J.E.P. Aldous

Aldous, J.E.P.

J.E.P. (John Edmund Paul) Aldous. Organist, teacher, conductor, composer, b Sheffield, England, 8 Dec 1853, d Hamilton, Ont, 23 Jan 1934; BA (Trinity, Cambridge) 1876. He was organist at the chapel of the British Embassy in Paris before moving in 1877 to Hamilton, Ont, as organist-choirmaster of Central Presbyterian Church. He subsequently held posts in St Thomas, Ont, and at St Mark's and St Thomas' churches in Hamilton, returning to Central Presbyterian in 1884. In 1884 he founded and became the conductor of the Hamilton Orchestral Club, one of the city's earliest orchestras, and in 1890 he succeeded Clarence Lucas as conductor of the Hamilton Philharmonic Society. He was head of music 1882-5 at Brantford Ladies' College and 1885-8 at the Woodstock Baptist College. He founded, and directed 1889-1908, the Hamilton School of Music and then became a director of the Hamilton Cons (RHCM).

He was president (1894) of the Canadian Society of Musicians and in 1896 was appointed as an examiner for the University of Toronto. His pupils included Ada Twohy Kent, Mona Bates, and H.J. Allen. He composed four operettas: Ptarmigan or A Canadian Carnival (1895; excerpts were published by Anglo-Canadian and the libretto was included in Canada's Lost Plays, vol 1, Toronto 1978), A Golden Catch, Nancy or All for Love, and The Poster Girl (ca 1902). He also wrote many shorter pieces for piano, organ, choir, and voice, several published by Suckling, Grossman, Ashdown, Vincent, and Whaley Royce. Two unpublished preludes and fugues are preserved at the Hamilton Public Library and the National Library of Canada respectively. Prelude and Fugue for organ (CMH, vol 4), the choral works "Grant, We Beseech Thee, Merciful Lord" and "Blessed Are the Dead that Die in the Lord" (CMH, vol. 9), and the hymn tune "Egypt" (CMH, vol. 5) have been reprinted. Aldous contributed articles to the Organist's Quarterly Journal and The Violin.