- Sidney Jones
:"Sidney Jones is also the name of the SouthEast Asia programme director of
International Crisis Group "periods.
Jones's most famous musical was "
The Geisha ", but several of his musicals were among the most popular shows of the era, enjoying long runs, international tours and revivals.Life and career
Jones was born in
Islington ,London . His father, James Sidney Jones, Sr. (1837-1914) originally ofSuffolk , was a military bandmaster. His mother was Ann Jones, née Eycott. As a child, Jones moved frequently as his father was transferred to new military stations in England and Ireland. The young Jones learned to play a variety of instruments in the band. InDublin , he studied with Sir Robert Stewart (1825-1894) of Trinity College. The family later moved toLeeds , where his father became conductor of the Leeds Rifles, was the musical director of theLeeds Grand Theatre and later conducted a band and the Spa Orchestra atHarrogate . [ [http://www.harrogateband.org/hbhist.htm "Historical Harrogate Music",] "The Harrogate Band" (1996)] Jones was the eldest son and second of six children. His youngest brother, Guy Sidney Jones (1875-1959), also became a conductor and composer whose musical scores included "The Gay Gordons" (1907).Lamb, Andrew. [http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/notes/67006.html "Sidney Jones (1861-1946); "The Geisha",] sleeve notes from the Hyperion recording of "The Geisha" (1998)]In 1885, Jones married Kate Linley, an actress, and the couple produced five children.Gänzl, Kurt. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34233 "Jones, (James) Sidney (1861–1946)"] , "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 18 September 2008, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34233]
Early career
Jones gained his first professional experience playing the
clarinet in his father's band and orchestra. He also gave piano lessons. In 1882, he was hired as a conductor for tours ofmusical theatre pieces, such asRobert Planquette 's "Les Cloches de Corneville " and a popular American musical show, "Fun on the Bristol". He next toured with the Vokes family and also composedincidental music and songs for their farcical entertainment. "In Camp". [http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/british/composers/jones.html "Sidney Jones"] at the "British Musical Theatre site (2004)] In 1886, actress/producerKate Santley engaged Jones as musical director for the tour of her musical "Vetah".Jones then worked for
Henry Leslie for nearly four years as conductor of tours ofAlfred Cellier 'scomic opera hit "Dorothy" (starring Lucy Carr Shaw, sister toGeorge Bernard Shaw ), "Doris" and "The Red Hussar ". He was then music director for a tour of the Gaiety Theatre piece "Little Jack Sheppard " under the management of comedian J. J. Dallas. After that,George Edwardes hired him as musical director for the Gaiety Theatre's 1891 tour of America and Australia, conducting the burlesques "Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué" and "Cinder-Ellen Up-too-Late". He briefly returned to conducting in the British provinces, but in 1892, after nine years of touring, Edwardes hired Jones to conduct the musical "In Town" at thePrince of Wales Theatre on London's West End. He next was musical director for another West End musical, "Morocco Bound " (1893), and for the London production of "The Gay Parisienne " (1896).First composing successes
At the same time as these conducting engagements, Jones had begun composing incidental music and songs as needed for the shows he conducted. In 1889, he wrote the musical score for the pantomime "Aladdin II", which played at Leeds. When Edwardes's touring company produced "Cinder Ellen" in Australia, Jones wrote a dance number that was added to Meyer Lutz's score. Jones also composed an operetta, "Our Family Legend" (1892), with a libretto by Reginald Stockton, which was produced at
Brighton . In 1893, one of his songs, "Linger Longer, Loo" was added to Lutz's 1892 burlesque "Don Juan" at the Gaiety Theatre."The Times " obituary, 30 January 1946, p. 7] The song became popular throughout the English-speaking world and inspired a drawing byToulouse-Lautrec ofYvette Guilbert singing it.In 1893, for "
A Gaiety Girl " (1893), with a libretto byOwen Hall , Edwardes gave Jones the opportunity to write the music, and the result was a hit show that enjoyed a long run and toured internationally, setting the trend for a new genre of popular musical theatre that came to be known asEdwardian musical comedy . The ballad "Sunshine above" from the show was popular parlour song. Jones's style was similar in technique to the music ofArthur Sullivan and Cellier, which Jones had conducted for so long, but it was lighter and breezier, appealing to the popular tastes of the time.Daly's Theatre years and later years
Jones soon became house composer and music director for George Edwardes's new
Daly's Theatre . After "A Gaiety Girl ", Jones again collaborated with Hall and lyricistHarry Greenbank to produce another success, "An Artist's Model " (1894), which ran for fifteen months. This was followed by three of the most successful musical comedies of the 1890s: "The Geisha " (1896), "A Greek Slave " (1898), and "San Toy " (1899). Jones's musical plays were "written in a more musically substantial style than the featherweight entertainment given at the Gaiety. Their librettos sported a solid and serious romantic backbone (confided to thebaritone heroHayden Coffin and thesoprano Marie Tempest ) alongside their comic and soubrette elements, and the scores which Jones provided included, alongside the lighter material, numbers sentimental and dramatic, as well as some impressive and vocally demanding concerted ensembles and finales...."Jones song from "The Geisha", "The Amorous Goldfish" became an oft-sung hit, as did several of his other songs for these shows. "The Geisha" took advantage of the fad for oriental settings in musical theatre that had been established by
Gilbert and Sullivan 's "The Mikado " in 1885. "The Geisha" and "San Toy" were frequently revived, recorded and widely toured in Europe as well as throughout the English-speaking world. The former became the most frequently-performed English-language work of musical theatre in Europe for many decades. [Toye, Francis. Letter to "The Times", 2 February 1946, p. 5] The piece figures prominently inAnton Chekhov 's popular short story, "The Lady with the Dog ", and it was adapted as a Russian film in 1959 that featured its music, including "The Amorous Goldfish".Other musicals followed, but Jones's only real successes during this period were "
My Lady Molly " (produced by Jones) in 1902 and "King of Cadonia " in 1908 (produced byFrank Curzon ), although "See See" did reasonably well in 1906. As musical director at the Empire Theatre, Jones wrote theballet s, "The Bugle Call" (1905) and "Cinderella" (1906), which was danced at Christmas-time. Later, back at the light-hearted Gaiety Theatre, with "The Girl from Utah " in 1913, and at Daly's Theatre, with "The Happy Day " in 1916, Jones achieved two last successes. However, Jones, like his sometime collaboratorLionel Monckton , fell victim to changing musical fashions around the time ofWorld War I , such as syncopated dance rhythms likeragtime , and retired from composition.
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