The dream of Chevalier de Saint-Georges (a fantasy)

Joseph Bologne de Saint-Georges woke up in a cold sweat. He knew the story of Tartini's "Devil's Trill" sonata dream, so he made sure to notate the details of this dream, because he felt that it was equally strange and relevant:

There was a general plague that was infecting the whole world: Europe, Asia, and even the Americas. All the people wore masks. And even though they were instructed to stay in their houses, masked people in every country of the world took to the streets day after day to peacefully declare that the lives of black people mattered as much as the lives of white people. According to American law, slavery had been abolished for a hundred and fifty years, but black people were still being treated as second-class citizens. The crowds of people who were protesting (by the thousands) were made of black people and white people; both men and women.

Musicians who couldn't play together because of the plague stayed in their houses and used rectangular objects (that looked like decks of cards) to make likenesses of their playing. Exact recordings of what they played! And these objects could also capture images! Musicians sent their images with sound through the air (!!!) to people all over the world, and the recipient could see and hear the musical images instantly.

Musicians used these devices to record multiple sound images of themselves, and then they somehow managed to project the sound images in such a way that it looked and sounded like people were playing concerts with themselves. They could also play with other people this way.

The oddest thing of all was hearing a brilliant violinist in a blue shirt (and his double) playing both parts of my A major Duo--the one I just finished. This man reminds me of my young friend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I hope that when Mozart grows up he is able to play as well as the man in my dream.

And then there was another part of my dream. There was a library of music that people could find through their rectangles (and there were also bigger rectangles that looked like windows and were about the size of a piece of music). A person of any class and any nationality could, without needing to make any financial transactions at all, find pieces of music and use their rectangular windows to read them.

And my name was there. I pressed a button, and I saw lists of music associated with me through the glass window. Some were pieces that I have written. But I also saw pieces I have only been thinking about writing!

I pressed the button for my collection of violin duos (it says that they will be published in 1800, which is nice to know).

And then he woke up.