Jonny Greenwood's Horror Vacui wins at the Ivors Composer Awards

Jonny Greenwood's Horror Vacui, for solo violin and 68 solo strings, has won the Large Orchestral award at the Ivors Composer Awards, announced on 1 December in a two-hour ceremony broadcast only on BBC Radio 3 and hosted by Kate Molleson and Tom Service. The shortlist also held Mark Simpson's Clarinet Concerto, Joe Cutler's Hawaii Hawaii Hawaii, Jasper Dommett's Night Music and Emily Howard's The Anvil. It is Greenwood's seventh award from the Ivors Academy, after others that include his scores to There Will Be Blood in 2009 and Phantom Thread in 2019. The judges called the piece engaging, endlessly fascinating and completely original in both concept and realisation⁵.

The piece was first played at the Royal Albert Hall on 10 September 2019, with Daniel Pioro as the soloist and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and BBC Proms Youth Ensemble under Hugh Brunt. Its 68 players make by hand the reverb, echo and delay a studio would add with electronics. Horror vacui is the fear of empty space, usually in paintings.⁵