Gustav Holst

NAME Gustav (Theodore) Holst

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Gustav Holst is one of Britain’s most important early-20th-century composers, best known for the orchestral suite The Planets (1914–16). Alongside Ralph Vaughan Williams, he helped define a distinctly English musical voice by moving away from late-Romantic Germanic traditions and drawing on English folk music, modal harmony, and ancient texts.

BIRTH Holst was born on September 21, 1874 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, at 4 Clarence Road (now the Holst Victorian House museum).

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FAMILY BACKGROUND Holst came from a family with professional musicians in the previous three generations. His father, Adolph von Holst (1846-1934), was an accomplished pianist, composer, and music teacher who also worked as an organist and conductor at St. Paul's and All Saints churches in Cheltenham. His mother, Clara Cox Lediard (died 1882), was the daughter of a Cirencester solicitor and a talented musician who played and taught piano and gave recitals. 

The Holst family was of mixed Swedish, Latvian, and German ancestry; one of Holst's ancestors served as a court composer in Russia before being exiled to Germany, after which the family emigrated to England. Holst's paternal grandfather, Gustavus von Holst, was also a music teacher and composer in Cheltenham. The "von" in the family name had been spuriously added only two generations earlier, as his father believed it would help his music teaching business when German music was fashionable in England.

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Holst had one younger brother, Emil (later known by the stage name Ernest Cossart), who became an actor and moved to the United States in 1908, performing on Broadway and later in Hollywood films.

The family anglicised their name from “von Holst” to “Holst” during World War I to avoid anti-German sentiment.

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CHILDHOOD Gustav had a difficult childhood. He was described as "a sickly child," oversensitive and somewhat miserable. His eyesight was weak, though no one realized for some time that he needed spectacles. He also suffered from asthma and had to rest while climbing stairs. 

His mother died when he was only eight years old in 1882, a devastating loss. Following her death, Gustav and his brother Emil were looked after by their aunt Nina, who, like their father, was also distracted by her piano practice. 

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From an early age, Gustav showed musical talent but faced significant physical challenges. His father taught him piano, which he enjoyed, but he was troubled by neuritis (nerve inflammation) in his hands and right arm, making long hours of practice severely painful. He hated practicing the violin. As a potential cure for his asthma, he was given a trombone to play. Gustav began composing in his early teens, but was extremely shy about his work and would secretly write compositions in his room rather than at the keyboard, afraid of his musical family hearing him.

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EDUCATION Holst attended Cheltenham Grammar School from 1885. His father was determined to make him a good pianist, but the neuritis made this increasingly difficult. Despite attempts to win scholarships, Holst initially failed to gain admission to the Royal College of Music and various other colleges in London.

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In 1893, at age 19, Holst obtained his first professional engagement as organist at Wyck Rissington, a small Cotswold village, and also became organist and choirmaster of the choral society at Bourton-on-the-Water. These early experiences proved valuable in developing his understanding of choral music.

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Inspired by the music of Arthur Sullivan, Holst composed a two-act operetta called Lansdown Castle in 1892, which was produced at the Cheltenham Corn Exchange in 1893 with great success. His father was sufficiently impressed to borrow money to send Gustav to the Royal College of Music under regular admission in 1893.

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At the Royal College of Music (1893-1898), Holst studied composition with Charles Villiers Stanford, though he often disagreed with Stanford's opinions. His other teachers included Hubert Parry. Holst was grateful to Stanford for teaching him "how to become his own critic". In 1895, he was awarded a scholarship in composition. His second study at the College was the trombone, and he undertook freelance engagements while still a student, playing in theatre orchestras and at seaside resorts during summer holidays to support himself. He augmented his college grant of thirty pounds by playing trombone on the pier at Brighton and other resorts. (1)

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During his time at the RCM, Holst became an ardent Wagner enthusiast after hearing Wagner's Götterdämmerung under Gustav Mahler at Covent Garden a year before attending the College. He was overwhelmed by the lush sonorities and once walked all night through the streets of London with his mind in a whirl after hearing Tristan and Isolde.

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CAREER RECORD 1898-1903: Although offered an extension of his scholarship, Holst decided to join the Carl Rosa Opera Company as trombonist and répétiteur (vocal coach).

1905 He was appointed head of music at St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, a position he held until the end of his life in 1934.  Also in 1905, he took a teaching post at James Allen's Girls' School in Dulwich (in succession to Vaughan Williams), which he held until 1921.

