Essential Sixth-tones
ESSENTIAL SIXTH-TONES I
Date: November 5, 2026
Time: 18:30
Venue: The Pantheon of the Historic Building of the National Museum (map)
Performer /
Miroslav Beinhauer, sixth-tone harmoniums
Program /
Alois Hába: V. Adagio, op. 37 (1928)
Petr Studený: 3A# 1C# A1# 2D G2# 2H D3 (2024)
Judith Berkson: Bent Meanings (2023)
Peter Ablinger: Redemption 1–3 (2024)
Adrian Demoč: Harmónium (2024–25)
Phill Niblock: Harmonius (2022)
ESSENTIAL SIXTH-TONES II
Date: 12. 11. 2026
Time: 19:00
Venue: DOX+ (map)
Performers /
Miroslav Beinhauer, sixth-tone harmonium
Vojtěch Semerád, tenor
Ostravská banda
Petr Kotík, conductor
Bruno Ferrandis, conductor
Program /
Alois Hába: III. Adagio, op. 37 (1928)
Marc Sabat: Fleeting flight sleeping woke (2021, rev. 2026)
Klaus Lang: QVIS EST (2021, rev. 2026)
Ian Mikyska: Out (2025)
Miya Masaoka: Sixth-Tone & Orchestra (2025)
Martin Smolka: TBA (2026)
The concert sixth-tone harmonium was commissioned by the visionary composer Alois Hába for his opera Thy Kingdom Come (1939–42). The work was not premiered until 2018, when it was staged in Ostrava at the NODO festival, and the instrument was heard in public for the very first time. Pianist Miroslav Beinhauer learned to play it specifically for this occasion. The historic August Förster harmonium immediately sparked enormous interest among composers and audiences alike and soon began travelling internationally. The story of this unique microtonal instrument from the 1930s is now entering a new chapter: with the support of the Czech Ministry of Culture, instrument maker Martin Poláček has been building a new instrument since 2025 – a replica of Hába’s sixth-tone harmonium. This one-of-a-kind instrument, preserved in the collection of the Czech Museum of Music in Prague, together with the virtuoso performances of Miroslav Beinhauer, has inspired dozens of composers to create new works. The inauguration of the new instrument will take place in Prague on two separate concerts at different venues, on November 5 & 12, 2026.
