Music: Jefferson Quotations
1771. "There we should talk over the lessons of the day, or lose them in Musick, Chess, or the merriments of our family companions. The heart thus lightened, our pillows would be soft, and health and long life would attend the happy scene." (TJ to Robert Skipworth, 3 August, B.1.78)
1778. "If there is a gratification which I envy any people in this world it is to your country [Italy] its music. This is the favorite passion of my soul, and fortune has cast my lot in a country where it is in a state of deplorable barbarism . . . . The bounds of an American fortune will not admit the indulgence of a domestic band of musicians. Yet I have thought that a passion for music might be reconciled with that oeconomy which we are obliged to observe . . . . In a country where, like yours, music is cultivated and practised by every class of men I suppose there might be found persons of those trades [gardener, weaver, cabinetmaker, stonecutter] who could perform on the French horn, clarinet, or hautboy and bassoon, so that one might have a band of two French horns, two clarinets, and hautboys and a bassoon, without enlarging their domest[ic] expenses." Asks Fabbroni's aid in procuring such a band of musical artisans. (TJ to Giovanni Fabbroni, 8 June, B.2.196)
c.1781. "In music they [blacks] are more generally gifted than the whites with accurate ears for tune and time, and they have been found capable of imagining a small catch. Whether they will be equal to the composition of a more extensive run of melody, or of complicated harmony, is yet to be proved." (Notes140)
1785. "Were I to proceed to tell you how much I enjoy their [the
French] architecture, sculpture, painting, music, I should want
words. It is in these
arts they shine. The last of them particularly is an enjoiment,
the deprivation of which with us cannot be calculated. I am almost
ready to say it is the only thing which from my heart I envy them,
and which in spight of all the authority of the decalogue I do
covet." (TJ, in Paris, to Charles Bellini, 30 September, B.8.569)
1787. "Music, drawing, books, invention and exercise will be so many resources to you against ennui." (TJ to daughter Martha, 28 March, B.11.251)
1790. "Do not neglect your music. It will be a companion which will sweeten many hours of life to you." (TJ to Martha, 4 April, FAM51)
1818. "The ornaments too, and the amusements of life, are entitled to their portion of attention. These, for a female, are dancing, drawing, and music. . . . Music is invaluable where a person has an ear. Where they have not, it should not be attempted. It furnishes a delightful recreation for the hours of respite from the cares of the day, and lasts us through life. The taste of this country, too, calls for this accomplishment more strongly than for either of the others." (TJ to Nathaniel Burwell, 14 March, Ford.12.92)
--Lucia C. Stanton, Monticello Research Department, March 1991
Pictured: harpsichord, 1762. Produced by Jacob Kirckman using mahogany, mahogany veneer; photograph by Edward Owen