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The Percy Jones Collection includes over 1,300 items dating from the mid-1800s to today.
Access to the collection is available at our Melbourne Library by request on weekdays between 9am – 5pm.
Consult the collection within the Library on exchange of ID.
The collection originated from the personal library of Catholic priest, musician and scholar, Rev Dr Percy Jones.
Percy Jones was an influential figure in the development of Australian Church music and music education. The collection includes over 1,300 titles and the primary purpose is to support research into the history of church music in Australia.
Recognising his musical talent, Archbishop Mannix sent Percy Jones to train for the priesthood at the prestigious Pontifical Athenaeum Urbanianum de Propaganda Fide, Rome, and at All Hallows College, Dublin in Rome. Then, once ordained, to study at the Pontificio Istituto di Musica Sacra in Rome where he completed his Doctorate in Music. His research was on the traditional use of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony in the liturgy, focusing on the ninth-century Irish theologian John Scottus Eriugena (published 1957). It was reported in the The Advocate at the time ‘as the highest distinction the Church could offer in sacred music and Jones was the first Australian, and indeed the first English speaking musician to achieve it and only a few in the world’.
Following this Mannix appointed him to Diocesan Director of Music for the Archdiocese of Melbourne to create a new Catholic music tradition. In 1960 Percy was appointed as a consultor to the Vatican Council. He was an advisor to the International Committee on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) from 1964 to 1975, playing an international role in the musical and liturgical reforms following the Second Vatican Council. He published several major hymnals, including The Australian Hymnal (1941) and The Hymnal of Blessed Pius X (1952) as well as other smaller collections of liturgical music.
Percy’s life as a priest musician led him to direct the choir at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne for thirty-one years and his teaching career spanned thirty years, including the vice director of the Conservatorium of Music and in the Faculty of Music at the University of Melbourne, where he was reader in Music and Assistant Dean at the time of his retirement in 1979. As well as the Cathedral choir, he was also conductor of the Conservatorium Choir and the University Choral Society. During the 1950s, he was a driving force in the establishment of the Victorian Schools Music Association, the National Music Camp Association, and the Australian Youth Orchestra.
Amongst other achievements, on his retirement, he was made a Foundation Fellow of the Melbourne College of Divinity recognising his contribution to the Australian Ecumenical Movement. He also maintained an interest in Australian folk songs.