The Planets Suite

Gustav Holst1874 - 1934

Gustav Holst was born in Cheltenham, England on the 21st September 1874.

Statue of Holst in his home town.

Gustav Holst was born into a very musical family.His father was a pianist and his mother(who died when he was 8) was a singer.

Clara Holst Adolf Holst

Gustav Holst

As a child he was taught the piano and violin.

This is Holst’s piano. You can see it in the Holst Birthplace Museum. He composed The Planets on this piano.

This is Holst playing the violin.

Gustav was a sickly child. His eyes were weak, but no one realised that he needed to wear glasses. His chest was also weak and he suffered from asthma. When he was young Gustav hated playing the violin, but enjoyed playing the piano.

Unfortunately Holst was also had pain in his hands making practising very difficult and painful.After leaving school he first got a job as an organist and choir master.

He became a student at the Royal College of Music where he studied composition.Unfortunately the pain in his right hand became worse.Playing for a long time was impossible and he was forced to realise that he would not be able to play the piano professionally as a concert pianist.

Holst decided to take up the trombone. It would allow him to play in orchestras and he could earn some money. Also, the experience would be useful to him as a composer. Perhaps, he also thought that playing the trombone would even help to strengthen his chest and lungs.

Holst wrote The Planets Suite between 1914 and 1916. Each of the seven movements is named after a planet of the Solar System and its corresponding astrological character

1. Mars - the Bringer of War2. Venus - the Bringer of Peace3. Mercury - the Winged Messenger4. Jupiter - the Bringer of Jollity5. Saturn - the Bringer of Old Age6. Uranus - the Magician7. Neptune - the Mystic

The premiere performance of The Planets Suite was at the Queen's Hall on 29 September 1918, conducted by Holst's friend Adrian Boult to an invited audience of about 250 people.

Holst wrote inside the music score that Adrian Boult conducted from at the premier performance.

It reads: This copy is the property of Adrian Boult who first caused the Planets to shine in public and thereby earned the gratitude of Gustav Holst.

Mars – the Bringer of War Mars is the Roman god of war and bloodshed,

whose symbol is a spear and shield.

Watch Mars here

In music for bowed string instruments, col legno is an instruction to strike the string with the stick of the bow, rather than by drawing the hair of the bow across the strings. This results in a quiet percussive sound.

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See a demonstration of col legno here

Venus – the Bringer of Peace

Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty.

Watch Venus here

The celesta or celeste looks similar to a upright piano or a large wooden music box. The keys are connected to hammers which strike a graduated set of metal (usually steel) plates suspended over wooden resonators.

The sound of the celesta is similar to that of the glockenspiel, but with a much softer and more subtle timbre. This quality gave the instrument its name, celeste meaning "heavenly" in French.

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Mercury – the Winged MessengerMercury was the messenger-god of Jupiter, and was the god of games, business and story telling.

Watch Mercury here

The bass oboe or baritone oboe is a double reed instrument in the woodwind family. It is about twice the size of a regular oboe and sounds an octave lower.

The Piccolo is a half-size flute in the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo mostly has the same fingerings as the standard flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written.

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Jupiter - the Bringer of JollityIn Roman mythology Jupiter was the king of

heaven and Earth and of all the Olympian gods.

Watch Jupiter here

I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love;

The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;

The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

And there's another country, I've heard of long ago,

Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;

Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,

And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.

In 1921 Gustav Holst adapted the music from a section of Jupiter to create a setting for this poem. The music was extended slightly to fit the final two lines of the first verse.

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Saturn - the Bringer of Old AgeIn Roman mythology Saturn is the god of

agriculture.

Watch Saturn here

The harp is not like any other member of the string family. It has about 45 strings stretched across its tall triangular frame. The strings are plucked by hand while seven pedals at the bottom of the harp adjust the length of the strings to produce additional notes.

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Uranus - the MagicianUranus was the first ruler of the Universe and

the god of the sky. He was the husband of Gaea, the goddess of the earth. Their children include

the Cyclopes and the Titans.

Watch Uranus here

The xylophone is a tuned instrument made of hardwood bars in graduated lengths set horizontally on a metal frame. With the larger, lower-sounding bars on the left, the notes of the xylophone are laid out much like a piano keyboard. Striking the bars with hard mallets produces a bright, sharp sound.

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Neptune - the MysticIn Roman mythology Neptune was the god of

water and the Sea.

Watch Neptune here

Neptune was one of the first pieces of orchestral music to have a fade-out ending.

Holst stipulates that the women's choruses are "to be placed in an adjoining room, the door of which is to be left open until the last bar of the piece, when it is to be slowly and silently closed", and that the final bar (scored for choruses alone) is "to be repeated until the sound is lost in the distance".

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