Overview

The Planets was holst's largest orchestral work with seven movements. Holst conceived The Planets at least as early as 1913, and the first movement, ‘Mars, the Bringer of War’ was completed in 1914, anticipating rather than influenced by the outbreak of World War I. ‘Venus’ and ‘Jupiter’ followed; ‘Saturn’ ‘Uranus’ and ‘Neptune’ were composed during 1915; ‘Mercury’, the third movement (planned at one stage to be the first), was not finished until 1916; the full score was completed in early 1917. The first public performance of the whole work was not given until 1920, but its reputation had already been established by the private first performance in 1918 and several subsequent partial performances, Holst recorded the work twice, in 1922-3 and in 1926, both times with the London Symphony Orchestra. He was, along with Elgar, one of the first composer to commit his music to record, and although he was not as gifted a conductor as his senior colleague, both of the recordings are valuable documents.

Many believe that Holst used Alan Leo’s book The Art of Synthesis as a guide for The Planets. During a time of depression in his life, Holst was lead to the work of Leo and was intrigued by his description of the personalities of each planet. Holst even used the order of his movements in the order of the chapters Leo used in his book. Holst seemed to consider The Planets as a progression through life. The list below is an example of his this could be true. 


•“Mars”- serves as  rocky and tormenting beginning.
•“Venus”- seems to provide and answer to “Mars” and lives up to its claim of bieng the bringer of peace.
•“Mercury”- can be thought of as the messenger between our world and the other worlds.
•“Jupiter”- represents the prime of life
•“Saturn”- may display the ongoing struggle for life against the odd supernatural forces.
•“Uranus”- a quirky scherzo displaying a robust musical climax
•“Neptune”- tranquility.