The influence of Western music on black composers.

'Chevalier' Saint-Georges was one of the finest violinists of his time and enjoyed unusual privileges for a black musician. He was born in Guadaloupe, the illegitimate son of a planter and his African slave, but from 1753 lived in Paris.

Saint-Georges and Leclair's lives overlapped for 11 years here. Knowing Saint-Georges' reputation as the virtuosic violinist in Paris in the second half of the eighteenth century, it seems probable that he learnt his skill from Leclair, the foremost exponent of the violin in the preceding half century. As Saint-Georges was a generation younger, his compositions are more gallant/classical in style.

The likelihood of Leclair and Handel actually having met is slim, though Leclair spent some time in 1728 in London where his Op. 2 was published by Walsh, Handel's publisher. Leclair is also known to have owned printed editions of Handel's music. 1728 was an important year for Handel. He was certainly flavour of the month, following the success of the Coronation Anthems the previous year, so it is highly probably that Leclair was introduced to him.

Errollyn Wallen is one of the UK's foremost female black composers. Her work spans many musical genres and she is especially interested in baroque music and the sounds of period instruments.

She is in the process of composing a song cycle for The Brook Street Band; The Queen and I forms part of this cycle. Mirrors of Invention takes a Bach 2-part invention as its starting point and develops this theatrically.