1907, Holst was appointed Director of Music at Morley College for Working Men and Women, serving until 1924. 

1920-1923 Holst taught at the Royal College of Music and University College, Reading 

APPEARANCE Holst was of medium height, quite thin, and wore thick spectacles for severe nearsightedness. He had a somewhat frail appearance, often looking older than his years due to the physical toll of his work and health issues.

As a young man, Holst's physical appearance was described as "thin and anaemic, yet his movements were quick and he walked in long energetic strides". (2)

Gustav Holst, c. 1921 photograph by Herbert Lambert National Portrait Gallery, 

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FASHION He was generally indifferent to fashion, preferring practical and modest clothing. He was often seen in simple suits or teaching attire, reflecting his middle-class professional status and lack of vanity.

CHARACTER Holst was introspective, idealistic, modest, and relentlessly self-critical. Despite his international fame, he remained uneasy with public acclaim and far more at home in quiet intellectual and creative pursuits. Those who knew him often described his personality as “a remarkable combination of opposing characteristics.” He could be friendly, gregarious, jolly, and rumbustious, yet also solitary, aloof, and remote; perceptive and business-like, yet at times naive in both life and music. (1)

Ralph Vaughan Williams observed: “There was no compromise about Holst, either in his music or in his character. He was thorough; he did not know what it was to do things by half.” Holst was widely regarded as impervious to whims and fashion. While he took pleasure in success, he remained wary of it and was never discouraged by failure. As he once put it: “If nobody likes your work, you have to go on for the sake of the work. And you’re in no danger of letting the public make you repeat yourself.” (2)

SPEAKING VOICE Quiet, gentle, clear. and precise, with a mild English accent, Holst avoided flamboyance in speech as in music. He was a persuasive teacher who spoke with enthusiasm when discussing music or philosophy but was generally soft-spoken in social settings.

SENSE OF HUMOUR Holst had "a great sense of humour and an astonishingly loud laugh". He enjoyed wordplay and puns, often using humor to put his students at ease or to deflect praise for his compositions. (3)

RELATIONSHIPS Through conducting the Hammersmith Socialist Choir at William Morris's house in 1896-1897, Holst met Isobel Harrison,  "a pretty blue-eyed blonde and an able soprano". She was the daughter of a Merchant's Clerk who grew up in North London. Initially, she wasn't particularly impressed by Holst's attention, but he soon fell madly in love. They married on June 22, 1901 (some sources say 23 June) in a quiet wedding at Fulham Register Office, She bought grace and ease and comfort into his life. (2)

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Gustav and Isobel had two children. Their daughter Imogen Clare Holst was born on April 12, 1907. She became a distinguished composer, arranger, conductor, teacher, and musicologist, serving as Benjamin Britten's musical assistant and joint artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival. They also had a son who died in infancy, a tragedy that deeply affected Holst.

Imogen Holst

Holst's friendship with Ralph Vaughan Williams was one of the most important relationships of his life. They met in 1895 at the Royal College of Music and remained friends for nearly four decades until Holst's death. They were in the habit of playing their compositions to each other and would discuss everything "from the lowest note of the double bassoon to the philosophy of Jude the Obscure" (referring to Thomas Hardy's novel). They held regular "Field Days" where they would critique each other's work with complete honesty. (4)

Holst also became friends with Conrad Noel, the socialist vicar of Thaxted, who shared his political ideals. Through Noel, Holst developed his connection with Thaxted and organized the Whitsun Festivals there.

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MONEY AND FAME Holst struggled financially throughout much of his life. His compositions alone could not support him—he famously discovered that "man could not live by composition alone". He had to work as a professional trombonist to support himself during and after his studies. Even as a student at the Royal College of Music, he lived frugally in cheap lodgings where he "was never given a completely nourishing meal," causing his eyes to become very weak and his hand to remain in constant pain. (1)

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To make ends meet, Holst took various teaching posts, with St Paul's Girls' School and Morley College providing his primary income. He continued teaching until his death in 1934.

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Holst was deeply ambivalent about fame and success. When The Planets brought him international recognition after World War One, he did not welcome it. He was a shy man who "did not enjoy appearing in public, and hated acclaim, so suspicious was he of success". He famously remarked: "Every artist ought to pray that he may not be a success. If he is a failure he stands a good chance of concentrating upon the best work of which he is capable". (2)​

In 1929, he accepted the Howland Memorial Prize from Yale University for distinction in the arts (worth $1,350, equivalent to about £15,315 in today's money). In 1930, he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society.

