Holst's love of English folk song and dance is readily demonstrated here. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age 6. Even so, the balance favors the strings to the detriment of the other choirs, such that the rapid accompanying violin figurations swamp the majestic brass introduction of the rousing Jupiter melody, and the tympani are barely heard at all. While none attracted much notice or met with any appreciable success, their underlying character would permeate The Planets. See the full gallery: A beginners guide to Gustav Holsts The Planets Suite, : A beginners guide to Gustav Holsts The Planets Suite, Download 'Symphony No.6 in D major (2)' on iTunes, A beginners guide to Gustav Holsts The Planets Suite. This theme stems into theme four also, with variants being played. By Phil Plait. Even within each movement, Holst does not organically develop his themes symphonically, but rather uses them to create a structure suited to the psychological character and associations of each planet. (While identified only as "Symphony Orchestra" on the original labels, the ensemble probably was the London Symphony, with which Coates was closely associated and with whose players he made most of his HMV recordings, even though it was contracted to Columbia.) $34.99 Merry-go-round Of Life $24.99 Advanced Orchestral Studies $50.00 Symphony No. THE RUST" for whose rendition of "Ievan Polka" is better, though A.A's is arranged for . The theme is undoubtedly celebratory, taking us on a whirlwind of emotions which is full of climatic passion, zeal and triumphant feelings. In his preface to The Planets, Holst advised that there is no program in the pieces and that the subtitles should be sufficient to guide the imagination of the listener. "And then," he concluded, "recently the character of each planet suggested lots to me.". By bringing together all the movements with this delicately thought-out movement, I feel that it ends in the best way possible wanting to know more. Not only does Boult's Mars run about a minute slower than Holst's, but his Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune do as well appreciable differences that raise the intriguing question as to whether interpretations that differ from a composer's own can authentically represent the composer's intentions, as Boult claims his do, and not only with respect to their tempos the very texture of Holst's Mars is aggressive whereas Boult's simply is not. Gustav Holst was an English composer, who wrote The Plants Op. Perhaps that occasion prompted this recording, which appears to be his only one with the Los Angeles Philharmonic throughout his extraordinarily prolific career. Yet if the cover managed to dupe a few kids into hearing some great music, it seemed at worst a victimless crime and, in the total scheme of things, a forgivable sin against artistic integrity. The Planets, Op. "Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity," is the most thoroughly English section of the work, with Jupiter's high spirits projected through a broad, infectiously energetic melody. But perhaps one of the earliest foretastes of that bond came with the 1970 reissue of the 1960 Boult/Vienna State Opera Orchestra Planets on Westminster Gold, a label known for metaphoric and often witty (if occasionally tasteless) covers that presumably strove to lure unwitting pop fans to the classics. As Foreman notes, the resulting torso left an impression of undue heaviness. Fantasia on Greensleeves Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner, Edward Elgar, Frederick Delius, George Butterworth, Peter Warlock, Ralph Vaughan Williams The colouring of sounds seems to be right at the heart of Holsts orchestration as he has the horns and flutes colour the harp chords at points, and the solo violin is coloured and blended with the lower strings to create a rich sound. The strings play col legno which means that the players play with the wood of their bow, not the hair. Uranus expresses magical forces, animation and playfulness to the mix. Its first public performance took place in 1920, and it was an instant success. The score is incredibly bare, which makes it sound like a piece of chamber music, which is significant as Holst would have had about 100 musicians to play with. Was Holst implying that the predominant psychosis of mankind, from which all human activity flowed, was steeped in and governed by aggression, hostility and conflict (hardly a surprising outlook on the brink of a war that threatened to be of unprecedented scope and destruction)? What an astonishment the Age of Aquarius would have been to Gustav Holst (1874-1934). 4 - Jupiter (The Bringer Of Jollity) A: Part 1: B: Part 2: Ad. While Tomita's structure seems mostly random and the nexus between the original and his contributions is often obscure, he does produce an impressive amount and array of fresh sound, and his abundant technical facility, sense of rhythm, feeling for spatial display and overall flair for invention are fully apparent. Along with this rhythmic ambiguity, there is no set key to the piece, you can make a guess of where the tonality may be, but it is quite tricky. In the Arts Gazette, Dunton Green observed: "It was an injustice to the composer to rob his planetary system of the two stars whose soft light would have relieved the fierce glare of the five others." If any guide to the music is required the subtitle to each piece will be found sufficient, especially if it be used in a broad sense." Or even it could musically represent the breakout of WW1 (as Holst was writing this movement in 1915). Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity. 32 between 1914-1916. In theory the pipe organ can overcome much of this problem with its panoply of distinctive voices, awesome power and ability to preserve a sustained mood (especially in the atmospheric Neptune), but a version by Peter Sykes (on a 1996 Raven CD) all too often comes across as a homogeneous sonic blur compared to the original. Foreman posits that the progression parallels the ages of man, from youth to old age. A stronger influence perhaps was that of Stravinsky, whose music had greatly impressed Holst before he took on the universe, the effects of which in The Planets can be seen in the very large Firebird and Petrushka kind of orchestration, in insistent rhythms, and also in striding rhythmic shifts. Claiming inspiration from the innovative orchestration of Rimsky-Korsakoff, Stravinsky and Ravel, his three earlier albums (Snowflakes are Falling the Newest Sound of Debussy, Pictures at an Exhibition and Firebird) took their cues from Walter Carlos's 1968 Switched-On Bach by substituting electronic sounds for the actual instruments and thus generally respecting the structure and content of the originals. Comparing Holst's two recordings, the second obviously has richer sound. ", Finally, moving from the sublime to the ridiculous, In the thrall of the social transformations ushered in by Hair and the Age of Aquarius, in 1970 James Lyons foresaw the extra-musical connotations of The Planets as "ramifications for our future that are variously fascinating and frightening." 10,000+ blues, R&B, rock, jazz and pop 78s, 45s, LPs and CDs and even some ragas, punk and rap. The fourth movement of the suite, Jupiter is perhaps the most famous of them all, especially the main theme that is heard in the middle of the movement. Holst bounces through keys creates a fresh and exciting sound, which contrasts again to the previous movement. The composer, a man of intellect and wide-ranging interests, found musical inspiration in diverse places. Although it has since become a clich to depict outer space, Holst's inspired final touch is two wordless female choruses, each divided in thirds. Holst presents this motive in two transpositions (starting on E and A) in two octaves (E4/A4 and E5/A5). $9.00 $3.95 $3.75 Studio Ghibli Suite $120.00 Ukrainian National Anthem for Symph. With Mars bringing masculinity and forcefulness to the forefront, Holst was able to paint a really vivid picture of war and the consequences of war. Reviews. ; Hatsune Miku has competition with A.A's "VII. Louis (Turnabout, 1975), Solti/London (Decca, 1979), Maazel/France (CBS, 1980), Dutoit/Montreal (1986, Decca) and Gardiner/Philharmonia (DG, 1994). However dark the underlying topic may be here, the music creates a stunning effect that is mesmerising to hear. It could perhaps represent church bells at a funeral (as tubular bells are used extensively here), or perhaps its alarm bells that death is approaching. Dvorak's 5th Symphony ("New World,". Pluto Yet Colin Matthews rose to the task in 2000 on commission from the Hall Orchestra. One accurate version. 3:52 . Tempos in Mars and Jupiter are significantly slower than with Holst or Coates, imbuing these movements with a deeper sense of drama (albeit at the expense of driven resolve) and in doing so elevates them yet further above the realm of standard program music. "), Perhaps in keeping with his visionary outlook and disdain for fame, unlike nearly all other composers Holst thwarted popular expectation by resisting the temptation to follow The Planets with a successor of a similar structure or style. What the title doesn't suggest, though, is that I was [i]not[/i] doing okay this month. He was previously married to Isobel Harrison. Bsn. Boult also led the first public performance on February 27, 1919, while Holst still was away, but omitted the final two serene movements (perhaps in part to save the cost of the wordless female chorus that makes its only appearance at the end of Neptune). Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity" is the central movement of Gustav Holst's Planets Suite and has the most varied melodic structure: with its Stravinsky-like ostinati and syncopation and a central melody as solemn as an anthem, it constitutes the quintessential early-20th-century English composition. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age The optimism of Jupiter meets its opposite extreme in this terrifying depiction of the inevitability of life receding. In that regard, Matthews considers him the most original English composer, with a capacity for self-renewal, constitutionally incapable of repeating himself. But perhaps the most remarkable movement is Venus, in which Sargent adds another full minute to others' already sprawling pace to craft a feeling beyond mere wistful dreams to a lush romanticism that one would not have suspected to find within the composer's emotional arsenal. Disposition: Though we hear the first two bars as a two-octave, upward run, it's actually Holst introducing each transposition separately. I believe the reason it feels more personal is down to the fact that Holst has integrated his first human element to this suite old age. Egdon Heath Op.47 : I Adagio - Poco Allegro - Andante maestoso. 5.0 out of 5 stars 2 ratings. Soon to enter are the horns, lower strings and both sets of timpani with a syncopated theme which builds into the fabric of this first theme (of a mighty six for this movement!). Answer (1 of 3): Another Quorean has already provided a very comprehensive list, including all the ones that I could think of but one film composer in particular comes to mind who has made more use of Holst's work than most: Not only 'Jupiter', but the influence of the whole of 'The Planet Suite'. (Please understand: I'm not a musical snob beyond my recordings of serious music, I have (and enjoy!) A stately, more serious processional theme then enters, its royal dignity fully intact, after which the vigorous melody returns. 