Foreman notes that Holst's experience as a trombonist gave him a practical understanding of the orchestra from the inside that came to characterize the flair and brilliance of his instrumentation, of which several critics hail in particular the uncommonly radiant brass writing; Lee notes in particular the novelty of including the unusual timbres of the alto flute, bass oboe and tenor tuba. Holst's students hurriedly copied the parts and only two hours of rehearsal were available. 4 - Jupiter (The Bringer Of Jollity) A: Part 1: B: Part 2: Ad. In the interim, Holst himself conducted just Venus, Mercury and Jupiter in April 1919 at Queen's Hall and Henry Wood led the same movements that December, setting a precedent that would be followed for several years until the full orchestral score was published in late 1921. Several commentators trace specific movements of The Planets to emulations of the atmosphere and orchestration in sections of Schoenberg's Pieces. 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. 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. Heard today both versions startle immediately with their sheer overall speed in comparison to modern recordings which tend to dwell around 50 minutes, the total timing of the first set is 44 and the remake is a mere 42 (largely due to a much more animated Venus). The Planets Op.32 : IV Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity [I Vow to Thee, My Country] . That's why I worried at Sanskrit." C Theme. 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 none attracted much notice or met with any appreciable success, their underlying character would permeate The Planets. The most widely-mentioned influence, hardly surprising from the very titles of the individual movements, is astrology. The melody slows down for just a second at 0:54, and then suddenly at 0:57, we're thrust into the second theme of the piece (Holst likes to keep us on our toes). Burnett James adds that while traditional astrology attempts to predict individual destiny from one's time and place of birth, Holst was more intrigued by the associative emotional connotations of each planet and in particular the psychological attributes that Leo ascribed to each planet (although Leo later would come to consider the sun to be dominant). In the meantime, between the two Sargent LPs, Stokowski produced the first stereo Planets, as well as the first by non-British forces. (Please understand: I'm not a musical snob beyond my recordings of serious music, I have (and enjoy!) David Trippett observes that The Planets's popularity soared as conductors vied with each other to present local premieres; one such dispute was settled when orchestras in Chicago and New York agreed to introduce The Planets to North America on the same night. "), 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. Burnett James paints Holst as a lonely and tragic figure, assailed with agonizing spiritual blight and a bleak despair that enveloped his whole being (and which ultimately led him to increasingly dissociate his later music from emotion). I have always interpreted this build up section to be like a message between the planets, with the different instruments representing the different characteristics of the planets. (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.) Thus the world was hardly prepared for the innovative and eclectic Planets, which seemingly arose from a near-void and, much to the composer's frustration, despite his variegated output came to define him as a "one-hit wonder.". The end of the movement is essentially a recap of earlier themes and bringing them together for the climatic end. Perhaps Holst, who was devoted to searching for novel qualities among familiar instruments, would have been enthralled to hear textures beyond the reach of even his fertile imagination, limited as it was by the analog resources of his time. 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 particular melody is quick, syncopated, and full of energy. 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. One accurate version. The fourth movement of the suite has the title Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity" and was written in 1914. As Holst has not used lots of different themes, more he has stretched and varied a small selection, the excitement from this piece comes from short bursts of sound, which are usually initiated by the brass. So what makes the twinkling sound within this movement? He was previously married to Isobel Harrison. On his website Tomita lists a huge gamut of signal generators, oscillators, modulators, filters, phase shifters, mixers and more that were used to produce his Planets rather ironically, more pieces of equipment than the number of instruments that would be used by a traditional orchestra to perform the original. Jupiter adds majesty, benevolence and triumphant zeal to the concoction, with its many themes adding a true sense of adventure. Just the kind of opening a "bringer of jollity" should have. In the interim between Pluto's ascent and demise it must have seemed tempting to complete the task that Holst, by necessity, had left unfinished, while dissuaded from the heresy of tampering with the magical ending of Neptune. The reason is unclear upon reflection did Holst feel a need to correct the original pacings, or perhaps were his own views capricious (and thus should not be taken by others as definitive)? 