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FOOD AND DRINK He was a vegetarian for much of his adult life, a choice influenced by his interest in Indian philosophy and the Theosophical Society. Since vegetarianism was not encouraged in his cheap lodgings in the 1890s and he was never given a completely nourishing meal, his health suffered—his eyes became very weak and his hand remained in constant pain.

He was a teetotaller, preferring tea or simple refreshments to alcohol.

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COMPOSING CAREER Holst’s composing life did not so much progress in a straight line as amble determinedly through a series of phases, each shaped by his health, his need to earn a living, and a restless curiosity that kept him moving on just as audiences were getting comfortable. If this occasionally made his career hard to summarise, it was because Holst had a gift for arriving somewhere interesting and immediately deciding he ought to be somewhere else.

As a teenager in Cheltenham, Holst composed industriously and with great seriousness, turning out songs, piano pieces, organ voluntaries, anthems, and by 1892 even an early symphony. None of this was wildly original, but then very little teenage music ever is. His models were respectable ones—Mendelssohn, Chopin, Grieg, and Arthur Sullivan—suggesting a young man who liked order, melody, and the reassuring sense that music ought to behave itself. His comic operetta Lansdown Castle (1892), clearly indebted to Sullivan’s light-opera sparkle, did well enough locally to convince his father that Gustav might plausibly earn a living at music, and so off he went to the Royal College of Music.

At the RCM (1893–1898), Holst studied composition with Charles Villiers Stanford and absorbed Wagnerian harmony and orchestration, all while earning money as a professional trombonist—a practical solution that also placed him at a safe distance from the piano, which his rebellious nerves were already making an unreliable companion.

By 1903 Holst came to the painful conclusion that playing in orchestras was getting in the way of becoming the composer he wanted to be. This was brave, because composing brought in almost no money at all, and faintly reckless, because he had bills to pay. Still, he gave up full-time trombone work and set about finding his own voice. Over the next decade he produced larger, more ambitious works: the long-gestating opera Sita (1899–1906), the exotically tinged suite Beni Mora (1906), and A Somerset Rhapsody (1906), which revealed a growing fascination with English folksong.

Meanwhile, painful neuritis in his arms made any kind of virtuoso keyboard career impossible. This was deeply frustrating but oddly clarifying, nudging Holst ever more firmly toward composition and teaching—the twin pillars on which his working life would rest.

Around 1908 Holst embarked on what might be called his learn-a-difficult-ancient-language-for-fun phase, teaching himself Sanskrit so he could set Hindu texts properly rather than relying on second-hand translations. This produced some of his most original music: the chamber opera Savitri, four sets of Hymns from the Rig Veda, and the choral work The Cloud Messenger. These pieces are spare, modal, and quietly intense, deliberately avoiding the lush emotionalism of late Romanticism.

Typically, many of these works were first performed by the very people Holst taught at St Paul’s Girls’ School and Morley College. In Holst’s world, teaching and composing were never separate activities; one fed the other, often quite literally.

Holst began sketching The Planets around 1913, inspired not by astronomy but by astrology—specifically by his habit of casting friends’ horoscopes, which he cheerfully referred to as his “pet vice.” Much of the orchestration was done during weekends in Thaxted, and the work was finished amid the disruptions of the First World War.

A private performance in 1918 was followed by public ones, and suddenly Holst found himself famous. The Planets sounded like nothing British audiences had heard before: ferocious rhythms in “Mars,” broad, expansive confidence in “Jupiter,” and orchestral colours that owed something to Stravinsky but were unmistakably Holst’s own. Victorian musical manners were unceremoniously shoved aside.

Having achieved success, Holst did what came naturally: he refused to repeat it. Instead, he moved in a leaner, more experimental direction that puzzled listeners hoping for The Planets, Part Two. Works such as The Hymn of Jesus, Ode to Death, the opera The Perfect Fool, the Choral Symphony, Egdon Heath, Hammersmith, and the Double Concerto for two violins are rhythmically subtle, contrapuntal, and often austere, favouring modal harmony and unexpected tonal shifts over crowd-pleasing climaxes.

