THE GARDEN OF AMERICAN MUSIC,GENESIS AND DEVELOPMENT
The Garden of American Music is a garden created in the English landscape style near Bethel, Tennessee,built to honor Western norms of beauty,and both familiar and little-appreciated American composers and arrangers of art music: classical, jazz and “The Great American Songbook” (see attached map). This note describes how the garden originated and developed over more than a half-century.
The English Landscape Garden
The English landscape garden (sometimes termed “landscape park”)was an idealized realization of the “Arcadian Idyll” as epitomized by the paintings of Claude Lorrain and Poussin.These imagined landscapes were then created on the Georgian landscape of England (and elsewhere in Europe)by, among many others, “Capability” Brown and Humphry Repton as well as some talented landowners. Such gardens featuredromantic icons including urns on pedestals, temples, bridges, arches, pavilions, statues, and “ruins” alluding to the classical and Gothic architecture of Europe, all reminding one of high literature, music, philosophy, and other noble human endeavors. These features are often located and spaced so they come into view at some distance as focal points and pull one along to that spot. The “improvement of nature” and frequent imposition of order (such as long, straight “allees”) on what had been naturally unordered landscapes,along with both active and quiescent water features, all in the context of nature, gave beautiful sounds, colors, textures, shadows, reflections, contrasts, surprise, and sometimes…tension. Vast collections of live botanical specimens from around the world gave a sense of far places and of scientific inquiry and discipline. All this artistic, intellectual, historical, and romantic panoply was a wonderful catalyst for meditation and inspiration. And some argue that like all high art, such gardens can be ennobling. Indeed, much of the intellectual inspiration for these gardens was the English Enlightenment with thinkers like Alexander Pope, William Hogarth, and Edmund Burke andtheir perceptions of beauty and the sublime. But what really made this happen was the action of English aristocrats who elected to have such gardens created on their estates, the huge expense sometimes plungingeven extremely rich landowners into bankruptcy. Nevertheless, it was arguably worth the sacrifice: one English garden historian maintains that the landscape garden is the only great aesthetic contribution made by the English to the arts. So, while the social, economic, intellectual, and artistic conditions seemed ideal for that contribution, it will be suggested later in this narrative that the physical conditions were also ideal. Given all this, it might not be too presumptuous to speculate that the landscape garden could have been created only in England: certainly, it was the ideal birthplace. And while such gardens flowered in the late 18th century, they were still being created into the 20th century and are treasured today.
The Garden of American Music
While it would take a book to fully describe the Garden of American Music, it seems appropriate to sketch some of the features seen on the attached map, starting from the northeast corner of the garden and moving clockwise.Note that names of musicians were simply assigned randomly to garden features so that there is not necessarily any significant connection.
The first feature built was the Johnny Mercer Cascade which, as he did, sings a merry bubbling tune except during the summer droughts. This feature required environmental permitting and a decade of work (1979-89). Tons of large rocks from the farm were used in its construction, some moved by heavy equipment and others by hand. The big problem was to design it to withstand the huge periodic floods (some being 3 feet deep over the dam!) without being destroyed and this has been successful for 3 decades. And while actively flowing, it is a beautiful sight with whitewater and the enchanting sounds of cascading water.Upstream, the reflective pond extends about 500 feet, thus juxtaposing the dynamic and the tranquil. Five smaller cascades have been created downstream, which provide both visual and aural pleasure as one walks along the creek lined with sycamores, American elm, sugar maples and red oak.
Just to the west side of the Mercer Cascade is the Erich Wolfgang Korngold Pond with a single-arch stone bridge, profuse water iris, and a statue of the Greek goddess Hebe which seems to float on the water. The whole area is backed by a picturesque limestone bluff and is filled with ornamental plants such as Southern magnolia, red buckeye, bay, Japanese maple, bald cypress, cherry, yew, boxwood, crepe myrtle, arbor vitae, hydrangea, day lilies, forsythia, Chinese wisteria, Chinese snowball, buddleia, plus English ivy and daffodils. The entire garden is underlain by limestone, its grey color being attractive where it appears, and it has been quarried on the place to build many of the stone garden structures. However, that it often lies close under the surface frequently made the planting of trees and shrubs very difficult indeed.