7 images Finally, nearly two decades after Holst's own electrical remake, the next complete Planets arrived. While such a resource was not entirely novel (Debussy had already used wordless sopranos and altos to conclude his 1901 Sirnes), Holst's haunting indefinite ending was quite innovative. As the round-faced cheery uncle of all the planets, and king of the gods, Jupiter is impressive and majestic. Throughout this whole movement, the music usually comes back to the first ostinato that was heard, this creates some stability. Paid users learn tabs 60% faster! I'm sure there are other good ones, but (unless you're a total hi-fi freak) do bear in mind Raymond Tuttle's admonition: "One senses that record companies are moved to record it again and again not because they feel that their artists have anything important to say about it, but because they want to show off the very latest development in recording technology. The ladies choir bring a human quality to the movement, again it seems Holst is trying to connect with us with the use of the human voice. Indeed, Holst's orchestration is often cited as a prime glory of The Planets. Unfortunately, only Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus were recorded, perhaps to focus on the faster movements that were easiest to capture, would have the most popular appeal, would provide a marketing advantage by fitting onto four rather than seven discs, and seemed best matched to Coates's spontaneous musical temperament. Beyond the resemblance of Mars to the first movement of Schoenberg's Suite, Mullenger asserts the influence of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (although the savage climax of that work thrives on thoroughly erratic downbeats rather than the rigid, relentless rhythm here). It is made mainly of hydrogen with a quarter helium and has at least 69 moons. This creates a percussive sound, which is very exciting and keeps with the theme of this movement representing war. Using the new technology, Holst and the London Symphony rerecorded The Planets (plus Mercury's companion "Marching Song") between June and November 1926 (and, interestingly, he reverted to the faster tempo of the first acoustical Saturn). The shortest movement at nearly four minutes, about half the length of the others, and with the fastest tempo (vivace), it flits between distant keys (B-flat and E) and duple and triple meters as its motif (barely a theme Foreman calls it "a fragment from some half-remembered folk tune") careens among various instruments in delightfully transparent scoring. Neptune is in the far reaches of the solar system and the end of this movement is a gradual fade out, with the last thing the audience should hear is the very far away ladies choir (who have started to walk away to create the fade out effect). Instruments : Fl. Concurrent with Boult's first remake, Decca issued a competing LP that, coming at the very end of the mono era, was soon superseded by a stereo version (albeit with a different orchestra), much as Holst's acoustical set had been promptly replaced by its electrical remake. Boult had been a relative novice at conducting when he led the first private performance at the composer's request in 1918, but Holst clearly was pleased, later presenting Boult with the score inscribed: "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." If so, then the rest of The Planets, both psychologically and musically, can be heard as proposing various paths to redemption or, perhaps collectively, a fervent prayer that mankind would find some way to carry on by embracing our better sides. This movement was written in 1914, which does make you wonder whether this movement is a somewhat musical premonition of the war that was soon about to break out (WW1). The last melodic cell is built up throughout different instruments (its repeated 12 times to be precise!) (True to form, Stokowski wrote a letter to the producer with detailed suggestions for improving a test pressing, including filtering out highs from "thin and metallic" trumpets and adding echo to Uranus as if it "came from a great cavern, extremely reverberant" so as to differentiate it from the rest, although neither effect is especially evident.) Even though he composed other pieces such as Sita, an opera, Beni Mora, and Cloud Messenger, nothing elevated him to the level of artistic greatness as The Planets did. 7. The hymn theme (as it shall now be referred to as) is also the basis for the hymn tune I vow to thee my country. - No. That, in turn, suggests that the very notion of authenticity cannot be reduced to a single set of parameters and that great music can only be enriched by a range of personal interpretation. Saying this though he was said to have a soft spot for his favourite movement, Saturn. He died on 25 May 1934 in Ealing, Middlesex, London, England, UK. Born September 21, 1874 Died May 25, 1934 (59) Add or change photo on IMDbPro Add to list Known for Knowing 6.2 Difficulty : E approx. Three months earlier Edwin Evans had expanded on this outlook in a Musical Times article, presumably with the composer's authority: "The generally accepted astrological associations of the various planets are a sufficient clue in themselves to the imagination. He was a composer, known for Knowing (2009), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) and The Vast of Night (2019). Within the basic tempos Imogen calls his beat "clear and unfussy. That said, all of Boult's Planets recordings are splendid except for the 1960 LP with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra which is crudely played with weak ensemble. Rhythm to Holst was the most important thing in life, and in this recording he never for one moment allows the rhythm to sag, with the result that Mars sounds even more relentless than usual."