HOLST Suite: The Planets
by Len Mullenger
The Planets is so
well known that it does not often
get included in programmes at Gramophone
and Recorded Music Societies. Indeed,
I once gave a programme on Holst where
I deliberately did not play anything
from this suite. It often needs the
stimulus of a new recording or a live
performance to afford a reappraisal
of the work. This happened to me by
purchasing a recording of The Warriors
by Percy Grainger. The Planets
was the fill-up (at least for me)
but it is by far the most interesting
work.
Holst came from a
musical background and when only 17
was appointed organist and choirmaster
to the village of Wyck Rissington
and also conducted the choral society
at Bourton on the Water. When he was
19, he left Cheltenham for the Royal
College of Music where he started
to suffer from neuritis in his right
arm. This was problem that was to
be with him for the rest of his life.
When it was particularly bad he could
not even hold a pen and resorted to
tying a nib to his forefinger in order
to continue composing. This meant
that he had to give up any idea of
being a concert pianist so he took
up the trombone instead. After leaving
college he became first trombone in
the Carl Rosa Opera Company orchestra.
It was around this time that he read
Frazer's Silent Gods and Sun-Steeped
Lands and learned of the ancient
Hindu legends. He discovered the collection
of sacred verses called the Rig
Veda and wished to set it to music.
In order to obtain a colloquial setting
he taught himself Sanskrit so that
he could make his own translation.
In all, he translated over 30 hymns
and odes which he set to music. He
also composed two Hindu operas, Sita
and Savitri. Holst earned virtually
nothing from his compositions and
continued with the Carl Rosa Opera
until he obtained teaching posts becoming
musical director at St Paul's Girls
School, Hammersmith and at Morley
College. This gave him the time he
needed to compose. Holst's Sanskrit
settings often use asymmetric metres;
5/4, 7/4, 21/8. When he became interested
in traditional British folksongs he
declared that these irregular metres
were much more suitable for setting
English words than the more usual
time signatures.
Holst's stepmother
had introduced him to theosophy (the
eternal truths are to be found in
the ancient cultures and religions)
and this led him to an interest in
astrology - which he later referred
to as "my weakness". In
1913 he went on holiday to Mallorca
with Henry Balfour Gardiner, Arnold
Bax and his brother Clifford Bax.
Clifford spent the entire holiday
discussing astrology to the scorn
of Gardiner but whetting the appetite
of Holst. Holst also studied the writing
of (the aptly named) astrologer, Alan
Leo. Holst returned from holiday with
a feeling of well-being and some optimism
so was ready for the composition of
a new work.
In 1914 he heard Schoenberg's
Five Pieces for Orchestra which
promoted cries of outrage in the audience
but gave Holst the idea of writing
a similar suite. Holst had also managed
to hear Diaghilev presenting Firebird
in 1912 and the following year
Petrushka and the Rite of Spring.
He was very impressed with Stravinsky's
orchestration and rhythmic vigour
and used his ballets as examples in
his teaching. This then, was the background
to The Planets suite which Holst completed
in 1916.
He decided the order
of the movements on musical criteria
rather than astrological factors so
they do not move in orbit outwards
from the sun. The opening, Mars,
must be one of the most familiar pieces
of English music. This is battle music
driven on by its assymetric repeated
rhythm. It closely resembles the first
movement of the Schoenberg and is
surely influenced by the Rite of Spring.
The second movement, Venus,
is much quieter, again recalling the
second movement of the Schoenberg
(vergangenes - the past) which
contrasts with its first; Vorgefuhle
(Premonitions). Holst drew on
his own song A vigil of Pentecost.
Here Venus is not the Roman Goddess
of fruitfulness, instead Holst based
his inspiration on the work of Alan
Leo: "Venus creates orderly harmonic
motion .... everywhere it produces
order out of disorder, harmony out
of discord." So it is appropriate
that Venus should follow Mars. Mercury,
according to Leo, represents the personalities
of its earthly lives. Unfortunately
Holst had to suppress the programmatic
basis of the Planets as Leo was prosecuted
under the Vagrancy Act of 1917 which
declared astrologers to be common
thieves and vagabonds! The bustling
activity at the opening of Jupiter
strongly resembles the opening scene
of Petrushka and then develops a distinctly
Elgarian mood in the middle and was
separately published as I Vow to
thee my Country. Saturn
is again based on a previous work,
Dirge and Hymeneal. Dorothy
Callard was a pupil of Holst and she
recalls that Holst insisted that she
visit Durham Cathedral where two bells
were tolled before services. The sound
of the bells were very like the alternating
chords that open Saturn and the two
bell ringers were two very old men
in black gowns, very slow and solemn
which gave Holst the association of
Saturn with the bringer of old age.
Furthermore, Holst as a child suffered
very badly from asthma (learning to
play the trombone was partly a way
of overcoming this) and Saturn rising
to its climax in a series of syncopated
gasps vividly protrays the struggle
for breath - as if each gasp might
be the last. For Uranus
we go back to Schoenberg's Peripetie
from Five Pieces for Orchestra
for its dominant brass but also,
surely, to Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice
for its hop-skippety rhythm. Holst
was also writing The Perfect Fool
and the opening of Uranus resembles
the appearance of the Wizard in the
Perfect Fool thus establishing the
link with a magician. Finally, the
shifting tone-clusters of Neptune
again is drawn from Farben,
the third of Schoenberg's Five
Pieces for Orchestra as well as
being from his own Mystic Trumpeter.
The use of a wordless female choir
is an unusual device although Debussy
had used this in Sirenes and
Ravel in Daphnis and Chloe.
But Holst now had plenty of experience
writing for girls choirs so for him
it could be regarded as natural. The
striking invention was the gradual
fadeout at the end although I learn
he had tried this before in two earlier
works that I am not familiar with:
The Listening Angels and Songs
for a Princess.
So although the Planets
is regarded as Holst's masterwork
and amazed its listeners with its
originality, it was, as always, a
natural evolution from what had gone
before. It is unfortunate that for
most people Holst, like Dukas, has
remained a one-work composer. Over
the last 20 years most of Holst's
other works have become available
on disc and have given me a great
deal of pleasure. I recently played
you Song of the Night for Violin
and Orchestra and would urge you
to hear its companion piece, Invocation.
If I had to pick one alternative work
of Holst's I would recommend Egdon
Heath for its Hardyesque Englishness.
Further reading:
Vaughan Williams: Gustav Holst:
An Essay and a note
Daniel Jaffe: Holst: The Planets
Sunday Times
Michael Short: The making of
the Planets British Music Society
Journal 2 p22
Michael Short Gustav Holst,Oxford
University Press, 1990
See also major
Biography of Holst on this website
This article first
appeared in ORMS NEWS, The newsletter
of the Olton
Recorded Music Society
