Harmony At Heart: The Tonal Composers Society

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Harmony At Heart: The Tonal Composers Society

Harmony At Heart is a dedicated home for composers and musicians rooted in traditional tonal classical music.

Our goals are preservation, cultivation and celebration of rich tonal classical music tradition and heritage.

07/03/2026

We are pleased to announce, that our long-awaited Official Inaugural Evening will take place on Friday, 1 May 2026, 7.30pm, marking the formal opening of our 19th-Century Inspired Music Salon and the launch of The Tonal Composers’ Society.

We are deeply honoured that Nathaniel Mander will open the series and inaugurate both initiatives with this special recital.

A leading early keyboard performer, composer and distinguished interpreter of historical repertoire, Nathaniel also serves as Founding Composer and Artistic Advisor of Music That Lives and The Tonal Composers’ Society. His artistic guidance, integrity, and dedication to authentic historically informed performance have been central to grounding the vision of these projects.

In the true spirit of the great 18th and 19th century music salons, the programme will include selected works by Bach, Mozart and Chopin, and a world premiere of an original composition by Nathaniel Mander, composed for our historic Broadwood & Sons 1860 grand piano.

Tickets are available via our website and by private booking.

*Only 20 seats remaining.

We look forward to seeing you in May!

05/09/2025

Our salon is slowly coming to life... ✨

More updates soon - including instruments and decoration progress!🌹

19/08/2025

Our second Keyboard Tuning and Restoration Workshop dived deeper into repair works on our 1818 Broadwood & Sons square piano and our 1860 Broadwood & Sons grand fortepiano. Very valuable knowledge was shared by our restorer Cesar Hernandez. Amongst others things, we covered the following:

* Spotting hidden potential issues before a full restoration;
* Replacing a broken string and tightening a tuning pin;
* Repairing the split square piano lid;
* Plugging holes with end grain plugs
* Installing a security brace on the fallboard;
* Restoring the sustain pedal function by securing felt on the damper lift rail.

This valuable knowledge, while known to some restorers is not widely shared and it is not something to be missed. Do get in touch if you would like to take part in our future workshops!

03/08/2025

🌹From The Misty Jade Collection🌹

1. Original Press Photograph – Rubinstein and Barenboim, 1975

Description:

A rare original press photograph capturing pianist Artur Rubinstein and conductor Daniel Barenboim in discussion during a recording session in London, May 1975. The image documents a significant collaboration between two giants of 20th-century classical music as they worked on a new complete recording of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos for RCA Records.

Provenance:

Issued to the press at the time of the RCA recording project. A moment of mutual artistic respect and generational exchange, this image represents the only major recorded cycle of Beethoven’s concertos Rubinstein undertook in stereo.

2. Signed Concert Programme – Rubinstein, 1924

Description:

An original concert programme advertising a performance by Artur Rubinstein at the Winter Gardens, Bournemouth, dated February 2nd, 1924 — a Saturday. Rubinstein appeared alongside The Municipal Orchestra under the baton of Sir Dan Godfrey. The programme bears Rubinstein’s own hand-signed autograph, making it an exceptional early-career relic from a period when the pianist was rapidly gaining international acclaim.

Historical Note:

This performance falls within Rubinstein’s early tours of the United Kingdom, and the presence of Sir Dan Godfrey - a champion of orchestral music outside London - adds regional historical value. The autograph, confidently signed in fountain pen, reflects Rubinstein’s youthful charisma and growing celebrity.

29/07/2025

🌹 From The Misty Jade Collection 🌹

Here are some very rare and possibly never before publicly seen photos of the great pianist Sviatoslav Richter, taken by his close friend Elena Dmitrievna Lebedeva. Elena was a piano teacher at a local music school and a resident of either Penza or Kuybyshev (now called Samara). She and Norayr Yegoyan co-wrote and published a book titled Richter Is My Idol. Unfortunately, not much more information is available about her. These photos come from her personal collection.

