The Piano Makers (not a JRR Tolkien Project)

As most of you know, I work with Paul Corfield Godfrey and Volante Opera Wales on their operatic cycles of JRRTs works, but something a little different that Simon Crosby Buttle, Emma Mary Jones, Olorin, and myself have been working on is connected to JRRTs family from the 1800s.

Today we have launched a page over at Volante to detail our ongoing work to find and ultimately record music by the Tolkien family who came before JRRTs.
While some details have emerged over the years about the families connection to music, we have found that the family had a far bigger part of the music scene, mostly around London and Birmingham. The piano shops that existed were were not just focused on pianos, but hubs for others activities.
Musical scores were sold, and published (by Henry Tolkien). There were singers, both male and female, annual concerts, successful songs written by Tolkien members and all manner of other connections.
Work is still ongoing gathering these scores and details together, but once we have as much music as possible, we will record some of it for an album.

In one of my favourite quotes found at the 'Guide to Tolkien's Letters', "I come of a musical family. I am musically defective – I listen to it with delight and am tonally sensitive; but without technical knowledge. I bitterly regret that I cannot invent a tune". ^{Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to William Galbraith • 8 March 1956 (#235)[1]} It turns out that his family were far from "musically defective", and lost to time is some very decent music of the time. Those interested in lost music will be able to hear these works at a future time. Work continues to gather more musical scores, lyrics, and information on the various family members and the more we dig, the more we find.

Thank you to Urulókë, to the archivists and libraries who are helping with ongoing research. To John Rateliff who has a piece which he will forward to us as he is able.

Any of you who might have something we have missed, get in touch with me here or over at Discord. The more information we have, the better the end result will be.

OntheTrail, and the team behind this growing project.