Gustav Holst: The Planets, Op. 32
Performed by Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Andrè Previn
Gustav Holst (1874-1934) was an English composer well known for his orchestral suite The Planets. Holst began his trip into the musical world as a young pianist. His father, Adolph Holst, was a skilled pianist who wanted Gustav to succeed at playing as he did. Gustav, however, was impaired by neuritis making it difficult to play for long hours. As Gustav aged he began trying to compose music instead. Gustav failed to gain scholarships to any colleges and his father, after hearing one of Gustav’s small town operettas, borrowed money to pay for his college. Gustav’s influences were pieces such as Wagner’s Götterdämmerung and Tristan and Isolode as well as Bach’s Mass in B Minor in his younger years. He began playing trombone when his neuritis became unbearable.
Things began to look up for Holst during his college years. He won a scholarship to continue studying at the Royal College of Music. He conducted for the Hammersmith Socialist Choir, where he met his wife Isobel. Due to his success on the trombone he left the Royal College of Music for Carl Rosa Opera Company. He began composing more music, however, none were becoming any sort of success. He became a teacher and Musical Director but was starting to hit a depression in his life. He traveled to many places seeking inspiration. In 1913, Holst toured Spain with astrologer Clifford Bax. Bax introduced Holst to the wonders of astrology.
Holst began to take a certain interest to astrology and theosophy. The supposed precursor to The Planets is Alan Leo’s book “The Art of Syntheis.” Leo’s chapter names in the books seem to have inspired the names for Holst’s movements in The P...
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...e when they join in since it is the first time in the whole symphony to hear something like that. The chorus ascends against single notes played by the harp. Upper woodwinds come back as the chorus fades but comes back again and stays until the very end of the piece.
Bibliography/Discography
Holst, Gustav. (1916). The Planets. London: Boosey & Hawkes.
IlaryRhineKlange. (2011, October 1). Gustav Holst - The Planets, Op. 32 [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHVsszW7Nds.
Leelasiri, Kanokrut. (June 2001). An Analysis of Gustav Holst’s The Planets (Doctoral Dissertation). Retrieved from http://scholarworks.csun.edu/bitstream/handle/ 10211.2/2158/LeelasiriKanokrut2001.pdf?sequence=1.
Taylor, Kenric. (February 27, 1996). A Biography of Gustav Holst. Gustav Holst (1874- 1934). Retrieved November 16, 2013, from http://www.gustavholst.info/.
Johannes Brahms, a striking individual of unmistakable character, is defined by his compositions as meticulous and enlightened. His comprehensive grasp on classical and baroque form, with his familiarity of counterpoint and musical development, allowed him to effortlessly traverse and cultivate upon the musical architecture laid out by the likes of Bach and Beethoven. Born in Hamburg in 1833, he was the son of Johann Jacob Brahms, who travelled from North Germany, in which the family name “Brahms(t)” propagated (Musgrave 4). His father being a musician by profession instigated Brahms into his own domain of music. With Brahms’ first instruments being the violin, cello and the natural horn (predecessor of the French horn), it was discovered that the genius possessed absolute pitch and had also developed a system of notation on his own even before formal introductions into music (Musgrave 9). His astonishing understanding of musical rudiments was further cemented at age seven by his first teacher Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel, with piano literature ranging from Bach to Schubert to Clementi (Musgrave 10). The young gifted talent quickly matured, with his compositions being sedulously characterized in craft similar to the seasoned taste of aged liquor. Following in the wake of Beethoven, his style of romanticism seemed restrained, and viewed as being confined to classical forms. With his preference towards absolute music, his works demonstrated “as [Ian] McEwan/ [Clive] Linley would have it, at the intersection of emotion and reason” and of “powerful intellect and of passionate expressivity” (Platt and Smith 4). However, being the headstrong romantic that he is, he manipulated the limiting factor into an area of expanse, in which he...
