Theosophy is a religious and philosophical system established in the United States in the late 19th century. Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky , and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neoplatonism and Indian religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism . Although many adherents maintain that Theosophy is not a religion, it is variably categorized by religious scholars as both a new religious movement and a form of occultism from within Western esotericism .
192-481: Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst ; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite The Planets , he composed many other works across a range of genres, although none achieved comparable success. His distinctive compositional style was the product of many influences, Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss being most crucial early in his development. The subsequent inspiration of
384-452: A "secret doctrine" that was known to Plato and early Hindu sages and which continues to underpin the center of every religion. She promoted the idea that ancient societies exhibited a unity of science and religion that humanity has since lost, with their achievements and knowledge being far in excess of what modern scholars believe about them. Blavatsky also taught that a secret brotherhood has conserved this ancient wisdom religion throughout
576-440: A "universally eclectic religious movement", while scholar J. Jeffrey Franklin characterized Theosophy as a "hybrid religion" for its syncretic combination of elements from various other sources. More specifically, Theosophy has been categorized as a new religious movement . Scholars have also classified Theosophy as a form of Western esotericism . Campbell for instance referred to it as "an esoteric religious tradition", while
768-457: A 'happy ending', for, as he himself said, 'in the real world the end is not happy at all'". At a Queen's Hall concert on 22 November 1919, Holst conducted Venus, Mercury and Jupiter. There was another incomplete public performance, in Birmingham , on 10 October 1920, with five movements (Mars, Venus, Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter), conducted by the composer. The first complete performance of
960-514: A Saturday message during the service that there should be a greater political commitment from those who participated in the church activities; his claim that several of Holst's pupils (implicitly those from St Paul's Girls' School) were merely "camp followers" caused offence. Holst, anxious to protect his students from being embroiled in ecclesiastical conflict, moved the Whitsun Festival to Dulwich , though he himself continued to help with
1152-450: A baby in a woman's womb ... For two years I had the intention of composing that cycle, and during those two years it seemed of itself more and more definitely to be taking form. Imogen Holst , the composer's daughter, wrote that her father had difficulty with large-scale orchestral structures such as symphonies, and the idea of a suite with a separate character for each movement was an inspiration to him. Holst's biographer Michael Short and
1344-675: A campaign for Indian Home Rule, founding a group called the Home Rule League. She established the New India newspaper, and after continuing to promote Indian independence in the paper's pages during the First World War she was interned for several months. This helped to boost her status within the independence movement, and at the age of 70 she was appointed President of the Indian National Congress ,
1536-538: A cappella carol, " This Have I Done for My True Love ", was dedicated to Noel in recognition of his interest in the ancient origins of religion (the composer always referred to the work as "The Dancing Day"). It received its first performance during the Third Whitsun Festival at Thaxted in May 1918. During that festival, Noel, who would become a staunch supporter of Russia's October Revolution , demanded in
1728-620: A career as a composer, studying at the Royal College of Music under Charles Villiers Stanford . Unable to support himself by his compositions, he played the trombone professionally and later became a teacher—a great one, according to his colleague Ralph Vaughan Williams . Among other teaching activities he built up a strong tradition of performance at Morley College , where he served as musical director from 1907 until 1924, and pioneered music education for women at St Paul's Girls' School , where he taught from 1905 until his death in 1934. He
1920-513: A composer benefited almost at once from his release from other work. His works from this period include the Choral Symphony to words by Keats (a Second Choral Symphony to words by George Meredith exists only in fragments). A short Shakespearian opera, At the Boar's Head , followed; neither had the immediate popular appeal of A Moorside Suite for brass band of 1928. In 1927 Holst
