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New England Composer Series No. 1:
Edwin A. Jones
Born: Stoughton, Massachusetts, 28 June 1853
Died: Stoughton, 9 January 1911
The distinguished writer, Edward Everett Hale, author of The Man Without a Country, called him "one modest man who knows the power of music." This modest man, from a rural Massachusetts town south of Boston, is a composer well worth
re-discovery.His full name was Edwin Arthur Jones, but he preferred to be known as E.A. Jones. Following his studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in violin, organ and harmony, E.A. Jones entered Dartmouth College in 1872. Like composer Charles Ives at Yale, Jones was active in many activities in college. He was Captain of the baseball team, one of the editors of the college newspaper, and Director of the Dartmouth Glee Club. He graduated in 1876 as Class President.While attending Dartmouth College, Jones composed several exceptional glee club choruses, including two from 1874:
"Praise Ye the Lord" and "Blessing and Glory."
To hear the first chorus, click on the link in the box using Real Player
In 1872, Jones was one of the hundreds of violinists who played at the World's Peace Jubilee and International Music Festival at Copley Square in Boston. The special invited guest at the Festival was Johann Strauss II from Vienna, known as "The Waltz King." For this Festival, Strauss arranged a new waltz he called, "Jubilee Waltz." To show his gratitude, he quoted "The Star Spangled Banner" at the end of his waltz. Jones later formed his own orchestra in Stoughton and performed Strauss waltzes along with his own compositions.
After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1876, Jones went to Baltimore. He may have been paying homage to Johann Strauss when he finished his first major instrumental composition, a delightful piece for solo piano titled: The Farewell Waltzes, written while at Dartmouth, and published in Baltimore in 1874. This first published composition by Jones was given the modern day permiere performance in 1986 at a concert in Lexington, Massachusetts [see Recorded Tribute below]
Six years later, in 1880, his First String Quartet in F Major ( Op. 13) was performed at the Peabody Concervatory in Baltimore,
where it was well received.He then returned to his home town of Stoughton, Massachusetts.
His Second String Quartet, titled Prelude and Fugue in G minor (Op. 22), was first performed in 1889 by the most respected chamber music ensemble of its day, the Kneissel Quartet, in the Gardner Home at 152 Beacon Street in Boston. This string quartet is dedicated to Mrs. J.L. (Isabella Stewart) Gardner). Other composers represented in that 1889 concert program at the Gardner home included: Clayton Johns, Margaret Ruthven Lang, Edward MacDowell and Horatio Parker.
Thanks to the efforts of E.A. Jones, the Stoughton Musical Society was the only musical organization to perform early American music at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
The Jones orchestra accompanied the chorus of 100 singers
of the Stoughton Musical Society.As violinist and organist, Jones was an admirer of the music of
J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel, and also W.A. Mozart and F.J. Haydn.
Completed in 1881, his cantata Song of Our Saviour (Op. 14), was his crowning achievement. This work is for four soloists, chorus, organ and orchestra.
It received its world premiere over one hundred years later in 1992, conducted by Dr. Raymond E. Fahrner [a recording was made at that time and is now in
the AMRC library]. Click the link in the box at right to hear the Trio for soprano, alto, tenor soloists, organ and orchestra from this cantata.The cantata was based on an earlier choral piece, The Nativity Hymn, one of only four works to receive honorable mention in 1879 in the Cincinnati College of Music competition, judged by the distinguished American conductor,Theodore Thomas.
The other major choral work by Jones was his oratorio, Easter Concert (Op. 28).
Jones was a friend of one of Boston's most respected musicians, B.J. Lang, who attended the first performance of the oratorio in Stoughton on April 11, 1887. Lang spoke briefly at the intermission. He called the oratorio "a beautiful and grand affair." He went on to say that he wished he could transport the whole chorus and orchestra of 150 members to his city twenty miles away, "to give the people of Boston an idea of what Stoughton could do."
Easter Concert was published in 1890 in a piano-vocal score by White-Smith Music in Boston. The oratorio is modeled on Handel's Messiah and is in three sections, ending with a impressive fugal movement for solo quartet and chorus.
