Gustav Holst

For many, the name Gustav Holst is synonymous with his orchestral suite The Planets, which received its first (private) performance in London in 1918. Significantly, perhaps, it is mainly outside the British Isles that he enjoys this dubious accolade as a single-work composer. Within Britain, his reputation is rather more broadly based. He grew up in a family of musicians and although his father wanted him to play the piano, he took up composition instead. His second instrument was the trombone, which he played on seaside piers and at London pantomimes to earn some extra money. After holding a series of teaching appointments in London, he became a professor of composition at University College, Reading, in 1919 and also joined the staff of the Royal College of Music. In addition to his many symphonic scores, Holst wrote a number of small-scale chamber operas and several larger choral works. His style reflects the influence of Purcell, as well as the popular English musical tradition and the Indian teachings and texts in which he took a lifelong interest. First performed in 1920, his oratorio The Hymn of Jesus is a fine example of the different compositional techniques that he adopted in his works and include plainsong, modal harmonies and Greek rhythms. Like his contemporary Ralph Vaughan Williams, he strove to free English music from German domination and, through his genius as a teacher, he left his mark on a whole generation of English musicians.