Throughout his career Holst composed with specific performers in mind—often the very ensembles he taught. For the school orchestra at St Paul’s Girls’ School he wrote the St Paul’s Suite, a piece that is perfectly playable by students yet musically far from simplistic. His wind band works, the First Suite in E-flat and Second Suite in F, did more or less single-handedly to persuade the musical world that military bands were capable of serious art.

Holst composed when he could: early mornings, school holidays, and stolen moments between lessons. Because writing could be physically painful, he sometimes dictated or relied on assistants for large scores, including parts of The Planets. He was fiercely self-critical, withdrawing early works he felt no longer represented him and steadfastly refusing to let popularity tell him what to write next.

In his final years Holst turned increasingly to small, concentrated works such as the Brook Green Suite and the Lyric Movement for viola and small orchestra. These pieces distil his mature style—clear, economical, and quietly experimental. Even as his health declined, he continued to explore new ideas rather than attempt another grand planetary statement.

By the time of his death in 1934, Holst had left behind a body of work that was compact, distinctive, and quietly influential—proof that a composer can be world-famous for one piece while doing his most interesting thinking everywhere else.

MUSIC AND ARTS Aside from his own compositions, he was a champion of English folk music and Renaissance composers like Weelkes and Byrd. He was also deeply influenced by Richard Wagner early in his career and later by the austerity of Bach.

Holst was also an adept trombonist, performing professionally earlier in his career.

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LITERATURE Holst had wide-ranging literary interests. He and Ralph Vaughan Williams discussed poetry by Walt Whitman and the socialist works of William Morris. Holst set several poems by Walt Whitman to music, including The Mystic Trumpeter (1905) and his 1899 Walt Whitman Overture. He also made settings of three poems by Thomas Hardy.

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He read Thomas Hardy's novels and was particularly influenced by The Return of the Native. A gift of this novel, combined with a walk over Egdon Heath at Easter 1926, started Holst's mind working, leading to his orchestral work Egdon Heath (1927). The work was Holst's tribute to Hardy.

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Holst was interested in the works of William Shakespeare—his opera At the Boar's Head (1924) was based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2.​

Through his interest in Eastern philosophy and literature, Holst read Sanskrit texts including the Rigveda, the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the poems of Kalidasa. He taught himself Sanskrit and published a collection of Hindu hymns, translated directly from original Sanskrit literature—an unusual scholarly pursuit for a Western composer of his time.

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NATURE Holst loved the English countryside, particularly the Cotswolds and the Essex landscape. He often went on long walking tours to clear his mind and find inspiration for his music.

His Symphony in F Major (1900), nicknamed "The Cotswolds," is a tribute to the beautiful English countryside where Holst lived. The work "exudes optimism through its buoyant rhythms and joyful lilting melodies". (5)

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His orchestral work Egdon Heath (1927) was inspired by Thomas Hardy's description of the Dorset heathland in The Return of the Native, as well as Holst's own walk over Egdon Heath at Easter 1926.

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The Gustav Holst Way, a 33-35 mile walking route from Cranham to Wyck Rissington through the Cotswolds, commemorates his connection to the region.

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PETS Holst’s lifestyle—balancing teaching in London with weekend composing in the country—was not particularly conducive to pet ownership.

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Walking and Hiking: Holst was an avid walker who enjoyed rambling in the countryside throughout his life. He would often walk long distances—when unable to afford rail fare from London back to Cheltenham, he would make the journey by foot with his trombone slung over his back, stopping to practice for many hours in the fields. On one occasion, his trombone practice in the Cotswold fields caused a farmer to tick him off for playing too loudly and allegedly making his sheep lamb early.​

Cycling: Holst frequently cycled, often with his trombone strapped over his back.

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Astrology: Holst called astrology his "pet vice" and would often work out horoscopes for his friends. In 1913, a holiday discussion about astrology with friends including composer Arnold Bax and his brother Clifford piqued Holst's interest in the subject. Clifford Bax later commented that Holst became "a remarkably skilled interpreter of horoscopes". Holst wrote to a friend: "I only study things that suggest music to me. That's why I worried at Sanskrit. Then recently the character of each planet suggested lots to me, and I have been studying astrology fairly closely". This interest directly inspired The Planets. (7)

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SCIENCE AND MATHS Holst had a deep fascination with astronomy, which played a central role in the composition of The Planets. His interest was sparked by discussions about astrology and the celestial bodies during a 1913 holiday. The suite, however, was not strictly astronomical—Holst did not include Earth and slightly reordered the planets from their actual solar system positions.

