1 / 18

Gustav Holst The Planets

Gustav Holst The Planets . By Spencer Vail . His Life. Born September 21 st 1874 in Gloucestershire, England Father: Adolph Holst was a harp composer Due to constant illness as a child he picked up music quite easily. Began composing around 12

henry
Download Presentation

Gustav Holst The Planets

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Gustav Holst The Planets By Spencer Vail

  2. His Life • Born September 21st 1874 in Gloucestershire, England • Father: Adolph Holst was a harp composer • Due to constant illness as a child he picked up music quite easily. • Began composing around 12 • As a child could play the piano, violin and trombone

  3. His Life Cont. • Educated at Cheltenham grammar school for boys • Attended Royal college of Music on scholarship, where he studied composition with Charles Stanford • Met best friend Ralph Wiliams

  4. His Life Cont. • While at Royal college Holst obsessively began studying the music of Wagner. • Joined the Hammersmith Society while at Royal • Holst became a socialist for the rest of his life.

  5. His Life Cont. • First music job was with Carl Rosa Opera Company and the Scottish Orchestra • Married in 1901 to Emily Harrison, a soprano. • His only daughter was born in 1907 her name was Imogen

  6. His Life Cont. • First teaching job was being a music master at the James Allen Girls school in London. • Shortly later became the Director of Music at St Pauls Girls school. • Finally he took a position of the Director of Music at Morely College.

  7. His Life Cont. • Holst traveled to Algeria in 1908, this experience inspired the piece Beni Mora • Holst was a frequent traveler of the world. • His Travels to Spain were his most important

  8. His Life Cont. • While living in Essex, Holst began work on the Planets. • In 1922 he used technological advances to record his music with the London Symphony Orchestra, and did a complete recording of The Planets. • Later in 1927 Holst composed the piece Egdon Heath

  9. His Life Cont. • Holst suffered from poor health his entire life and finally died in London following a stomach surgery in May of 1934.

  10. Composition History: The Planets • The Planets as a whole is based on Astrology. • Despite common belief Holst based this piece on the influence the planets have on the psych not the Roman Deities. • The idea of The Planets came to Holst in 1913 while in Spain.

  11. Composition History Continued • The Planets was done originally as a piano duet, except for Neptune which was to be done by an organ alone. • Holst later rewrote the whole piece to be done by an entire orchestra.

  12. Composition History Cont. • The Planets was written to be a seven movement orchestra piece. • It was officially created in between 1914 and 1916 while Holst lived in Essex. • Since produced as a full orchestra piece it has become one of the most widely played and popular pieces.

  13. Listening GuideThe Planets: Mars • :32 the entire Orchestra begins a crescendo. • :47 orchestra plays at a dynamic level of a strong Mezzo forte. • 1:00 Strings join the brass in playing the melody till it climaxes to a cadence • 1:25 The brass plays a new melody with the trumpets becoming the lead voice

  14. Mars Continued • 3:00 A slower melody is played by the orchestra in a lower voice. • This part of the piece the over all sound becomes incredibly dark and mysterious. • At 3:27 The trumpets and snare drums play an accented triplets to build up before the next climax.

  15. Mars Continud • 4:12 this is the climax of the piece here the whole orchestra is playing at a dynamic level to in a dark tone. • Later around 4:38 the dynamic level drops to a forte level. The sound being produced is dark and aggressive. • At the end around 6:34 the strings add the final build to the end of the piece and finally end on a tonic cord.

  16. The Planets:Jupiter • :30 The strings being with repeated sixteenth notes followed by horns and low brass exchanging melody • At 1:45 the horns start a new melody with the strings playing down the beats. • 3:11 starts with the strings playing a unison line with a crescendo up to the top phrase.

  17. Jupiter Continued • 4:00 the range of the melody is in a much higher range played by the strings. • 4:38 Section C climaxes, the downbeats continue to be strong with the strings at a fortissimo dynamic level • 5:03 the woodwinds reintroduce previously played themes with the clarinet, flute, and oboe

  18. Jupiter Continued • 5:26 The brass join the woodwinds in playing reintroduced previous themes. • 6:47 There is a key change and a driving motion with an increased tempo, the trumpets become quite loud and exchange melody with the horns and low strings. • 7:26 A recapitulation of section C combined with the melody of Section B with low voices playing the melody. • The piece ends with low brass and percussion playing quite fortissimo and short sixteenth notes, while the strings and high woodwinds play a repeated pattern similar to the opening section.

More Related