How the Music of Gustav Holst has Transcended Time and Space
By Ben Bryant, Third Year History
Born on 21 September 1874 in Cheltenham, 150 years ago, Gustav Holst came from three previous generations of professional musicians. Yet, despite the musical prowess of his ancestors, their influence would pale in comparison to his life and later works.
As a child, Holst was taught to play the piano, the violin and the trombone. Asthma-ridden and visually impaired, Holst’s health would have a large bearing on his musical career. He hoped that playing a brass instrument would help to counteract his asthma, but he eventually also developed neuritis, describing the affected arm as “like a jelly overcharged with electricity”, (Imogen Holst, 1969) ending his future as a pianist before it could begin.
Despite attempts from his father Adolph to steer him away from composition, Gustav Holst changed his tune and began to study theory, technique and conductorship. In 1892, Holst composed an operetta called Lansdown Castle which was well received after its performance in February 1893. Its success convinced Holst to persevere, and he applied to the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London, continuing to play the trombone professionally to support himself whilst studying.
His time at the RCM would be cut short as Holst decided that it was, as he described, time to “learn by doing” (Imogen Holst, 1981). He had occasional successes with composition but in the years preceding the First World War, his greatest achievements came as Musical Director of Morley College (1907-1924) and as a teacher at St. Paul’s Girls’ School from 1905 until his death in 1934, where he promoted accessibility to music education for women, refuting the male aristocratic hold on the arts.
What may be Holst’s greatest influence appeared during this period whilst travelling with the English playwright and writer Clifford Bax. During a holiday in Spain, Bax introduced Holst to astrology, sparking an interest that would lead to what Holst referred to as his “pet vice” (Holst, 1969). Most importantly, however, Holst’s obsession with astrology would inspire his greatest work, The Planets.
Upon the outbreak of World War One, Holst was deemed unfit for military service and his enlistment was rejected. Angry and frustrated with his inability to contribute, Holst continued to teach and began work on The Planets. At this time, the opportunity arose to help recently demobilised British troops stationed in Europe, but one problem remained. Holst’s surname at this time was still formally ‘von Holst’ and was seen as ‘too German’ for the role. So, in September 1918, the name Gustav Holst was officially born, and he was appointed as musical organiser for the troops in Salonica, Greece.
Holst’s send-off was nothing short of legendary. His parting gift from the British musician Balfour Gardiner was a performance slot in the Queen’s Hall, complete with its in-house orchestra, for a performance of The Planets. The women of Morley College and St Paul’s copied the orchestral parts and learned the choral elements of the final movement, conductor Adrian Boult readied himself, and the first private performance was given on the 29th of September 1918. Five months later, when Holst was in Greece, Boult brought five of the seven movements to the general public, believing, like all good radical things, that the public was not ready for the full scope.
Boult was wrong, very wrong. Holst suddenly found himself struck with international fame and struggled for the rest of his life to separate himself from his newfound success. No matter what he worked on, he would never again be able to separate himself from The Planets and, for this reason, he despised this unsought-for publicity. Holst would go on to lecture at Harvard University in 1932, before being taken ill and dying of heart failure following an operation in 1934.
So, what is The Planets suite? Holst was determined to create a full-scale orchestral work and, by channelling his passion for astrology, created a seven-part suite revolving around our Solar System and the characteristics of its celestial bodies and their Roman-mythological counterparts.
‘Mars’ is the powerful god of war, militaristic and martial with its booming percussion and dissonant tones. ‘Venus’ is serene, ethereal like the beautiful goddess, and centred on the harp, violin, and flute. ‘Mercury’ is uneven and unpredictable, lasting only around four minutes and flying around the orchestra like the messenger of the gods. ‘Jupiter,’ the almighty king is obvious in its grandeur, contemporarily now known as ‘I Vow To Thee, My Country’. ‘Saturn’ is slow and unsettling, becoming a heavy march to represent the relentless approach of old age and the marching of time.
‘Uranus’ and ‘Neptune’ are more unusual and disconnected. The former is subtitled ‘The Magician’, impressive and powerful with its fortissimo timpani blows before disappearing ‘in a whiff of smoke’ as the piece’s volume diminishes in seconds. ‘Neptune’ has an other-worldly quality as ‘The Mystic’, with a wordless female chorus receding into silence towards the end. Holst’s daughter, Imogen, describes this better than anyone else will ever be able to, recounting that the ending subsides ‘until the imagination knew no difference between sound and silence’.
This article cannot replace the experience of listening to The Planets, whether in concert or simply on YouTube, it is only meant as an introduction. What it can do, however, is discuss the immortality of Holst’s music in the century since it was revealed.
The most obvious piece of media that The Planets has influenced is the grand space opera, Star Wars. Listening to ‘Mars’ and ‘The Imperial March’, or ‘Venus’ and ‘The Force Theme’ side-by-side, it is clear what John Williams drew from the music of Holst. The main theme of Alien is a take on ‘Saturn’. The main riff of ‘Black Sabbath’ and King Crimson’s ‘The Devil’s Triangle’ and even the ‘Airship Theme’ from Super Mario Galaxy are inspired by Mars. Jupiter has inspired musical snippets from The Sims 4 and Chicken Run, and was featured in both Season 2, Episode 26 of Bluey, ‘Sleepytime’, and Season 14, Episode 16 of The Simpsons, ‘Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky’. Everyone, whether they know it or not, will have heard music that was influenced by The Planets.
The idea for this article came during the recent performance of The Planets by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at the Bristol Beacon. In the 105 years since the first public showing of The Planets, its interplanetary scope is still palpable, and its influence can be felt in the most unlikely of places. I cannot recommend enough that you listen to it, even if only in the background of your work, and soon you will find yourself transfixed by its celestial splendour.
Additional Information
https://www.classicfm.com/composers/holst/pictures/holsts-planets-guide/ - A listening guide to The Planets provided by Classic FM.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtCNUEAVXbM&list=PLgTPaaiUsFv_ZRMLOeHtWXyhr2cQsUiBY – A video by Charles Cornell comparing The Planets to the music of Star Wars
https://open.spotify.com/album/3oZ7W9wMKYTbS9y1BXPD8R - Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance of The Planets, recorded live at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London, on 22 May 2009
Edited by William Budd