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. I must emphasize that this does not purport to be a comprehensive or definitive survey, as I've only focused on the pioneering recordings that strike me as having significant historical and stylistic interest. That said, the first version has its merits, mainly in greater visceral excitement from its scrappier and more incisive playing, a more intimate sense of communication arising from its reduced forces, and even some striking details, beginning at the very outset as the col legno strings open Mars with rasping ferocity. 4 in E minor Op. To contrast the previous, quite solemn feel to the movement, there is an outburst within the orchestra, which could mean a plethora of different things. After Holst heard it at a January 1914 London concert (at which it was largely despised by both audience and critics) he bought the score, heavily annotated it, and regarded it as one of his most valued possessions. Such associations aside, in purely musical terms the movement begins in a soft piano menace, builds to a terrifying triple forte (fff) climax as instruments pile on, is halted by a massive discord followed by a slower 5/2 section still "haunted by the martial rhythm" after which the opening "returns with increased, almost hysterical, ferocity, ending with grinding chords" (Kennedy) as strings, brass and tympani dissonantly pound out the initial figure quadruple forte (ffff) as its rhythm finally disintegrates. Indeed, Holst's orchestration is often cited as a prime glory of The Planets. Yet while largely akin to the composer's own recordings in their dearth of personal interpretive quirks, their basic tempos diverge significantly. While lacking the patience or interest to attempt to hear them all (for that, please refer to the Peter's Planets site), two struck me of particular promise: Of the rest of the crop of Planets recordings, at least among those I've heard, I've especially enjoyed Steinberg/Boston (DG, 1970), Bernstein/New York (Columbia, 1970), Previn/London (EMI, 1973), Susskind/St. Apparently it was successful, as they returned in August 1923 for Venus, Uranus and Mercury (plus the "Marching Song" from Holst's Songs Without Words as a backing for Mercury, which fit on a single side) and completed the cycle with Mars in October, Neptune in November and Saturn in February 1924. Difficulty : E approx. He drafted it as a two-piano score during weekends in a soundproof room at St. Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith where he taught and, due to his neuritis, upon whose students he relied to perform his sketches and write out the orchestral score according to his directions. Holst said this about Venus The whole of this movement is pervaded by the serenity of a wold which nothing seems able to disturb. Holst writes this movement in 5/4 time, which gives the feeling of uncomfortable movement at times. Here, while Tomita's Venus and Mars and the end of his Neptune are fairly tasteful if gimmicky adaptations, much of the rest at best is barely inspired by Holst, smothered under a din of rocket blasts, air-to-ground chatter, densely-packed crescendos and the like musical mainly in the broad Cagian sense of expanding our traditional notions to include noise and natural sound. The Planets Op.32 : VI Uranus, the Magician. Indeed, excerpting the full work became prevalent. In 1944, drawing players from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he had created an orchestra for the Hollywood Bowl and recorded a few short pieces with them at the time, but after that he returned only once to conclude their 1955 season. 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. Indeed, Holst instructs: "The orchestra is to play sempre pp throughout" [somewhat redundantly sempre means "throughout"] and added "dead tone" to his personal score; as a result "it never rises above a whisper to transport us to the quiet ecstasy of the Contemplative" (Sargent). Even so, she did express two reservations: that the end of Neptune is too abrupt (with only a single repetition of the closing bar) and that the final staccato chord in Mercury is much too loud, which she attributed to using too large a gesture in order to avoid a ragged attack, which would have required scrapping the whole side. Holst's musico-spatial explorations may not be cosmic, but they are brilliant, dramatic, and picturesque enough to fit into almost anyone's concert hall horoscope. Holst became interested in astrology through his friend (and later librettist for his opera The Wandering