Hartford Symphony Orchestra - The Planets - Gustav Holst (Born September 21, 1874 in Cheltenham Died May 24, 1934 in London)

Gustav Holst (Born September 21, 1874 in Cheltenham Died May 24, 1934 in London)

The Planets, Op. 32 (1914-1917)

World Premiere: November 15, 1920
Last HSO performance: April 9, 2017
Instrumentation: 4 flutes with 3rd doubling piccolo and 4th doubling piccolo and alto flute, 3 oboes with 3rd doubling bass oboe, English horn, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 6 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, tenor tuba, 2 timpani, gloackenspiel, xylophone, tamtam, chimes, snare drum, tambourine, bass drum, triangle, cymbal, 2 harps, celeste, organ, strings
Duration: 51’

Holst’s interest in writing a piece of music on the attributes of the astrological signs was apparently spurred by his visit in the spring of 1913 with the writer and avid star-gazer Clifford Bax, who noted that Holst was himself “a skilled reader of horoscopes.” Of the music’s inspiration, Holst noted, “As a rule, I only study things which suggest music to me. That’s why one time I worried at Sanskrit. Then recently the character of each planet suggested lots to me, and I have been studying astrology fairly closely.” Despite his immediate attraction to the planets as the subject for a musical work, however, he took some time before beginning actual composition. He once wrote to William Gillies Whittaker, “Never compose anything unless the not composing of it becomes a positive nuisance to you,” and it was not until the summer of 1914, more than a full year after he had conceived the piece, that he could no longer resist the lure of The Planets.

“Once he had taken the underlying idea from astrology, he let the music have its way with him,” reported Imogen Holst of her father’s writing The Planets. The composition of the work occupied him for over three years. Jupiter, Venus and Mars were written in 1914 (prophetically, Mars, the Bringer of War was completed only weeks before the assassination at Sarajevo precipitated the start of the First World War); Saturn, Uranus and Neptune followed in 1915, and Mercury a year after that. Except for Neptune, all the movements were originally written for two pianos rather than directly into orchestral score, probably because Holst was then having painful problems with his writing hand due to severe arthritis. For the mystical Neptune movement, he considered the percussive sounds of the piano too harsh, and wrote it first as an organ piece. All seven movements were orchestrated in 1917 with the help of Nora Day and Vally Lasker, two of the composer’s fellow faculty members at St. Paul’s School in London, who wrote out the full score from Holst’s keyboard notations under his guidance.

Holst wrote of The Planets, “These pieces were suggested by the astrological significance of the planets. There is no program music in them, neither have they any connection with the deities of classical mythology bearing the same names. If any guide to the music is required, the subtitle to each piece will be found sufficient, especially if it is used in a broad sense.” The staggering hammer-blows of Mars, the Bringer of War are followed by the sweet luminosity of Venus, the Bringer of Peace. Mercury, the Winged Messenger is a nimble scherzo. Within Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity co-exist a boisterous Bacchanalian dance and a striding hymn tune to which Elgar stood godfather. Holst declared the lugubrious Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age to be his favorite movement in the suite. Uranus, the Magician is shown as a rather portly prestidigitator. Neptune, the Mystic is a disembodied siren song for the female chorus floating away to inaudibility among the spheres.