Alfred Stone was a gifted musician who played the organ, sang and wrote music. His grave features a mourning woman holding an ancient Greek harp or lyre.

In 1858 became a professional organist and played in a number of Bristol churches through his career.

The Bristol Tune book

In 1863 he ed­it­ed, with Fred Mor­gan, the Bris­tol Tune Book, with 342 hymn tunes and chants, a few writ­ten by him­self. The book at once gained pop­u­lar fa­vour, chief­ly among non­con­form­ists. In a third ed­i­tion, edited by El­li­ot But­ton, the num­ber of tunes reached 900. Its sales ex­ceeded 750,000 in England and the abroad. Pos­si­bly no other hymn-tune book ex­cept Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern.

A modern teacher and first choirmaster

Stone used the tonic sol-fa system for teaching and he was a musical tutor at Bristol Asylum for the Blind from 1876 to 1878.

In 1873 the Bristol Musical Festival was established with Stone as choirmaster, secretary, and manager.

He died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1878 at the age of only 37, leaving a widow and children.