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PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY His work reflects Christian mysticism, Hindu philosophy, and universalist ideas rather than orthodox religious belief.

Holst was deeply influenced by Hindu philosophy and Eastern mysticism. He studied Sanskrit to read Hindu texts in their original language, translating works from the Rigveda and the Bhagavad Gita. He wrote: "I believe in the Hindu doctrine of Dharma which is one's path in life". He was "Oriental enough to believe in doing so without worrying about the 'fruits of action' that is success or otherwise". (8)

Holst was fascinated by the concept of "the General Dance" as a symbol of redemption and worship, which led him to compose The Hymn of Jesus based on a Gnostic hymn thought to have been sung by Christ and his disciples at the Last Supper. (7)

POLITICS Holst was a committed socialist. He joined the Hammersmith Socialist Society (or Club) and conducted the Hammersmith Socialist Choir at William Morris's house from around 1896-1897. His involvement with the socialist movement was more serious than many biographies have recognized. He attended meetings of the Hammersmith Socialist Society, played the harmonium on the "official socialist cart," and was involved in the administration of the society. (9)

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Holst was deeply influenced by the socialist ideals of William Morris. Both Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams were socialists and humanitarians, "deeply committed to the idea that music should be for everyone, not just the elite". This belief manifested in their involvement in community music-making and education. (10)

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Holst believed that "the duty of a composer is to fulfill practical needs" and if music were needed for his school classes, he would readily supply it without any sense of incongruity. His second movement of the Symphony in F Major is an elegy dedicated to William Morris. (1)

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SCANDAL Holst's career was largely free from scandal. He was a devoted family man and a dedicated professional, avoiding the bohemian excesses common to many artists of his era. However, during World War One, his Germanic-sounding surname "von Holst" caused difficulties. In June 1915, he was harassed by the police on account of his presumed German nationality. This anti-German sentiment led him to drop the "von" from his surname by deed poll in 1916 (some sources say 1918), although he discovered the family had never actually been entitled to it.

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MILITARY RECORD Holst was deemed unfit for military service in World War One due to his neuritis and poor eyesight. The decision dismayed him as he was keen to do his bit for the war effort. Instead, in 1918, he joined the YMCA Education Department as Musical Organizer, working with the Army of the Black Sea to organize music activities in military training camps, hospitals, and prisoner of war camps in Salonica (now Thessaloniki) and Constantinople. He was abroad for much of 1918 in this role, conducting English music and organizing musical activities for troops in the Middle East.

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HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS  From youth, Holst was afflicted with neuritis (nerve inflammation) in his right arm and hands. This condition caused his hands to quiver and made playing piano or other instruments extremely painful. The neuritis prevented him from pursuing a career as a pianist and continued to cause problems throughout his life. When scoring The Planets, he had to seek help from two amanuenses, Vally Lasker and Nora Day, due to the neuritis.

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As a child, Holst had a weak chest and suffered from asthma, which made climbing stairs difficult. The trombone was initially given to him as therapy for his asthma.

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His eyes were weak from childhood, though it took time before anyone realized he needed spectacles. His eyesight problems persisted throughout his life and contributed to him being deemed unfit for military service.

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In February 1923, while rehearsing a concert at Reading University, Holst slipped off the rostrum and suffered a head injury, the consequences of which remained with him for the rest of his life. Shortly thereafter, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was ordered to take complete rest. The head injury brought on bouts of insomnia.

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Holst suffered from a duodenal ulcer. In 1932, halfway through a visit to Harvard University in the United States, he was taken ill and rushed to hospital, having lost four pints of blood from the ulcer. He described the experience of nearly dying: "I felt I was sinking so low that I couldn't go much further... As soon as I reached the bottom, I had one clear, intense and calm feeling, that of overwhelming gratitude". (2)

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Despite leading "largely as an invalid" during the last eighteen months of his life, Holst "composed some of his most individual works" including the Brook Green Suite and the Lyric Movement for viola and orchestra. (2)

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HOMES  Holst was born at 4 Clarence Road, Cheltenham (now the Holst Victorian House museum). His family later lived at 6 Montpellier Villas Road.

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Holst lived in various lodgings in London during his student years at the Royal College of Music and his early professional career.