Leaving the creek, one passes by the Franz Waxman flowerbed bordered by quarried stone and filled with daylilies, cosmos, gladiolas, iris, creeping phlox, and roses.
Cascades 3, 4 and 5 are marked by perennial hibiscus, abelia, winter honeysuckle, chaste trees, butterfly plants, and arborvitae. Further on, the path is on a high bank and the bordering trees are full of wisteria.
The David Diamond Allee is bordered by a 500-foot long hedge of Chinese privet. This is punctuated by plantings of Oak Leaf Hydrangea and Red Buckeye and intercepted by the David Raksin and Lorenz Hart Brooks, the former having plantings of daylilies and natural trumpet vines which present their red trumpets to the passer by.
The John Phillips Sousa Wetland Garden contains water iris, turtlehead, purple ageratum, purple loose strife, and cattails. A walk along David Raksin Brook leads to the Leroy Anderson Grove of Red Oaks and the replica statue of the Venus de Milo. Just to the north is the Victoriancast-iron Daniel Asia Gazebo reflected in the Charles Ives Pond. In the distance to the north, is Dorothy Fields Pond and Hoagy Carmichael column.
From here the George Gershwin Allee, lined with red maple and crepe myrtle, leads to the Palladian Arch (built 2003), modeled on the Doric Arch at Stowe garden in Buckinghamshire. Even though made of the roughly quarried stone from the farm, architectural details such as the pilasters with their capitals are clearly visible. The entablature carries the inscription “Dem Guten, Wahren, Schoenen” (dedicated to the good, true and beautiful) taken from the old Frankfurt opera house (still in WWII ruins in 1965) and possibly stems from Goethe’s 1826 “Ode to Schiller,” or it might be much older.
Lake Howard Hanson was createdin 1985 to US government engineering specifications, the dam having one surface spillway 40 feet wide. This proved inadequate within a short time and a second spillway, 50 feet wide, was built in 1988. Even so, water on one occasion flowed over the crest of the dam starting a small gully which, had the flow continued, would have breached the dam, a potential problem explained later in this narrative. Several other major problems have emerged with the lake. Because the bottom was porous limestone (karst), water leaked away, leaving the lake low and unsightly. Finally, in 2010, funds were available to line the bottom with clay, greatly ameliorating the problem. When full, the lake features a large stone urn which seems to float on the surface, a feature inspired by PetworthPark in Sussex.The lake experiences the growth of algae, a problem also found in England butminimized there with barley straw unfortunately not found locally in Tennessee. A partial answer is adding Chinese grass carp which eat the algae but unfortunately leave the water turbid. Yet another and continuing problem isthe activity of water mammals such as muskrat, beaver, mink and otter which dangerously undermine the banks. Landscape parks may presume to “improve nature” but nature decidedly resists being improved. Nevertheless, all the problems simply underscore the beauty of the lake at its best with its reflections of the surrounding landscape and, often, colorful cloud formations.
Other animal wildlife in this 200-acre refuge includes white-tail deer, hawks, rabbits, armadillos,wood ducks, egrets, herons, cormorantsand Canada geese. This wildlife presents both embellishment and problems. It is not uncommon to see herds of up to a dozen deer leaping across the prairies but their damage to plants runs to hundreds of dollars each year. Huge flights of Canada geese landing on the lakes and ponds are thrilling but they leave a mess.
The triple-arched Palladian Bridge (actually a Roman design with touches of Tennessee vernacular architecture, built 2001) was essential to such a garden, but who to build such a complex structure? After years of searching, in 2000 an extremely talented fellow from very rural Wayne County TN, 50 miles west, was found to do all the stonework. He stated simply, “If it can be designed, I can build it.” And he did: two bridges, the Palladian Arch, The Pavilion, and many other features, only some of which are shown on the map. Most of the stone for this and most of the masonry projects was quarried on the farm.
The Ruins of Arcadia is an allusion to a fine Southern plantation house, perhaps destroyed by Federal troops during the Civil War thus evoking several emotions. This feature involved finding, excavating, and transporting 54 tons of Indiana limestone columns and capitals from the old Lauderdale County, Alabama, court house which had been discarded and buried in a creek bed about 60 miles away. A platform resembling the front portico base and steps was built and the columns were erected in 2000. The plantings of crepe myrtle, Arizona cedar, Euonymus, and flowers around the ruin are to add mystique by partially shrouding it.
