The Planets is the most successful and arguably the best recognized composition of Gustav Holst. Although Gustav composed some outstanding works after The Planets, none of them achieved recognition of the same level as The Planets. The Planets was composed while Holst was working as a music master. Holst had done some works before The Planets, which he considered as failures and such failures made him desperately think of a genre topic that could be phenomenal for his ideas of composition of music. Gustov once stated, “The enormity of the universe revealed by science cannot readily be grasped by the human brain, but the music of The Planets enables the mind to acquire some comprehension of the vastness of space where rational understanding fails.” A new subject composition of his work suggested his attraction to astrology. Gustav was introduced to astrology by George Mead and his interest to it increased after he met Bax Clifford in March 1913.
Gustav owned two of Alan Leo’s (Mead’s friend) books, one of the pioneer astrologers in the twentieth century; How to Judge a …show more content…
Holst wrote Mars in August before the First World War and people thought he did start with Mars because of the world war, allegations which he denied. Holst wrote Venus in the same year 1914 which was followed by Jupiter even though Jupiter originally was written as the third movement; it was later ordered to be the fourth. Uranus, Saturn and Neptune were done in the following year. Gustav wrote Mercury in the beginning of 1916, the last movement to be completed and reordered it as the third movement. Holst composed his art at the piano, where he originally did The Planets in a two-piano version though with the sound of orchestra in his
Gustav owned two of Alan Leo’s (Mead’s friend) books, one of the pioneer astrologers in the twentieth century; How to Judge a …show more content…
Holst wrote Mars in August before the First World War and people thought he did start with Mars because of the world war, allegations which he denied. Holst wrote Venus in the same year 1914 which was followed by Jupiter even though Jupiter originally was written as the third movement; it was later ordered to be the fourth. Uranus, Saturn and Neptune were done in the following year. Gustav wrote Mercury in the beginning of 1916, the last movement to be completed and reordered it as the third movement. Holst composed his art at the piano, where he originally did The Planets in a two-piano version though with the sound of orchestra in his