by the name of lebron mornings at this academy were spent in mathematics history languages music art dance and horsemanship the afternoons were taken up totally with fencing a skill at which every young aristocrat had to excel within a few years joseph was the best fencer in the school it also helped that he was the tallest frenchman in the school swordsmen from around europe wanted to challenge him when word spread that he was such a great swordsman he was the best the school had and people challenged him at the school each student had to fight other students one student aristocrat made a snide remark about having to fence with a half cast the usual gentle joseph picked him up and threw him across the room to the cheers of the rest of the onlooking student body very out of character for him another incident happened when a master swordsman peak ha from rowan challenged le boissie's mulatto now that was an insult too george didn't like it so he really didn't want to fight him but his father who was quite ambitious for his son said if you fight uh picard i will give you the finest cabriolet that money can buy now a cabriolet is a carriage drawn by one horse it's very elegant carriage i guess it would be tantamount to a porsche by today's standards you will see later joseph was a stylist i mean he dressed in the finest clothes he went around everybody knew who he was as a fencer but guess what happened there was a master swordsman named faldoni and he was from italy and he too wanted to fight this great saint george well the duel was set and saint george joseph knew that this guy was really a master he was quite a few years older he had been a master for a long time crowds came to see this great event and to make the long story short faldoni won the duel four touches to joseph's two this was the first time that he had lost the first time so he took it pretty hard but he said to himself there are other things that i can do i'll show the world what else i can do because of his father's ambition he too became very ambitious and was most in interested driven to be accepted as an aristocrat in france now all along george had been studying the violin all along he had been studying the violin and he was studying with a very great teacher in france jean-marie la claire if there are any violinists in here some of you i'm sure have played the violin music of le claire well anyway george studied the violin with le claire and leclaire was so taken with this young student because he was really a virtuoso violin player as well as a fencer whoever heard of that a fencer an athlete as well as a virtuoso violinist unheard of it doesn't make sense it sounds like a soap opera but nevertheless he was one of the finest violin students that leclair had so guess what leclaire did he wrote six sonatas and dedicated them to joseph bologna lucia valian de san george how do you like that now what great teacher does that to students actually writes music and dedicates it to them he also studied with joseph gasek he studied composition with joseph gasek before long he was so famous that everybody started talking about his prowess how as they said he could do with the violin bow what he did with the sword at parties and grand houses he was invited to show off his musical skills look they already knew who he was as a fencer now they were introduced to him as a great violinist his fingers would dance on the keys on the strings rather as he played swooping runs and dazzling trills to the thrill of the audience in 1769 joseph became first violinist of the largest orchestra in paris it was at these concepts now you think an amateur is a person who has a daytime job and just plays you know for fun but that's not the case here at the concert is that these concerts were for professional musicians who took music seriously it was not for the neophyte this was a time when he was asked to become the concert master of this orchestra unheard of two years later he wrote two concertos for that orchestra and he became the conductor of that orchestra now whoever heard of a black man in france where slavery was outlawed but still there was that ceiling who ever heard of a black man being able to conduct a great orchestra not heard of george was bro joseph was breaking all of the stereotypes now uh one of the things about joseph's music it is extremely difficult for the violinist because you know they were amazed at the way he could use the bow of the violin it was like using a sword and you know he was the greatest fencer france had produced so the fact that he was able to play the way he fenced his music was extremely difficult why because he the the fingerboard he would be way up at the very edge of the fingerboard for one second and then boom have to come all the way down to play a low note let's listen if we can to an example of a concerto that sound george wrote which demonstrates what i just said [Music] [Applause] hmm [Music] in 1774 joseph received a special envelope it had a wax seal with the royal crest stamped on it france's new young queen maddie antoinette had heard of this renowned saint george would he come to the palace to play music with her he did and the queen was impressed very impressed with his playing and manner joseph was told the queen would be pleased to receive him at their sigh more often joseph of course was overwhelmed but he went to tell his mother neno of his good fortune and he had her laughing when he said i just met the king of france louis xvi who was rather fat and a dull looking man in a pouted wig not the regal king he had imagined by 1775 joseph was a celebrated violinist conducting and a composer conductor and composer he was the perfect person to become the director of the royal opera he was the perfect person mataree went to your husband and says you must give that position to him he is france's finest musician so you must give him the position but there were a lot of people that thought well he's good but we've never heard of a black man conducting a great orchestra a an opera company like that no no no no plus there were three singers