Gustav Holst Essay, Research Paper

Gustav Holst

Gustav Holst is a classical composer, who is best-known for “The

Planets”. He was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in western England.

He was an organist and choirmaster at Gloucestershire churches, but he had

neuritis in his right hand which held him from playing the organ. Instead, Holst

turned to the trombone. From 1895 to 1898, he studied composition at the

Royal College of Music, which he later taught, at Stanford. When he left, he

became an orchestral trombonist. In 1905, Holst was chosen as the Director of

Music at the St. Paul’s Girl’s School in Hammersmith, just west of London. He

did this for most of the rest of his life. One of Holst’s contemporaries, Ralph

Vaughan Williams, was a good friend of his. They wrote letters, exchanging

critiques and ideas. He also had a wife, Isobel, and a daughter, Imogen.

One of Holst’s suites is the St. Paul’s Suite, composed in 1912-1913, in

memory to the St. Paul’s Girls’ School for having built for him a soundproof

studio. The St. Paul’s Suite is written for stringed instruments, but Holst

provided wind parts for the students at St. Paul’s to allow more students to play.

Holst’s Moorside Suite was written for brass band. This piece was composed in

1928 for the National Brass Band Championships. The Brook Green Suite also

refers to the St. Paul’s Girls’ School. It is another suite for strings. Some of his

other works are: Double Concerto for two violins and small orchestra, some

Songs without Words, a Lyric Movement for viola, a Fugal Concherto for flute,

oboe, and string orchestra, and the Hammersmith Prelude and Scherzo. He also

wrote several works for piano. These include an Arpeggio Study, a Nocturne, a

Tocatta, and a Jig. Many of these pieces, like much of his other work, were

based on folk music.