Joseph Boulogne
also known as the Chevalier de Saint-Georges
is perhaps the most famous musician and composer you’ve never heard of.
A soldier, athlete, musical genius and revolutionary.
He was the crème de la crème of 18th Century French society.
Boulogne was born in 1745
on the Carribean island of Guadeloupe
then part of a large French empire in the Americas.
His mother was an enslaved Senegalese woman called Nanon –
his father was George Boulogne, a white plantation owner.
Unusually for an illegitimate, mixed-heritage child
Boulogne was given his aristocratic father’s name.
George Boulogne was keen for his son to receive a good education
and he was sent to France to be tutored in literature and fencing.
As well as showing great skill in sport,
Boulogne was intelligent and charismatic
which along with his father’s social connections
meant he was granted access to elite circles of French society.
It didn’t hurt that he was quite the looker too.
As if being handsome, clever and a champion athlete wasn’t enough
Boulogne was a seriously skilled musician and composer.
His main instrument was the violin
and by 1761 he was made a member of the elite Gendarmes de la Garde,
The Royal Guards, as a soldier and musician.
It is around this time that he became known
as the Chevalier de Saint-Georges
in recognition of his skill as a fencer and horseman.
He was then invited to join
the incredibly prestigious Concert des Amateurs
as first violinist and he became its leader by 1773.
As a composer, he specialised in a new style,
called Symphonie Concertante
where two soloists within a wider orchestra would compete.
Kind of like a rap battle, but with fancier instruments.
By the mid-1770s, Boulogne was becoming popular in Paris
with one publication calling him
‘the best composer and musician of the kingdom.’
Although things were going very well for Boulogne,
he still experienced overt racism.
Some of the opera’s leading women petitioned Queen Marie Antoinette
against having what they called a “mulatto” in charge of the opera.
Despite this attempt to sabotage his career
he fell into favour with the influential playwright
Madame de Montesson
who put him in charge of her private theatre
(not as rude as it sounds)
and introduced him to her fancy husband, the Duke of Orleans.
Boulogne became good friends with the Duke
and was devastated when he died in 1785.
Soon after he visited London
where he met other aristocrats, like the Chevalier D’Eon
who was probably transgender
and prominent abolitionists, such as William Wilberforce.
We can’t know for sure
but it’s likely this trip shaped Boulogne’s thinking
around both race and gender.
Meanwhile, the French Revolution had broken out
and heads were about to start rolling
and despite his connections to the aristocracy
he sided with the revolutionaries.
He became captain in the Lille National Guard
then colonel of his own regiment of soldiers,
which included many people of colour.
As the revolution became more radical
he was rewarded
by being thrown in jail.
In an atmosphere thick with suspicion and violence
between the infighting revolutionaries,
Boulogne was imprisoned for 18 months.
Sadly, Boulogne died in 1799
after an ulcer in his leg turned gangrenous,
aged around 53.
Shortly after Boulogne’s death, Napoleon seized power in France
and reinstated slavery in the French colonies.
The people of Guadaloupe resisted – around 6,000 of them were killed.
Napoleon also banned Boulogne’s music
in an attempt to erase him from French history.
Afro-Carribean communities
within France, and on Guadaloupe and Martinique
have been working tirelessly to keep his legacy alive
and Joseph Boulogne, or the Chevalier de Saint-Georges
is now enjoying a long overdue and richly deserved revival.
Bravo!