who wrote to the king and says your royal highness by giving him that position that would offend our sensibilities because we would have to take orders from a mulatto but you know what this controversy sparked something throughout the whole country and the question was this was the first time that people began to ask could a black person be just as talented as a white one george suffered many racial indignities but he had many great triumphs as well i'm going to play a piece uh by son george it's his adagio in f minor i'm just going to play the first part now you heard the first piece that orchestra piece it was called the anonymous uh lover and that was a happy-go-lucky piece but george was a solitary man who kept lots of things hidden you see he could never really marry into the aristocratic circles because he was black they accepted him because he was so talented he was charming women swooned over his exotic looks and men ran up to him because he was a brilliant conversationalist but he could never marry into that well i call it estate there were like three classes of people and we'll talk about that a little later but he could never marry into that and you know it made him very sad so he wrote this adagio which is a piece of great longing and you'll hear it just last night i was doing some more research on this piece and somebody wrote this about the adagio it's a piece that exudes pain grief strength purity beauty and acceptance without hearing a word saint georges is beautiful let me play just the first part of the adagio in f minor by saint georges [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] [Music] you hear the longing in that piece there are other pieces that he wrote and we'll discuss them in the second part of this program thank you so much charles what a fascinating story and given saint george's giftedness i'm just wondering why have we not heard more about this individual well i i must tell you that after he died in 1799 you know he died actually when the french revolution ended you know the year that it ended he died much of his music was burned lost however uh the toefl music orchestra of canada under female conductor by the name of jean lamont revived his symphony and some of his overtures and concertos uh and that orchestra was part of the production of the dvd known as lim mozart now and it was broadcast all over europe and canada and an active interest developed in his music again this is after 200 years of it being in total obscurity so because of toefl music and other composers who found music gabrielle benet was a biographer or is a biographer of sound george gabriel was a former violinist with the new york philharmonic and as a violinist he was always looking for new music and he went to the new york public library and found some of the violin piano sonatas and started studying them this sparked an interest and he wrote his book the suvalia of the george so more people became interested in the book and the music now let me tell you something else people are finding out from all over the world that i am now involved with son george so i am getting emails from all over the globe about people who are interested who have done studies on son george and i'm finding out a lot of information that way as well so you know the thing is uh when you become interested in a well esoteric subject there are other people out there who become interested as well and they're willing to share this information so i am now a part and i'm honored to be part of a new network of people who are involved with the music of song george and who are spreading the music of song george wait one other thing i do want to say natalie henders was my piano professor when i was working on a masters at temple and she is the one who actually recorded the first recording of this piece i was back in the i think the 70s in the 70s that she actually recorded this this is his only recorded piece or only published piece in this country at this point this is it everything else is like this in manuscript form that you can barely read but i am sure that within the next two to three years there's going to be a resurgence of interest in this man not because of all the peripheral things that he did but because of the fact that he was an interesting composer his music was very melodic it was very simplistic but it was very heartfelt at the same time yes my name is diana burton and i am from roxboro pennsylvania mr pettaway i enjoyed your play and my question to you is how many pieces did saint sean george compose and did he play the violin in any of them well yeah he did as a matter of fact at the concert amateur he did write two violin concertos and he played both the concertos that's how his renown spread as a violin virtuoso and as a composer as well you asked how many pieces did he write well he wrote operas he wrote violin piano sonatas and he wrote harpsichord sonatas he wrote 11 harpsichord sonatas in addition to that he wrote symphony concertantes and we're going to talk about that a little later on but the symphony concertante was a work written for two or more virtuoso players with orchestral accompaniment saint george was one of the first to write in that genre um another genre that he wrote in was the string quartet now franz joseph hyden is given credit with writing string quartets but sanjor was also one who wrote a few string quartets he wrote 11 keyboard sonatas and i have to tell you i have been trying to get those keyboard sonatas for the past year and a half and i just got well i even wrote to the bibliotheque national du paris and they sent me three sonatas for violin and piano i asked them for the harpsichord sonatas and they sent me three piano or you know violin pieces so i've got to go back but through this project i met a harpsichordist in paris and roberts and we became good friends and three weeks ago she sent me this sonata that i'm going to play tonight ah it's a wonderful wonderful piece and it's because of her that i now have his sonata number one in c major but there are 10 others that he wrote and i'm going to