Scholar), Clifford Bax. This movement is also bitonal, and is the only one of the whole suite that is. Indeed, robbed of its usual quirky edge, his Mars is suffused with a world-weary air and casts a pall over the rest of the work that is never fully dispelled; its final chords seem weighed down with regret, aptly leading into a Venus that seems less an aura of peace than a futile plea. Video unavailable Matthews agrees that "Holst's ability to write succinctly and without overstaging the natural development of his material, and to sustain this invention over 50 minutes, is what makes The Planets such a remarkable achievement.". Any meaningful consideration of Planets recordings begins here. Rather, he continued to work in a wide variety of styles, albeit slowed by a concussion he suffered in 1923. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity English composer Gustav Holst's orchestral suite, The Planets, Op. Holst's daughter Imogen recalled that while Holst did cast horoscopes for friends, he was less interested in fortune-telling than in understanding human behavior. 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. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age 6. While taking full responsibility for the musical judgments, I've done no independent research and gratefully acknowledge the following sources for the facts and quotations in this article: Boult, Sir Adrian: notes to his New Philharmonia LP (Angel S 36420, 1967), Crankshaw, Geoffrey: notes to the Marriner/Concertgebouw LP (Philips 950042, 1978), Foreman, Lewis: notes to the Elder/Hall CD (Hyperion CDA 67270, 2001), Freed, Richard: notes to the Susskind/St. What the title doesn't suggest, though, is that I was [i]not[/i] doing okay this month. These bursts also give an insight into the military feel as you can often hear fanfares from the brass section. One of the most striking aspects about this movement, for me, is the lack of musical transitions and Holsts quite frequent use of time changes just when you may be feeling comfortable with a theme. This heavier section is like its trying to communicate with everyone possible, not just the top or bottom of social scales, but everybody in-between too. 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). Throughout his career Boult remained a stalwart advocate of the work and set a record of sorts by cutting it five times in the studio (in addition to numerous preserved concerts). Sadly though, with the popularity this work brought, Holst was dampened by it, and swore to never write anything like it again. $34.99 Merry-go-round Of Life $24.99 Advanced Orchestral Studies $50.00 Symphony No. Its an amalgamation of the harps, glockenspiel and celeste playing oscillating chords throughout the movement, which give it the hypnotic and mystical sound. Jupiter--Bringer Of Jollity By Gustav Holst (1874-1934) - Score and Part(s) Sheet Music for Orchestra - Buy print music AP.12202 | Sheet Music Plus. While critics at the time seemed divided along a predictable generational divide, one enthused that: "Holst might have really dug it." ]: biography and "The Planets" information on the. As the result of this reticence, Crankshaw asserts that the mighty force of Holst's augmented orchestra "is used with such discrimination that the overall impression is not of Straussian sumptuousness but of many-stranded colour-schemes which coalesce only occasionally into full emblazonment." Halbreich calls its beauty remote, as "its quiet and silvery stream of sounds unfolds without the slightest hint of any earthly sentiment. Even so, Henry Balfour Gardiner, a wealthy concert promoter who advocated British works, arranged for a private performance on September 29, 1918 with the Queen's Hall Orchestra to be led by Adrian Boult as a gift prior to Holst's departure for Salonika to arrange musical entertainment for troops. The Planets, Op. 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. In any event Holst denied that horoscopes had anything to do with The Planets but rather that, as the underlying idea of astrology, "the character of each planet suggested lots to me" and that he regarded the universe as "one big miracle." 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). Sargent's reading is remarkably potent, from a downright spooky opening as Mars seethes toward a giant climax, to alarmingly loud bells that shake off any sense of torpor in Saturn, and earth-shaking organ pedal points and huge tympani that magnify the drama of Uranus. He died on 25 May 1934 in Ealing, Middlesex, London, England, UK. The Planets. 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. Course Hero uses AI to attempt to automatically extract content from documents to surface to you and others so you can study better, e.g., in search results, to enrich docs, and more. In that regard, Matthews considers him the most original English composer, with a capacity for self-renewal, constitutionally incapable of repeating himself. Gustav Holst was an English composer, who wrote The Plants Op. It is made mainly of hydrogen with a quarter helium and has at least 69 moons. Holst began composing the work in 1914, yet, in spite of the first section's title, "Mars, the Bringer of War," it is not a war piece, for Holst was into it before the holocaust started. