What’s With the Word- Conservatory?
People often ask us where the name Tanglewood Conservatories came from and if it has anything to do with music.
Well, our recent vacation trip took Nancy and I, among other places, on a pilgrimage to our actual namesake, the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lennox Massachusetts, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
The Tanglewood Music Festival is located in the western part of the state in the beautiful Berkshire mountains and has been known for years to host performances of not only the great classics such as Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky but the Tanglewood Jazz Festival which this year headlines such acts as Dr. John, Wynton Marsalis, Elvis Costello, Dave Brubeck, Ann Hampton Callaway, Irma Thomas, Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band.
The night we were there, James Taylor and Cheryl Crowe were in concert.
The Tanglewood Music Festival was the actual inspiration for the name of our company, Tanglewood Conservatories. When Nancy and I began building conservatories, we tried to come up with a name that was really special, something that reflected the really special quality of our rooms. We came up with lists and more lists of potential names, asked friends what they thought of the different choices and got nowhere until Nancy one morning sat up in bed and said: “I’ve got it – Tanglewood Conservatories”.
Nancy had been a music lover since she was a child when she played piano, guitar and sang. In her mind, our conservatories and music go together not just because of the musical, artistic quality of the designs, but because of the remarkable sound quality that we and others have experienced inside our rooms.
More than one of our rooms have been regularly used for recitals and concerts and we are always amazed at the way the quality of sound seems to permeate the room, seems to overflow and fill the room with a richness of tone that makes the room seem so much larger.
We first noticed this when we were at the home of a friend for whom we had designed and built a simple but beautiful conservatory. He played violin with a string quartet and the group would come to his home to practice in the conservatory because of this effect. One day we were there for a session and noticed the magical quality of the sound. He confirmed that this was normally true.
We think it an interesting turn of words, that the term “conservatory” can refer to either a beautiful glass building, the purpose of which was originally to “conserve” plants throughout the cold winter months – or a school for the accomplishment of musical expertise.
I’m not sure of the origin of the word “conservatory” as it applies to a music school, however, in our experience, the two meanings are far more than coincidentally linked, though I don’t know if this connection was original.
If anyone knows, please help me out.
Alan
You must have had a wonderful time. I’ve never been to Tanglewood but have always wanted to go. I’m going to make a point of it now. I love the image of the music inside the conservatory and the play on words. Another way to think of and use the conservatory as a “music room” of sorts.