Gustav Holst
1874-1934
Gustav Theodore von Holst was born September 21, 1874 in Cheltenham England as the first of two children to Adolph and Clara von Holst. Adolph was an accomplished musician and served as the organist of All Saint's in Cheltenham for thirty years. Clara was one of his students when they met and married. Unfortunately, Clara struggled with poor health most of her life and died shortly after giving birth to her second child when Gustav was only eight.
Gustav is described as an oversensitive and rather sickly child. He had weak eyes, and yet no one in his family thought to get his glasses. He suffered from asthma, which his father tried to remedy by teaching the boy trombone. Gustav loved the piano and learned under the instruction of his father, even though Gustav was already showing signs of neuritis in his hands. As he grew older he tried chis hand at composition but was unable to attain scholarships to the Royal College of Music or any of the other colleges in London.
Holst obtained his first professional engagement in 1893, where he served as an organist at Wick Rissington, a small Cotswold village. Soon afterwards he also became organist and choirmaster of the choral society at Bourton-on-the-Water. These early experiences helped the young composer grow in his understanding of the workings of a choir. Dr. Vaughan Williams described this time in Holst’s life, saying, “Here he laid the foundations of his knowledge of choral effect, and of his powers as a teacher; for Holst is a great teacher as well as a great composer."
Inspired by the music of Arthur Sullivan, in 1892 Holst composed a two-act operetta, called Lansdown Castle, which was produced at the Cheltenham Corn Exchange the following year. Although the music was could not escape the influence of Sullivan, the performance was a great success with the critics and the audience. Adolph was sufficiently impressed to borrow money to send Gustav to the Royal College of Music under regular admission.
Gustav was very frugal as a student. He never smoked nor drank. Since leaving home he had also become a strict vegetarian. But vegetarianism was not encouraged in his cheap lodgings in the 1890's. He would even walk or cycle much of the way home to Cheltenham from the College. Since he was never given a completely nourishing meal, his eyes became very weak and his hand remained in constant pain. Yet despite all of the physical problems and his extremely shy and solitary nature, he was already showing an absorbing interest in other people. He hated conventionality and rejoiced in ideas he found fantastic or humorous.
In 1895, Holst was surprised to learn that he had won an open scholarship for composition. The news was a relief, as he was then able to continue his studies at the RCM after money from home became scarce. He augmented his college grant of thirty pounds by playing trombone on the pier at Brighton and other resorts during the summer holidays.
In the autumn of 1895 Gustav met Ralph Vaughan Williams for the first time. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. It was also the beginning of the their habit of playing their compositions to each other while they were still working on them. Sometimes they would walk along Chiswick Mall or by the river with other college friends while discussing the poetry of Walt Whitman or the socialist works of William Morris.
In 1901, Gustav married a student named Isobel Harrison. She was a great influence on him as she was able to persuade him to eat properly, shave his beard, and improve his sense of dress. Gustav's father died this same year. Gustav came into a small legacy when his father passed, and so he and Isobel went to Berlin for a short holiday. With the birth of their daughter Imogen, Gustav realized that he needed to get a steady job, which led him to teaching. His first teaching job was at James Allen School in Dulwich.
Gustav turned out to be a very gifted teacher. In 1905, Holst was appointed Director of Music at St. Paul's Girls School in Hammersmith.
Holst was appointed Musical Director at the Morley College for Working Men and Women. Previously, they had never bothered much about music there. His exacting demands drove many students away, but then thankfully, several new and enthusiastic students joined to turn the classes into a success.
Gustav is described as an oversensitive and rather sickly child. He had weak eyes, and yet no one in his family thought to get his glasses. He suffered from asthma, which his father tried to remedy by teaching the boy trombone. Gustav loved the piano and learned under the instruction of his father, even though Gustav was already showing signs of neuritis in his hands. As he grew older he tried chis hand at composition but was unable to attain scholarships to the Royal College of Music or any of the other colleges in London.
Holst obtained his first professional engagement in 1893, where he served as an organist at Wick Rissington, a small Cotswold village. Soon afterwards he also became organist and choirmaster of the choral society at Bourton-on-the-Water. These early experiences helped the young composer grow in his understanding of the workings of a choir. Dr. Vaughan Williams described this time in Holst’s life, saying, “Here he laid the foundations of his knowledge of choral effect, and of his powers as a teacher; for Holst is a great teacher as well as a great composer."
Inspired by the music of Arthur Sullivan, in 1892 Holst composed a two-act operetta, called Lansdown Castle, which was produced at the Cheltenham Corn Exchange the following year. Although the music was could not escape the influence of Sullivan, the performance was a great success with the critics and the audience. Adolph was sufficiently impressed to borrow money to send Gustav to the Royal College of Music under regular admission.