As the orchestra draws to a climax the sound is cut-off, and the eerie feeling returns as the bassoon takes its initial theme. This time the orchestra does not burst in afterwards. Instead, a string bridge appears and the next movement greets us. The main emphasis of the orchestration in this movement seems to appear in the strings and the Horns. The initial chord is a polychord of Eb 7 and F minor.
...se on both the tenor and alto flute, one an octave higher than the other. While the return of the verse and the flute’s soothing sound give this ending a vague happy feeling, the contrast between the flutes’ pitches and timbres cannot help but leave the listener with a feeling of tension and apprehension over what will ensue.
The piece also switches from 3/2 back to the original time, 4/2. An oboe plays on top of the ostinato, followed by the main fugue from the scherzo from a flute. A solo clarinet plays the same fugue following the flute. Both continue to play, but this time, the two are in harmony, unlike in the scherzo in which both struggled for coexistence. The same melodies are passed from the woodwinds to the brass, all the while, the ostinato starts to become more and more fragmented, “sporadic, even” (Biles, Logan). A baritone enters, playing a somber melody, and the piece ends with the basses echoing a descending step from G to
Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a family of musicians. It was only natural for him to pick up an instrument and excel in it. His father taught him how to play the violin and harpsichord at a very young age. All of Bach’s uncles were professional musicians, one of them; Johann Christoph Bach introduced him to the organ. Bach hit a turning point in his life when both of his parents died at the age of ten years old. Bach’s older brother Johann Christoph Bach took him in and immediately expanded his knowledge in the world of music. He taught him how to play the clavichord and exposed him to great composers at the time. At the age of fourteen, Bach and his good friend George Erdmann were awarded a choral scholarship to the prestigious musical school St. Michael’s in Luneburg. From then on, Bach began to build his career in the music industry. His first two years at the school he sang in the school’s a cappella choir. Historical evidence has shown that Bach at a young age would visit Johanniskirche and would listen to the works of organ player Jasper Johannsen. This was thought to have been the inspiration to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Studying at the prestigious musical school has help Bach network his way around and become acquaintances’ with some of the best organ players at the time such as Georg Böhm, and Johann Adam Reincken. Through his acquaintance with Böhm and Reincken Bach had access to some of the greatest and finest instruments.
2. Gustav Holst, The Man and His Music. By Michael Short. Oxford University Press (1990).
The same line is repeated ecstatically by the quartet, which soars upward to it’s peak. The orchestra and chorus re-enter at a rapid tempo to bring the movement to its conclusion.
There was nothing obscure about these general assumptions. At the beginning of the sixteenth century astrological doctrines were part of the educated man’s picture of the universe and its workings. It was generally accepted that the four elements constituting the sublunary region (earth, air, fire & water) were kept in their state of ceaseless transformation by the movement of the heavenly bodies. The various planets transmitted different quantities of the four physiological qualities of heat and cold, dryness and moisture. Therefore astrology was less a separate discipline than an aspect of a generally accepted world picture. During the Renaissance, even more than in the Middle Ages, astrology pervaded all aspects of the intellectual framework in which men were educated.
George Frideric Handel was born musically inclined. As a child he was deprived of musical instruments because his father wanted him to pursue the law profession. However, George was allowed to take music lessons from a local organist, by the name of Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau, after Handel had impressed the Duke when he played the organ at the chapel. In his following years, Handel would travel to many places, accepting many different musical occupations. As Handel traveled, he was introduced to many of his musical influences. He wrote operas, oratorios, anthems, secular cantatas, and also wrote scarred music. Throughout his life, Handel would become famous for his compositions, particularly for his English Oratorios, however the most popular ones today include: “Messiah”, “The Water Music”, and “Royal Fireworks.”
Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven both flourished in their compositions of classical music; however, their genre of music differed considerably. Bach was a German composer during the Baroque time era of western music which is estimated to have taken place during 1600 to 1750. It was during this time that he composed prolific church organ music which included such works as the Mass in B Minor, much scared choral music, and the St. Matthew Passion, as well as composing over a thousand works in nearly every musical genre except opera. On the other hand, Beethoven was a German composer whom began to emerge during the classical era of western music twenty years after Bach. This era took place throughout the years1750 and 1830. The large quantity of arrangements, over two hundred works in numerous musical genres composed by Beethoven was significantly influenced by his predecessors, onset of deafness, and his highly personal expression of intellectual depth. Such works include the first an...
German-English composer, George Frederick Handel, is one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period if not of all time. His work, Messiah, is one of the most famous and beloved works of music in the world. During his career in music, Handel composed Italian cantatas, oratorios (like Messiah), Latin Church Music, and several operas. Handel moved around from country to country writing, composing, and producing music for royalty such as Queen Anne and George of Hanover. In his life, Handel mastered several instruments including the violin and the harpsichord.
Gustav Mahler was born on July 7th 1860 in a village in Bohemia called Kalischt, what is now Kaliste in the Czech Republic. His mother and father were Bernhard and Marie Mahler. Gustav was the second oldest of his twelve brothers and sisters, of which six of them died at a very young age. Mahler grew up in a town called Iglau (now Jihlava). As a child, Mahler studied music with native teachers in his village. Although Mahler loved composing music, his school reports portrayed him as unreliable and absent minded. At the age of four, Gustav discovered his grandparents’ piano and immediately fell in love with it. A few years later at the age of ten, he gave his first public performance in Iglau. Bernhard Mahler, his father, was very supportive of his son’s dreams and ambitions. Bernhard Mahler strived for his sons’ music career and agreed that he should audition for a spot at the Vienna Conservatory. Mahler suffered an unpleasant personal loss of his younger brother, Ernst, in 1874 after a long illness. He wanted to express his feelings by playing music. With help from Josef Steiner, a close friend, he began to write an opera called Ernst von Schwaben as a tribute to his lost brother. In 1875, he went to Vienna to study at the conservatory, where he stayed for a few years. After completing his studies, he took a series of producing steps throughout Central and Eastern Europe, including many cities such as: Budapest, Hamburg, and Leipzig. Then he moved to Vienna, where he conducted the state opera orchestra. Mahler succeeded in transforming the staging and performance standards of the opera house. It was nothing short of remarkable, but it came at a high personal cost. The continual work forced him to restrict his co...
The brass plays an ascending sequence, followed by pizzicato notes played by the strings, and an ascending and descending scale on the harp. Strings and oboe play the rhythmic melody, whilst the trumpet plays fanfares in syncopation. The oboe is then replaced by the flute. There is an ascending scale played by the strings, then the brass section repeats the string and oboe melody with cymbal crashes at cadence points. The orchestra then plays a loud melody with cymbal crashes and drum rolls. There is an interrupted cadence, followed by crescendo with cymbal crashes and a brass ostinato. The piece ends with a perfect cadence.
George Frideric Handel was one of the greatest composers of classical music of all time. His style of Italian opera and late baroque music is contended only with that of Bach. Bach was born at the same time as Handel, and because of that Bach is always compared to him. The two composers thrived during their time period, and while people may say Bach was just a bit better, Handel did pretty well for himself. George Handel did a great job of producing two fantastic, world-known, pieces of music, as well as many more unacknowledged operas and oratorios. His work will not soon be forgotten, as the music that ended the Baroque Era with a bang.
George was a very talented composer but, unlike many others he didn’t come from a family with a long line of musicians. At very early age Handel had his mind set on studying music even though his father disapproved. Because his father wanted him to become a lawyer he didn’t allow Handel to play musical instruments. Despite his father’s wishes, historians believed he studied music by candlelight. To make his father proud he studied law for a short time but knew this was not what he wanted to do. George followed his dreamed and went on to join an orchestra in Germany that would change his life forever.