The priest who shaped Australia’s Church music

One of the Australian Catholic Church’s most important music legacies was nearly completely lost in the devastating Ash Wednesday bushfires in western Victoria, when Fr Percy Jones’ house, and his personal collection, burned down. Through painstaking salvaging of remnants from the fire and donations, the Australian Catholic University established the Percy Jones Collection, which was celebrated during the university’s recent Mission Week.

Fr Percy is little known outside liturgical music circles and a particular branch of Australian folk music. But a small group of scholars who recognise his influence hope that publicising the collection of more than 1,300 titles—now housed in climate-controlled stacks under the watchful eye of ACU library director Fiona Gibson—will inspire others.

Archbishop Mannix sent the 16-year-old to complete his seminary and music studies in Rome ...with the hope that Fr Percy would return to Melbourne and establish a new musical culture within the Archdiocese.

‘Percy Jones was an influential figure in the development of Australian church music and music education,’ Ms Gibson told the crowd at an event highlighting the work of the musician-priest. ‘The collection includes hymnals, scores, chant, plainsong, some Australian folksongs. Its primary purpose is to support research into the history of church music in Australia.’

The Geelong-born Percy Jones came from a musical family—his father was a renowned cornet player and his brother Basil was a violinist at the Brisbane Conservatory. Dr Paul Taylor of the ACU Centre for Liturgy said Percy’s father was very supportive of his musical formation. ‘Percy recalls that an upright piano used to be loaded onto a trailer and taken on family holidays in January, just to be sure that he didn’t forget some of his daily practice as a pianist,’ Dr Taylor said.

In 1930, at the age of 16, he met Archbishop Daniel Mannix, who recognised his potential. ‘Archbishop Mannix sent the 16-year-old to complete his seminary and music studies in Rome, which ended up including studies at All Hallows Seminary in Dublin,’ explained Dr Taylor, ‘with the hope that Fr Percy would return to Melbourne and establish a new musical culture within the Archdiocese.’

Percy Jones earned two doctorates: one in philosophy and another in sacred music, the latter focusing on chant and polyphony in the Irish Church. He was the first Australian to achieve this distinction, noted in local media at the time as ‘the highest distinction the Church could offer in sacred music’.

He used the radio program to promote fine recordings of sacred music.

He returned to Melbourne in 1939, and a few years later took charge of the St Patrick’s Cathedral Choir. ‘Irish Catholicism in the World War II era in Melbourne was musically castrated,’ Dr Taylor quipped, quoting Percy Jones biographer Donald Cave. ‘The staple of public worship was the hastily recited Latin Mass, the Rosary … [and] a handful of hymns.’

Fr Percy changed that, implementing papal directives on the singing of the chanted Mass. As Cathedral choir director, he introduced Gregorian chant and polyphony, even training a number of Mercy sisters to teach chant in schools. He also promoted lay participation in the Church, said Dr Taylor, contributing to adult faith formation through several organisations and a music program on radio station 3AW. ‘He used the radio program to promote fine recordings of sacred music, together with his commentary on the compositions themselves.’

That revival of older musical styles then, in the 1960s, came up against a seismic shift in the Church: the Second Vatican Council–led transition from Latin to vernacular liturgy. Citing Fr Percy’s memoirs, Dr Taylor noted that ‘he may have found some liturgical music practices after the council difficult, such as the jettisoning of much of the chant and polyphonic heritage.’ But he did improve the culture of singing and was heavily involved in the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, adapting the Lord’s Prayer in 1965 from the Latin chant Pater noster.

Fr Percy’s interests stretched beyond liturgy, expanding on national folkloric traditions he had come across in Ireland. He travelled around the country meeting older people, who would sing Australian folk songs, which he transcribed. He collaborated with American musician Burl Ives to popularise tunes like ‘Click go the shears’.

Every Monday and Thursday, Dr Percy would stride into the Conservatorium, always bearing a very wide smile and a clutch of very well used LP records.

This love of folk music blended with his ecumenical work. Fr Percy befriended leaders of other Christian traditions, advocating for shared hymns and music. ‘He broached developing some commonality of liturgical texts between the various denominations, so that if and when they could all get together, they were speaking the same language,’ said Dr Dianne Gome, a retired music lecturer at ACU. Among Fr Percy’s many musical legacies, she believes the sharing of hymnody and psalmody between denominations is as important as his influence on Catholic liturgical music in Australia.

Dr Gome is a former student and protégée of Percy Jones, whom she called Dr Percy. She said she was lucky enough to have him guide her to postgraduate study in music history, including suggesting she complete her PhD overseas. But his talent as a teacher stood out for Dr Gome.

I feel very privileged, not only to have had Dr Jones as a teacher and mentor, but also to be part of a course ... that was living and breathing all of the aims and aspirations that he had.

‘Every Monday and Thursday, Dr Percy would stride into the Conservatorium, always bearing a very wide smile and a clutch of very well used LP records, from which he would get his musical examples,’ she recalls. ‘Behind him ran his secretary, quite literally, bearing a big sheaf of typed lecture notes, which had been duplicated on the Gestetner machine for distribution to students.’ Dr Gome says Fr Percy would mostly just read the notes, but every now and again he would digress. ‘It was at these moments that the real pearls of wisdom and insight would emerge. So it really didn’t pay to doze off during the lecture.’

Later, as a lecturer in ACU’s Church music program, she saw his vision realised. ‘Our graduates became choir directors, teachers and composers,’ she said. ‘I feel very privileged, not only to have had Dr Jones as a teacher and mentor, but also to be part of a course and to work with students in a situation that was living and breathing all of the aims and aspirations that he had.

‘The Percy Jones Music Research Collection is an invaluable resource for scholarship in liturgical music. My hope is that the university will vigorously promote it in various ways, and will make a determined effort to encourage postgraduate study that draws on this collection.’

This sentiment was echoed by Dr Paul Taylor, who said that Fr Percy himself had hoped that his memoirs, captured in the Donald Cave biography Percy Jones: Priest, Musician, Teacher, would prompt further research. ‘This research collection here in the ACU library is a wonderful starting point for [anyone] interested in further enquiry into his amazing life and work in the Church and in liturgical music.’