{"id":114025,"date":"2016-02-14T11:45:59","date_gmt":"2016-02-14T11:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/02\/14\/one-of-the-most-fascinating-figures-of-the-18th\/"},"modified":"2016-02-14T11:45:59","modified_gmt":"2016-02-14T11:45:59","slug":"one-of-the-most-fascinating-figures-of-the-18th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/02\/14\/one-of-the-most-fascinating-figures-of-the-18th\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"
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One of the most fascinating figures of the 18th century was the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a composer, violinist, fencing champion and military hero whose fame spanned continents. That he was black, born in 1745 to a white planter and his slave mistress in Guadeloupe, not only shaped his life in France but has fed a growing interest in him today.<\/p>\n

Though Saint-Georges\u2019s life reads like a Hollywood screenplay, it was his musical talent that most interested Gabriel Banat, a concert violinist and musicologist whose biography, \u201cThe Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Virtuoso of the Sword and the Bow,\u201d was published by Pendragon Press in 2006.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cHe\u2019s not a Mozart, but his innovative violin technique makes him a bridge between Italian virtuosos like Vivaldi and Locatelli and Beethoven in his violin writing,\u201d Mr. Banat said in an interview in his home here. \u201cHe did a lot for the violin in bringing Italian virtuoso technique to the great masters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nSaint-Georges, who died in 1799, wrote 14 violin concertos, 8 symphony concertantes and 5 operas, among other works.<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0Now retired, Mr. Banat, 81, has spent years researching and writing about Saint-Georges, who made music in the court of Marie Antoinette and went on to lead a regiment of black soldiers in the French Revolution.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cA Swashbuckling Violinist, Fresh From the 1700s<\/b><\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

[Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges<\/b><\/a>. Print after Mather Brown, France, c. 1790s]<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

Watercolor of Henry Angelo\u2019s Fencing Academy<\/a>, by Thomas Rowlandson<\/a>, 1787. The Chevalier St. George\u2019s portrait, foils, and fencing shoes are displayed on the right wall.<\/b><\/p>\n

(via preux-chevalier<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most fascinating figures of the 18th century was the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a composer, violinist, fencing champion and military hero whose fame spanned continents. That he was black, born in 1745 to a white planter and his slave mistress in Guadeloupe, not only shaped his life in France but has fed a … <\/p>\n

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