2112-413: A different emphasis. Morris had written, "I do not want art for a few any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few. I want all persons to be educated according to their capacity, not according to the amount of money which their parents happen to have". Holst said, "'Aristocracy in art'—art is not for all but only for the chosen few—but the only way to find those few is to bring art to everyone—then
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#17327734150592304-430: A fellow-pupil, Herbert Howells , as "the one man who could get any one of us out of a technical mess", but he found that his fellow students, rather than the faculty members, had the greater influence on his development. In 1895, shortly after celebrating his twenty-first birthday, Holst met Ralph Vaughan Williams , who became a lifelong friend and had more influence on Holst's music than anybody else. Stanford emphasised
2496-775: A former pupil, was a talented singer and pianist. They had two sons; Gustav's younger brother, Emil Gottfried, became known as Ernest Cossart , a successful actor in the West End , New York and Hollywood . Clara died in February 1882, and the family moved to another house in Cheltenham, where Adolph recruited his sister Nina to help raise the boys. Gustav recognised her devotion to the family and dedicated several of his early compositions to her. In 1885 Adolph married Mary Thorley Stone, another of his pupils. They had two sons, Matthias (known as "Max") and Evelyn ("Thorley"). Mary von Holst
2688-444: A fraternity of human men who are highly evolved, in terms of having both moral development and intellectual attainment. They are said to have achieved extra-long life spans, and to have gained supernatural powers, including clairvoyance and the ability to instantly project their soul out of their body to any other location . These are powers that they have allegedly attained through many years of training. According to Blavatsky, by
2880-577: A great teacher. A sense of comradeship rather than political conviction led him, while still a student, to join the Socialist League which met at Kelmscott House in Hammersmith ." At Kelmscott House , Morris's home, Holst attended lectures by his host and Bernard Shaw . His own socialism was moderate in character, but he enjoyed the club for its good company and his admiration of Morris as a man. His ideals were influenced by Morris's but had
3072-801: A holiday together in the Cotswolds . His health declined, and he withdrew further from musical activities. One of his last efforts was to guide the young players of the St Paul's Girls' School orchestra through one of his final compositions, the Brook Green Suite , in March 1934. Holst died in London on 25 May 1934, at the age of 59, of heart failure following an operation on his ulcer. His ashes were interred at Chichester Cathedral in Sussex, close to
3264-676: A largely honorary position. In December 1908, Leadbeater was readmitted to the Society; this generated a wave of resignations, with the Sydney branch seceding to form the Independent Theosophical Society. Leadbeater traveled to Adyar, where he met a young boy living there, Jiddu Krishnamurti , and pronounced him to be the next incarnation of a figure called the World Teacher . He subsequently took control of
3456-468: A lectureship for the first six months of 1932. Arriving via New York he was pleased to be reunited with his brother, Emil, whose acting career under the name of Ernest Cossart had taken him to Broadway ; but Holst was dismayed by the continual attentions of press interviewers and photographers. He enjoyed his time at Harvard, but was taken ill while there: a duodenal ulcer prostrated him for some weeks. He returned to England, joined briefly by his brother for
3648-572: A lectureship in composition at the University of Reading and joined Vaughan Williams in teaching composition at their alma mater the RCM. Inspired by Adrian Boult's conducting classes at the RCM, Holst tried to further pioneer music education for women by proposing to the High Mistress of St Paul's Girls' School that he should invite Boult to give classes at the school: "It would be glorious if
3840-462: A literal account of history, "we may be doing it a disservice." He instead suggested that it could be read as Blavatsky's attempt to formulate "a new myth for the modern age, or as a huge, fantastic science fiction story". Blavatsky taught that Lord Maitreya—a figure she borrowed from Buddhism—would come to Earth as a messianic figure. Her ideas on this were expanded upon by Besant and Leadbeater. They said that Maitreya had previously incarnated onto
