George Bridgetower

George Bridgetower was a Black violinist and composer who lived in the 18th century, an important time during the development of Western Classical music.

George was born in 1778 in Poland to a Polish-German mother and an Afro-Caribbean father. They soon moved to England, where the Bridgetower family mingled with the English high class. By the age of 10, George was already performing on stage as a violinist in venues such as the Drury Lane Theatre, in front of royalty and nobility.

George's talent and his parents' good connections led to the British Prince Regent, who would later become King George IV, taking George under his wing. George received the best violin education from renowned musicians at that time such as François Barthélémon, Ivan Mane Jarnović and Thomas Attwood. Attwood was himself a pupil of Mozart.

Under their tutelage and guidance, George Bridgetower played in the King's orchestra in Brighton and London. Even Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States, heard George Bridgetower play, at a concert in Paris in 1789.

During a visit to Vienna in 1803, George Bridgetower's path would cross with Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven was at the height of his creative powers, and the two musicians struck up an unlikely but profound friendship.

Beethoven's admiration for George's virtuosity led to him dedicating his Violin Sonata No. 9 in A minor (Op.47) to Bridgetower. They premiered the piece together in Vienna in 1803, with Beethoven on piano and Bridgetower on Violin. Bridgetower purportedly had to sightread some of the piece over Beethoven's shoulder while they were playing it

Something happened shortly after this premiere that led to a falling out between Beethoven and Bridgetower. Most accounts mention that Bridgetower had said something about a woman, or had insulted a woman, who turned out to be a close friend of Beethoven. Beethoven purportedly broke all ties with Bridgetower and changed his dedication of Sonata N°9 to Rudolphe Kreutzer instead. Kreutzer never ended up playing what is now unequivocally known as 'the Kreutzer Sonata'.

Bridgetower was a composer of music as well. Sadly, most of his work is lost, as has happened with many compositions of that time. Only the most famous and prestigious compositions of the Age of Western Classical Music have survived until this day. A few compositions of Bridgetower do survive, including Diatonica armonica for pianoforte and the lovely Henry: A Ballad.

Were it not for his falling out with Beethoven, or the loss of many of his compositions, George Bridgetower might have been a much more celebrated and famous Classical composer today.

We often see European Classical music as being dominated by white men, but when we look deeper it becomes clear that this music genre has been influenced by women such as Hildegard of Bingen and Clara Schumann, and Black people such as Chevalier de Saint Georges and, indeed, George Bridgetower.