The lake is normally fed by the FerdieGrofe Brook whichhas several rippling cascades and is lined by huge red oaks with flowers and flowering plants and several shaded benches for resting.While flowers are not normally a part of many landscape gardens, perennials such as many types and colors (about 20) of daylilies have been planted here commensurate with the ability to maintain them. This pathway is also called “Magic Valley” because of a cool drainage wind gently flowing down along the brook at duskon the hottest summer days.The cool breeze often created rising strands of mist above the lake which float mysteriously towards the dam, sometimes creating an almost mystical vision.
There are several other groves of huge trees in the garden, one being the Dave Brubeck Forest featuring
tulip trees (yellow poplar or Liriodendron tulipifera) and red oaks ( Quercusshumardii), some over 100 feet tall. Within some of these groves, the underbrush has been cleared to create “rooms” akin to being in a high Gothic cathedral, thetrunks of the tall trees representing columns with the high branches creating a “vaulted” effect. Some of these roomscontain icons and one, (Alice’s Fern Garden) in a very shady and damp place with a natural limestone grotto, is filled with native ferns and other shade-loving vegetation such as trillium, Solomon’s seal, and Lenten rose. Some visitors remark on having a “spiritual” or even “haunted” feeling in these rooms.
To some visitors, the most memorablegarden feature is The Pavilion of American Music(built 2003-2005). The inspiration is from the Temple of British Worthies found at Stowehonoring eminent people such as Pope, Milton, Newton and Shakespeare. The exedra and the Italianate forms are inspired by some of Palladio’s villas in the Veneto. Originally planned was having musicians’ names inscribed on a large stone pedestal but that proved much too expensive. Arnold Schoenberg Terrace,carved from the hillside and built upon, was inspired by Rievaulx Terrace in North Yorkshire. The Pavilion, backed byRobert Russell Bennett Forest and Mount Stan Kenton,faces Amy Beach Alleegiving a panoramic view of the garden and the countryside. It is a great place to have a picnic or just have a glass of wine and ponder.
The Samuel Barber Claire-Voyee(created 1995) is a broad path cleared through the forest that allows one, from the Garden Room of the house, to sight along the Jan Swafford Allee and see a distant ridge on a neighbor’s land with the intervening valley remaining in defilade. Thus, this distant ridge often shows up as bluish in contrast to the greener foreground.The John Adams overlook gives a view of that distant hillside normally dotted with cows, the whole scene resembling a Constable or Turner painting, especially in the morning when the scene is often brilliantly sunlit. A path winding up through the woods from the pet cemetery emerges onto this scene. When finallymature, a dark forest of boxwoods and magnolias will block the view as one nears the top of the path so that one will emerge from this dark maze to the brilliant scene. This known as “Pope’s Surprise” to recall his emphasis on surprise as part of the sublime.
This overlook was to be crowned by a Gothic ruin with a large Gothic window and a hexagonal tower with battlements. Plans were drawn in 2008, the mason agreed on a price, and footings were dug. The mason then decided to retire;no other mason in the region could do such work, so the project was abandoned. Sic transit Gloria.
Finally in this brief survey are the several miles of mowed walking paths. Most all are bordered by trees and flowering plants, some mildly exotic, usually at intervals of about 30 feet and benches are placed at particularly enticing views.Other than their botanical and aesthetic interest, the trees are to provide shade on hot days in accordance with Thomas Jefferson’s observations on English gardens. He noted that while the English seek the summer sun, Americans justifiably try to avoid it and thus American gardens should be so designed.
Space here does not permit further description in this brief survey but the map does give a good idea of the main features of the garden. Beyond this, one should visit it personally.Indeed, there have been many visitors to the garden, many of these from Europe, Japan, and China. Their reaction has been mixed, with some unmoved but others deeply so. Perhaps the most eloquent reaction has been from Dr. Louis Edmundson, scholar of English literature and scion of the Edmundson family, being the great-grandson of Joseph and Susan Edmundson who built the house c. 1856. Somewhat whimsically, he wrote:
“I've never set foot on the grounds there when I was not aware of some presence investing itself in everything and seeming to hover over all of it in a kind of tutelary, spiritual sense. I would swear that the Fern Garden is riotously inhabited by fauns and satyrs chasing nymphs among the trees. That's just a subjective, emotive and even silly kind of notion, of course, but it seems real enough to me. Maybe it's just a reaction to what is visible to the eye--the tension between the natural processes going on with the woods and land and the civilizing handiwork of the gardener. (Of course, it was Antoine de Exupery, who had his "Little Prince" observe, "That which is essential is invisible to the eye.") The "genius" of the place. Hmm.”
