Music: Quotations about Jefferson
Isaac, Monticello slave: "He kept three fiddles; played in the arternoons and sometimes arter supper. This was in his early time. When he begin to git so old, he didn't play . . . . Mr. Jefferson always singing when ridin' or walkin'; hardly see him anywhar outdoors but what he was a-singin'. Had a fine clear voice; sung minnits and sich; fiddled in the parlor." (Bear13)
Edmund Bacon, Monticello overseer: "I have rode over the plantation, I reckon, a thousand times with Mr. Jefferson, and when he was not talking he was nearly always humming some tune, or singing in a low tone to himself." (Bear83)
Ellen
W. Coolidge, Jefferson's granddaughter: "Mr. Jefferson had a most
decided taste for music and great natural dispositions for it.
His ear was singularly correct and his voice, though he never
sang except in the retirement of his own rooms, was sweet and
clear and continued unbroken to a very late period of his life.
My chamber at Monticello was over his, and I used not unfrequently
to hear him humming old tunes, generally Scotch songs but sometimes
Italian airs or hymns." (Ellen Coolidge letterbook, ViU)
Maria Cosway, friend in Paris: "I would Serve you and help you at dinner, and divert your pain after dinner by good Musik." Note: TJ had just broken his wrist. (B.10.394)
--Lucia C. Stanton, Monticello Research Department, 23 March 1990
Pictured: music stand in Monticello parlor.