See/Hear

Joseph Bologne, also known as Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745–1799) was perhaps the most important early contributor of African descent in the tradition of European classical music. In his day, Saint-Georges gained fame as a violinist, conductor, and composer; some of Europe's top composers created violin works with him in mind as the soloist, and he led the premieres of some of Franz Joseph Haydn's greatest symphonies. Saint-Georges was the son of a wealthy plantation owner, and his wife’s African slave. It was unorthodox for someone who was a product of interracial infidelity to be acknowledged at the time, but Saint-Georges moved to Paris with his father at a young age and received an excellent education. Incredibly, this son of a slave rose to the top of French society through his mastery of fencing and his genius for classical music. He was the object of often veiled and sometimes overt racial controversy and survived two assassination attempts. In his later years he abandoned the aristocratic world of his upbringing to fight for revolutionary ideals, and he was an early supporter of racial equality in France and England. By the standards of the time Saint-Georges was not a prolific composer, but this is hardly surprising given the exceptional range of his activities. His music, long forgotten, has slowly been revived. When Saint-Georges composed his first set of quartets (ca 1772) the genre was still in its infancy in Paris. In fact, he is considered one of its principal protagonists, having written eighteen quartets (divided in three sets of 6). His string quartets are characterized by nimble, graceful themes, often with a hint of melancholia and alternation between minor and major modes. Although the quartets remain small in scale and aren’t ambitious in terms of their structures, they are very pleasant works that demonstrate the composer’s lyrical gifts and his sensitivity to sound. This quartet, No. 5 in G Major, is from his middle set, composed in 1777. Like the others, it is a relatively simple, two-movement work that reflects the increased independence of the four instruments in presenting thematic material, hence the title of quartet concertante.