try to get as well well i will get them mr pedoway hello i'm from winfield for the city of philadelphia i'm a school teacher and i'm just so pleased to be here my question is you mentioned that even though this accomplished fantastic man i was in france and slavery had been abolished he was still mulatto and i just got the feeling you mentioned the three divas who refused to sing as long as he would be the one in charge i heard that as a red flag how long of his life did his father's income allow him to sustain maybe these type of rejections because most of these artists eventually they wind up dying painless and i'm hoping that's not the case i have a feeling that maybe well his father left him a pension his father did ultimately die but again he was a very wealthy wealthy landowner and plantation owner so his father did leave him a pension okay that lasted until the french revolution to tell you the truth then of course he lost everything now he made money also as a soloist as a violinist conductor and composer but again when the french revolution came he lost everything you mentioned about the three divas let me tell you the rest of the story there the three divas were upset because they didn't want to take orders from a mulatto but they had other great problems and these this is the problem they were fading divas they had lost their ability to you know negotiate the difficult runs that were required of great singers and they knew how demanding saint george was as a conductor of the other orchestras so they knew oh my gosh if he becomes the director we're going to be out in the street we're not going to have a job see that's another reason why they wrote the king i think if they thought oh this is going to be a piece of cake they wouldn't have complained but that's what they said we could never take orders from a mulatto the other thing that i just found out the other day who did become the director one of the singer's lovers became the interim director of the royal opera politics as usual hi my name is ajwa love dorsey i'm from south philly but i live in overbrook farms south fully always at heart mr pettaway i guess one question that's pondering me is why is he called the black mozart now what i like about this man and what i've enjoyed most is that he definitely lived outside the box he's all over the place he's exotic he didn't conform to the norm he continued to put um pursue i just like his character um i guess because i'm also an out of the box person so but why is he quote unquote consider to call the black mozart good question actually i answer that in in the second segment but let me just say this that was never an official title that was never an official title um what happened there were a group of people who were walking along and heard some of his music like the anonymous lover like his symphony and g major and said gosh this music sounds a lot like mozart so let's call him the black mozart that's all we really know it was never a pseudo name that was official but because he wrote in such a way a group of people decided let's call him the black mozart and that title stuck that's it good evening my name is dr cynthia cossette lee i'm a center city composer but i'm a native pittsburgher and i have a que first of all thank you mr pettaway for this fantastic lecture that you're doing on chevalier de santos my question to you is was he the music teacher for marie antoinette and also did he meet mozart let let me let me deal with uh muttery antoinette he was for a time the music teacher of mary antoinette for a time but the court became quite worried about the music teacher and the queen why because again son george was handsome he was good looking he was well tall dark and handsome and as a result the queen was married to louis xvi you saw his picture so having this music teacher it was quite a great thing you know i'm finding out more and more about him as i re he was quite a lover and i don't mind saying that he was quite a lover he was in some circles known as the black don juan okay he really was quite a ladies man and there seems to be some suggestion that the two were having an affair there seems to be i don't know for sure okay there seems to be some insinuation that that you were having an affair well the court found out about it and had to put a stop to it as a matter of fact this is one of the many times that he tried to he was almost assassinated people tried to assassinate him a few times because of his stepping out of the box as far as relationships were concerned uh and uh he was ambushed a few times but again he was a great athlete and he could always subdue them but he was ambushed quite a few times so i don't know for sure if there was an affair there but clearly he did teach her for a while not a long while either as i was saying as mozart's notoriety spread he was seen on concert posters with the likes of wolfgang amadeus mozart who was younger than sanjorj and also franz joseph hyden i want to stop here for just a second and i want to talk about mozart now of course mozart was a child prodigy who traveled all over europe and made a big name for himself of course when he died he died penniless as one of the questioners asked earlier but he did die penniless but mozart wrote many many great works and if you saw the movie amadeus you realize the types of music that he wrote in solyeri and his response to some of this wonderful music but people don't know that saint george was one of the first innovators of the symphony concertante now sophomore concertante is a large orchestral work written for dueling instruments two or more solo instruments played at the same time against an orchestral backdrop it's like a double concerto or a triple concerto for those who understand what i'm saying but but the point is so mozart wrote a symphony concertante according to son george's biographer gabriel bennet mozart used this theme that i'm going to play listen to this he used this theme in his symphony concertante so he starts here he goes all the way up the fingerboard and then he drops all the way down here