Daniel Jones (Q60098)

Daniel Jenkyn Jones, Welsh composer and conductor, was born in Pembroke, 7 December 1912. He grew up in a musical family; his father, Jenkyn Jones, was a composer and his mother a singer. He was educated at Swansea Grammar School, 1924-31, and at University College, Swansea, 1931-4, where he graduated with first class honours in English Literature. He gained an MA degree in 1939 for a thesis on 'Elizabethan Lyric Poetry and its Relations with Contemporary Music'. In 1935 he entered the Royal Academy of Music where he studied conducting with Sir Henry Wood, composition with Harry Farjeon and the viola and horn. The Mendelssohn Travelling Scholarship for Composition enabled him to live in Rome and Vienna and travel extensively on the continent, 1936-7. During the Second World War he served as a captain in the Intelligence Corps, 1940-6. On demobilization he returned to live in Swansea where he remained for the rest of his life, working full time as a composer. Here he was part of a circle of friends which included Dylan Thomas. In 1951 Daniel Jones won the first prize of the Royal Philharmonic Society with his 'Symphonic Prologue' and in the same year was awarded the degree of Doctor of Music (Wales). He was awarded an Honorary DLitt degree in 1970. In 1954 he won the Italia Prize for his incidental music to Under Milk Wood. He was appointed an OBE in 1968. Daniel Jones died on 23 April 1993.