Captions handwritten on the other side of the photos say:

🎶 Svyatoslav Richter after a concert at the Penza Philharmonics on June 18, 1960.
(Programme: Beethoven Sonatas Nos 3, 9, 10, 22, 23) 🎶

🎶 Svyatoslav Richter.
a) Philharmonic of the city of Penza on June 18, 1960.
b) Richter with the Kuybyshev Orchestra, City of Kuybyshev. 🎶

🎶 Concerts in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), July 20-22, 1986 🎶

🌹 Richter was not only a legendary pianist but also a passionate advocate for other composers’ works. He premiered major pieces by Prokofiev, including sonatas and the Symphony-Concerto, and helped revive lesser-known works by composers such as Mussorgsky, Schumann, and Szymanowski. His adventurous repertoire spanned a wide range of styles and eras, introducing audiences to rare or neglected music they might otherwise never hear. Through his performances, Richter brought lasting recognition to many overlooked compositions and composers. 🌹

26/07/2025

🌹 From The Misty Jade Collection 🌹

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Vingt-Quatre Préludes et Fugues dans tous les tons et demi-tons pour le Clavecin ou Piano-Forte, composés par Jean Sebastian Bach

Publisher: Richault, Éditeur des Œuvres de Moscheles et Czerny, Boulevard Poissonnière No. 16, Paris
Plate Number: 1169.R.
Date: 1826 - 1828. Second French edition (though some scholars argue it may in fact be the first).

This Richault edition of Bach’s 24 Preludes and Fugues is a French reprint of the first 1801 Nägeli (Zurich) edition, which was itself based on earlier manuscripts of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. Published by Richault around 1826–1828, it quickly became one of the most important French editions of these works.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

This extremely rare edition is identical to the one owned by Pauline Chazaren, a pupil of Chopin (and later a teacher of Cosima Liszt). Pauline was highly recommended to Chopin by Liszt himself, who could not take her as a student due to professional commitments.

While this is not Chopin's personal annotated copy, it is the same edition that Chopin annotated for Chazaren. These annotations provide a rare glimpse into Chopin’s pedagogical approach and his interpretation of Bach’s works.

Crucially, this edition offers direct evidence that Chopin actively corrected at least two Parisian editions of Bach’s Preludes and Fugues. In his own words, he was correcting “not just engraver’s mistakes, but the ones that were accredited by those who claim to understand Bach.” One annotated copy was Chazaren’s, while the other was Chopin’s personal copy, which he took with him to Majorca.

There were a couple of other French publishers who published these works around the same time such as Schlesinger and Janet/Cotelle. Therefore scholars still debate which French edition was Chopin’s personal copy: Janet/Cotelle, Schlesinger, or Richault. Pauline most likely acquired her copy around 1843 in Lyon and had lessons with Chopin around 1846.

24/07/2025

🌹From The Misty Jade Collection🌹

~A hand-written autograph by Eugenie Schuman, dated August 1903~

~Two Victorian CDV (carte de visite) cards of Clara & Robert Schumann, c1860s~

Eugenie Schumann was the youngest daughter of Robert and Clara Schumann. Unlike her parents, who are among the pillars of Romantic music, Eugenie carved her own path as a pianist, author and preserver of Schumann family legacy through personal stories and memoirs.

She was an accomplished pianist, performing extensively and dedicating herself to teaching. Beyond performance, Eugenie contributed to musical scholarship through her writings, most notably her memoir “Erinnerungen an Robert und Clara Schumann” (“Memories of Robert and Clara Schumann”), published in 1925. This book offers an invaluable firsthand account of the Schumann family’s personal and artistic life, shedding light on Robert’s struggles and Clara’s career as a pioneering female musician.

22/07/2025

🌹From The Misty Jade Collection🌹

"Nouvelle Edition des Solfèges d’Italie, composés par Leo, Durante, Scarlatti, Porpora, Mazoni, Caffaro... Gravé par Michot.
Se vend chez Ignace Pleyel, auteur et éditeur,
Rue Neuve des Petits-Champs, No 728, entre les Rues de la Loi et Helvétius.
À Paris."

This is one of the earliest Ignace Pleyel printings of the famous Solfèges d’Italie anthology, a pedagogical collection that circulated in manuscript and partial editions in Italy and France during the 18th century. It brings together solfeggio methods by leading Italian vocal composers (Leo, Durante, Anfossi, Sacchini, and others), originally compiled for singer training in conservatoires such as Naples, Bologna, and Venice.

