Joseph Bologne (or Boulogne), the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was the offspring of a French landowner on Guadaloupe and his Senegalese slave. He was taken to France and became an expert swordsman and also a composer, apparently the first in the classical tradition of African descent. These string quartets, composed in 1777, were early works, perhaps the first string quartets written in France apart from an even earlier Saint-Georges set. They are pretty simple, perhaps modeled on Haydn's very earliest works. Saint-Georges' ...
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Joseph Bologne (or Boulogne), the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was the offspring of a French landowner on Guadaloupe and his Senegalese slave. He was taken to France and became an expert swordsman and also a composer, apparently the first in the classical tradition of African descent. These string quartets, composed in 1777, were early works, perhaps the first string quartets written in France apart from an even earlier Saint-Georges set. They are pretty simple, perhaps modeled on Haydn's very earliest works. Saint-Georges' "quartetto concertans" are in two movements; most of the first movements are brief Allegros in binary form, while the second movements are rondos, moderate-tempo movements, or in one case, a set of variations. The violin, Saint-Georges' own instrument, is dominant in the texture, although the cello has some solo passages. Saint-Georges seems to have warmed to his task as he worked on the set. The later quartets in the group are longer, more complex in structure, and more variegated...
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