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Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

Micheline's Blog

Tag Archives: Saint-George

Sharing & the News, 16 September 2012

16 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Sharing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Alexandre Benois, Ballets Russes, Léon Bakst, Michel Fokine, Old Black Joe, Paul Robeson, Saint-George, Sergei Diaghilev, Stravinsky, United States

Alexandre Benois, by Leon Bakst

Ballet

I am forwarding the News mostly unadorned, except for the above painting of Alexandre Benois, by Ballets Russes artist Leon Bakst.  Ballet was born in Italy.  It moved to France.  Louis XIV, the Sun-King, was a dancer.  And it reached what may be its culmination in Russia:  the Kirov, in St Petersburg, and the Bolshoi, in Moscow.  However, Sergei Diaghilev‘s Ballets Russes, an itinerant company based in Paris, spread the love of ballet to several countries, the US, etc. and several artists contributed to its success: Leon Bakst, Alexandre Benois (set and costume designers).  Its most famous choreographers were Marius Petipa (French) and Michel Fokine (Russian) and it starred the legendary Vaslav Nijinsky among other superb dancers.  It provided composer Igor Stravinsky with several commissions.

Le Chevalier de Saint-George

Joseph Bo(u)logne, Chevalier de Saint-George

There is confusion concerning the spelling of Saint-George’s name.  It seems that here George does not require an ‘s’, which is how George is written in English.  However, Joseph’s name is often spelled the way the French spell Georges, with a final ‘s’.  Saint George was/is a location.  Originally, Saint-George(s)’s name was Joseph Bologne.

To my knowledge, the recording featured in a post entitled Comments & the News: 14 September 2012 is one of the finest interpretations of Saint-George’s Violin Concerto, Op. 5, No.2 (Largo).  It is performed by violinist Jean-Jacques Kantorow and the Orchestre de Chambre Bernard Thomas.

Interestingly, while browsing, I somehow entered the British Museum and saw the picture featured in Le Chevalier de Saint-George: the Black Mozart.  That picture is attributed to George IV himself.

President Barack Hussein Obama: posts I reblogged

I reblogged two posts.  The United States has lost four fine citizens under tragic circumstances, but retaliation does not seem advisable.  If at all possible, the US should never again wage war in the Near-East or the Middle-East, or elsewhere.  America and people all over the world mourn the loss of these four lives and the US will cooperate with officials in the Near-East to find their assassins.  Using diplomacy is the better approach.  Besides, can the US afford another war?  Despite its billionaires, the United States is currently rather poor.

Mr Romney and Mr Ryan may be thinking that President Obama lacks “resolve,” but I heard that word in September 2001.  Where did “resolve” get the United States?  More lives were lost and the cost of those wars remains to be paid.  The time has come for people in the Near-East or the Middle-East to stop burning the American flag.

And yes, President Obama is the President of the United States of America.  He has faced considerable obstructionism on the part of extremists in the Republican Party: Tea Party members.  He must now be allowed to help the citizens of his country.  Why should little me in Canada be looked after without paying atrocious amounts of money to see a doctor or buy medication?  I pay my taxes.

It has become abundantly clear that the Romney-Ryan team’s main objective is to be supported by a shrinking middle-class and the poor.  The very wealthy hide their money in offshore accounts and ship too many jobs abroad where products are manufactured at a lesser cost.  They (the very wealthy) are saving money, but you aren’t.  Arithmetic was never my best subject, but it would not surprise me to learn that the price you pay for products manufactured elsewhere is the price you would pay for products manufactured in the United States.  You save on products made elsewhere when there is a sale.

The Concept of Nationhood

Rich people who want tax cuts have yet to understand the concept of nationhood.  The US has not recovered from the financial difficulties created by a former administration, a Republican administration, and Republicans do not want to pay their fair share of taxes.  So who will pay the debt, a Republican administration?  Beware.  “Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.”  Why should Americans seek a new President when it has the best it can have?  The next face to grace Mount Rushmore should not be President Reagan‘s face, it should be Franklin Delano Roosevelt‘s, a gentleman who cared for the people.  President Obama is walking in his footsteps.

The News

English
The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/
The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
The Montreal Gazette: http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html
The National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/index.html
Le Monde diplomatique: http://mondediplo.com/ EN
 
CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/news/
CTV News: http://www.ctvnews.ca/
 
French
Le Monde: http://www.lemonde.fr/
Le Monde diplomatique: http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/
Le Devoir: http://www.ledevoir.com/
La Presse: http://www.lapresse.ca/ 
 
German
Die Welt: http://www.welt.de/
 
© Micheline Walker
September 16, 2012
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45.408358 -71.934658

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Le Chevalier de Saint-George: the Black Mozart

14 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Mulatto, Music

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

French Revolution, Joseph, Joseph Haydn, Louis XVI of France, Marie-Antoinette, Mozart, Paris, Paris Symphonies, Saint-George, The Black Mozart

Satire of fencing duel between Monsieur de Saint-George et Mademoiselle la Chevalière d’Éon de Beaumont, Carlton House.  Engraved by Victor Marie Picot based on the original work of Charles Jean Robineau.

In Wikipedia’s entry on Joseph Bologne, mention is made of “a famous portrait of him [Saint-George] crossing swords in an exhibition match with the French transvestite spy-in-exile, the Chevalier d’Éon, in the presence of the Prince of Wales, Britain’s future king George IV.”  The famous portrait is the above “satire.”

