Joseph Boulogne, the Chevalier de Saint-George and the Problem With Black Mozart *

Abstract

This article discourages the implementation and use of the term Black Mozart as a popular descriptor for, arguably, the most influential Black composer, violinist, and fencer in 18th-century France: Joseph Boulogne, the Chevalier de Saint-George. By theorizing the term Black Mozart in the discursive frameworks of Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, Sartre’s Black Orpheus, and Ter Ellingson’s Myth of the Noble Savage, I reveal the epistemological and ontological problems that the term presents. I find that, while Black Mozart is a clever way of drawing attention to Saint-George’s music and, subsequently, his life, the term occludes the critical treatment of the Black subject to the point of erasure: Saint-George is replaced by a mythicized inferior of the status quo’s perfect symbol of 18th-century classical music. I conclude that by removing the yoke of Mozart’s influence on the reception of Saint-George, we expose him to the fullness of our critical reasoning and restore to him the name he earned for all his talents, trials, and triumphs.