A Purcell Centennial and Bridges' Ode to Music Became the Muse for Another Great Work in the Finest Tradition of English Choral Music.

The great composer of The Planets was a voracious reader; anyone who is familiar with Holst's biography will know that all manner of subjects interested him and, fortunately for posterity, many of these diverse subjects--to coin his own phrase--"suggested music" to him.

Three important topics that are dealt with in his biographies are his interest in Sanskrit (the study of which resulted in numerous choral works, songs, a symphonic poem and two operas), his fascination with astrology which became the inspirational force behind The Planets, and the influence of poetry.

Holst and Poetry

Holst had a particular love of poetry, especially that of Robert Bridges, George Meredith (both of whom became his personal friends), Christina Rosetti, and Walt Whitman. A particularly lovely setting of Bridges' work was the Choral Fantasia opus 51 of 1930. The poem is Ode to Music, written in commemmoration of the 200th anniversary of the death of Henry Purcell.

Commission of the Fantasia

Holst composed the Choral Fantasia at the request of the organist of Gloucester Cathedral, Herbert Sumsion, who had asked for a choral work containing a concertante organ part. The vocal forces in this piece consist of a solo soprano with chorus, and it is contained within a single movement. Even though Bridges' entire poem was used Holst took liberties with the order of stanzas to suit his musical purpose; the order differs from Bridges' original (for example) for the sake of musical themes which return at later points.

Holst's First Performance

First performed in 1931 at the Three Choirs Festival it was also published that same year. Holst attended the concert but wrote to his daughter Imogen that he was too emotionally involved to have a clear judgment on how he felt the performance went, but stated that "[Ralph Vaughan Williams] was moved by it, and other things don't matter so much".

These "other things" were critical comments such as "When Holst starts his new Choral Fantasia with a six-four on D and a C-sharp below that, with an air of take-it-or-leave-it, one is inclined to leave it".

Stylistic Foresight

What a narrow view of musical construction and the potential of musical sound! Judgments were made in terms of what Holst had composed previously and what these "experts" on music were accustomed to until that time.

Critics failed to understand that they were experiencing the mature Holst emerging in the early 1930s: his love of contrapuntal movement of independent voices, and how these voices move against one another--a horizontal rather than vertical point of view--and the refreshing sound of innovative harmony.

Many composers of later generations (such as Herbert Howells and Benjamin Britten) have spoken of their debt to Holst as the inspiration for their own musical vision. It was mavericks like Holst who pushed the development of music forward and helped to characterize 20th-century music of the time.

Sources

Dickinson, A.E.F. Holst's Music: a Guide. London: Thames Publishing, 1995.

Gibbs, A. Holst Among Friends. London: Thames Publishing, 2000.

Holst, I. A Thematic Catalogue of Gustav Holst's Music. Faber Music, Ltd., in association with

G. and I. Holst, Ltd., 1974.

Holst, I. Holst. London: Faber and Faber, 1974.

Holst, I. The Music of Gustav Holst and Holst's Music Reconsidered. London: Oxford University Press,

1986.

Short, M. Gustav Holst: The Man and His Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.