that's what saw george was doing and gabrielle says that sam george wrote in his second violin concerto the exact same figure but he wrote it before mozart so bene says that mozart copied that same figure the only difference was sao george wrote it in the key of e major okay mozart wrote it in e flat major the same notes so mozart stole from george and guess what it is now modified that that's exactly what happened because nobody was writing at the upper register like that and then shooting all the way back down that was on george's style okay um another great composer of the time actually the greatest composer in france during that period was franz joseph hayden musicians affectionately called him papa haydn now this is something that's very interesting and most people don't realize this sar george traveled to vienna to meet with franz joseph hayden and commissioned haydn to write six symphonies they became known as the paris symphony one of the symphonies was named which means the queen and it was one of the favorite symphonies of marie antoinette [Music] these works were really really quite innovative and sean george conducted these works with a new orchestra and that orchestra was known as the concert de la luz olympique this was his second orchestra that he conducted now this orchestra was founded by the free masons of france san george became the first black mason french black mason i should say he was the first french black mason and he was asked to commission six pieces by the renowned papa mo papa haydn and he performed all of them with this great orchestra to much critical acclaim so there were many many firsts for sanjors at this point i want to talk a little bit about an important form of the period what am i talking about you know when you listen to music i don't care what it is it's written in some sort of form it could be binary two-part form statement and departure it could be ternary three-part form statement departure and return to the statement sonata allegro form is just like that it's an extended three-part form when you listen to symphonies when you listen to classical violin sonatas when you listen to concertos when you listen to string quartets most of the music that when you go to hear the philadelphia orchestra if it's a symphony it follows the form sonata allegro it's an extended three-part form let me just tell you very quickly there are basically three parts to sonata allegro one exposition exposition exposition that's the first part this is where there are two dissimilar themes in the first section now listen the first theme is in the tonic key in other words if a piece is in c major then the tonic is c major the second theme which is dissimilar to the first theme is on the dominant or the fifth degree of the scale so we have two contrasting themes one happy then the other has to be said this is the classical period balance and symmetry this is what the classic period was about balance and symmetry every reaction has a reaction okay so in other words or every action has a reaction but the point is this was a period of balance and symmetry so if one theme was happy the second theme was sad that's the exposition in the development of a sonata i i tell my students often that the development is really the improvisation of the two themes in other words they use compositional devices where they take just part of the first and second theme and they improvise on it so the development is created through improvisation let me say that at this point uh and then finally we have the recapitulation where the two themes are introduced again both themes are now in the tonic key i'm going to play now the first movement of sean george's sonata in c major and we'll hear the first theme in c major tonic and we'll hear the second theme in g major which is the dominant and then we'll hear a development where he takes those two themes and then finally we get back to the recapitulation where both themes are in the tonic so let's listen now to saw george's sonata number one in c major oh one other thing you'll hear throughout the sonata in the base anybody know this that's known as an alberti base it was created by dominico alberti all the great classical musicians use that accompaniment figure saw george went overboard with that same idea he uses it in all three movements let me play now just the first movement of his sonata in c major do do do do do do [Music] do do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do thank you thank you thank you sa george lived among aristocrats and was readily accepted in shall we say this rarified atmosphere because of his celebrity women loved him were intrigued by him because of his exotic looks and men because of his erudite conversation loved to speak with him in his great sense of humor so everybody rallied around him and as i said earlier he was also a wonderful dresser he went to london and brought back the latest fashions he went for fencing matches uh to get money by the way because his money was kind of low so as a result uh his friend son the duke of arlen's son and he became very good friends and they did duels in england and he brought back the latest fashions from england so when saw george was in a room what's he wearing today what's he wearing today i mean this is the thing he was a superstar a real superstar but in 1789 all of this stopped abruptly why because of the french revolution bread was hard to come by bread was very very hard to come by there were these exorbitant taxes given to the poor for salt and as a result they went to madari antoinette and says what are we going to do the subjects are starving they can't afford the bread oh let them eat cake you all know that famous phrase of hers well you know under uh well under maximilian rubes pierre this was the era of terror and anybody who looked like they might be a dissident was killed all aristocrats were killed including marie antoinette she was taken to the gilead team and also her husband their heads were chopped off oh that was a humane way of doing away with people okay but all of san george's one by one