The planets suite

Sitting on my mates balcony last night with him and his lass with a bottle of beer and a fat one in the other hand chewing the cud and talking about comedy and music when from the living room comes Jupiter the bringer of jolility. Have you ever heard the piece? Beautiful music.

Made me get the entire set of music out and listen to it all. On LP of all things. Long time since I listened to one of those, if anything it enhanced the experience. Quite possibly one of the greatest pieces I have ever come across. It is one of the best pieces of music to sit and listen to and visualise what ispired the composition, the planets and the ideas behind them. My friends suggestion is to sit in a darkened room with the lights out and just close your eyes listening to the entire piece.

http://www.aquarianage.org/lore/holst.html Gives a little history and the symbology:

Music derived from astrology is surprisingly rare. The ancient Greek philosophers, whatever their intellectual attitudes towards astrology may have been, were certainly not ignorant of astrological teachings and ideas. It was they, after all, who put forward the idea of the "Music of the Spheres", the idea that these vast objects, twirling and whirling about through space, must have hummed a tone as they went along their courses, much as a ball spun on a string will whistle. They knew of seven planets: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Not surprisingly, Western music evolved with seven-tone scales. Music and astrology come together again in this suite devoted to the seven planets, though the luminaries of Sun and Moon are displaced by Uranus and Neptune. Gustav Holst (1874--1934) was well-acquainted with astrology and mythology, as well as the Greek idea of the Music of the Spheres, and he drew heavily on this knowledge in his composition of the Planets Suite. It was first performed in the autumn of 1918.

Mercury: The Winged Messenger: Fleet-footed Mercury flits about through this piece sounding not unlike a cosmic butterfly. He belongs very much in the Garden of Venus that precedes him in the performance.
Our thanks go out to David Siu for this contribution!

Venus: The Bringer of Peace: The very picture of beauty and refinement in taste, this is the Venus of ancient Rome: a sprite of gardens and flowers, feminine yet tame and without guile or wiles. This provides the counterpoint to the unshackled violence of Mars.
Contributed by David Siu as well.

Mars: The Bringer of War: The full horror of mechanised warfare confronts us face to face in this bleakest of all tone poems. Its face is unrepentent, unrelenting and merciless and it offers us no hope of redemption. Thousands of pairs of jackbooted feet parade across the landscape, scurrying to their graves. Tanks pound cities into rubble. Bullets fly and bombs fall. Airplanes swoop low overhead. How surprising it is, then, to learn that Holst completed this piece long before the opening of the First World War, before the invention of the tank, before any plane had ever been fitted out to carry bombs, before the slaughter in the trenches, before the use of poison gas.

Jupiter: The Bringer of Jollity: The spirit of this music is very much in keeping with the astrological significance of Jupiter as the planet of benevolence and generosity. This Jupiter has no thunderbolts to hurtle down on us, but only knowing smiles and a wink or two. He has come down from Olympus to flirt with beauties in the mortal realm and, if flirtation leads to something more, so much the better. We hear him chasing but not catching the ladies. He invites all to dance, then seems not to favour any one of them any more than the others --- one of those men who loves all women because they are women and for no other reason. The music emerges from its cavorting, twirling and gambolling out onto a central plateau of graceful dance music, then sinks back into the carefree patterns of before. A very famous poem, near and dear to British hearts, was later set to this music and the two have been inseparable ever since. The first verse was played at the Royal Wedding of Charles and Diana, while its second verse was sung at Diana's funeral:

And there's another Country
I've heard of long ago,
Most Dear to them that Love her,
most Great to them that Know.

We may not count her Armies.
We may not see her King.
Her Fortress is a faithful Heart;
her Pride is Suffering.
And Soul by Soul and silently,
her shining Bounds increase
And her ways are ways of Gentleness
and all her paths are Peace!

We may not count her Armies.
We may not see her King.
Her Fortress is a faithful Heart;
her Pride is Suffering.
And Soul by Soul and silently,
her shining Bounds increase
And her ways are ways of Gentleness
and all her paths are Peace!

Saturn: The Bringer of Old Age: Serene and deliberate are the words best describing the tone of this piece. We can hear Saturn coming in from a long ways off, with a steady yet plodding gait and with a steady yet plodding gait he comes, as surely as the frost and winter follow upon the summer, as surely as the evening follows the afternoon, as inevitable as death and taxes. Yet, when he arrives, we find him not nearly so dreadful as his heavy steps led us to believe. The deliberation is still there, the uncompromising observance of structures and the law, yet what he creates for us is not without its beauty, crystalline like the snowflakes, serene in the stoic acceptance of his own mortality and finitude, content with the meaning he finds there.
Uranus: The Magician: This is not the god Uranus of mythology we meet here -- not Ouranos of the Sky who fathered the Titans on Gaia and whom even Saturn (Kronos) found so odious as to be worthy of overthrow -- but Uranus as the ruler of astrological Aquarius. As such, he has more in common with the Titan Prometheus than with any other figure. Prometheus was damned by the gods for sharing their knowledge (of fire) with mortal humans -- a Magician who cannot keep his secrets -- and thus keeps company with the Serpent of Eden coiled about the Tree of Knowledge. This magician is bumbling and accident prone, yes, but also a born performer who cannot resist just one more try, one more kick at the cat, before the men in white suits come to take him away ... But this veil of eccentricity cloaks deep wisdom and a knowledge of the infinite. So what is he -- an adept or just inept? On the last try, he gets it right and we hear the opening of the doorway into eternity.

Neptune: The Mystic: And this is the eternity that Uranus has revealed to us. The chasm opens and we step out into the void. We have a sense of a floating cascade through empty space, through Neptune's watery depths. Celestial harmonies surround us and we hear choirs of angels receding into the distance.
Contibuted by David Siu once again.

Peter

Absolutely a fantastic piece. I also discovered the planets after hearing Jupiter. Took me a while before I realized looking for the last two was useless though :-) I might try your friend's suggestion (I call it the 'Leonard Cohen treatment'. I sometimes listen to him in the dark to fully enjoy the inspiring lyrics. And his golden voice of course)

M

a british composer has recently composed a piece called Pluto to add to the suite, in the style of Holst. never heard it myself, not sure hot it measures up.

The planets suite is an absolutely excllent piece of music... and like Mesamedasu it was jerusalem i heard first... well, to be honest actually it was a choral recording of I Vow To Thee i heard first, which is the song set to that peaceful plateua in the midst of Jupiter... but its such an awe-inspiring powerful yet also graceful composition, it should be part of everyones collection

I vow to thee, my country—all earthly things above—
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love;
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

And there’s another country, I’ve heard of long ago—
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;
We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;
Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.

I like the Planets a lot, only music I ever heard of Holst. It really manages to get your blood racing at times, especially during Jupiter and Mars. Weird, for my Jupiter it says bringer of peace same as Venus. You also forgot to mention Uranus the magician.

The only part of the entire thing i don't like is Venus, too slow for me. Did you guys know Holst was a physics profesor i think.