Violin Concerto #1 in G, study score; Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (Peer Music)

Study Score

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799) was the first black violinist/composer of international repute and by all accounts an extraordinary figure. He was born in Guadalupe to a wealthy plantation owner and an enslaved African mother; the three traveled to Paris, where Joseph gained fame as a fencing master and was knighted. He was conductor of Le Concert Olympique, one of the leading European orchestras of the time, with whom he commissioned and premiered Haydn's Paris symphonies.

He was also a virtuoso violinist, playing as soloist in all of his own concertos. He wrote twelve violin concertos, two symphonies, and some of the first symphonie-concertantes, predating Mozart's by several years (and perhaps inspiring its composition). This study score of his very first concerto is a window into his writing and into the classical style he worked in.