On Saturday Trinity Church will host a memorial service for its illustrious former music director at 10:00 AM (preludes at 9:30); this guarantees to be an exquisite and deeply transferring celebration of the lifetime of Brian Jones, that includes choral music pre-selected by him, sung by the current Trinity Choir, The Copley Singers, and different Trinity Choir “alumni” from his years as music director, and performed by the present music director, Colin Lynch. A reception follows within the church’s undercroft. Livestream it HERE.
Final November the world of music misplaced an artist of extraordinary items in Brian Ernest Jones, and the bigger world additionally misplaced an excellent humanitarian, bon vivant, raconteur, and all-around mensch. A person who cherished the English language, he was additionally one of many earliest writers to contribute live performance evaluations to the brand new Boston Musical Intelligencer weblog began in 2008, and he recruited others (together with myself) to comply with his lead. The arc of his multi-faceted musical profession spanned half a century, and his affect prolonged internationally. Having investigated schools whereas learning at Phillips Exeter Academy, I used to be already very excited by his alma mater, Oberlin Faculty, regardless of Exeter’s school placement director who may respect colleges outdoors the Ivy League however actively discouraged college students from making them their prime preferences. Earlier than assembly Brian, I had gotten to know and respect three achieved musicians and academics who have been Oberlin alumni (one, the truth is, chaired the music division at Exeter), however as the primary “Obie organist” I met, Brian could nicely have supplied the essential reinforcement I wanted in my senior 12 months to face my floor with that school placement director. Oberlin was then distinctive within the nation as a school paired with a conservatory of music the place one may pursue a double diploma on one campus and obtain twin bachelor’s levels in liberal arts and music in 5 years. This cross-fertilization of world-class conservatory and school, coupled with the establishment’s distinction because the nation’s first coeducational and racially built-in school (nicely earlier than the Civil Struggle) appeared ultimate to me.
One can not sum up such a larger-than-life determine as Brian in a single phrase—or perhaps a quantity—however the first phrase that springs to my thoughts is expansive, because it describes a number of features of his life. A quintessential extrovert, Brian befriended numerous folks as naturally as he breathed, together with these whose political persuasions and musical preferences diverged enormously from his personal. His gregariousness and charisma have been evident to me from the day I met him in 1980. I used to be an adolescent with however a single 12 months of organ research behind me and solely starting to search out my area of interest, however as he perceived my seriousness of goal, his subsequent warmly insistent encouragement performed an excellent half in my selecting a musical profession.
Brian spoke with reverence and love of his youth at Oberlin, typically referring to the “Holy Trinity of Oberlin in the 1960s”: his (and later my very own) organ teacher Haskell Thomson, the trainer in Dalcroze Eurhythmics, Inda Howland, and choral director Robert Fountain. His inborn musical expertise was nurtured by these three particularly, however he additionally rapturously recalled listening to many live shows by The Cleveland Orchestra, solely 37 miles from Oberlin and receiving worldwide accolades below its legendary conductor George Szell. Brian paid two visits to Oberlin throughout my pupil years, sharing his views each optimistic and unfavourable about adjustments to the campus within the intervening 20 years and taking me “organ-hopping” with him in higher Cleveland. He had relatively sturdy tastes in structure and organbuilding which influenced however didn’t outline my very own. He was dismayed with the conservatory’s pretty new major live performance organ (put in in 1974) and constructed uncompromisingly within the model of J. S. Bach’s time, with its low wind stress (“shaky wind” in Brian’s phrases), lack of the swell shades so indispensable for organ music of the Romantic period and later, and its unequal temperament tuning which precluded the efficiency of music in additional far-flung key signatures. Whereas I conceded he made some good factors, I adored taking part in Bach and different Baroque composers on an “authentic” instrument, and I countered that studying to adapt such organs to play music of many intervals was an essential a part of an organist’s coaching. (We finally agreed to disagree about that specific organ.)
Brian and I had considerably comparable origins because the product of small New England cities inside fairly simple attain of the creative riches of Boston, and each of us have been excited to be linked with an internationally acknowledged heart of upper training, tradition, and medical and technological analysis. Although I had musicians on either side of my household tree, Brian had extra of an “organist pedigree” because the grandson and grandnephew {of professional} organists (his granduncle performed for one church in Turner, Maine for over 65 years). Burning to share his ardour for music, Brian was not lengthy out of faculty when he secured a place instructing at Noble and Greenough College in suburban Dedham and earned his Grasp’s of Music diploma at Boston College, learning with Jack Fisher. In the end, Brian additionally turned Music Director of the Dedham Choral Society, an acclaimed tenure lasting practically three a long time together with performances in such prestigious Boston venues as Trinity Church, Symphony Corridor, Church of the Immaculate Conception, and Jordan Corridor. Most musicians would have discovered these positions sufficiently fulfilling, however as an ardent proponent of the indispensability of music in worship, Brian additionally took on the submit of Director of Music at Wellesley Congregational Church, offering various choral and organ music on a weekly foundation. And impressively, he nonetheless discovered time to take care of a daily schedule of organ recitals round New England and the U.S. He significantly loved introducing audiences to the arcane however fascinating repertoire of items written for organ and piano duo with pianist Andrew Gordon, and the duo made a well-received recording of quite a lot of their recital items.
