Holst was influenced by mysticism and developed his own blend of Indian music and English folksong. His early works were inspired by the Vedas, Sanskrit holy verses that he modified and adapted for his own compositions. In 1908 he wrote a chamber opera, Savitri, based on a story from the great Sanskrit epic Mahabharata.
In 1906, on his doctor’s advice, he went on vacation to Algeria and bicycled in the desert. The experience was the inspiration for the orchestral work Beni Mora. When it was first performed in England, one critic complained, “We do not ask for Biskra dancing girls in Langham Place.” Composer Ralph Vaughan Williams once noted that had the piece been premiered in Paris instead of England, it would have made Holst a household name some ten years earlier than his success with The Planets. In 1932, Holst was visiting lecturer in composition at Harvard; among his students was composer Elliott Carter.
The inspiration for The Planets was not astronomy, but astrology and alchemy, which Holst began studying in 1913 through the writing of the aptly named astrologer, Alan Leo. He attempted to depict in music the traditional astrological “personalities” and influences on the human body of the seven planets (Pluto was not discovered until 1930 and has now been demoted anyway.) His musical language was strongly influenced by the new developments in music at the time, especially by Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky and Edward Elgar.
Holst arranged the seven movements according to musical, not astronomical, criteria. Thus their arrangement does not correspond to their orbital distance from the sun:
1. “Mars, The Bringer of War.” This martial movement with its brutally percussive ostinato rhythm was indeed prescient, written a few months before the outbreak of World War I. According to Holst’s directions, it is to be played slightly faster than a regular march, to give it a mechanized and inhuman character.
2. “Venus, The Bringer of Peace.” This astrological portrait is typical of the andante movement in a four-movement symphony.
3. “Mercury, The Winged Messenger.” A scherzo with a perpetual motion rhythm and sparkling orchestration conforms to the popular image of Mercury in the F.T.D. Florist logo.
4. “Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity.” With its broad British folk-like melodies, this movement is strongly influenced by the music of Elgar. It bears, however, little relationship to the Greco-Roman king of the gods.
5. “Saturn, The Bringer of Old Age.” Holst considered the serene and subtle orchestration as the best of the movements.
6. “Uranus, The Magician.” This movement appears to owe its ostinato rhythm the march of the brooms in Paul Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, but there is a question whether Holst was familiar with Dukas’s tone poem.
7. “Neptune, The Mystic.” In this movement, Holst added wordless female voices off stage, recalling Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe and Debussy’s “Sirènes” from Nocturnes.
Program notes by:
Joseph & Elizabeth Kahn
Wordpros@mindspring.com