T THE VERY FIRST meeting of the PREPARATORY COMMISSION in October 1960, Father Percy Jones was given a task by the legendary musicologist, Monsignor Higinio Anglés (chairman of the subcommittee on music). His task was to write the position paper on musical instruments in the liturgy. When I say “Preparatory Commission” I’m referring to the committee of experts preparing discussion papers vis-à-vis the liturgical constitution. This constitution was supposed to be created and voted on during Vatican II (which was scheduled to begin in 1962). The head of the commission was Cardinal Gaetano Cicognani, and Hannibal Bugnini was appointed secretary.1 Father Percy Jones wrote his paper during the voyage from Naples to New York by steamer. Without a typewriter, he printed out his text—in Lingua Latina—by hand. Regarding this paper, Father Jones said:
I have never understood why people were passed over (in Australia and elsewhere) who were much more important than I. Sometimes I suspect I was chosen by Bugnini because I was ‘good entertainment’ and could help him over the rough patches.
I accepted, received the papers, took the prescribed oaths of secrecy and discovered that the first meeting would be in October 1960. There were two sorts of members. The members of the Commission itself, mostly bishops, but with some fine old scholars like Jungmann, Father O’Connell from London, and others. There was then a group of about thirty “consultors” or experts of which I was one. In this latter group were people like Fred McManus from Washington, Godfrey Diekmann from Collegeville, and the Frenchman Aimé Martimort. The funny part was that he and I had been students together at St Louis’ French College in Rome in the late 1930s and here we were thrown together for work in the fields of our interests—music and liturgy—after thirty years.
I sent my paper from Honolulu. I argued that the organ should be able to be played for Masses for the dead, in Holy Week (HEBDOMADA MAJOR), and so forth. The Italians had the absurd idea that the organ was a joyful instrument and should be forbidden at certain times, as was indeed the case. Although they didn’t accept all I recommended at the time, it has all been accepted now. The first breakthrough came in Czechoslovakia where they gave permission to play the organ on Good Friday. It was so absurd not to recognize that in some cultures the organ is seen as one of the most effective means of expressing a mood of sorrow and inspires meditation and reflection.
These opinions of Father Percy Jones seemingly match what I wrote:
* Article • “Opinions Vis-à-vis Pipe Organ”
—“Pipe Organ Interlude During Funerals?” • Reader Feedback.
Mistaken Identity • Those who read carefully this article will agree that Father Percy Jones does not have in mind Father Laurence John O’Connell, who at one time served as Master of Ceremonies for Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary (a.k.a. “Mundelein”) in the United States. Rather, he means Canon John Berthram O’Connell (d. 1977), a secular priest of the Menevia Diocese in Wales who modified “Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described”—after the tragic death of its author, Dr. Adrian Fortescue, in 1923—and over the next forty years prepared nine more editions. Canon John Berthram O’Connell (most likely out of jealousy) had famously attacked Fortescue’s book on ceremonies, but his attack had no effect because Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described became far and away the most famous and (pardon the pun) celebrated tome on the subject ever penned. Canon J. B. O’Connell also published “Sacred music and liturgy” in 1959 as well as “A study in liturgical law” in 1956. Curiously, nobody knows for sure when Father Laurence John O’Connell of Chicago (who seems to have been born in 1915) died.
Jones Was Accomplished • Father Percy Jones was described as “short, corpulent, and ruddy faced—with a ready smile and bright eyes.” His brother Basil became director of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music. He edited two Australian hymnals and was one of the key members of ICEL in its early days. Under famous musicians such as Raffæle Casimiri (d. 1943), Father Jones studied at the Pontifical Institute for Sacred Music in Rome (“PIMS”) where he completed his doctorate in Music. He was ordained as a priest in 1937. The following photograph shows him as a student in Rome:
1 To learn about the outrageous and reprehensible ways Hannibal Bugnini abused the pope’s trust, read the written testimony (PDF file) of Professor Louis Bouyer, a close friend of Pope Saint Paul VI.