4032-593: A modest income secured, Holst was able to marry Isobel; the ceremony was at Fulham Register Office on 22 June 1901. Their marriage lasted until his death; there was one child, Imogen , born in 1907. On 24 April 1902 Dan Godfrey and the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra premiered Holst's symphony The Cotswolds (Op. 8), the slow movement of which is a lament for William Morris who had died in October 1896, three years before Holst began work on
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#17327734150594224-424: A new spirit appeared and the music of Morley College, together with its offshoot the 'Whitsuntide festival' ... became a force to be reckoned with". Before Holst's appointment, Morley College had not treated music very seriously (Vaughan Williams's "bad tradition"), and at first Holst's exacting demands drove many students away. He persevered, and gradually built up a class of dedicated music-lovers. According to
4416-471: A parting present consisting of the Queen's Hall, full of the Queen's Hall Orchestra for the whole of a Sunday morning. So we're going to do The Planets , and you've got to conduct'." There was a burst of activity to get things ready in time. The girls at St Paul's helped to copy out the orchestral parts, and the women of Morley and the St Paul's girls learned the choral part in the last movement. The performance
4608-520: A pretty house overlooking the Thames at Barnes , but the river air, frequently foggy, affected his breathing. For use at weekends and during school holidays, Holst and his wife bought a cottage in Thaxted , Essex, surrounded by mediaeval buildings and ample rambling opportunities. In 1917 they moved to a house in the centre of the town, where they stayed until 1925. At Thaxted, Holst became friendly with
4800-400: A prior life. In Blavatsky's words, karma and reincarnation were "inextricably interwoven". However, she did not believe that karma had always been the system that governed reincarnation; she believed that it came into being when humans developed egos, and that one day will also no longer be required. Besant and Leadbeater said they were able to investigate people's past lives through reading
4992-806: A process of karma . Universal brotherhood and social improvement are guiding principles, although there is no particular ethical framework. Theosophy was established in New York City in 1875 with the founding of the Theosophical Society by Blavatsky and Americans Henry Olcott and William Quan Judge . In the early 1880s, Blavatsky and Olcott relocated to India, where they established the Society's headquarters at Adyar , Tamil Nadu . Blavatsky described her ideas in two books, Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine , which became key texts within Theosophy. Following her death in 1891, there
5184-555: A professional musician, and his wife, Clara Cox, née Lediard. She was of mostly British descent, daughter of a respected Cirencester solicitor; the Holst side of the family was of mixed Swedish, Latvian and German ancestry, with at least one professional musician in each of the previous three generations. One of Holst's great-grandfathers, Matthias Holst, born in Riga, Latvia, was of German origin ; he served as composer and harp-teacher to
5376-453: A quadruple forte climax with a prominent organ glissando , after which the music suddenly drops to a pianissimo lento before alternating quick and slow sections bring the movement to its pianissimo conclusion. The music of the last movement is quiet throughout, in a swaying, irregular metre , opening with flutes joined by piccolo and oboes, with harps and celesta prominent later. Holst makes much use of dissonance in this movement. Before
5568-507: A religion. In his history of the Theosophical movement, Bruce F. Campbell noted that Theosophy promoted "a religious world-view" using "explicitly religious terms" and that its central tenets are not unequivocal fact, but rather rely on belief. Olav Hammer and Mikael Rothstein termed it "one of the modern world's most important religious traditions". Various scholars have pointed to its eclectic nature; Joscelyn Godwin described it as
5760-702: A role. He formally changed "von Holst" to "Holst" by deed poll in September 1918. He was appointed as the YMCA's musical organiser for the Near East, based in Salonica . Holst was given a spectacular send-off. The conductor Adrian Boult recalled, "Just before the Armistice, Gustav Holst burst into my office: 'Adrian, the YMCA are sending me to Salonica quite soon and Balfour Gardiner, bless his heart, has given me
