A Modernist Who Something Vital to Welsh Music
By Sydney Northcote
Music Adviser to the Carnegie Trust 04.10.1949
In Wales the way of the modernist composer is hard. There at least three somewhat disturbing reasons for this.
First, Welsh music suffers from a curious kind of narcissism; it is for ever admiring itself in the still pool of the past and shows little desire to embark on any perilous seas in search of wider artistic horizons.
Welsh musical pedagogy, too, is rarely able to apprehend or explain contemporary trends in the art unless with the aid of some theoretical treatise which, in the very nature of things, must be far in the wake of actual achievement.
Lastly, the musical life of the country is still heavily burdened with stubborn native traditions, some of dubious antiquity and nearly all implicitly unprogressive.
The music of Daniel Jones, markedly original and distinctly modern in character, is not likely therefore to gain more than a limited appeal in his own country for a little time to come. He enjoyed a certain number of performances, it is true, and the B.B.C. Welsh Orchestra have broadcast his Symphony the “Comedy Overture,” the tone poem “Cloud Messenger” as well as the Concertino for piano and small orchestra. In addition, the Welsh Recorded Music Society have included the Fugue in F sharp minor and “Three Bagatelles,” all for piano, in their first list of recordings.
European Influences
Born in Pembroke in 1913 of distinctly musical parents, Jones has lived most of his life in Swansea. There being no music department in the University College there, he read English, gaining a first-class honours degree as well as a post-graduate research scholarship. It was the latter which took him to London where, con-currently with his research (he took his M.A., with a thesis on the relations of poetry and music in the Elizabethan Age), he studied conducting and composing at the R.A.M. winning the Oliveira Prescott prize in 1935.
In the same year he won the coveted Mendelssohn Scholarship, a distinction which Wales should be proud of, and spent the next three years travelling in Austria and Italy but without pursuing any prescribed course of study. After five years’ war service in the Intelligence Corps he returned to Swansea to devote his whole time to composing.
His music, quite naturally carries many implications of his European studentship. They are impressions rather than derivative influences. His musical diction though not always completely disciplined is thoroughly characteristic and adventurous; and the boldness of his instrumentation betokens a highly practical training and a well-developed craftsmanship.
Vehemence of Berlioz
There traces, no doubt, of the bleakness of Bartok, of the tonal severity of Casella, and the early period of Malipiero, of the dynamic climaxes of Dohnanyi and, in his piano writing, a vague reminiscence of Busoni. But they are techniques which he has absorbed rather than adopted, in the same way that he uses some of the methods of the atonolist’s without accepting their creeds.
It is equally plain that he knows his Sibelius and his Strauss as well as his Bach; and he never forgets his counterpoint. Indeed it is the latter, especially his frequent reliance on ‘stretti’ which sometimes weakens his thematic development by giving it a cerebral rather than an emotional interest.
He is as his best with an orchestral canvas. Here he can spread his harmonic asperities very effectively in a skilfully spaced texture. His style of orchestration, too, have something of the vehemence of Berlioz, is well suited to the ejaculatory nature and dramatic emphasis of his musical utterance.
His Symphony, written in 1944, undoubtedly shows him at his best, particularly in the passionate fervency of the lovely slow movement and the rhythmic brilliance of the scintillating scherzo. His pre-occupation with rhythmic effects and subtleties is strikingly evident in the Sonata for three unaccompanied kettledrums, written in 1947. I can imagine an expert like Professor Kirby of Johannesburg being very intrigued with this ingenious experiment.
Writes To Much
His chamber music owes much to this plastic sense of rhythm as well as to his bold and sure contrapuntal writing. At the recent performance in London of one of his quartets I was certainly impressed by the firmness and fluidity of the musical texture, although I sensed sometimes a vague restlessness in his tonal dynamics. He was also written a great deal for the piano of which the Concertino and the recorded works already mentioned are perhaps typical examples.
But the Sonata No.6 in C sharp minor, written in 1939, is not so easily appreciated. There are, I think, some unnecessary complications in key and time-signatures which he would do well to recast; some of the dissonances, too, could be better spaced. But there is no gainsaying the dramatic earnestness of this compelling music, percussive and over strenuous though it is sometimes. Although he was written a great many songs and at least one choral work, he himself is not satisfied with the results.
I hope he will persevere with this branch of the creative art; there is no doubt he will master it. When he does, it will add an element of profound significance to his musical thinking; a quality which will smooth out some of the over-turbulent moments in his powerful and dramatic music.
He confesses also to writing too much; and, with not much hope of performance, he probably revises too little. One can sympathise with him in this. A composer needs the stimulus of performance and discriminative appreciation if he is to avoid the temptation of satisfying his creative energy only by intellectual exercise rather than sensitive eloquence.
But let there be no mistake. Daniel Jones is a sensitive and highly significant composer. His is a fecund musical mind, strongly individual, fearless and deeply sincere. He has the genius and ability to add something new and vital to Welsh music.
The Mendelssohn Scholarship 06.11.1935
It was announced on Tuesday that the Mendelssohn Scholarship for musical composition, competed for the early part of this year, had been awarded to Mr. Daniel Jenkyn Jones, aged 22, a Bachelor of Arts of Cardiff University.
The Mendelssohn Scholarship, considered one of the most valuable musical prizes in the kingdom, was founded after the death of the great composer. The winner of the scholarship was to receive free tuition at Leipzig Conservatorium.