all of his friends left they were being killed so you know what he did well i'm a black man and oh gosh i i can't use the title chevalier anymore so he changed he took that title away because that was an aristocratic title so he he became known as monsieur sanjos monsieur mr sanjores well because of his renown he was asked to take part in the french revolution and after a time he became a colonel what did he know about army strategy but he became a colonel now i don't know if this is true but he was the head of a thousand they used the term colored men these freed black men signed up for his regiment and they fought at the battle of leo in france and they preserved that city leo because of it he was considered a revolutionary hero for a time but this was the error of terror and what happened he was later accused of taking monies for his own pleasure you know even during the war as a colonel sargeras lived well he really lived very well he had a very nice apartment and still dressed the parts and the revolution says you're stealing money that was meant to outfit your soldiers and give them weapons it was a lie he didn't do that at all but nevertheless that's what they said so guess what he was relieved of his command and he was put into he was imprisoned he was imprisoned now one by one his aristocratic friends were beheaded any day he knew he could be beheaded the only thing that saved him was well he was a colonel working for the resistance shall we say the french rev the the the peasants okay for democracy would be a better word he was working for liberty and equality he was working for these things so at the behest of friends to the authorities they finally released him after a year imprisonment okay so he was out for a year and the government said george we need your help again son george was a frenchman and he says what can i do we want you to go to saul dominique which is now known as haiti and see if you can't talk to their rebel leader uh tusson louis victor and see if he will stop his fighting and come back to us let us rule you know haiti well he went over there and he tried to talk to toussaint literature and he was very sympathetic what had happened the slaves had taken over all the plantations all of them and they were basically ruling themselves by louvature but at the same time there was a rogue leader who was also trying to take over and was killing many of the natives of this psalm dominique haiti killing them as a matter of fact there's an account that saint george gives where he himself narrowly escaped being killed he was sick of it he was sick of the fact that there was so much cruelty and violence he couldn't take it anymore he said the heck with this i'm going back to france he went back to france and that basically was the last time that he worked for the french government he went back to conducting and he was conducting a new orchestra and that new orchestra was called the le circle de la harmony the circle of harmony the circle of harmony so this was his third orchestra and he conducted many works and was given great reviews now this was in 1709 [Music] he developed an ulcer he had no money by the way because the the revolution had you know taken everything so he got a one-room apartment and unfortunately died in this one-room apartment he had two friends who came to see about him but he had an ulcer and he thought it would go away and it didn't and as a result he died so here was a life that was full of triumph and at the same time was full of pain let's listen to the concluding part of the adagio in f minor [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so this piece contains all of the pain the indignities the fact that he was a celebrity and could never marry could never marry his one true love marie joseph of course marie joseph was married to somebody else they actually even had a child but the husband found out about it and told the whitners to let it die and so he was devastated over that so all of this music all of this pain is found in a lot of his slow movements so george was also an operatic composer and he wrote quite a few operas as well i'm going to play the second movement of his sonata number one in c major and it's very sad but at the same time it's very operatic let's listen to this [Music] [Music] [Music] and then finally the third movement of his sonata is really full of resolve i almost think it's like his father's resolve for his son to become an aristocratic gentleman and son george through all of his racial indignities all of the other sadnesses was able to transcend all of this and still write uplifting music for the world to rediscover and enjoy do [Music] do do thank you thank you finally in the year 2001 a street was renamed to rue de savage d'san george this one 2001 it was done at the request of french citizens from the west indies now the original dates on that street change was from 1739 to 1799. if that were the case he would have been 60 when he died however gabrielle denae again through his extensive research and others have now determined that he was born in 1745 and he died in 1799 so that made him die at 54. again it was through the efforts of gabriel benet so if you ever go to france look up the street who the sovalia george there are more recordings now that are coming out french recordings particularly of his music but in this country you can also get some of his music through toefl music or through some other recording companies all you have to do to go all you have to do is go to amazon.com and type in sanjours and you will find you know the music that's available so that is the story of saint georges an incredible character and there's much more to the story that i could have told you tonight but of course it's getting late so as a result maybe in the future you'll have well i have wet your appetite enough so that you want to do some reading on your own about this incredible black man lemozarton where and you will see that there are indeed people of all nationality all races who can do some pretty amazing things through the gift that god gives them