5952-500: A score for a British film, The Bells (1931), and was amused to be recruited as an extra in a crowd scene. Both film and score are now lost. He wrote a "jazz band piece" that Imogen later arranged for orchestra as Capriccio . Having composed operas throughout his life with varying success, Holst found for his last opera, The Wandering Scholar , what Matthews calls "the right medium for his oblique sense of humour, writing with economy and directness". Harvard University offered Holst
Gustav Holst - Misplaced Pages Continue
6144-534: A seemingly logical theology based on pseudoscience." At a meeting of the Miracle Club in New York City on 7 September 1875, Blavatsky, Olcott, and Judge agreed to establish an organisation, with Charles Sotheran suggesting that they call it the Theosophical Society . Prior to adopting the name "Theosophical", they had debated various potential names, among them the Egyptological Society,
6336-462: A similar effect at the end of Stravinsky's The Firebird , and adds that although battle music had been written before, notably by Richard Strauss in Ein Heldenleben , "it had never expressed such violence and sheer terror". The second movement begins adagio in 4 . According to Imogen Holst, Venus "has to try and bring the right answer to Mars". The movement opens with
6528-423: A solo horn theme answered quietly by the flutes and oboes. A second theme is given to solo violin. The music proceeds tranquilly with oscillating chords from flutes and harps, with decoration from the celesta. Between the opening adagio and the central largo there is a flowing andante section in 4 with a violin melody (solo then tutti) accompanied by gentle syncopation in the woodwind. The oboe solo in
6720-439: A successive order on each planet; thus when mineral evolution ends on the first planet and it proceeds on to vegetable evolution, then mineral evolution begins on the second planet. Theosophy teaches that human evolution is tied in with this planetary and wider cosmic evolution. In The Secret Doctrine , Blavatsky advocated the idea of seven " Root Races ", each of which was divided into seven Sub-Races. In Blavatsky's cosmogony,
6912-522: A symphony (from 1892). His main influences at this stage were Mendelssohn , Chopin , Grieg and above all Sullivan . Adolph tried to steer his son away from composition, hoping that he would have a career as a pianist. Holst was oversensitive and miserable. His eyes were weak, but no one realized that he needed to wear spectacles. Holst's health played a decisive part in his musical future; he had never been strong, and in addition to his asthma and poor eyesight he suffered from neuritis , which made playing
7104-678: A tale from the Mahabharata ; four groups of Hymns from the Rig Veda (1908–14); and two texts originally by Kālidāsa : Two Eastern Pictures (1909–10) and The Cloud Messenger (a setting of the Meghadūta , 1910, premiered in 1913). Towards the end of the nineteenth century, British musical circles had experienced a new interest in national folk music. Some composers, such as Sullivan and Elgar , remained indifferent, but Parry, Stanford, Stainer and Alexander Mackenzie were founding members of
7296-705: A year. Olcott then sent Besant to the United States to gain support for the Adyar-based Society. In this she was successful, gaining thousands of new members and establishing many new branches. Besant had developed a friendship with the Theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater , and together they co-wrote a number of books. Leadbeater was controversial, and concerns were raised when he was found to have instructed two boys in masturbation . The American Section of
7488-421: Is "derived primarily from the writings" of Blavatsky, however revisions and innovations have also been produced by subsequent Theosophists such as Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater. Blavatsky said that these Theosophical doctrines were not her own invention, but had been received from a brotherhood of secretive spiritual adepts whom she referred to as the "Masters" or "Mahatmas". Central to Theosophical belief
7680-686: Is a seven- movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst , written between 1914 and 1917. In the last movement the orchestra is joined by a wordless female chorus. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the Solar System and its supposed astrological character. The premiere of The Planets was at the Queen's Hall , London, on 29 September 1918, conducted by Holst's friend Adrian Boult before an invited audience of about 250 people. Three concerts at which movements from
7872-595: Is an ancient and secretive brotherhood of spiritual adepts known as the Masters , who are found around the world but primarily centered in Tibet . These Masters were alleged by Blavatsky to have cultivated great wisdom and supernatural powers, and Theosophists believe they initiated the modern Theosophical movement through disseminating their teachings via Blavatsky. Theosophists believe that these Masters are attempting to revive knowledge of an ancient religion once found around
