The Planets

The Planets Op. 32^[1] is a seven-movement orchestral suite by the British composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1916. The Planets is the most-performed composition by an English composer.^[1] Its first complete public performance occurred during World War I on 10 October 1918 in Birmingham, with Appleby Matthews conducting. However, an earlier invitation-only premiere was held on 29 September 1918 in the Queen's Hall in London, conducted by Adrian Boult.^[2]

Background

The concept of the work is astrological^[5] rather than astronomical (which is why Earth is not included). The idea was suggested to Holst by Clifford Bax, who introduced him to astrology when the two were amongst a small group of English artists holidaying in Majorca in the spring of 1913; Holst became quite a devotee of the subject, and liked to cast friends' horoscopes for fun.^[5]^[6] Each movement is intended to convey ideas and emotions associated with the influence of the planets on the psyche, not the Roman deities. Holst also used Alan Leo's^[5] book What is a Horoscope? as a springboard for his own ideas, as well as for the subtitles (i.e., "The Bringer of...") for the movements.

The Planets as a work in progress was originally scored for a piano duet, except for "Neptune", which was scored for a single organ, as Holst believed that the sound of the piano was too harsh for a world as mysterious and distant as Neptune. Holst then scored the suite for a large orchestra, and it was in this incarnation that it became enormously popular. Holst's use of orchestration was very imaginative and colourful, showing the influence of Schoenberg^[5] and other continental composers of the day rather than his English predecessors. The influence of Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring is especially notable. These new (at least for British audiences) sonorities helped make the suite an instant success. Although The Planets remains Holst's most popular work, the composer himself did not count it among his best creations and later in life complained that its popularity had completely surpassed his other works. He did, however, conduct a recorded performance of the suite in the early 1920s, and he was partial to his own favourite movement, "Saturn".

During the last weeks of World War I, the private orchestral premiere of The Planets suite was held at rather short notice on 29 September 1918, in the Queen's Hall. It was hastily rehearsed; the musicians first saw the complicated music only two hours before the performance. Despite this auspicious venue, it was a comparably intimate affair, attended by around 250 invited associates, with a chamber orchestra and choir conducted by Sir Adrian Boult at the request of his friends—Holst, and financial backer and fellow composer Balfour Gardiner^[1]^[6]. An ecstatically-received public concert was given a few weeks later while Holst was overseas, but out of the seven movements, only five were played^[6]. After the war, the first complete public performance occurred on 10 October 1920, in Birmingham. Holst himself conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in a recorded performance of The Planets in 1926. In 2003, this was released on compact disc by IMP.

Instrumentation

For Neptune, two three-part women's choruses, located in an adjoining room which is to be screened from the audience, are required.

Non-orchestral versions

Structure

The suite has seven movements, each of them named after a planet and its corresponding Roman deity (see also Planets in astrology):

The order of the movements corresponds to increasing distance of their eponymous planets from the Earth. Some commentators have suggested that this is intentional, with the anomaly of Mars preceding Mercury being a device to make the first four movements match the form of a symphony. One alternative explanation may be the ruling of astrological signs of the zodiac by the planets. If the zodiac signs are listed along with their ruling planets in the traditional order starting with Aries, ignoring duplication, Pluto (then undiscovered and now de-planetised), and the luminaries (the Sun and the Moon), then the order of the movements matches. Another possibility, this time from an astronomical perspective, is that the first three movements, representing the inner terrestrial planets, are ordered according to their decreasing distance from the Sun. The remaining movements, representing the gas giants that lie beyond the asteroid belt, are ordered by increasing distance from the Sun. Critic David Hurwitz offers an alternative explanation for the piece's structure: that "Jupiter" is the centrepoint of the suite and that the movements on either side are in mirror images. Thus "Mars" involves motion and "Neptune" is static; "Venus" is sublime while "Uranus" is vulgar, and "Mercury" is light and scherzando while "Saturn" is heavy and plodding. This hypothesis is lent credence by the fact that the two outer movements, "Mars" and "Neptune", are both written in rather unusual quintuple meter.

"Neptune" was the first piece of music to have a fade-out ending.^{citation needed} 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".^[13] Although commonplace today, the effect bewitched audiences in the era before widespread recorded sound—after the initial 1918 run-through, 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".^[6]

Pluto

Pluto was discovered in 1930, four years before Holst's death, and was hailed by astronomers as a new planet. Holst expressed no interest in writing a movement for it—he had become disillusioned by the popularity of the suite, believing that it took too much attention away from his other works.^{citation needed}

Numerous other composers have written their own Pluto movements. In 2000, the Hallé Orchestra commissioned the composer Colin Matthews, a Holst specialist, to write a new eighth movement, which Matthews entitled Pluto, the Renewer. Dedicated to Imogen Holst, Gustav Holst's daughter, it was first performed in Manchester on 11 May 2000, with Kent Nagano conducting the Hallé Orchestra. Matthews changed the ending of Neptune slightly so that the movement would lead directly into Pluto.

