Gwynn Parry Jones
Encyclopedia
Parry Jones known early in his career as Gwynn Jones, was a Welsh tenor
of the mid-twentieth century.
, Monmouthshire
. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music
, and in Weimar and Milan. Among his teachers was John Coates
. Jones made his debut in 1914 and shortly thereafter went on an opera and concert tour to the United States. He was returning to England aboard the RMS Lusitania
in May 1915 when it was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat. Over 1000 passengers and crew died, but Jones was one of 761 survivors.
He joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
in July 1917 playing principal tenor roles in Gilbert and Sullivan
's H.M.S. Pinafore
, Iolanthe
, Princess Ida
, and The Yeomen of the Guard
. He then joined the Beecham Opera Company and later was a founder member of the British National Opera Company. At this time he changed his professional name from Gwynn Jones to Parry Jones.
In the concert hall, his repertoire included the tenor parts in Handel
's Judas Maccabaeus and Messiah
and Haydn's The Creation. He sang with Toscanini
in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
.
In the opera house, his roles included such different tenor roles as Tannhäuser and the Duke in Rigoletto
. In the post-war Covent Garden
company he appeared in Peter Brook
's production of Boris Godunov
; the staging of The Magic Flute
designed by Oliver Messel
; the première of Arthur Bliss
and J. B. Priestley
's The Olympians; and Der Rosenkavalier
, conducted by Erich Kleiber
.
His recordings include the first complete recording of Mendelssohn
's Elijah
, made at Central Hall, Westminster in 1930, and Stravinsky's Les Noces
made at EMI
's Abbey Road Studio No. 1 in July 1934, conducted by the composer, and John Ireland
's These Things Shall Be, recorded in 1948 with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir John Barbirolli
.
In 1938, he was one of the four tenors featured in the line-up of 16 eminent singers who performed in the première of Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music
, celebrating Sir Henry Wood
's silver jubilee as a conductor. In their individual lines, the four tenors were given music specially written for their voices, Jones's plaintive timbre following the two lyric tenors and one Heldentenor with the only downbeat line in the piece ('But whilst this muddy vesture of decay/Doth grossly close it in…').
Jones appeared at English music festivals and that of the International Society of Contemporary Music (1938). In addition to opera and oratorio, his repertoire included German Lieder, French and English songs, and contemporary music: he sang in the first performances in England of Wozzeck
, Gurrelieder, Doctor Faustus and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
He was later honoured in his home town Blaina along with Mostyn Thomas
and others, by having a street named after him in the Forgeside council estate in 1985.
He taught at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
in London, where he died.
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
of the mid-twentieth century.
Life and career
Gwynn Parry Jones was born in BlainaBlaina
Blaina is a small town, situated deep within the South Wales Valleys between Brynmawr and Abertillery in the unitary authority of Blaenau Gwent, ancient parish of Aberystruth, preserved county of Gwent and historic county of Monmouthshire.-Notable people:...
, Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire (historic)
Monmouthshire , also known as the County of Monmouth , is one of thirteen ancient counties of Wales and a former administrative county....
. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
, and in Weimar and Milan. Among his teachers was John Coates
John Coates (tenor)
John Coates was a leading English tenor, who sang in opera and oratorio and on the concert platform. His repertoire ranged from Bach and Purcell to contemporary works, and embraced the major heldentenor roles in Richard Wagner's operas...
. Jones made his debut in 1914 and shortly thereafter went on an opera and concert tour to the United States. He was returning to England aboard the RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The ship entered passenger service with the Cunard Line on 26 August 1907 and continued on the line's heavily-traveled passenger service between Liverpool, England and New...
in May 1915 when it was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat. Over 1000 passengers and crew died, but Jones was one of 761 survivors.
He joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
in July 1917 playing principal tenor roles in Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
's H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
, Iolanthe
Iolanthe
Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
, Princess Ida
Princess Ida
Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. Princess Ida opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 5, 1884, for a run of 246 performances...
, and The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances...
