by neufer » Tue Feb 05, 2019 11:19 am
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planets wrote:
<<The Planets, Op. 32, is a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1916. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the Solar System and its corresponding astrological character as defined by Holst. The concept of the work is astrological rather than astronomical (which is why Earth is not included, although Sun and Moon are also not included while including the non-traditional Uranus and Neptune): each movement is intended to convey ideas and emotions associated with the influence of the planets on the psyche, not the Roman deities. The idea of the work was suggested to Holst by Clifford Bax, who introduced him to astrology when the two were part of a small group of English artists holidaying in Majorca in the spring of 1913; Holst became quite a devotee of the subject, and would cast his friends' horoscopes for fun. Holst also used Alan Leo's book What is a Horoscope? as a springboard for his own ideas, as well as for the subtitles (e.g., "The Bringer of...") for the movements.
The suite has seven movements, each named after a planet and its corresponding astrological character:
- Mars, the Bringer of War (1914)
Venus, the Bringer of Peace (1914)
Mercury, the Winged Messenger (1916)
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity (1914)
Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age (1915)
Uranus, the Magician (1915)
Neptune, the Mystic (1915)
A typical performance of all seven movements is about fifty minutes long, though Holst's own electric recording from 1926 is just over forty-two and a half minutes. (Because of the time constraints of the 78rpm format, the tempo is often much faster than is usually the case today.)
The orchestral premiere of The Planets suite, conducted at Holst's request by Adrian Boult, was held at short notice on 29 September 1918, during the last weeks of World War I, in the Queen's Hall. It was hastily rehearsed; the musicians of the Queen's Hall Orchestra first saw the complicated music only two hours before the performance, and the choir for Neptune was recruited from pupils from St Paul's Girls' School (where Holst taught). Neptune was one of the first pieces of orchestral music to have a fade-out ending. Holst stipulates that the women's choruses are "
to be placed in an adjoining room, the door of which is to be left open until the last bar of the piece, when it is to be slowly and silently closed", and that the final bar (scored for choruses alone) is "
to be repeated until the sound is lost in the distance". Holst's daughter Imogen (in addition to watching the charwomen dancing in the aisles during Jupiter) remarked that the ending was "
unforgettable, with its hidden chorus of women's voices growing fainter and fainter... until the imagination knew no difference between sound and silence".
A public concert was given in London under the auspices of the Royal Philharmonic Society on 27 February 1919, conducted by Boult. Five of the seven movements were played in the order Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Uranus, and Jupiter. It was Boult's decision not to play all seven movements at this concert. He felt that when the public were being given a totally new language like that, "half an hour of it was as much as they could take in". His daughter Imogen recalled, "He hated incomplete performances of The Planets, though on several occasions he had to agree to conduct three or four movements at Queen's Hall concerts."
Holst particularly disliked having to finish with Jupiter, to make a 'happy ending', for, as he himself said, 'in the real world the end is not happy at all'.>>
[quote="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planets"]
<<The Planets, Op. 32, is a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1916. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the Solar System and its corresponding astrological character as defined by Holst. The concept of the work is astrological rather than astronomical (which is why Earth is not included, although Sun and Moon are also not included while including the non-traditional Uranus and Neptune): each movement is intended to convey ideas and emotions associated with the influence of the planets on the psyche, not the Roman deities. The idea of the work was suggested to Holst by Clifford Bax, who introduced him to astrology when the two were part of a small group of English artists holidaying in Majorca in the spring of 1913; Holst became quite a devotee of the subject, and would cast his friends' horoscopes for fun. Holst also used Alan Leo's book What is a Horoscope? as a springboard for his own ideas, as well as for the subtitles (e.g., "The Bringer of...") for the movements.
[float=right][img3="Gustav Holst (21 Sept. 1874 – 25 May 1934)"]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Gustav_Holst.jpg/220px-Gustav_Holst.jpg[/img3][/float]The suite has seven movements, each named after a planet and its corresponding astrological character:
[list][b][i][color=#0000FF] Mars, the Bringer of War (1914)
Venus, the Bringer of Peace (1914)
Mercury, the Winged Messenger (1916)
[u]Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity (1914)[/u]
Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age (1915)
Uranus, the Magician (1915)
Neptune, the Mystic (1915)[/color][/i][/b][/list]
A typical performance of all seven movements is about fifty minutes long, though Holst's own electric recording from 1926 is just over forty-two and a half minutes. (Because of the time constraints of the 78rpm format, the tempo is often much faster than is usually the case today.)
The orchestral premiere of The Planets suite, conducted at Holst's request by Adrian Boult, was held at short notice on 29 September 1918, during the last weeks of World War I, in the Queen's Hall. It was hastily rehearsed; the musicians of the Queen's Hall Orchestra first saw the complicated music only two hours before the performance, and the choir for Neptune was recruited from pupils from St Paul's Girls' School (where Holst taught). Neptune was one of the first pieces of orchestral music to have a fade-out ending. Holst stipulates that the women's choruses are "[b][i][color=#00BF00]to be placed in an adjoining room, the door of which is to be left open until the last bar of the piece, when it is to be slowly and silently closed[/color][/i][/b]", and that the final bar (scored for choruses alone) is "[b][i][color=#00BF00]to be repeated until the sound is lost in the distance[/color][/i][/b]". Holst's daughter Imogen (in addition to watching the charwomen dancing in the aisles during Jupiter) remarked that the ending was "[b][i][color=#00BF00]unforgettable, with its hidden chorus of women's voices growing fainter and fainter... until the imagination knew no difference between sound and silence[/color][/i][/b]".
A public concert was given in London under the auspices of the Royal Philharmonic Society on 27 February 1919, conducted by Boult. Five of the seven movements were played in the order Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Uranus, and Jupiter. It was Boult's decision not to play all seven movements at this concert. He felt that when the public were being given a totally new language like that, "half an hour of it was as much as they could take in". His daughter Imogen recalled, "He hated incomplete performances of The Planets, though on several occasions he had to agree to conduct three or four movements at Queen's Hall concerts." [b][u][color=#0000FF]Holst particularly disliked having to finish with Jupiter, to make a 'happy ending', for, as he himself said, 'in the real world the end is not happy at all'.[/color][/u][/b]>>[/quote]