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Tanglewood Becomes a Music Center
In 1937 one could still, if so desired, go to Bayreuth and
Salzburg. But even then the lights of those great music festivals
were gradually fading and were soon to be entirely lost in the
darkness of a Continent at war. As the lights were fading in
Europe another was being lit in the peace and serenity of the
American Berkshires. For it was in 1937 that Tanglewood was
presented by Mrs. Gorham Brooks to the Boston Symphony Or-
chestra as the permanent home of the Berkshire Symphonic Festi-
val which is considered bv musicians and critics alike as the most
important summer musical event in America. The gift of Tangle-
wood meant more than a place in which the Boston Symphony
Orchestra could give its summer series of nine concerts. It pro-
vided the background and the opportunity for the Berkshire Music
Center where under the direction of Serge Koussevitzky together
with some of the world's most eminent musicians and composers,
students of serious music could gather to work and study.
Tanglewood Was Once a Great Literary Center
As a creative center no fitter place could have been found than
the extensive estate of Tanglewood with its spacious grounds,
meadow lands, gardens, and Lake Mahkeenac, all set in the beauty
of the Berkshire hills. But Tanglewood has more than natural
beauty to inspire the creative artists. It has literary association as
well. It was here that Emerson, Holmes. Melville, and Hawthorne
were freguent guests of the Tappan family when the Berkshires
were the autumn meeting place of eminent American writers. It
was here that Hawthorne wrote "The House of Seven Gables," and
"Tanglewood Tales" from which the estate derives its name.
New Buildings Erected
The estate possesses buildings adaptable for lectures and
Dr. Kotissez'itzkv and Mrs. Margaret Grant
Listening to Litbosluttz and Nemenoff
classes for a student body limited to approximately 350. The con-
verted barn on the lake road is used for general sessions. The
great Music Shed, completed in the summer of 1938, stands at the
highest point of Tanglewood with lake and hills visible even from
within the auditorium. Here the Boston Symphony Orchestra
holds its summer music Festival. And the past summer saw the
completion of a new theatre, chamber music hall, and several small
studios for the use of the students.
Also as a part of its plan the Berkshire Center provides a
library and music shop where books on music, music, and phono-
graph records, may be used or purchased.
Tanglewood Affords Great Opportunity
for Music Student
Lake Mahkeenac
PAGE TWENTY
Tanglewood is more than a setting for a brief summer music
festival. It is a center where the leading artists and scholars of
the clay may practice and contemplate music in its noblest aspects.
It brings them into association with one another for the purpose
of experiencing and creating the best in music and the related arts.
It affords an opportunity to those advanced students who have al-
ready had the essential technical training and desire to make
music their career to obtain the experience and joy of using
their ability and training in the actual creation of music. Here, too,
under the inspiring guidance of Dr. Koussevitzky these artists may
acquire a deeper penetration and a more vivid conception of the
music they create and interpret. While the rehearsals and concerts
of the Boston Symphony Orchestra provide them with an oppor-
PRESTO MUSIC TIMES
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