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity As the round-faced cheery uncle of all the planets, and king of the gods, Jupiter is impressive and majestic. You can count four, five or six of them, depending on whether you divide the first two into their component parts - they do behave like independent themes. The music creates a sound world that is mystical and very well-balanced in terms of orchestration. That is just about the finest imagery of Jupiter from the ground I have ever seen! When war broke out, as James Lyons put it, he "tried to do his bit" but "no agency had any use for a fortyish musician who could not see six yards ahead of him with his spectacles on." Each movement was issued singly and then together in a seven-disc album. Pluto Yet Colin Matthews rose to the task in 2000 on commission from the Hall Orchestra. Or even it could musically represent the breakout of WW1 (as Holst was writing this movement in 1915). A stately, more serious processional theme then enters, its royal dignity fully intact, after which the vigorous melody returns. The title refers to the Greek and Roman mythology, where jollity was one of the god's characteristics. He 32, in full The Planets: Suite for Large Orchestra, original name Seven Pieces for Large Orchestra, orchestral suite consisting of seven short tone poems by English composer Gustav Holst. JUPITER, the bringer of jollity. Beyond that, the two most significant "planets" in casting horoscopes the sun and the moon are left out altogether. Ob. Mercury, the Winged Messenger Leo describes Mercury as colorless and adaptable, absorbing the essence of those it contacts. The movement paints a wonderful landscape of sound which, even with the lack of musical transitions, is still musically exciting. You may be wondering why this movement always feels a little on edge, well it may be due to the time signature that this movement is in. Jupiter (Bringer of Jollity) pour orchestre symphonique. That was pretty fun. Of the various movements, "Mars" and "Jupiter" are the most frequently heard. The suite was written between 1914 and 1916, with it still, even after 100 years, being one of the most recorded and well-loved orchestral works (especially within Holst repertoire). The first half is soft and rather bitter, strewn with a few reminiscences of Holst's movements, and is described by Foreman as "a pianissimo world, a mercurial scurrying of chromatic runs and scales" in which "long-held very soft pedal points, evocative orchestral color, and the shining effect of harp and celesta all add to the almost tangible pictorial effect." Buy Jupiter - Bringer of Jollity by Gustav Holst/arr. The album of four 78s was issued in automatic sequence (with a 1937 Boult/BBC Symphony Elgar "Imperial March" as the eighth side following the second half of Jupiter, rather than backing Mercury) and thus, unlike with the individual discs of the Holst and Coates sets, effectively prescribed that the movements were to be heard in order, wrapping up with the triumphant conclusion of Jupiter, even though Imogen reports that Holst particularly disliked such a false "happy ending.". The composer, a man of intellect and wide-ranging interests, found musical inspiration in diverse places. "We Will Rock You" by Queen is the epiphany of motivational team music. Uranus is perhaps my least favourite, but all the same its still a great piece of music and I feel like it does fit well into the mixture of movement Holst has written. Brass Monkey - Beastie Boys. Commentators count among its many and diverse influences: the flexible rhythms of Thomas Morley and other English madrigalists (Douglas Lee); Berlioz's seminal Treatise on Orchestration which Holst absorbed and used as a springboard to discover sonorities of astounding originality (Harry Holbreich); Debussy's expanded orchestral palette that broke the grip of Teutonic standards upon English music (Lewis Foreman); the orchestral power and rhythmic vigor of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (Len Mullinger); the tension and crossing between the fading Edwardian spirit (as embodied in formal education) and the rising Jazz Age (as reflected in kaleidoscopic student vulgarity) (Richard Greene); the idealistic philosophies of Walt Whitman and William Morris (Colin Matthews); a blend of Hindu philosophy and English folksong that set Holst on a path far from the mainstream of traditional European form in which his early works reveal a thorough grounding (Matthews); and exploration of folk music and modes of eastern scales and rhythms that induced individual flavors and an escape from Anglo-German melody (Arthur Hutchings).
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