The first modern day performance of this Jones oratorio, edited and conducted by Roger Hall, was performed in 1981 by the Old Stoughton Musical Society Soloists and Chorus. The work was performed again three years later. Both performances were from the piano-vocal score.
Unfortunately, the orchestral parts are lost.Several selections from the Jones cantata and oratorio are listed at the
New England Music Archive (NEMA)
Besides his two large choral works, Jones also composed many shorter choral pieces and songs, some chamber music, but only a few orchestral works, which seems strange since he had his own orchestra. A photo showing his orchestra of 20 musicians is included in the pamphlet,
E.A. Jones: His Life and Music.Jones was a member of the two choral societies in town:
The Old Stoughton Musical Society (founded in 1786 and now the oldest choral society in the United States) and The Musical Society in Stoughton (founded in 1802, disbanded in 1982). For the OSMS Centennial in 1886, Jones was the lead violinist and director of the orchestra.He also held a weekly "musicale" of chamber music with his musician friends at his Stoughton home, performing music by Mozart, Mendelssohn and other composers.
Besides his musical activities, he was also remembered for his civic leadership as school committee member and Superintendent of Schools, trustee of the public library, President of the Fortnightly Club, and
Secretary of the Chicataubut Club.In 1892, Jones designed the Stoughton Town Seal -- possibly the only one in the United States with a historical music symbol.
Today, there is a school in Stoughton named after him, just across the street from where he lived at the corner of Pierce and Walnut Streets.
E.A. Jones died on 9 January 1911, at the age of 57.
The above material was compiled from these publications written by
E. A. Jones biographer, Roger Hall:
- E..A. Jones: His Life and Music (1984)-- includes a catalogue of his works.
- "Jones, Edwin Arthur" in The New Grove Dictionary of American Music,
Vol. Two (Macmillan Press,1986)- Music in Stoughton: A Brief Survey (1989)
- Singing Stoughton: Highlights from America's Oldest Choral Society (1985)
This CD is available, compiled by Roger Hall:
"Anniversary Tribute to E.A. Jones"
prepared for the 150th anniversary
of the birth of Edwin Arthur Jones in 2003All the performances are WORLD PREMIERE recordings from live concerts. These are the tracks with the performers:
1. Prelude and Fugue in G minor for organ, Op. 10 (1878) --
Richard Hill, organist, Boston, MA, 1980
2. Glee Club Chorus: Praise Ye The Lord, Op. 4 (1874) -- Tenors & Basses of the Old Stoughton Musical Society, Stoughton, MA, 1986
3. Glee Club Chorus: Blessing and Glory, Op. 6 (1874) -- Tenors & Basses of the Old Stoughton Musical Society, Stoughton, 1986
4. Trio for Strings, Op. 12a (1878) -- The Easton Trio, Bridgewater, 1978
[Nos. 5-10 are highlights from a cantata, Song of Our Saviour, Op. 14, 1881 -- first performed in Stoughton in 1992]
5. Song of Our Saviour (Introduction) --
Old Stoughton Musical Society Orchestra
6. Song of Our Saviour (Solo Air: How beautiful upon the mountains) -- Donna Ames, mezzo-soprano
7. Song of Our Saviour (Chorale: Behold what matchless tender love) -- Old Stoughton Musical Society Chorus
8. Song of Our Saviour (Solo Air: If ye love me) --
Linda Brookfield, soprano
9. Song of Our Saviour (Trio: Look unto me) --
Linda Brookfield, Donna Ames, Michael Duarte
10. Song of Our Saviour (Finale) -- Solo quartet and Old Stoughton Musical Society Chorus
11. String Quartet No. 2: Prelude and Fugue in G minor, Op. 22 --
The Cremona Quartet, Bayside, NY, 1985
12. The Farewell Waltzes, Op. 8b (1874) --
David Hagan, piano, Lexington, MA, 1986
To order this special CD, write to
To inquire about the music by E.A. Jones, write to:
See also this Wikipedia entry for
New England Music Links
on this website
American Music Recordings Collection [AMRC]
Battle Hymn of the Republic: Origins of a Civil War Song
Christmas Music in New England
New England Composer Series No. 2: George W. Chadwick
New England Music Archive [NEMA]
Society for Earlier American Music [SEAM]
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