I Vow To Thee, My Country, H.148
Gustav Holst
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Browse piano sheets by Gustav Holst on Zen Virtual Piano. Gustav Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher, best known for his orchestral suite The Planets. He composed many other works across a range of genres, although none achieved comparable success, and his own composing was largely confined to Sundays and a few summer weeks. A composing life squeezed into Sundays and a few summer weeks makes a work on the scale of The Planets all the more notable. He was born in Cheltenham, the elder of the two children of Adolph von Holst, a professional musician, and Clara Cox. He was taught to play the piano and the violin, and enjoyed the former but hated the latter; at twelve he took up the trombone at his father’s suggestion. Educated at Cheltenham Grammar School between 1886 and 1891, he obtained his first professional appointment at seventeen, as organist and choirmaster at Wyck Rissington, a post that brought with it the conductorship of the Bourton-on-the-Water Choral Society, which offered no extra pay but valuable experience. A trombone taken up at twelve and a choral society conducted at seventeen with no extra pay suggest a musician formed in ensembles as much as in lessons. At the RCM his professors included George Case (trombone) and Hubert Parry (history), and after preliminary lessons with W. S. Rockstro and Frederick Bridge he was granted his wish to study composition with Charles Villiers Stanford. In 1895 he met Ralph Vaughan Williams, who became a lifelong friend and had more influence on his music than anybody else. Stanford emphasised the need for his students to be self-critical, and Holst and Vaughan Williams became one another’s chief critics, each playing his latest composition to the other. Two composers who each played the other a latest work show how a friendship could double as a workshop. In his twenties Holst was drawn to Hindu mythology, learning Sanskrit in order to make his own translations from the Rig Veda, while The Planets was inspired by a fascination for astrology. Learning Sanskrit to translate the Rig Veda himself suggests a composer who preferred to read the original text. The moment he entered music education in 1903, it almost took over his life: he taught at two girls’ schools and, in the evenings, at institutes for working-class adults such as Morley College, and he organised large projects such as the first modern performance of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen in 1911. Evenings given to adult students suggest that teaching and composing competed for the same hours. Wikipedia quotes Short observing that many people who may never have heard his major works have nevertheless derived great pleasure from small masterpieces such as the carol “In the Bleak Midwinter.” A carol enjoyed by people who may never have heard his major works suggests that his reach could extend beyond his reputation.
Browse piano sheets by Gustav Holst on Zen Virtual Piano.
Gustav Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher, best known for his orchestral suite The Planets. He composed many other works across a range of genres, although none achieved comparable success, and his own composing was largely confined to Sundays and a few summer weeks. A composing life squeezed into Sundays and a few summer weeks makes a work on the scale of The Planets all the more notable.
He was born in Cheltenham, the elder of the two children of Adolph von Holst, a professional musician, and Clara Cox. He was taught to play the piano and the violin, and enjoyed the former but hated the latter; at twelve he took up the trombone at his father’s suggestion. Educated at Cheltenham Grammar School between 1886 and 1891, he obtained his first professional appointment at seventeen, as organist and choirmaster at Wyck Rissington, a post that brought with it the conductorship of the Bourton-on-the-Water Choral Society, which offered no extra pay but valuable experience. A trombone taken up at twelve and a choral society conducted at seventeen with no extra pay suggest a musician formed in ensembles as much as in lessons.
At the RCM his professors included George Case (trombone) and Hubert Parry (history), and after preliminary lessons with W. S. Rockstro and Frederick Bridge he was granted his wish to study composition with Charles Villiers Stanford. In 1895 he met Ralph Vaughan Williams, who became a lifelong friend and had more influence on his music than anybody else. Stanford emphasised the need for his students to be self-critical, and Holst and Vaughan Williams became one another’s chief critics, each playing his latest composition to the other. Two composers who each played the other a latest work show how a friendship could double as a workshop.
In his twenties Holst was drawn to Hindu mythology, learning Sanskrit in order to make his own translations from the Rig Veda, while The Planets was inspired by a fascination for astrology. Learning Sanskrit to translate the Rig Veda himself suggests a composer who preferred to read the original text. The moment he entered music education in 1903, it almost took over his life: he taught at two girls’ schools and, in the evenings, at institutes for working-class adults such as Morley College, and he organised large projects such as the first modern performance of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen in 1911. Evenings given to adult students suggest that teaching and composing competed for the same hours. Wikipedia quotes Short observing that many people who may never have heard his major works have nevertheless derived great pleasure from small masterpieces such as the carol “In the Bleak Midwinter.” A carol enjoyed by people who may never have heard his major works suggests that his reach could extend beyond his reputation.
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His orchestral suite The Planets; he composed many other works across a range of genres, although none achieved comparable success.
Charles Villiers Stanford, with whom Holst studied composition; he met Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1895.
He entered music education in 1903 and soon taught at two girls’ schools and, in the evenings, at institutes for working-class adults such as Morley College.