Gustav Holst had a striking originality as a composer and breadth of interest as a thinker. He was born in Cheltenham to musical parents of Scandinavian and Ger- man extraction, and studied at the
Royal College of Music in London. There his friendship with Ralph Vaughan Williams was considerably more stimulating to him than composition lessons with the ultra- traditional composer Charles Stanford. He conceived as well a passion for Wagner, whose style looms large in Hoist's
apprentice works, and an interest in Hindu philosophy and literature.
After a few early years playing orchestral trombone, Holst turned to teaching as his mainstay. From 1905 until his death he was director of music at St Paul's Girls' School in London, and the
St Paul's Suite for strings of 1912 is only the best known of many works that he wrote for amateur
music-making, in which his involvement was serious and wholehearted. The folk song collecting of Vaughan Williams and Cecil Sharp also excited Holst; in 1906 to 1907 he wrote
A Somerset Rhapsody, based on traditional tunes.
The most notable of many works springing from Holst's preoccupation with Hinduism
was the chamber opera Savitri dating from 1908, based on an episode from the epic poem
Mahabharata: its economy and intensity are exemplified in the arresting and dramatic opening, where Death sings, offstage and unaccompanied.
Holst's heavy teaching schedule meant that composing was confined to weekends and holidays: the orchestral suite
The Planets consequently took him from 1914 to 1916 to write. It achieved almost overnight success for its bewildered
composer, who never considered it his best work. One can imagine, however, the impact
of the terrifying martial music of 'Mars' on audiences immersed in the horror of World War
I. He evoked a different but equally imaginative sense of timelessness in the offstage women's
chorus dying away at the end of 'Neptune'.
The Hymn of Jesus of 1917, for choir and orchestra, also met with success. Quite
distinct from the traditional English oratorio, Holst's setting of his own translation of part of the apocryphal Acts of St John evoked, by means of dancing rhythms and astonishing clashes of harmony, an
exultant and mystical experience.
Success gave Holst more time to compose, but his works of the 1920s puzzled audiences and critics alike: even the loyal Vaughan Williams felt unable to summon up more than 'cold admiration' for the ambitious
Choral Symphony (1923-4). One of the best pieces from this later, introverted period is the orchestral tone poem
Egdon Heath, based on a passage from Thomas Hardy's novel The Return of the
Native. Hardy's description of the heath as 'like man, slighted and enduring; and withal singularly colossal and mysterious in its swarthy monotony' accords well with the quiet power and lean textures of this restrained and hypnotic music.
Holst received numerous awards during his last years and was appointed a visiting lecturer at Harvard University. He died in May 1934.
The Planets
Savitri
The Perfect Fool
St Paul's Suite
Egdon Heath
The Hymn of Jesus