Imogen holst
Holst's settings of Indian texts formed only a part of his compositional output in the period to A highly significant factor in his musical development was the English folksong revival, evident in the orchestral suite A Somerset Rhapsody —07 , a work that was originally to be based around eleven folksong themes; this was later reduced to four.
In the years before the First World War, Holst composed in a variety of genres. Matthews considers the evocation of a North African town in the Beni Mora suite of the composer's most individual work to that date; the third movement gives a preview of minimalism in its constant repetition of a four-bar theme. Holst wrote two suites for military band, in E flat and F major respectively, the first of which became and remains a brass-band staple.
Holst conceived the idea of The Planets in , partly as a result of his interest in astrology, [ n 13 ] and also from his determination, despite the failure of Phantastes , to produce a large-scale orchestral work. Each planet is represented with a distinct character; Dickinson observes that "no planet borrows colour from another".
Holst's intention being to portray the reality of warfare rather than to glorify deeds of heroism".
For "Saturn", Holst again used a previously composed vocal piece, Dirge and Hymeneal , as the basis for the movement, where repeated chords represent the relentless approach of old age. During and after the composition of The Planets , Holst wrote or arranged numerous vocal and choral works, many of them for the wartime Thaxted Whitsun Festivals, — They include the Six Choral Folksongs of , based on West Country tunes, of which "Swansea Town", with its "sophisticated tone", is deemed by Dickinson to be the most memorable.
The words are from a Gnostic text, the apocryphal Acts of John , using a translation from the Greek which Holst prepared with assistance from Clifford Bax and Jane Joseph. In the Ode to Death —19 , the quiet, resigned mood is seen by Matthews as an "abrupt volte-face" after the life-enhancing spirituality of the Hymn.
The influential critic Ernest Newman considered The Perfect Fool "the best of modern British operas", [ ] but its unusually short length about an hour and parodic, whimsical nature—described by The Times as "a brilliant puzzle"—put it outside the operatic mainstream. Before his enforced rest in , Holst demonstrated a new interest in counterpoint , in his Fugal Overture of for full orchestra and the neo-classical Fugal Concerto of , for flute, oboe and strings.
The music, which is largely derived from old English melodies gleaned from Cecil Sharp and other collections, has pace and verve; [ 4 ] the contemporary critic Harvey Grace discounted the lack of originality, a facet which he said "can be shown no less convincingly by a composer's handling of material than by its invention". Egdon Heath was Holst's first major orchestral work after The Planets.
Matthews summarises the music as "elusive and unpredictable [with] three main elements: a pulseless wandering melody [for strings], a sad brass processional, and restless music for strings and oboe. After this, Holst tackled his final attempt at opera in a cheerful vein, with The Wandering Scholar —30 , to a text by Clifford Bax.
Imogen refers to the music as "Holst at his best in a scherzando playful frame of mind"; [ ] Vaughan Williams commented on the lively, folksy rhythms: "Do you think there's a little bit too much 6 8 in the opera? Holst composed few large-scale works in his final years. A Choral Fantasia of was written for the Three Choirs Festival at Gloucester ; beginning and ending with a soprano soloist, the work, also involving chorus, strings, brass and percussion, includes a substantial organ solo which, says Imogen Holst, "knows something of the 'colossal and mysterious' loneliness of Egdon Heath ".
Quiet and contemplative, and requiring little virtuosity from the soloist, the piece was slow to gain popularity among violists. Holst made some recordings, conducting his own music. The limitations of early recording prevented the gradual fade-out of women's voices at the end of "Neptune", and the lower strings had to be replaced by a tuba to obtain an effective bass sound.
In the early LP era little of Holst's music was available on disc. By the early years of the 21st century most of the major and many of the minor orchestral and choral works had been issued on disc. Warrack emphasises that Holst acquired an instinctive understanding—perhaps more so than any English composer—of the importance of folksong.
In it he found "a new concept not only of how melody might be organized, but of what the implications were for the development of a mature artistic language". According to Short, Vaughan Williams described Holst as "the greatest influence on my music", [ ] although Matthews asserts that each influenced the other equally. Short cites other English composers who are in debt to Holst, in particular William Walton and Benjamin Britten , and suggests that Holst's influence may have been felt further afield.
Thus, says Short, "many people who may never have heard any of [Holst's] major works On 27 September , after a weekend of concerts at Chichester Cathedral in memory of Holst, a new memorial was unveiled to mark the 75th anniversary of the composer's death. It is inscribed with words from the text of The Hymn of Jesus : "The heavenly spheres make music for us".
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Gustav holst brief biography of adolf
Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item. English composer — For other people with this surname, see Holst surname. Life and career [ edit ]. Early years [ edit ]. Family background [ edit ]. Holst family tree simplified. Childhood and youth [ edit ]. Royal College of Music [ edit ]. Charles Villiers Stanford , Holst's composition professor.
Holst's lifelong friend Ralph Vaughan Williams. Professional musician [ edit ]. Composer and teacher [ edit ]. First World War [ edit ]. Post-war [ edit ]. Later years [ edit ]. Music [ edit ]. See also: List of compositions by Gustav Holst. Style [ edit ].
How to write brief biography: Gustav Holst was an English composer and music teacher noted for the excellence of his orchestration. His music combines an international flavour based on the styles of Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky, and others with a continuation of English Romanticism.
