Edwin Arthur Jones
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Edwin Arthur Jones was born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, on June 28, 1853. After studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in violin, organ and harmony, Jones entered Dartmouth College in 1872.
That same year, Jones was a violinist among the thousands of instrumentalists and singers who played at the World's Peace Jubilee and International Musical Festival in Boston, organized by bandmaster Patrick Gilmore. One of the special invited guests was the Viennese composer, Johann Strauss Jr., who performed some of his popular waltzes.
Jones graduated from Dartmouth College in 1876, where he was Class President, Director of the Dartmouth Glee Club, First violinist in the Dartmouth College Orchestra, one of the editors of the college newspaper, and Captain of the Dartmouth Big Green baseball team in 1875.[1]
First compositions
After graduation, he went to Baltimore to help his family run a store. His first major composition was a set of waltzes for solo piano, The Farewell Waltzes, which he had composed while at Dartmouth College. This composition was published in Baltimore in 1874. He also made an arrangement for chamber orchestra.
Six years later, in 1880, his First String Quartet was performed at the Peabody Concervatory in Baltimore. He then returned to his home town in Massachusetts.
