Some Less-Beaten Paths...

Here's a rather random assortment of links to stuff I wish I'd have had room for / time to prepare for the Reader:

• I've just recently discovered one fascinating figure from the Revolutionary period: the mulatto composer and soldier, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, known as 'The Black Mozart'. I discovered him through a four-volume biographical novel on him by the avant-gardist Roger de Beauvoir, the 1840 edition of which I just bought for my 19th Century Counter-Culture archive. Sadly it's in French, so my comprehension is pretty limited. It seems that someone is attempting to make a movie about him; not sure how that'll turn out, but there's a decent biography and some of his music (I'm trying to find more) HERE. (so far I can't find any free downloads)
• We think of Rousseau now mainly as philosopher and novelist, but he considered himself a musician and musicologist first and foremost, and he did have a real effect on Romanticist music. I'm having trouble finding free recordings of his music, but HERE is a piece that Beethoven wrote using themes from Rousseau's one-act opera, Le Devin du Village. (Maybe some of our musicians can help us understand it a bit more?)
• On the other hand, people on the left didn't agree with Rousseau on everything. The British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft (mother Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley) took severe issue with Rousseau's ideas on femininity and pedagogy in her seminal book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published in 1792, just before she moved to Paris to witness the Revolutionary government at first hand.. I've hastily cobbled together a few of her arguments against Rousseau HERE. 
• The Romantics often talk about the poet & satirist Évariste de Parny as a precursor; but I can't find any translations (though I own an 1862 edition edited by the Romanticist critic Saint-Beuve)...

ALSO: for those who have an easier time listening than reading, HERE are free audiobook files of Rousseau's Social Contract. I haven't managed to find audio files on the other two texts from this reading. If there are good sites for finding free audio books and/or free classical/orchestral music recordings, let me know and I'll add them to the links tab on the right. Internet Archive has a fair number under the 'audio' tab.

Music is one thing we really regret not being able to adequately cover in the 'official' syllabus, and any postings on it will be very welcome!

This weekend I'm planning on putting together an album of Classicist painting, sculpture, and architecture. Stay tuned!