. He then joined the Beecham Opera Company and later was a founder member of the British National Opera Company. At this time he changed his professional name from Gwynn Jones to Parry Jones.
In the concert hall, his repertoire included the tenor parts in Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
's Judas Maccabaeus and Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
and Haydn's The Creation. He sang with Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire, and has been adapted for use as the European Anthem...
.
In the opera house, his roles included such different tenor roles as Tannhäuser and the Duke in Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
. In the post-war Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
company he appeared in Peter Brook
Peter Brook
Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...
's production of Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
; the staging of The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
designed by Oliver Messel
Oliver Messel
Oliver Hilary Sambourne Messel was an English artist and one of the foremost stage designers of the 20th century....
; the première of Arthur Bliss
Arthur Bliss
Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, CH, KCVO was an English composer and conductor.Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army...
and J. B. Priestley
J. B. Priestley
John Boynton Priestley, OM , known as J. B. Priestley, was an English novelist, playwright and broadcaster. He published 26 novels, notably The Good Companions , as well as numerous dramas such as An Inspector Calls...
's The Olympians; and Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
, conducted by Erich Kleiber
Erich Kleiber
Erich Kleiber was an Austrian conductor.- Biography :Born in Vienna, Kleiber studied in Prague...
.
His recordings include the first complete recording of Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
's Elijah
Elijah (oratorio)
Elijah, in German: Elias, is an oratorio written by Felix Mendelssohn in 1846 for the Birmingham Festival. It depicts various events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah, taken from the books 1 Kings and 2 Kings in the Old Testament....
, made at Central Hall, Westminster in 1930, and Stravinsky's Les Noces
Les Noces
Les noces by Igor Stravinsky, is a dance cantata, or ballet with vocalists.-History:The ballet was premiered on June 13, 1923 at the Théâtre de la Gaîté, by the Ballets Russes with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska...
made at EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
's Abbey Road Studio No. 1 in July 1934, conducted by the composer, and John Ireland
John Ireland (composer)
John Nicholson Ireland was an English composer.- Life :John Ireland was born in Bowdon, near Altrincham, Manchester, into a family of Scottish descent and some cultural distinction. His father, Alexander Ireland, a publisher and newspaper proprietor, was aged 70 at John's birth...
's These Things Shall Be, recorded in 1948 with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir John Barbirolli
John Barbirolli
Sir John Barbirolli, CH was an English conductor and cellist. Born in London, of Italian and French parentage, he grew up in a family of professional musicians. His father and grandfather were violinists...
.
In 1938, he was one of the four tenors featured in the line-up of 16 eminent singers who performed in the première of Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music
Serenade to Music
Serenade to Music is a work by Ralph Vaughan Williams for 16 vocal soloists and orchestra, composed in 1938. The text is an adaptation of the discussion about music and the music of the spheres in Act V, Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Vaughan Williams later arranged...
, celebrating Sir Henry Wood
Henry Wood (conductor)
Sir Henry Joseph Wood, CH was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hundreds of new works to British audiences...
's silver jubilee as a conductor. In their individual lines, the four tenors were given music specially written for their voices, Jones's plaintive timbre following the two lyric tenors and one Heldentenor with the only downbeat line in the piece ('But whilst this muddy vesture of decay/Doth grossly close it in…').
Jones appeared at English music festivals and that of the International Society of Contemporary Music (1938). In addition to opera and oratorio, his repertoire included German Lieder, French and English songs, and contemporary music: he sang in the first performances in England of Wozzeck
Wozzeck
Wozzeck is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama Woyzeck left incomplete by the German playwright Georg Büchner at his death. Berg attended the first production in Vienna of Büchner's...
, Gurrelieder, Doctor Faustus and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
He was later honoured in his home town Blaina along with Mostyn Thomas
Mostyn Thomas
Mostyn Thomas born Thomas James Thomas was a Welsh operatic baritone, prominent in the first half of the 20th century.- Early life :He was born in Blaina, Monmouthshire to Thomas and Ann...
and others, by having a street named after him in the Forgeside council estate in 1985.
He taught at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
in London, where he died.