Gustav Holst - Misplaced Pages Continue
8064-538: Is contrary to the popular identification of Holst with The Planets , which Matthews believes has masked his status as a composer of genuine originality. Against charges of coldness in the music, Imogen cites Holst's characteristic "sweeping modal tunes mov[ing] reassuringly above the steps of a descending bass", while Michael Kennedy points to the 12 Humbert Wolfe settings of 1929, and the 12 Welsh folksong settings for unaccompanied chorus of 1930–31, as works of true warmth. The Planets The Planets , Op . 32,
8256-470: Is neither conventional nor negligible", and by the time of Holst's death in 1934 the paper's assessment of the piece was "Holst's greatest work": The Sunday Times , too, quickly changed its line. In 1920 its new music critic, Ernest Newman , said that Holst could do "easily, without a fuss" what some other composers could only do "with an effort and a smirk", and that in The Planets he showed "one of
8448-405: Is quicker than Holst's acoustic version and comes close to matching his 1926 speeds, and in two movements (Venus and Uranus) surpasses them. There were no commercial recordings of the work in the 1930s; timings are given below of a recording representing each subsequent decade up to the 2020s: There have been many adaptations of the suite, and several attempts to add an eighth planet – Pluto – in
8640-587: Is quicker than the acoustic version, possibly because the electrical process required wider grooves, reducing the available playing time. Other, slower, recordings from the 78 era include those conducted by Leopold Stokowski (1943) and Sir Adrian Boult (1945). Recordings from the LP age are also typically longer than the composer's, but from the digital era a 2010 recording by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Jurowski
8832-547: Is the idea that a group of spiritual adepts known as the Masters not only exist but were responsible for the production of early Theosophical texts. For most Theosophists, these Masters are deemed to be the real founders of the modern Theosophical movement. In Theosophical literature, these Masters are also referred to as the Mahatmas, Adepts, Masters of Wisdom, Masters of Compassion, and Elder Brothers. They are perceived to be
9024-658: Is the meetings of the United Lodge of Theosophy, which has been characterized as having a "quasi-sacred and quasi-liturgical" character. The American social situation from which the Theosophical Society emerged was one of great upheaval, and the religious situation was one of challenge to orthodox Christianity. The forces that had surfaced in spiritualism included anticlericalism, anti-institutionalism, eclecticism, social liberalism, and belief in progress and individual effort. Occultism, mediated to America in
9216-434: Is the shortest of the seven movements, typically taking between 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 and 4 minutes in performance. In this movement Holst portrays Jupiter's supposedly characteristic "abundance of life and vitality" with music that is buoyant and exuberant. Nobility and generosity are allegedly characteristics of those born under Jupiter, and in the slower middle section Holst provides a broad tune embodying those traits. In
9408-524: The English folksong revival of the early 20th century, and the example of such rising modern composers as Maurice Ravel , led Holst to develop and refine an individual style. There were professional musicians in the previous three generations of Holst's family, and it was clear from his early years that he would follow the same calling. He hoped to become a pianist, but was prevented by neuritis in his right arm. Despite his father's reservations, he pursued
9600-500: The Folk-Song Society . Parry considered that by recovering English folk song, English composers would find an authentic national voice; he commented, "in true folk-songs there is no sham, no got-up glitter, and no vulgarity". Vaughan Williams was an early and enthusiastic convert to this cause, going round the English countryside collecting and noting down folk songs. These had an influence on Holst. Though not as passionate on
9792-482: The Queen's Hall , full of the Queen's Hall Orchestra for the whole of a Sunday morning. So we're going to do The Planets , and you've got to conduct." Adrian Boult The premiere of The Planets , conducted at Holst's request by Adrian Boult , was held at short notice on 29 September 1918, during the last weeks of the First World War, in the Queen's Hall with the financial support of Gardiner. It
