Author: seabreeze
Date: 2020-09-07 08:19
Reading through the letters of Thomas Jefferson today, I chanced upon one
entitled "The Favorite Passion of My Soul" addressed to Giovanni Fabbroni on June 1, 1778. Jefferson tells Fabbroni that "In a country where like yours [France?] music is practiced by every class of men I suppose there might be found persons of those trades [gardening, weaving, cabinet making, and stone cutting] who could perform on the French horn, clarinet or hautboy [oboe] so that one might have a band . . . ." He goes on to say that he might have two French horns and two clarinets "without enlarging . . . domestic expenses." He closes with the suggestion that if Fabbroni can find such virtuous people who can double working in the trades and music, he should encourage them to "come to America" where he will welcome and employ them.
Jefferson seems to have cultivated an interest in everything under the sun, from the morphology and syntax of ancient Greek words to the varieties of rice grown in Vietnam, to temperatures at which various species of bees can survive, and even to the instrument we play.
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