Adaptations of The Planets

Hymns

Holst was one of the first to adapt his music to fit other causes, when he adapted the work in 1921 to fit the metre of a poem beginning "I vow to thee, my country". The poem was written between 1908 and 1918 by Sir Cecil Spring-Rice and became known as a response to the human cost of World War I. The hymn was first performed in 1925 and quickly became a patriotic anthem. Another adaptation would be the tune used for the hymn "O God beyond all praising".^[14] Although Holst had no such intentions when he originally composed the music, adapted it he had, and others would follow suit throughout the 20th Century.

Another use of his music for a hymn was Thaxted, in which the slow middle section of Jupiter was arranged to form the hymn tune. The song was named after the village where Holst had lived for many years.

Rugby Union

In modern media

Films

Bill Conti's score for the 1983 motion picture The Right Stuff quotes "Mars" and "Jupiter" in Track 4, "Glenn's Flight".

"Saturn" was featured toward the end of the Mark Wahlberg movie The Yards as Wahlberg's character was riding on a subway train.

Parts of "Jupiter" were used in the 2006 Japanese live action drama Nodame Cantabile.

Television

During the second season of The Venture Bros, during the episode "Hate Floats", Monarch Henchmen 21 and 24 sing a passage from "Mars" to celebrate their being called back to duty. In the first episode of the third season a portion of "Jupiter" is used to end the episode.

"Mars" was used as the title theme to the first two of Nigel Kneale's iconic Quatermass television series of the 1950s.

"Jupiter" was remixed by Pleiades Production for use in Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova 2. "Jupiter" was also used as the theme for "Starstuff", a 1980 children's television program.

"Saturn" is playing in The Simpsons episode "'Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky" when Lisa is in the museum and first develops her inspiration for astronomy. "Jupiter" was also played in the same episode shortly after "Saturn" was played.

Video games

During the 1980s, material from The Planets made its way into several video games for the Commodore 64. G-Force (1984) and The First Starfighter (1986) featured sections of Holst's Jupiter. The Caverns of Eriban (1985) used part of Holst's Mercury. Similarly, Plasmatron (1987) and Wicked (1989) borrowed sections of Holst's Mars. ^[16]^[17] The games didn't use a recorded symphony version of Holst's music, as home computer's weren't developed in that way yet. Rather, the game designers of the 1980s played the part of musicians and adapted the music to their instrument, the home computer.

Advertising

The theme from "Jupiter" was used in an Australian advertisement in early 2008 for Bundaberg Rum, as well as an American TV advertisement for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in 2007.^[18]

Modern music

Portions of The Planets, particularly "Mars" (with its pounding 5/4 ostinato), have been covered and quoted extensively in heavy metal music, progressive rock, and electronica.

Media

Mars, the Bringer of War

A concert band arrangement of Mars, from The Planets,performed by the U.S. Air Force Band

Venus, the Bringer of Peace

A concert band arrangement of Venus, from The Planets, performed by the U.S. Air Force Band

Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity

Jupiter, from The Planets, performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. Courtesy of Musopen

Uranus, the Magician

A concert band arrangement of Uranus, from The Planets, performed by the U.S. Air Force Band
Problems listening to the files? See media help.

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c "The Definitive CDs" (CD 94), of Holst: The Planets (with Elgar: Enigma Variations), Norman Lebrecht, La Scena Musicale, 1 September 2004, webpage: Scena-Notes-100-CDs.
^ "'Sir Adrian Boult' on divine-art.com".
^ Peter Bergquist (21 October 2005). "Symphony hits new heights with 'Planets'". Register-Guard.
^ ^a ^b "HOLST Suite: The Planets" (history), Len Mullenger, Olton Recorded Music Society, January 2000, webpage: MusicWebUK-Holst.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "HOLST Suite: The Planets" (compares compositions & history), Len Mullenger, Olton Recorded Music Society, January 2000, webpage: MusicWebUK-Holst: in 1913 Holst went on holiday to Majorca with Balfour Gardiner, Arnold Bax, and his brother Clifford Bax, who spent the entire holiday discussing astrology.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d A typical performance of all seven movements lasts around 50 minutes. "The Great Composers and Their Music", Vol. 50, Marshall Cavendish Ltd., London, 1985. I.H. as quoted on p1218 ^{[more direct citation required]}
^ Although the original score calls for six timapni, most conductors prefer seven drums, in which four drums for the first player and three for the second player, as for convenience.
^ Notes from Amazon, webpage: amazon.ca/Planets-World-Premiere.
^ Two-piano version from Naxos, webpage: Naxos-catalog.
^ Notes to The Planets, Arranged for Two Pianos By The Composer, J. Curwen & Sons, London.
^ Peter Sykes. "Holst: The Planets." HB Direct, Released 1996.
^ http://www.corpsreps.com/corpsreps.cfm?view=CompSrch&ComposerQry=Holst Corpsreps data base
^ "The Planets" (full orchestral score): Goodwin & Tabb, Ltd., London, 1921
^ "I Vow To Thee My Country". G4 Central. Retrieved on 2007-08-31.
^ Supplementary Features. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Collector's Edition (DVD).
^ HVSC. "High Voltage Sid Collection: Complete HVSC 48". Retrieved on 2008-09-16.
^ HVSC. "SID Tune Information List". Retrieved on 2008-09-16.
^ YouTube - Reese's Commercial

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