Creating a Landscape Garden in Eastern North America
In one sense rearranging the landscape to create a landscape garden in modern times was much easier than it was in Georgian England; vast amounts of earth had to be moved and modern machinery was infinitely faster than the horses and scoops used earlier and thus, while still expensive, was much cheaper and more effective. The main problem other than money, however, was the difference in climate. England has a mild climate with frequent gentle rainfall events and moderate summer temperatures. The eastern US, conversely, has much more infrequent rainfall but with extreme intensities and amounts. This meant that all water features had to be designed to withstand relatively catastrophic conditions. Just one example is in the design for the earthen dams built to create the lakes, a lake being a very important feature. In England such dams normally have no surface spillway; rather the excess water is simply directed downstream though a subsurface drainpipe, this design being a reflection of the gentle rainfall and moderate storm inflow to the lake.
In the eastern US, however, the intense rainfall dictates that large surface spillways be built (as was done for Lake Howard Hanson); otherwise, storm water would flow over the crest of the dam possibly eroding it and causing a dam breach, draining the lake and creating a downstream flood. Moreover, as already noted, all water features such as canals and cascades must be protected against such excessive flows by additional engineering. The other climatic difference in the US, especially the Southeast, is the very high temperatures of summer with extremely high evapotranspiration rates and often severely limited rainfall. Thus, while English gardens can normally depend on plentiful water during the summer, US gardens are subject to extreme droughts, sometimes drying up water features. Often, this can be offset by pumping water from another source. Here, water is pumped subsurface half-mile from the creek just above Cascade 3 to the ponds. While quite elaborate and difficult to maintain, it has the benefit of aerating the water by spraying it into the lakes and ponds. On occasion, however, even the creek goes dry as happened in 2016.
Severe droughts can also cause some of the non-native plants to wither and even die. Indeed, the loss from the extreme drought of autumn 2016 in the Garden of American Music was thousands of dollars. This problem can be overcome by irrigation but the costs of installation are high, and even higher for the labor of implementation and maintenance. A garden in England the size and complexity of the Garden of American Music garden would probably have 4-5 full- time employees but this gardenhas only the two owners and one part-time employee. Among the many continuing tasks is to finish-mow 20 acres of lawns, including the walking trails and trim the edges.
For most years, use of the garden reaches its lowest ebb during August and September because the temperature and humidity are oppressive, water features are either low or dry, there are no flowers except for some crepe myrtle, and the rest of the vegetation looks scruffy by then. Conversely, winter is often a beautiful and comfortable time with the water features full and convoluted hackberry branches silhouetted like embroidery against a deep azure sky. Spring and autumn are wonderful with much color.
Given that the 19th century American upper class emulated the English in matters of manners, speech, religion, architecture and general aesthetics including gardens, it seems remarkable that so few private landscape gardens were created in the US. The wealth and abundant land were certainly available. It seems possible that the climatic differences and ensuing difficulties described above might have played some role, although the urge to politically distance from England in the late 18thcentury was perhaps more important. Indeed, the popularity of landscape gardens in Georgian England was due in part to the desire to replace the formerly popular geometric-style gardens associated with the then politically-unpopular French.Visualizing and Creating the Garden of American Music
The creators of the garden, Stanley W. Trimble and Alice Gunn Trimble, were both born in 1940 and grew up in north Alabama in middle-class families. Both had a good sense of traditional popular music of the time and had developed some appreciation of classical music by the time they entered what is now the University of North Alabama where Stan studied science and math and Alice business and English. In April, 1962, they met in a music appreciation course, and art music, along with historical and classical architecture, became common bonds that they avidly pursued during the next three years of military service for Stan and graduate school for Alice.
