Thomas Jefferson and Monticello

 

As you have probably noticed, we are huge Thomas Jefferson fans!

 

It is well known that Thomas Jefferson played the violin, but it has also been suggested that he played the cello as well! One of Jefferson’s college friends was future Virginia governor “John Tyler...whose cellist’s bow arm Jefferson admired.”  Based on this information, gleaned from a letter in the Tyler family archives, Helen Cripe suggests in her book Thomas Jefferson and Music that the writer of the Declaration of Independence and third U. S. President was himself a cellist.

 

Of course Monticello, the name of the Virginia residence that Jefferson designed himself, doesn’t actually refer to the violoncello. In both Italian words, “cello” is in fact a diminutive ending, so monticello = little mountain and violoncello = little violone. Here is what Jefferson himself had to say about his beloved Monticello:

 

      and our own dear Monticello, where has Nature spread so rich a mantle under the eye? mountains, forests, rocks, rivers. with    

      what majesty do we there ride above the storms! how sublime to look down into the workhouse of nature, to see her clouds, hail,

      snow, rain, thunder, all fabricated at our feet! and the glorious Sun, when rising as if out of a distant water, just gilding the tops of

      the mountains, & giving life to all nature! (Th. Jefferson, from letter to Maria Cosway of October 12, 1786)

 

 

About the Thomas Jefferson Quotes on our website

 

On About Us page (“favorite passion”)

     see the full quotation here

 

On Music Lessons page (“do not neglect”)

     see the full quotation here

 

On Contact Us page ("a delightful recreation")

     see article here

 

You can search Jefferson quotes and letters on the Monticello website.