The only most essential profession change in Brian’s life undoubtedly was changing into Music Director at Trinity Church in Copley Sq. in 1984. Once I was subsequent in contact with him and supplied my congratulations, I discovered that Trinity was the one place he had most aspired to since his youth. It additionally step by step dawned on me that this was half and parcel of his abiding, deep love for the town of Boston and its historical past. Sharing these sentiments, I too discovered it a simple determination to maneuver right here after acquiring my bachelor’s levels: the town supplied thrilling alternatives for my additional growth as a musician. Brian continued to take an curiosity in that growth, and I quickly joined each the Dedham Choral Society and the Trinity Choir. These have been thrilling years wherein, below his path, I sang for the primary time in choral masterpieces I had grown up with in addition to others I hadn’t beforehand encountered: Bach’s B Minor Mass and St. John Ardour, Mozart’s C Minor Mass and Solemn Vespers, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, and the Requiems of Mozart, Brahms, Fauré, Duruflé, and Verdi. Moreover, it was a pleasure to find fantastic anthems on a weekly foundation, whose superb vary spanned Renaissance by means of dwelling composers, music from a number of nations and embodying a large number of kinds.
Nonetheless numerous have been the assorted works he chosen, Brian’s strategy persistently relied on bedrock musical ideas: to quote just a few examples, musical phrases seized the eye of connoisseurs and most people alike by having path, an arc rising to a excessive level after which receding; texts have been as essential as notes, and he anticipated us to provide equal consideration to each; the emotional energy of very gentle singing was totally similar to the thrilling roar of fortissimo climaxes (a frequent Brianism: “Oh, if only you could have heard the pianissimos George Szell got from The Cleveland Orchestra!”); and like an excellent orchestra participant, an achieved refrain member listened to all voice components, not merely his/her personal, to be able to keep good intonation, rhythm, and ensemble. A talented auditioner, Brian drew many gifted singers, skilled and newbie from the wealthy pool that Boston has at all times supplied. If this typically led to too many feedback and questions from particular person choir members, distracting others and lowering the effectivity of a given rehearsal, Brian wouldn’t hesitate to reassert his authority gently however firmly: “This is not a democracy.”
Nearly as important as his arrival at Trinity Church was his leaving it twenty years later in 2004, bequeathing an excellent legacy and top-notch music program to his successors and releasing time for different pursuits, not least, a succession of high-profile interim music directorships at such church buildings because the Cathedral of St. John in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Outdated South Church in Boston; Memorial Church at Harvard College; Christ Church, Cambridge; Christ Church, Alexandria, Virginia; and Parish of the Epiphany, Winchester, Massachusetts. Because of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’s early recognition of same-sex marriage, Brian additionally was in a position to marry his longtime accomplice, Michael Rocha, in a transferring ceremony attended by a really giant variety of mates, household, skilled associates, mentors, and many others. His closing musical legacy was the founding of The Copley Singers in 2007, then comprised just about solely of former Trinity Choir members who wished to proceed singing for Brian. Initially, the group merely supplied a musical Christmas program for the St. Botolph Membership (to which he belonged) however rapidly expanded to performances, by invitation, in varied areas by means of the 12 months as nicely. Inside just a few brief years, The Copley Singers have been invited to sing at Trinity Church, Wall Avenue, in observance of the ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist assault; they flew to Bermuda to provide a live performance as a part of the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the settlement of the island; and so they sang within the therapeutic service held on the Cathedral of the Holy Cross following the bombing of the 2013 Boston Marathon, with President Obama and the First Woman in attendance.
Celebrating the lifetime of Brian Jones
Saturday . April 27th 10:00 am
[Preludes will begin at approximately 9:30.]
Trinity Church Boston, 206 Clarendon Avenue, Boston
A boisterous reception follows.
Parking within the Again Bay Storage, positioned at 85 St. James Avenue. Be sure you ask the Entrance Desk Affiliate for a parking voucher, which is nice for as much as 11 hours at $10.
These unable to attend in particular person can dwell stream HERE
Geoffrey Wieting holds Bachelor’s levels in organ and Latin from Oberlin Faculty and a Grasp’s diploma in collaborative piano from New England Conservatory. He’s Organist of First Parish Church of Weston in addition to a contract organist, collaborative pianist and vocal coach. He sings with the Again Bay Chorale and serves on the Board of Administrators of the Outdated West Organ Society.
“Well bless their hearts.”