Married August 16, 1964, Stan and Alice in autumn 1965 sold most of their belongings and moved to Europe to further pursue their love of what was now extended to most of all European high culture. Alice taught short courses for the University of Maryland and Stan took whatever teaching jobs he could find and, being a U.S. Army reserve officer, he was able to do short stints of duty. These jobs provided them with funds to travel and explore high art all over Europe from the UK eastward to East Germany, and from Scandinavia southward to Yugoslavia, Greece, and Italy. However, most time was spent in Germany and France, with two-month residences in Frankfurt, Kaiserslautern, and Paris. Money was always short but it was possible to spend most of their time in art museums, opera houses and concert halls, while learning more German and French and just absorbing the environment and ambient culture.
From all of these features and attractions,Stan and Alice fell in love with the concept of the English landscape garden because it seemed to epitomize so much of Western culture and artistic striving. Moreover, these gardens reflected their primary interests of music, historical architecture and…gardens. From all these gardens, five favorites eventually emerged for them: Stourhead in Wiltshire, Stowe in Buckinghamshire (the largest piece of art in Britain), Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire,Painshill in Sussex, and Sheffield Park in East Sussex but having these favorites did not diminish their interest in other gardens.
While their original intention was to stay in Europe and complete graduate studies, they returned to America in late September, 1966 when Stan started graduate school in Geography and Alice taught and took more graduate courses. Stan’s first teaching job was at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee (1972-75). He then accepted a position at UCLA in 1975 where he remained until full retirement in 2014. However, quickly tiring of the frenetic urban life in Los Angeles, they sold their LA house in 1978 and bought a 200-acre farm in Giles County, Tennessee, complete with a large Greek Revival house, the style of house they had always wanted to restore. Giles County is in the “Nashville Basin” of middle Tennessee, a region with rolling countryside that some compare to England, and is termed locally as “the dimple of the universe.” There, the open fields with scattered copses or “clumps”of trees put one in mind of a Brown landscape. Indeed, large ante-bellum estates occupied the more level areas, creating Patrician landscapes which existed until the post-WWII era. Of course, Stan had to commute to UCLA for his duties there, but guest professorships at the University of Chicago (1978, 1981, 1990), University College London (1985), University of Vienna (1994, 1999, 2007), Oxford (1995), and University of Durham (1998) gave needed breaks from Los Angeles. Professional meetings plus research work resulted in many trips to Europe viewing more gardens and art.
Restoration and modification of the house took a decade (1978-88, with that of five outbuildings taking even longer) but long before its completion, Stan and Alice were realizing that the farm itself had the potential to be transformed into a landscape garden. This, of course, would require much time and money, both of which were in short supply. There was no “master plan”; rather, the garden grew in short ad hoc increments as time, finances and imagination allowed. As the garden began to take shape, more resources became available, and additional inspiration was needed. Stan made extended trips to England visiting gardens making careful measurements and detailed notes with hundreds of photos. Due to different natural conditions, no feature could be transferred directly, each one having to conform to the physical conditions on the Trimble farm, what Pope termed “the genius of the place.” It is to be noted that Stan designed the garden along with all the structures and moreover, quarried most of the stone used in the structures. He and Alice together did most of the physical labor involved with planting and maintaining the plants.
Landscape gardens ordinarily combine gardens and architecture, but a frequently asked question here is “Why music?” The short and easy answer is that Stan and Alice love music but there is more: they believe that the present American popular culture largely ignores art music and, most especially, American art music. For example, George and Ira Gershwin, Aaron Copland,Sigmund Romberg and Victor Herbert were in the 1930s and 40s generally well-appreciated, if not popular icons. But how many people, especially young people, know anything about them now? Jazz is generally accepted as the only original American art form but who now knows about Paul Whiteman, Dave Brubeck, Billy Strayhorn, or Stan Kenton? And finally, Stan and Alice consider much of “The Great American Songbook” and movie scores to be art music. Indeed, many of these works were by serious and well-trained composers who did classical music on the side. Perhaps no one will be informed or influenced by this garden but Stan and Alice at least have the satisfaction of knowing they have tried.
Having a “theme” in a landscape garden as found here is unusual but not totally unprecedented. At Stourhead in Wiltshire, several sculptures note the journey of Aeneas as described in Virgil’sAenied.
The garden is for personal satisfaction only andgives great pleasure to Stan and Alice and totheir guests. Of course, it is non-commercial. Lovers of art are always welcome. |