Ruby Knight: a Queensland composer

This blog was written by Juanita Simmonds, recipient of the 2022 Christina Boughen OAM Fellowship.

Ruby Knight (1905–86) moved to Queensland from Victoria and was active in Brisbane music circles by 1950. Throughout the following three decades, she continued to compose music and perform in Brisbane concerts.

Composition

More than 20 of Ruby’s pieces are held by the National Library of Australia, and others are in the State Library of Queensland collection. She composed songs, choral works, and children’s operettas, as well as solo pieces for flute, piano, and organ. Although not published commercially, her compositions were performed during her lifetime. 

In 1949, Ruby’s music had been heard in a Melbourne recital of music by local composers that included Louis Lavater, Vera Buck and Edith Harrhy. Sometime after that, Ruby arrived in the Sunshine State.

In Brisbane, Ruby’s compositions were heard in concerts by Queensland composers. For example, in a concert presented by the Guild of Australian Composers on 20 May 1950, Ruby’s son Ernest Knight sang her piece “The Cross Must Win”.

Later that year, on 23 October, the Queensland Musical Association presented a concert by Ruby and other local composers such as Olive Ingall, Linda Roy Bowman and Fanny Turbayne.

Ruby was also involved with the Brisbane Music Club, serving as vice president and at times the accompanist. Her pieces were sometimes included in club events, such as its “musicale” on Friday 7 August 1953. The Sunday Mail’s critic noted that in her “colourful” piece Fantasia, Ruby performed the piano part and James Carson the solo flute.

Recitals and Radio

Ruby’s compositions were heard in other Brisbane concerts too. For example, Alfred Grice conducted the Queenslanders’ Ladies Choir in a 1953 concert in Albert Hall. Beside works by well-known international composers Gustav Holst and Johannes Brahms, the choir premiered Ruby’s piece “The Old Stepping Stile”.

Her music was also heard on radio. Around this time, Ruby had collaborated with newspaper critic Ernest Briggs, setting his poetry to music. In 1952, the West End Methodist Choir performed their piece, “Dear Land of Home”, for a live broadcast on radio 4BK.

Brisbane City Council concerts

Ruby was associated with the Brisbane City Council’s civic concerts scheme in City Hall, through her compositions and performance.

For instance, two of Ruby’s songs were heard at the Civic Concert on 14 July 1967. Tenor Henry Howell sang “Into the Mists of Night” and “Reverie”, accompanied by pianist Christina Boughen who worked professionally under her birth surname of Whyte.

In addition, Ruby was a piano accompanist for the Junior Civic Concerts. She accompanied singers and instrumentalists in these council-funded showcases of local emerging artists from March 1951 through to the next year.

Brisbane Children’s Theatre

Ruby further contributed to Brisbane’s cultural life by founding and directing the Brisbane Children’s Theatre, whose junior members performed her operettas. 

The company’s very first show, in 1953, presented The Old Street Lamp and The Swineherd, which Ruby based on Hans Christian Andersen stories. In his review of the performance, Ernest Briggs wished “such beautiful and wholesome productions” would continue to enrich the public. For more than a decade, they did. The Brisbane Children’s Theatre continued into the 1960s, and its papers and scores are held by the State Library of Queensland.

Bach Society of Queensland

Ruby remained involved in music in the latter part of her life. From the late 1970s until 1981, Ruby was the choir accompanist for the Bach Society of Queensland (1, 2).

In 1978, the society presented Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion, in which Ruby played organ. In his review of the performance, The Courier-Mail’s critic John Villaume highlighted that it was the state’s first full production of the work, and therefore “a milestone in Brisbane’s musical history.” (3).

For many decades in Brisbane, Ruby generously offered her musical creativity and skill through her compositions, performances, and productions at the Brisbane Children’s Theatre.

References

(1) Dan O'Donnell, Bach Society of Queensland: Its First Quarter of a Century (Fortitude Valley, Queensland: Bach Society of Queensland, 1998); pp. 8, 49 and 52.https://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/permalink/61SLQ_INST/tqqf2h/alma997415604702061

(2) Cathy Jenkins, Soli Deo Gloria: 50 Years of the Bach Society of Queensland (Kenmore, Queensland: Bach Society of Queensland, 2022), p. 57. https://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/permalink/61SLQ_INST/tqqf2h/alma99184088980302061

(3) John Villaume, “A Date to Remember,” The Courier-Mail, 17 July 1978, p. 13. The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Queensland) microfilm reels, State Library of Queensland. https://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/permalink/61SLQ_INST/tqqf2h/alma99456274702061.

Juanita Simmonds

Collections

• Brisbane Children's Theatre Records 1953–1966, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
• Christina Boughen OAM and Robert Boughen OBE papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland

Blogs:

• A curtain call for Christina Boughen
• Concerts aplenty: Christina Boughen and the mid-century City Hall performances
• Christina Boughen and the Brisbane City Council concerts, 1978-1997
• Olive and Friends: Olive Ingall’s Songs in the Brisbane City Council Concerts
• Other blogs by Christina Boughen OAM Fellows

Videos and Podcast:

• Juanita Simmonds talking about her research project
• 2022 Queensland Memory Fellows. A year in review
• Watch Juanita's Research Reveals talk about her project (30:21).
• Juanita Simmonds on Christina Boughen - Infinite Women podcast