Composed 1916-17; 8 minutes 

Holst’s ancestry was Swedish, via Riga, Latvia, but he was deeply influenced by the English countryside and folksong. He regarded the Thomas Hardy-inspired tone poem Egdon Heath (1927) as his finest work. He was in his forties when he achieved wide recognition with The Planets and Hymn to Jesus, still seeking an individual vision encompassing modality, neo-medieval counterpoint, irregular rhythms, and bold use of dissonance, all employed in an original way. 

In 1916, having been rejected for military service with weak health, Holst continued teaching at St Paul’s Girls’ School—from 1905 until his death, in fact—and at Morley College for Working Men and Women, both in London. The village of Thaxted in rural Essex provided some respite from the war and it was in Thaxted’s parish church that Holst found inspiration for his Four Songs. He had started a modest choral music festival there and, one evening, overheard one of his Morley College students improvising on the violin while softly singing a wordless line. This “one-person” sound-world triggered the unusual scoring of the Four Songs. He initially intended the singer and violinist to be the same person but dropped the idea when clear diction proved impossible while playing. 

The texts are devotional and love-tinged medieval English poems selected from Mary Segar’s 
A Mediaeval Anthology (1915). 

    1. Jesu Sweet now will I sing to Thee is a tender devotional address where the voice moves with 
chant-like simplicity while the violin glows around it, turning longing into quiet radiance. 

    2. My soul has nought but fire and ice is a compressed, intense prayer-poem: stark contrasts are 
   reflected in a freer rhythmic flow, like spoken confession shaped into melody.

    3. I sing of a maiden that matchless is. This famous Marian lyric is gently dancing, lucid, and 
   transparent, with the violin as an illuminated margin—decorative, but also emotionally focusing 
   the line.

    4. My Leman is so true of love and steadfast is a vow-like love song hovering between sacred 
and secular. 

Throughout these compelling songs, Holst pushes toward a speech-like freedom of rhythm in a modern, flexible approach to English declamation. The score is written without time signatures. Barlines are used mainly for coordination, with bar lengths shifting to follow the vocal line. The overall effect is austere, modal, intimate, and archaic-modern at once. Holst, at his most pared-down.