Early works [ edit ]. Experimental years [ edit ]. Indian period [ edit ]. Folksong and other influences [ edit ]. Problems playing this file? See media help. Full flowering [ edit ]. The prejudices against which Holst struggled as a provincial English composer reveal a divided musico-social fabric in England, that of enthusiastic domestic amateurism as opposed to conservative and perceptibly 'foreign' professionalism.
His was a career that spanned the transition from the age of predominant domestic music-making to that of the gramophone and the 'wireless'. These technological innovations allowed for a wider audience to hear a greater and steadily growing repertoire of 'art' music though it also began to have a debilitating affect on amateur music-making.
It seems that Holst was happy with a foot in both camps and became something of a protagonist in defending the individual's right for music to be performed and enjoyed at any level. Terrible world events inevitably had an effect on the arts within society, and the activities of continental composers such as Schoenberg and Stravinsky brought into question accepted conceptions of what music is and how it functions within a society.
The combined effects of conservative attitudes, stagnation of the concert repertoire and the near extirpation of the native folk-song tradition in England through the effects of the industrial revolution resulted in great public uncertainty as change after change uprooted accepted beliefs and traditions. Although now world renowned, principally as the composer of an astrologically inspired orchestral suite The Planets , Holst's career embraced the twin disciplines of tuition and composition almost equally, though this was perhaps born more of necessity and circumstance than of will and predisposition.
His music was written for a rich diversity of media and in a number of innovative and highly original genres such as the Terzetto for flute, oboe, and viola.
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His approach to harmony 1 and predilection for asymmetrical time signatures speaks of his individuality and creative spirit though this was never in conflict with his strongly held belief in music as a means of communication. Vaughan Williams remarked how 'He loved his fellow creatures too much to allow his message to them to appear in vague or incomprehensible terms' 2.
Although Holst's music has not fulfilled the dismal prophecy he once made, namely: "The epitaph that can be written on every British composer, with only one exception [Purcell], is that fifty years after his death music in England was as if he had never lived", it cannot be said to be appreciated in all its richness. How many people when questioned would be capable of naming but three compositions other than his magnum opus?
His family origins were in Scandinavia with his great-grandfather, Matthias an important musician in the Imperial Russian court in St. He left for England in the early nineteenth century and set up a practice as a music teacher in London. His son, Gustavus Valentin e , settled in Cheltenham where, like his father, he taught harp and piano to the society of the town.
It was Gustavus Valentin e who, in the s, added the prefix 'von' to the family name in emulation of the German branch of the family. This is most likely to have been an attempt to enhance his musical status in the minds of prospective pupils.
Brief biography of jose rizal
His marriage to Honoria Goodrich 4 resulted in the birth of Adolph us who, in keeping with family traditions, became a musician, working as a pianist, teacher, and organist at All Saints' Church in Cheltenham. After marrying one of his pupils, Clara Cox Lediard - a singer and talented pianist, their first child together was Christened Gustavus Theodore on 21 October However on 12 February , when Gustav was still only eight, his mother died of heart disease and dropsy, after a stillbirth a few months previously.
From an early age Gustav was firmly encouraged by his father to practice the piano daily. He also studied the violin and trombone 5. His physical disposition was weak though, suffering as he did from asthma and myopia. Indeed this was to plague him throughout his life causing him to seek increasingly frequent holidays to rest from the strains of a growing number of conducting and teaching commitments.
In addition, Gustav was to develop neuritis in his right arm putting an abrupt end to his initial ambitions as a pianist and necessitating the use of amanuenses for the tiresome copying out of orchestral parts the age before the printer and photocopier created hours of copying work for lone composers. Holst composed about 50 works. Because of the importance of choral singing in England, many of his compositions are for choir.
Holst's most important piece, and the one that is most often played, is the orchestral suite The Planets It is a large-scale, brilliantly orchestrated series of tone poems devoted to seven of the planets: Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. He uses polytonality and polyrhythms and treats the orchestra with great skill and freedom.
English composers of Holst's generation were at a disadvantage in that they wrote at a time when Igor Stravinsky began to dominate the international musical scene. In the late s, when Stravinsky turned to neoclassic ideals, composers who wrote symphonic poems and folk-based choral pieces were considered old-fashioned.
Holst was an honest, if unfashionable, composer, and he did not follow the musical fashions of his day. He was always true to his background and convictions, and his music impresses by its sincerity and highly professional workmanship. The best studies of Holst were written by his daughter, Imogen, who followed the family tradition of being a composer and critic.
Holst, Gustav Theodore oxford.
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Learn more about citation styles Citation styles Encyclopedia. Gustav Holst gale. Gustav Holst Gustav Holst was one of the most important English composers of his time, even though little of his music continued to be played. Further Reading The best studies of Holst were written by his daughter, Imogen, who followed the family tradition of being a composer and critic.
Holst, Gustav oxford. Holst, Gustav — Holst studied composition with Stanford at London's Royal College of Music alongside his lifelong friend Vaughan Williams , with whom he shared a passionate interest in folk-song. The sparse economy of his later works, together with their adventurous harmonies and use of bi-tonality, was regarded by many contemporaries as unnecessarily cerebral.
Eric Cross. Holst: The Planets. New York, N. Other websites [ change change source ]. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gustav Holst. Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Gustav Holst. Categories : 20th-century English composers Deaths from heart failure Musicians from Gloucestershire births deaths.