Composer, swordsman, polymath: Why Joseph Boulogne should never be called the ‘Black Mozart’

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Boulogne’s extraordinary fencing talent led Louis XV to name him Chevalier de Saint-Georges, after his father’s noble title, even though France’s Code Noir prohibited Boulogne from officially inheriting the title because of his African ancestry. But when Francois-Joseph Gossec, one of France’s pioneering symphony writers and most prominent conductors, founded the Concert des Amateurs series in 1769, he invited Boulogne to join its orchestra, first as a violinist and later as its concertmaster. Under Boulogne’s direction, the Concert des Amateurs orchestra became widely regarded as the best in France, if not all of Europe. open image in gallery ‘Le Chevalier de Saint-George, un Africain a la cour’ – a show dedicated to the composer Discouraged by his persistent lack of success in opera, by dwindling patronage because of changes on the political scene and by his increased activism in the French Revolution as an enlisted officer, Boulogne sharply reduced his musical activities towards the end of his life.