This bound volume is hand signed by Pleyel himself. It was acquired as part of a larger collection of hand signed editions by Pleyel, indicating that it may be his personal copy.

Engraved by Pierre-Gabriel Michaut, one of Paris finest early 19th-century music engravers, the plate number 189 suggests it is dated to circa 1804–1806, making it the 3rd edition of one of the earliest comprehensive engraved versions available to the general public.

"Italian pedagogical methods were widely disseminated and emulated in the 18th century, and with the founding of the Paris Conservatoire in 1795 training in solfeggio was instituted as a basis of the curriculum . The first important collection was Solfeges d'Italie Avec la Basse chiffree. ., which appeared in 1772 and saw three later editions as well as several pirated ones . The French solfège tradition has served as a point of departure for numerous methods of teaching basic musical skills developed in other countries, among them the methods of Wedge, Hindemith, Kodály and Villa-Lobos. Since World War II many instruction manuals have been printed in a variety of languages, all of them more or less indebted to solfeggio and solfège ."

(...more information in comments).
official
composers.societythat.lives

21/07/2025

🌹From the Misty Jade Collection🌹

Rachmaninoff's Hands.

SPEAKING OF PICTURES.....THESE ARE LAST TAKEN OF RACHMANINOFF BEFORE DEATH.

A very rare three page excerpt from the LIFE magazine published on the 12th April 1943. Containing last photos ever taken of the composer. Including a hauntingly beautiful photo of his hands, a stoic portrait, composer posing at his work desk and a few rare shots of him at work, during a rehearsal for one of his last concerts.

Photos were taken by LIFE magazine photographer Eric Schaal.

"Some weeks before his death on March 28, Sergei Rachmaninoff consented to do something he had always intensely disliked: he posed for a photographer. Saturnine and inscrutable, the great Russian pianist-composer shunned publicity with an obduracy that rarely yelled to the clamors of press agents and admirers. Three years ago when LIFE Photographer Eric Schaal besought permission to take his picture, Rachmaninoff hedger and said maybe. Every few months Schaal wrote letters, telephoned, sought him out after concerts. Finally last December the tall musician received Schaal in his New York apartment and gave him a half hour of his morning practice period.

The enigmatic masklike face mirrored in Schaal's great portrait on the opposite page was familiar world's concertgoers for nearly half a century. A friend and disciple of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff started playing the piano when he was 4 and wrote his famed Prelude in C-Sharp Minor (which he came eventually to loathe) at the age of 20. By the time he came to America in 1918, an exile from the U.S.S.R., he was already recognized as one of the world's great pianists and most distinguished composers. On his last concert tour shortly before his death, reviewers marveled that age had not impaired the icy brilliance of his technique. For he was but four days short of 70 when he died". 🌹
officialcomposers.societythat.lives

20/07/2025

🌹From the Misty Jade Collection🌹
This instrument was made by Clementi & Company, a square piano built around the year 1799. One year after he acquired Longman & Broderip piano maker company. Two serial numbers stampeded inside 1162 and 341 makes it one of the earliest surviving Clementi & Co instruments ever made.

This specific model is 5 and a half octaves and has the escapement action which is referred to ‘New Patent’ on the enamel name plaque. It has beautiful hand painted flower fragments and hand carved ornamental wood patterns on the frame. It doesn’t have a sustain pedal. It comes with the original dark green silk dust cover.

This square piano was the first instrument to enter the Misty Jade collection.

It is in original unrestored condition both inside and out, and is waiting for a careful restoration.

It is currently not on public display (or rather not yet! 🌹🎶)
officialcomposers.societythat.lives

19/07/2025

Our journey into historical sound practice began with the launch of our keyboard tuning and restoration workshop series. Led by our dedicated historic keyboard instrument restorer Cesar Hernandez, the session introduced participants to the delicate art of voicing, regulation, and tuning using historical methods, all within the atmospheric setting of our future salon space. Work focused on three instruments from our collection: a T. R. C. Goff & J. C. Cobby clavichord (1949), a John Broadwood & Sons square piano (1818), and a John Broadwood & Sons bichorda fortepiano (1860). It was the first of many steps toward restoring these remarkable instruments to their authentic voice.

Address

172 High Street

SE207QS

Website

http://www.musicthatlives.co.uk/

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