Saturn
With Saturn we are again in the realm of pain. The perfect intervals that characterized the motifs in the previous three movements have been replaced, for a time, by anguished augmented fourths and diminished fifths set against grating ninths.
Leo calls Saturn ‘the subduer’ and only later in another chapter of his book does he refer to Saturn by the phrase Holst adopted, “the bringer of old age.” Saturn governs old age: at time when everything is tested in the crucible for truth. As Leo explains, Saturn concerns duty and “none can neglect duty and escape the hard fate which Saturn imposes,” for Saturn brings people toward the path of Renunciation. In this manner personal insight and wisdom are attained.
Leo calls Saturn ‘the subduer’ and only later in another chapter of his book does he refer to Saturn by the phrase Holst adopted, “the bringer of old age.” Saturn governs old age: at time when everything is tested in the crucible for truth. As Leo explains, Saturn concerns duty and “none can neglect duty and escape the hard fate which Saturn imposes,” for Saturn brings people toward the path of Renunciation. In this manner personal insight and wisdom are attained.
SATURN, the bringer of old age. Unlike the previous movements, which are static in the sense that each depicts various aspects of a single trait, this one moves through a series of 'events' that bring the music to conclusions not envisioned at the beginning. There is a profound hollowness and sense of defeat in the harmony of the opening chords, and an even deeper despair in the motif sounded beneath them by the double basses. But the elderly voice of wisdom is soon heard in the B-minor theme for the trombones, and at the end the mood is one of acceptance, reconciliation and consequent serenity.