so thank you all very much for being a wonderful audience i've enjoyed speaking with you and performing with you this evening thank you thank you what an amazing story this has been before we close out our program we have a couple more questions for you from our audience hi hi i'm carl mittelman and i'm a musician here in philadelphia and thank you for this fascinating presentation you've drawn attention to how chevalier de san george overcame obstacles of race in paris of his time and you've also drawn some attention to uh similarities between the fiery brilliance of his violin playing and his part writing for the violin and the and his fencing and i'm wondering if we can take that even a step further and maybe find sort of military codes in his music for instance in the the sonata that you just played the first movement begins with almost what sounds like a fanfare and also in the movie in the second of the film clips it sounded like the uh violin player was going off on a wild fanfare type riff uh towards the end of that excerpt so i wonder whether that occurred to you and whether you think that we can find other examples of military codes in his music i i don't really know how to answer that question at that at this point that's a really good question i'm gonna have to do some more research i've never looked at it that way nor any of the readings that i've done have insinuated anything to that effect most of the pieces that he wrote were written before he became a colonel in the army so i don't know if there was any code writing but i will check into that and i'm sure you will as well i can't answer that question my name is jack mccarthy i'm from philadelphia i'm also a musician um i noticed in the first movement of the sonata in sea a lot of similarities to the first movement of mozart's sonata in sea a lot of similarities and i'm wondering which one was written first and which one do you think influenced the other i know chevalier was 11 years older than mozart i guess so would his sonata have been written first and you think that may have influenced mozart or the other way around i don't know no this sonata was written first uh mozart's cursil 545 was written i don't it's it's 1700 but i don't know the exact date but you know it's a crucial 545. i thought that way as well i i don't mind telling you that because i do hear a similarity but i can't really say that uh sao george or mozart copied from sanjor's i don't know at this point i had to analyze this work i just got to work quite frankly for man francis and as a musician you will notice that in the second theme there are four measures of transition which really don't belong there i would think i mean they're extended measures so if you really listen and analyze the work i mean he's following a pseudo sonata allegro form but there are four measures in the exposition and also in the recapitulation which really don't need to be there that this part that part i'm trying to figure out what's the relevance of that part it leads on to the second theme but it's a strange transition and i really can't make that out yet so um sao george was not as skilled a composer as mozart i don't know exactly when this sonata number one was written but i'm hoping to get all 11 of the sonatas and then i can study them and find out you know along with the mozart works if mozart took any music or saint george because you know let's face it handle was borrowing from himself all the time he borrowed from himself you know so uh i can't answer that question either i i would tend to think that there's a possibility but i'm hoping that mozart wouldn't do that well charles you have taught us so much how about leaving us with a final thought on saint georges well saul george was truly an incredible man he was an incredibly generous man and even though he lived the lap of luxury he always took time for people less fortunate than himself and he always remembered even though he was a superstar he always remembered who he was and he always thought about the little guy because he recognized if it hadn't been for his father he would never have made it out of guadeloupe and he would have been destined to be a slave it's as simple as that his father loved him so much that he gave him a new title he introduced him to you know all the gentlemanly things in society so you know the love of a father and his son even though they were culturally different you know when you think about it the father was white but he gave everything to the son at the expense of his true wife you know and his daughter because even today people don't know about elizabeth the daughter we know that she existed but there's no history we don't even know if they we know what they had to live together for a time but i don't think there's any account that they really stayed in touch with each other maybe she felt that being associated with him would give her a negative name we don't know at this point but through it all and and through this last movement that i played of his third sonata there's a resolve there and he lived that way so no matter what happened to him in his life he still resolved to help as many people as he could and i guess that's what we're all here for i mean to help people in the best way that we can to give of our substance you know to help other people who are less fortunate clearly he did that so i mean he was a definite role model that i think more people should read about and know not only musically but from a spiritual and moral point of view he was a great man [Music] you

Channel: Badass Joseph Saint-Georges

Views: 69,583

Keywords: Joseph Bologne, Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Joseph Boulonge, Haydn, Joseph Haydn, Stamitz, Johann Stamitz, Albinoni, Jean-Marie Leclair, Mozart, Gossec, music, classical music, baroque music, symphony, black composers, French classical, florence price, mozart noir, orchestra, Joseph Bologne channel, Joseph Boulogne channel, black music, black classical music

Id: 6IwSaqjadjs

Length: 82min 31sec (4951 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 13 2020