Gustav was very frugal as a student. He never smoked nor drank. Since leaving home he had also become a strict vegetarian. But vegetarianism was not encouraged in his cheap lodgings in the 1890's. He would even walk or cycle much of the way home to Cheltenham from the College. Since he was never given a completely nourishing meal, his eyes became very weak and his hand remained in constant pain. Yet despite all of the physical problems and his extremely shy and solitary nature, he was already showing an absorbing interest in other people. He hated conventionality and rejoiced in ideas he found fantastic or humorous.
In 1895, Holst was surprised to learn that he had won an open scholarship for composition. The news was a relief, as he was then able to continue his studies at the RCM after money from home became scarce. He augmented his college grant of thirty pounds by playing trombone on the pier at Brighton and other resorts during the summer holidays.
In the autumn of 1895 Gustav met Ralph Vaughan Williams for the first time. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. It was also the beginning of the their habit of playing their compositions to each other while they were still working on them. Sometimes they would walk along Chiswick Mall or by the river with other college friends while discussing the poetry of Walt Whitman or the socialist works of William Morris.
In 1901, Gustav married a student named Isobel Harrison. She was a great influence on him as she was able to persuade him to eat properly, shave his beard, and improve his sense of dress. Gustav's father died this same year. Gustav came into a small legacy when his father passed, and so he and Isobel went to Berlin for a short holiday. With the birth of their daughter Imogen, Gustav realized that he needed to get a steady job, which led him to teaching. His first teaching job was at James Allen School in Dulwich.
Gustav turned out to be a very gifted teacher. In 1905, Holst was appointed Director of Music at St. Paul's Girls School in Hammersmith.
Holst was appointed Musical Director at the Morley College for Working Men and Women. Previously, they had never bothered much about music there. His exacting demands drove many students away, but then thankfully, several new and enthusiastic students joined to turn the classes into a success.
After a time of minimal success in his compositions, depression and perpetual overwork reduced Holst to such a state that his doctor ordered him to take a holiday in a warm climate. He decided to go to Algeria and bicycle in the desert. Holst loved his time there. It influenced later works, which unfortunately was not well received but the English public.
After a failure of a new work, The Cloud Messenger, in 1912 depressed Holst again, he went on holiday to Spain with Balfour Gardiner and Clifford and Arnold Bax. While there, Clifford Bax encouraged his growing interest in Astrology and long after the success of The Planets, Holst would cast horoscopes for his friends.
His first compositions after the outbreak of the World War was a setting of Walt Whitman's Dirge for Two Veterans. It was his comment on that year of tragedy. Vaughan Williams also set these verses and they were included in his Dona Nobis Pacem. Holst was also starting work on The Planets.
Holst was declared unfit for active service in the Great War. He was depressed because he was unable to contribute to the war effort. His brother, Emil, had left the New York stage to join the army and Isobel was driving lorry loads of wounded soldiers to the hospital. Vaughan Williams was fighting in France and fellow musicians like George Butterworth were dying in the battlefields. At last he got his chance. During the closing stages of the War, the YMCA offered him the post of Musical Organizer in their educational work among the troops in the Near East. He got rid of the "von" in his name and sailed for Salonica but not before Balfour Gardiner had given him a private performance of The Planets conducted by Adrian Boult.
Holst arrived back home in the middle of 1919 and soon took up more teaching posts at University College, Reading and at the Royal College of Music. Gustav Holst conducted the first performance of The Hymn of Jesus in 1920. Like The Planets, it was very successful. Life was becoming easier by the end of 1922. Holst found for the first time he had earned more than one thousand pounds in a year. However, he was to have no more major popular successes.In early 1923, Holst was conducting a rehearsal at University College, Reading, when he slipped off the platform and fell back on his head. The concussion was fairly slight but it happened at an unfortunate time when Holst was already feelings depressed and overworked. The damage was more deadly than he could realize at the time and it was many years before he recovered from the after effects of the accident.
At the time, Holst seemed to recover quickly from his head injury, and he accepted an invitation to go to America to conduct a music festival at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. During the voyage, he scored his Fugal Concerto for flute, oboe, and strings.
Back in England, he received a tremendous ovation after a performance of The Planets, but it brought him no joy. His nerves were very bad and he was finding it impossible to sleep at night. By the end of the term, he was on the verge of a serious nervous breakdown. Then, an anonymous rich man gave him several hundred pounds so that he might have more leisure for composing.
After a failure of a new work, The Cloud Messenger, in 1912 depressed Holst again, he went on holiday to Spain with Balfour Gardiner and Clifford and Arnold Bax. While there, Clifford Bax encouraged his growing interest in Astrology and long after the success of The Planets, Holst would cast horoscopes for his friends.
