Recording of new piece in manuscript exhibition, Paris

The Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris has commissioned a piece from Garth Knox. As part of an exhibition of the historical manuscripts (texts and music) of their archives, seven composers were asked to compose pieces based on the melodies contained in these manuscripts. Recordings of these pieces are played during the exhibition, which runs from 17th September 2021 at the Centre Culturel Irlandais. Garth’s piece is for multi-tracked viola d’amore.

Info: Irish Centre

New viola d’amore single released! Ed Bennet’s ‘Ghosts’

Garth Knox has released a new single on streaming platforms: ‘Ghosts’ for solo viola d’amore by Ed Bennet, performed (live) by Garth Knox.

You can stream it here

This is the first track on a new CD: ‘The Night with… live Volume 2‘, performed by various artists. Info here.

Here’s what Garth Knox says about the piece in the liner notes:

In this piece Ed found a very clever way to get round what could potentially be  a major weakness of the viola d’amore and turn it into strength; namely that when you tune it up in D major (which is the standard tuning for both sets of strings) you really get a lot of D major, and not much else. Or rather, the D major chord sounds incredibly well, but it’s hard to get away from it and after a while it can end up sounding sugary sweet. Ed makes the most of this resonance, then finds a few distinctly ‘not D major’ chords to fight against it. The rest is done with ghostly resonance, which, filtered through the sympathetic strings of the viola d’amore, sounds really otherworldly.

It was a good experience to play this piece in the setting of ‘The Night with…’ where the performances happen in pubs or casual venues where the music has to be delivered with all the conviction of a stand-up comedian. The material has a natural clarity which speaks to all types of listener.

This track will also be my debut vocal recording, as in certain places I have to sing along discreetly with the resonance (that’s the weird ‘ghost’ singing you can hear in places) . A pub is an ideal place to let out your inner singer!


First performance of String Quartet no 2 : review

On 2nd July 2021, The Ragazze Quartet presented the world première of Garth Knox’s second string quartet “Four into Twenty” in an online concert as part of the West Cork Chamber Music Festival. You can read a review by Adrian Smith in the ‘Journal of Music’ here.

New video of Moto Perpetuo

The excellent young violist Sara Kim has posted an exciting new video of ‘Moto Perpetuo’, the third movement of ‘Homage to Ysaÿe by Garth Knox

Sheet music available here.

Virtual Residence in Hong Kong on 24th April 2021

Garth Knox is the specially invited online guest of the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble on 24th April.

Program to include live performances of several of his pieces by members of the HKNME : ‘Stranger’ featuring Monica Johnston on viola d’amore, Wild Animals with William Lane on viola, Viola Spaces, Marin Marais Variations with Rebecca Tang, Joelion Keung, Wai-bun Chan, Louie Lau (violas)), plus a masterclass involving three students from Hong Kong and a viola recital by Rebecca Tang and William Lane of new pieces for viola by young composers:

FRENKEL, Edo: Poetic Forms 1 (2020)
TONG, Cheuk Yan Charlotte: Desert (2020)
KOH, Emily: mega[byte] (2020)    
LUNN, Ben: a gift (2018)

followed by a live forum with Garth Knox and the composers.

info: HKNME

New Video: Lockdown Blues

The excellent Ragazze Quartet from Amsterdam have released a new video of an extract from Garth Knox’s 2nd string quartet “4 into 20”. This quartet was commissioned by and dedicated to the Ragazze Quartet. The third movement, which is featured in the video, is called Lockdown Blues and was a musical reaction to the frustration and boredom of the first COVID lockdown in Spring 2020