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From 1917 to 1925, Holst and his wife Isobel lived in Thaxted, a picturesque town about 38 miles northeast of London. He lived in a country cottage two miles south of the town. Thaxted became very important to Holst—he organized the Whitsun Festivals there from 1916-1918 and completed The Planets in the peace and quiet of the town. He often helped with the music in church and nearly always played the organ at Christmas. The town's vicar, Conrad Noel, became a close friend.

The Manse in Thaxted where Holst lived from 1917 to 1925 By Richard Croft,

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TRAVEL Algeria (1908): Holst traveled to Algeria, and the sounds and music he heard there influenced his composition Beni Mora (1912), a three-movement piece for orchestra featuring exotic influences.

Spain (1913): In March and April 1913, Holst and his friend and benefactor Balfour Gardiner holidayed in Spain with composer Arnold Bax and his brother, Clifford Bax. A discussion about astrology during this holiday piqued Holst's interest in the subject, which eventually led to The Planets.

World War One Service: In 1918, Holst traveled to the Middle East as YMCA Musical Organizer for the troops, working in Salonica (Thessaloniki) and Constantinople.

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United States: Holst made several trips to America: In April 1923, he sailed on the RMS Aquitania to lecture at the University of Michigan, where he composed the Fugal Concerto during the voyage. 

In January 1932, he sailed on the Bremen to take up the post of Horatio Lamb Lecturer in composition at Harvard University for the period February to May 1932

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DEATH Holst died on May 25, 1934 in Ealing, London, at the age of 59. 

In October 1933, Holst was taken ill and admitted to a clinic in December. Doctors advised he had two choices: a major operation or leading a restricted life as an invalid. Confronted with this choice and knowing that a restricted lifestyle would not allow for his beloved country rambles, Holst chose the operation.

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On May 23, 1934, the duodenal ulcer was removed. The operation was declared a success, but it severely weakened his body. Gustav Holst "passed away quietly and peacefully" of heart failure, two days after the operation.

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He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium. His ashes were interred at Chichester Cathedral in Sussex on June 25, 1934. While one might have expected his ashes to rest in Westminster Abbey among other great composers, Holst was interred at Chichester Cathedral because of his profound friendship with George Bell, the former Dean of Canterbury and later Bishop of Chichester, and their shared passion for traditional choral music. His ashes were laid to rest in the north transept, close to the memorial of Thomas Weelkes, his favorite Tudor composer. Bishop George Bell gave the memorial oration at the funeral, and Ralph Vaughan Williams conducted music by Holst and himself.

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The memorial stone originally bore the simple inscription "Gustav Holst 1874-1934". In 2009, this was replaced by a new memorial stone designed by Alec Peever, bearing a line from Holst's own Hymn of Jesus: "The Heavenly Spheres Make Music for Us".

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APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Holst's music, particularly The Planets, has been used extensively in films, television, and other media:

(1) Films: Holst's music has appeared in numerous films including:

Knowing (2009)​

The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)

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The Vast of Night (2019)

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(2) Recordings: Holst conducted two recordings of The Planets himself. He also made a recording of his St Paul's Suite in 1924, conducting the string section of the London Symphony Orchestra.

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(3) ​Documentaries: The documentary Gustav Holst: A Double Life in Music features interviews including Imogen Holst, Edmund Rubbra, Herbert Howells, and Michael Tippett. 

A BBC television documentary, Holst: In the Bleak Midwinter, by Tony Palmer, charted Holst's life with particular reference to his support for socialism and the cause of working people.

The BBC produced a performance of The Planets with Professor Brian Cox in 2024, marking 100 years after its composition.

(4) Influence on Film Music: The Mars movement of The Planets greatly inspired the original music of Star Wars by John Williams.

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ACHIEVEMENTS Composer of The Planets, one of the most influential orchestral works of the 20th century

Key figure in establishing a distinctly English classical style

Long-serving Director of Music at St Paul’s Girls’ School (1905–1934)

Pioneer in integrating ancient texts and non-Western philosophy into Western classical music

Lifelong creative partnership with Ralph Vaughan Williams

Sources: (1) The Gustav Holst Website (2) Interlude (3) Berlin Philharmoniker (4) Reddit (5) Udiscovermusic (6) British Trombone Society (7) Gustav Holst: A Biography by Imogen Holst (8) Asian Lite (9) Adam Yamey Writes (10) Serenade magazine