A committee was formed in London with Sir George Smart as chairman, and by means of donations and a concert at which at which Jenny Lind gave her services a sum of more than £1,000 was raised. This formed the nucleus of the scholarship fund.
The Mendelssohn Scholarship 06.11.1935
It was announced on Tuesday that the Mendelssohn Scholarship for musical composition, competed for the early part of this year, had been awarded to Mr. Daniel Jenkyn Jones, aged 22, a Bachelor of Arts of Cardiff University.
The Mendelssohn Scholarship, considered one of the most valuable musical prizes in the kingdom, was founded after the death of the great composer. The winner of the scholarship was to receive free tuition at Leipzig Conservatorium.
A committee was formed in London with Sir George Smart as chairman, and by means of donations and a concert at which at which Jenny Lind gave her services a sum of more than £1,000 was raised. This formed the nucleus of the scholarship fund.
Worth £200 per Annum
The first scholar to be elected was Sir Arthur Sullivan – in 1856. Later the fund was increased, and a grant of £100 a year was made to successful candidates.
At the present time musical students of either sex below 30 who are natives of Great Britain and Ireland are eligible as Mendelssohn scholars.
The qualification for election is “a decided talent for music exhibited in composition.” Scholars are elected for a period of one year, subject to renewal. No one can hold a scholarship for more than four years.
The education is carried on in this country or abroad under the control of the committee.
The scholarship is now worth £200 per annum.
First-class symphony by young Welshman 13.09.1951
A new symphony by a young Welsh composer, performed and broadcast by the B.B.C. Welsh Orchestra before a small invited audience at the Temple of Peace, Cardiff, last night proved an event of major importance.
It was Daniel Jones’s second symphony and was conducted by the composer. Written specially for the Festival of Britain, the work places Mr. Jones in the front rank of the younger generation of British composers. There is nothing of the dreamy poet or the mood painter about it. Rather the listener is given the stimulus of a meeting with a clear, original mind.
Logical Growth
The symphony grows logically and the restrictions of the classical first movement form, which so many modern have felt inadequate to contain their thoughts, have only acted to spur to Daniel Jones, for not does his first movement conform strictly to pattern but he has cast his finale in the same mould.
Indeed, it was perhaps this last movement with its jaunty second subject that was the most immediately attractive. In each of the four movements, however, there was a lot of hold the attention in a symphony which, by its rhythmic subtleties and its technical demands, set the specially augmented orchestra of 50 players’ great difficulties.
An unusual feature of the orchestration was the extensive use made of the celesta, which added an extra spice to the rich and gorgeous effects achieved.
Dylan’s Friend 26.09.1954
The award of the Italian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Italia Prize”- given every year for outstanding radio productions – to Dylan Thomas’s “Under Milk Wood” will mean a great deal to Dr. Daniel Jones, the Swansea composer. He not only composed the music for the work, but was also one of Dylan Thomas’s closest friends. He is the character “Dan” in “The Fight”- one of the stories collected in the “Portrait of the Artist.”
Composer’s bid for all-Welsh rule on music 04.02.1960
The all-Welsh Eisteddfod rule should be extended to include orchestral concerts and other music, Dr. Daniel Jones, the Welsh composer, said on the B.B.C. Welsh Home Service last night.
Operas performed by a Welsh operatic company, should be a regular part of the Eisteddfod, he said.
And all concerts should be given by our own national orchestra.
In the typical eisteddfod concert of the past orchestras were invited from over the border to play works chosen by themselves.
Usually they performed works which had little Welsh interest
Step Forward
He said that he was glad to see that this concept of the eisteddfod concert was slowly but surely dying. The orchestras were now often significantly connected with Wales – the National Youth Orchestra of Wales, the National Brass Band of Wales; the Welsh National Opera Company or the B.B.C. Welsh Orchestra.
But the most significant step forward had been the inclusion of major orchestral works by contemporary Welsh composers and the commissioning of them.
This had helped the eisteddfod in at least two ways: first by attracting interested listeners from beyond Wales and second, it had enhanced the prestige of the eisteddfod.
Speaking of the festivals in Wales, Dr Jones singled out the Llangollen International Eisteddfod and the young Llandaff Cathedral Festival. For both of these the future seemed bright.
Bright Future
“One of the very brightest feature of the Welsh musical scene in recent years has been the success of the Welsh National Opera Company,” he said.
It was the young people who really decided the future of Welsh music, he said. The omens were mixed. Musical education was better now that it had been, but Wales needed more music-teaching centres.
Choral singing was the most dismal aspect of music in the Land of Song. “The average age of a Welsh choral society member is much nearer 55 than 25,” he said.
Welsh composers of the future should write for Welshmen, with Welsh musical needs and facilities in mind.
Daniel Jones 24.09.1960
This weekend the B.B.C. broadcast two performances of “The Country Beyond the Stars,” a cantata for chorus and orchestra by Daniel Jones. Commissioned by the Welsh Region of the B.B.C., the cantata was given its first performance by the Pontardulais Choral Society and the B.B.C. Welsh Orchestra conducted by Mansel Thomas and was subsequently performed at the Swansea Festival of Music.
Daniel Jones who is 48, was born at Pembroke and grew up in a musical family, his father being a composer and his mother being a singer. He studied at University College Swansea, and the Royal Academy of Music. On gaining the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1936 he also studied abroad.
He is the most prolific of present-day Welsh composers, his works including five symphonies, nine quartets, choral and chamber works, piano music, and numerous songs.
At present he is engaged in writing a one-act opera, commissioned by the Welsh Committee of the Arts Council.
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