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Allow me to begin this post by speaking of the two Mozarts: the white Mozart or Amadeus, and the black Mozart, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George.

When Mozart, the white Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), was in Paris, in 1777-1778, he was influenced by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George.  One would expect the white Mozart to have influenced the black Mozart, but that was not the case.  However, the two differ in that the career of the black Mozart (December 25, 1745 – June 10, 1799) was affected by his ethnicity and the French Revolution.  Three divas opposed his appointment as director of the Royal Opera because he was a mulatto.

However, by then, Joseph had commissioned and premièred Haydn six “Paris Symphonies” and he had met the white Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus during his 1777-1778 visit to Paris. It is during his stay in Paris that the former Wolfgang Theophilus, the white Mozart, lost his mother. She had accompanied him on this tour, but was taken ill and died on 3 July 1778. Wolfgang was 22 at that time and Joseph, 33.

However the French Revolution all but destroyed Joseph whose patrons were Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. As we know, he was Marie-Antoinette’s music teacher.  Marie-Antoinette composed “C’est mon ami,” a lovely pastoral song.

Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges: L’amant anonyme (1780), 
Ballet Nº 1

Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-George: Violin Concerto in C major, Op. 5, Nº 1

Joseph Boulogne: Symphony in G major, Op.11, Nº 1

Related blogs:
Le Chevalier de Saint-George: Reviving a Legend, cont’d
Le Chevalier de Saint-George: Reviving a Legend
Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges & the News
Le Chevalier de Saint-George: the Black Mozart
“C’est mon ami,” composed by Marie-Antoinette (lyrics by Florian)
“Plaisir d’amour,” sung by Kathleen Battle (lyrics by Florian)
The News & the Music of Frederick the Great
The Duc de Joyeuse: Louis XIII as a Composer
Terminology, the Music of Louis XIII & the News (eras in the history of music) 
 
The Chevalier de Saint-George in a 1787 painting probably commissioned by the future George IV of the United Kingdom.
 
© Micheline Walker
September 14, 2012
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Le Chevalier de Saint-George: Reviving a Legend

14 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Music

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Biography, Chevalier de Saint-George, Guadeloupe, Joseph Bologne, Marie-Angoinette., Micheline Walker, Saint-George, The Black Mozart, The French Revolution, WordPress

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George

Reviving a Legend: Three of six videos (1)
(biographical videos)

 
© Micheline Walker
September 14th, 2012
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Le Chevalier de Saint-George & the News

13 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Mulatto, Music

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Cardinal Richelieu, French Revolution, Gregorian Calendar, Saint-George, Wikipedia, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube

 
Portrait_of_Chevalier_de_Saint-George 
 
 Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-George
 

I have not finished reading my colleagues’ posts, so I apologize.  Preparing my posts of Saint-George was time-consuming.  However, I have now seen YouTube’s biographical videos.  There are several videos and they tell, in English, Saint-George’s entire story.

The Biographical Videos

Yesterday evening, I watched the biographical videos.  They provide excellent information, but that period in French history is a little difficult for me to follow.  During the French Revolution, the Jacobin calendar replaced to the Gregorian Calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII (7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585) and still in use.  As Napoleon rose to power, the Jacobin calendar remained the calendar used by the French and it is a calendar that tends to confuse me.  However, there is help on the internet.  To convert a Gregorian calendar date to a Jacobin date, click on Jacobin.  I suppose the reverse is also possible.

The Military

But, let us return to our Chevalier’s years in the military.  He was at first a gendarme and later a soldier.  At the age of 19, when he graduated, George was made a Gendarme de la Garde du Roi, created in 1609 by Henri IV.  The Garde du Roi‘s mission was to protect the dauphin, the name given the heir to the throne of France. 

Therefore, as a member of the Garde du Roi, Joseph’s duties had little to do with his future military assignments.  As I pointed out in the blog I posted yesterday (September 12, 2012), the Chevalier de Saint-George “served in the army of the Revolution against France’s foreign enemies.” (Chevalier de Saint-George, Wikipedia), but there is more to say.  At one point, Joseph took command of a regiment of a thousand free people of color, which brought on his demise.

Discrepancies

According to the YouTube biographical videos, upon his dismissal from the military, on September 25, 1793, Saint-George was condemned to death.  This information differs from the information provided in Saint-George’s Wikipedia entry.  Joseph was an aristocrat and, as an aristocrat, he could have been guillotined.  However, according to Wikipedia, he was accused of using public funds for private gain.  Wikipedia does not chronicle a death sentence.

* * *

Given that I would like to send this post as soon as possible, I will close now. There will be a third and final post on the Chevalier de Saint-George.

The News

English
The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/
The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
The Globe and Mail: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
The National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/index.html
Le Monde diplomatique: http://mondediplo.com/ EN
 
CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/news/
CTV News: http://www.ctvnews.ca/
 
French
Le Monde: http://www.lemonde.fr/
Le Monde diplomatique: http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/
Le Devoir: http://www.ledevoir.com/
La Presse: http://www.lapresse.ca/
 
German
Die Welt: http://www.welt.de/
 
© Micheline Walker
September 13, 2012
WordPress 
 
 

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