91福利社

2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Michael Goldfarb takes a look at the role music played in the life of the primary author of that famous document, Thomas Jefferson.

鈥淢usic is the favourite passion of my soul, and fortune has cast my lot in a country where it is in a state of deplorable barbarism,鈥� Jefferson wrote to Giovanni Fabbroni, an Italian friend living in Paris. In the letter, he goes on to ask Fabbroni for a recommendation for 鈥渟omeone who may be proficient in singing and on the harpsichord鈥� to join in a musical evening at his home, Monticello, near Charlottesville in Virginia. The date of the letter is 1778, the Revolutionary War was at its height, its outcome uncertain. Jefferson acknowledges this event might not take place for a few years but expresses longing for it.

The Declaration鈥檚 author was a man of huge intellect but arguably none of his many avocations was more important to him than music making.

By the age of 14, he was an accomplished violinist and travelled everywhere with his fiddle and even made a special case for it so it would fit on his saddle. His skill on the violin helped him gain entry into the inner circles of political life in colonial Virginia while he was still a university student at the College of William and Mary. Chamber music evenings were an important part of life in Virginia's capital, Williamsburg. He courted his wife Martha by serenading her. He gave her a harpsichord during their courtship so they could literally make beautiful music together.

Michael also talks about the stain on Jefferson's reputation: his slave ownership. He wrote about the music of Monticello鈥檚 slaves and provided musical education for some of them. Eston Hemmings, thought to be his youngest son with Sally Hemmings, his slave and companion for the last four decades of his life, became a professional musician.

This programme is shaped around an imagined musical evening at Monticello, mixing Jefferson鈥檚 own words on music and interviews with Jefferson scholars, 18th-century original instrument performers and historians of American colonial social life.

Presenter: Michael Goldfarb
Producer: Julia Hayball
Sound design: Chris Maclean
A Certain Height production for 91福利社 Radio 3