The Chevalier de Saint-Georges : virtuoso of the sword and the bow
"One would be hard-pressed to find an adventure novel more captivating than the factual story of the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Born in 1745, on the island of Guadeloupe, Joseph Bologne was the illegitimate son of a French planter and his young African slave. When he was seven, his father took him to France to be educated. His physical prowess, particularly in the art of fencing, attracted the attention of Louis XV, who made him a gendarme du roi, and a chevalier. Thus began this young mulatto's unparalleled rise in elite French society and at the court of Versailles. At the age of 25, the renowned fencer stunned an unsuspecting Paris by appearing in public as a violin virtuoso. His reputation as a musician was further enhanced when he became the conductor of the leading orchestra in Paris. Subsequently he composed symphonies, concertos, string quartets and opera, and is generally considered the first classical composer of his race. Active in the abolitionist movement, he joined the French Revolution in the hope that it would help end slavery. He was given command of a colored hussar regiment, fought on the Flanders front, and later took part in the Haitian slave revolt. In time, Saint-Georges became the subject of legend, some of which found its way into scholarly biographies. Supported by documents published here for the first time, Gabriel Banat separates fact from fiction, restores the true image of this remarkable man and re-evaluates the impact of the first Afro-American composer on that most human of instruments, the violin."--BOOK JACKET
Print Book, English, ©2006
Pendragon Press, Hillsdale, N.Y., ©2006