His first compositions after the outbreak of the World War was a setting of Walt Whitman's Dirge for Two Veterans. It was his comment on that year of tragedy. Vaughan Williams also set these verses and they were included in his Dona Nobis Pacem. Holst was also starting work on The Planets.
Holst was declared unfit for active service in the Great War. He was depressed because he was unable to contribute to the war effort. His brother, Emil, had left the New York stage to join the army and Isobel was driving lorry loads of wounded soldiers to the hospital. Vaughan Williams was fighting in France and fellow musicians like George Butterworth were dying in the battlefields. At last he got his chance. During the closing stages of the War, the YMCA offered him the post of Musical Organizer in their educational work among the troops in the Near East. He got rid of the "von" in his name and sailed for Salonica but not before Balfour Gardiner had given him a private performance of The Planets conducted by Adrian Boult.
Holst arrived back home in the middle of 1919 and soon took up more teaching posts at University College, Reading and at the Royal College of Music. Gustav Holst conducted the first performance of The Hymn of Jesus in 1920. Like The Planets, it was very successful. Life was becoming easier by the end of 1922. Holst found for the first time he had earned more than one thousand pounds in a year. However, he was to have no more major popular successes.In early 1923, Holst was conducting a rehearsal at University College, Reading, when he slipped off the platform and fell back on his head. The concussion was fairly slight but it happened at an unfortunate time when Holst was already feelings depressed and overworked. The damage was more deadly than he could realize at the time and it was many years before he recovered from the after effects of the accident.
At the time, Holst seemed to recover quickly from his head injury, and he accepted an invitation to go to America to conduct a music festival at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. During the voyage, he scored his Fugal Concerto for flute, oboe, and strings.
Back in England, he received a tremendous ovation after a performance of The Planets, but it brought him no joy. His nerves were very bad and he was finding it impossible to sleep at night. By the end of the term, he was on the verge of a serious nervous breakdown. Then, an anonymous rich man gave him several hundred pounds so that he might have more leisure for composing.
He decided to give up all his teaching for three months. He retired to Thaxted spending only one day a week in London. It was not entirely successful, for Holst was never one to be lazy. His nerves worsened instead of getting better. Although it was a year since his accident, he began to have violent pains in the back of his head. Even when the pains ceased, he could not bear anything touching his head, not even a hat or a pillow. Noise was torture for him; people talking, traffic, applause. He had nightmares about making mistakes or about his creativity drying up. His doctor ordered him to give up all work for the rest of the year. Afterwards, he wasn't able to resume any regular teaching except for a very little at St. Paul's where he continued to teach for the rest of his life.
Holst lived for nearly a year in a comfortable house in the middle of Thaxted. He was alone except for an ex-army boatman who became his cook, valet, and guardian. He worked on his Choral Symphony and a new opera called At the Boar's Head based on the Falstaff scenes from Shakespeare's Henry IV .
Through most of the rest of his life, Holst continued to compose and travel, going to America two more times before his death. However, every time that he did travel he became more ill than the time before. During his final visit to America, he overworked himself and ended up in the hospital with hemorrhagic gastritis caused by a duodenal ulcer. Once he made it back to England, he spent the rest of 1932 at home resting.
However, the next year Holst was at work again. At the end of 1933, he entered a nursing-home and was given the choice of a minor operation and a restricted life afterwards or a major operation and the freedom to do what he liked. He chose the latter. The operation was planned for the early spring.
During the early months of 1934, Holst listened to broadcasts of his music and scored the scherzo he had began the previous year. It was to be part of a symphony but there was no time left for the other movements. The operation, in May, was successful but his heart was unequal to the strain. He died two days later on the 25th of May.
Holst lived for nearly a year in a comfortable house in the middle of Thaxted. He was alone except for an ex-army boatman who became his cook, valet, and guardian. He worked on his Choral Symphony and a new opera called At the Boar's Head based on the Falstaff scenes from Shakespeare's Henry IV .
Through most of the rest of his life, Holst continued to compose and travel, going to America two more times before his death. However, every time that he did travel he became more ill than the time before. During his final visit to America, he overworked himself and ended up in the hospital with hemorrhagic gastritis caused by a duodenal ulcer. Once he made it back to England, he spent the rest of 1932 at home resting.
However, the next year Holst was at work again. At the end of 1933, he entered a nursing-home and was given the choice of a minor operation and a restricted life afterwards or a major operation and the freedom to do what he liked. He chose the latter. The operation was planned for the early spring.
During the early months of 1934, Holst listened to broadcasts of his music and scored the scherzo he had began the previous year. It was to be part of a symphony but there was no time left for the other movements. The operation, in May, was successful but his heart was unequal to the strain. He died two days later on the 25th of May.