Classical Corner: Holst's "The Planets"

Gustav Holst's symphonic suite "The Planets" was written between 1914 and 1916 and is today one of the most popular pieces of 20th-century "classical" music as well as British music.  Its blend of unique styles are undoubtedly strong influences to modern composers like John Williams.  Out of the suite's seven movements, the most famous ones are the opening march "Mars, the Bringer of War" and the energetic "Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity."  Give the "Jupiter" movement a listen and you might recognize some of the melodies.

Click to play: "Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity" from "The Planets" - Gustav Holst

The movement opens with tons of "open" (i.e. tonally ambiguous) chords in the strings with the brass playing the main part.  Already we can note the huge similarity to much of John Williams's music.  From here, the piece basically has three melodic themes: the bouncy melody in duple-meter, the heavy and more deliberate melody in triple-meter, and the slow and emotional melody at the middle of the piece.  After the slow middle portion (which is my favorite part of the movement) comes a developed version of the intro, first melodic theme, second melodic theme, and a coda.  So this movement does conform to the A-B-A format of a classical sonata and has a good overall balance despite its more contemporary harmonies.  The "Jupiter" movement is the fourth out of seven movements in the suite.  Each movement is named for the Roman god corresponding to each non-Earth planet and are ordered in terms of distance from Earth.  Thus, the suite is performed as follows:

1. "Mars, the Bringer of War" - a majestic march in 5/4 time
2. "Venus, the Bringer of Peace" - a slow, dreamlike atmosphere
3. "Mercury, the Winged Messenger" - light melodies that run and fly
4. "Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity" - grand melodies
5. "Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age" - slow but tense
6. "Uranus, the Magician" - devilish and mischievous
7. "Neptune, the Mystic" - another dreamlike atmosphere in 5/4 time

With a throne in the clouds and a half-naked lady slave,

it's not hard to see why Jupiter is the "Bringer of Jollity"

Some have noted a kind of antisymmetry in the movements that's pretty neat.  From Wikipedia: "Critic David Hurwitz offers an alternative explanation for the piece's structure: that "Jupiter" is the centrepoint of the suite and that the movements on either side are in mirror images. Thus "Mars" involves motion and "Neptune" is static; "Venus" is sublime while "Uranus" is vulgar, and "Mercury" is light and scherzando while "Saturn" is heavy and plodding. This hypothesis is lent credence by the fact that the two outer movements, "Mars" and "Neptune", are both written in rather unusual quintuple meter."

The suite was composed before the discovery of Pluto in 1930, and Holst fans across the world rejoiced when it was demoted to a dwarf planet, as this meant that "The Planets" was once again complete.  Listening to the whole suite, it's almost as if I'm watching a movie, and the music is evoking images.  It's easy to see then, why many film score composers have music that is heavily influenced by Holst's work. For example, right off the bat we drew comparisons between "Jupiter" and John Williams's music.  "Mars" in particular also seems like a huge influence for him.  "Saturn" immediately brings Bernard Herrman of classic film fame into mind.  "Venus" and "Neptune" are reminiscent of some aspects of works by Howard Shore, Hans Zimmer, and Danny Elfman.  Meanwhile, "Mercury" and "Uranus" seem to fit perfectly in a Warner Bros. cartoon.

You never really were part of the family, Pluto

"The Planets" is one of my favorite classical works because it creates so many great atmospheres and images while always keeping the music moving and flowing.  The instrumentation is great - just like, say, John Williams's music, many of the grand melodies are brass-heavy, which is more atmospheric and powerful than the more classical choice of using dozens of violins instead.  In addition to the typical symphonic instruments, there is great use of the harp, mallet instruments like the celesta, glockenspiel, and xylophone, and perhaps most famously a woman's choir in the final movement.  The choir is located in a separate room from the orchestra and the entire suite actually ends in a makeshift fadeout as the door separating the choir from the orchestra is slowly shut.  I can't think of any other pieces of classical music that fade out, and it's entirely appropriate for the end of "The Planets" as we reach the edge of the solar system.  Since then, a lot of modern musicians have I guess "followed suit," though in modern music I feel that fadeouts are often used as a cop out when the writer doesn't know how to properly end a song.  This is why I'll consider the ending of "The Planets" the fadeout of all fadeouts.

If you liked "Jupiter," go ahead and give the rest of the suite a listen.  Each movement can be listened to individually as its own piece, but the suite also works great in its entirety (about 50 minutes), and perhaps it's because of the elegant anti-symmetric structure mentioned above.