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Holst: World War
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Of Swedish descent, Holst was one of the best of the English "colorists" (Bliss, Vaughan Williams, and others). He was inspired by world religions (Rig Veda of 1908-1912, the beautiful opera Savitri of 1908, and Hymn of Jesus of 1917), English folk melody (Somerset Rhapsody for Orchestra), and transcendental poetry (Ode to Death on Whitman's Words, the Choral Symphony on a text by Keats, and Egdon Heath -- one of his best pieces -- on an excerpt from a Hardy novel).
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Mars has always been thought of as Holst's portrayal of the horrors of mechanised warfare. However, it was started and before the war and achieved its final form whilst the armies still relied on horse transport. It is ... so unlike his deliberate homages to the tragedy of war, 'A Dirge for Two Veterans' and 'Ode to Death' that one begins to wonder if the war provided its inspiration at all. it is in 5/4 metre (it changes to 5/2 and 3/4 at the end) It is heavily orchestrated with lots of brass. The string players are instructed to strike the strings with the wood of the bow, to produce a rattling sound, while the kettle drums use hard-ended sticks. If it is a portrayal of war, it is curiously upbeat, with use of the major scale in place
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In a simple but startling observation, Holst derails the arguments of male educationists—both neohumanist and philanthropinist—who insist on a female education geared to training in household management. Men are not criticized, she writes, for seeking culture and knowledge beyond what they need to know in order to execute professional obligations and fulfill civic duty: "man schätzt sie [Männer] um so höher, wenn sie neben den Kenntnissen, die zur Erfüllung ihrer eigentlichen Berufspflichten gehören, sich noch viele und mannigfaltige Kenntnisse erworben haben." And she asks, "Warum läßt man aber den Weibern nicht die gleiche Gerechtigkeit widerfahren? Warum eifert man so sehr über die Gelehrsamkeit der Weiber? Ist die Gelehrsamkeit denn ein Monopol der Männer?" (64).
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Uranus at first appears to be a quirky and frenetic homage to Dukas’s The Sorcerer's Apprentice, but Holst did not know the Frenchman's score at the time. Neptune is mysterious and evokes an other-worldly scene.
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