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#17327734150599984-761: The Queen's Hall . Like many musicians of his generation, Holst came under Wagner 's spell. He had recoiled from the music of Götterdämmerung when he heard it at Covent Garden in 1892, but encouraged by his friend and fellow-student Fritz Hart he persevered and quickly became an ardent Wagnerite. Wagner supplanted Sullivan as the main influence on his music, and for some time, as Imogen put it, "ill-assimilated wisps of Tristan inserted themselves on nearly every page of his own songs and overtures." Stanford admired some of Wagner's works, and had in his earlier years been influenced by him, but Holst's sub-Wagnerian compositions met with his disapprobation: "It won't do, me boy; it won't do". Holst respected Stanford, describing him to
10176-617: The Renaissance period , possibly originating in the 1575 Arbatel De Magia Veterum , a Latin grimoire and the first work to draw a dualism between what it calls "anthroposophia" (human knowledge) and "theosophia" (divine knowledge). It had consequently been used in various esoterics contexts for example by the Philaletheians and by the Christian mystic Jakob Böhme . In her book The Key to Theosophy , Blavatsky claims that
10368-477: The Rig Veda hymns. He found the existing English versions of the texts unconvincing, and decided to make his own translations, despite his lack of skills as a linguist. He enrolled in 1909 at University College, London , to study the language. Imogen commented on his translations: "He was not a poet, and there are occasions when his verses seem naïve. But they never sound vague or slovenly, for he had set himself
10560-627: The akashic record , an etheric store of all the knowledge of the universe. They, for instance, stated to have attained knowledge of their own past lives as monkey-like creatures residing on the moon, where they served as pets to the "Moon-man" (a prior incarnation of the Master Morya), his wife (Koot Humi), and their child (the Lord Maitreya). When they were attacked by "savages" and animals "resembling furry lizards and crocodiles", Besant sacrificed herself to save Morya, and for that act made
10752-474: The "White Viennese Band", conducted by Stanislas Wurm. Holst enjoyed playing for Wurm, and learned much from him about drawing rubato from players. Nevertheless, longing to devote his time to composing, Holst found the necessity of playing for "the Worm" or any other light orchestra "a wicked and loathsome waste of time". Vaughan Williams did not altogether agree with his friend about this; he admitted that some of
10944-469: The "essential foundations for much of twentieth-century esotericism". Although Theosophy draws upon Indian religious beliefs, the sociologist of religion Christopher Partridge observed that "Theosophy is fundamentally Western. That is to say, Theosophy is not Eastern thought in the West, but Western thought with an Eastern flavour." According to Maria Carlson, Theosophy is a "positivistic religion" "offering
11136-637: The 20th century had tens of thousands of adherents. Theosophical ideas have also inspired over 100 esoteric movements and philosophies, among them Anthroposophy , the Church Universal and Triumphant , and the New Age . Theosophy's founder, the Russian Helena Blavatsky , insisted that it was not a religion, although she did refer to it as the modern transmission of the "once-universal religion" that she said had existed deep into
11328-671: The Algerian streets. Vaughan Williams wrote of this exotic work, "if it had been played in Paris rather than London it would have given its composer a European reputation, and played in Italy would probably have caused a riot." In June 1911 Holst and his Morley College students gave the first performance since the seventeenth century of Purcell's The Fairy-Queen . The full score had been lost soon after Purcell's death in 1695, and had only recently been found. Twenty-eight Morley students copied out
11520-604: The American performance, Holst conducted the City of Birmingham Orchestra in the British premiere. The Times acknowledged the bleakness of the work but allowed that it matched Hardy's grim view of the world: " Egdon Heath is not likely to be popular, but it says what the composer wants to say, whether we like it or not, and truth is one aspect of duty." Holst had been distressed by hostile reviews of some of his earlier works, but he
11712-580: The Asian traditions. Theosophy promotes an emanationist cosmology, promoting the belief that the universe is an outward reflection from the Absolute. Theosophy presents the idea that the world as humans perceive it is illusory, or maya , an idea that it draws from Asian religions. Accordingly, Blavatsky taught that a life limited by the perception of this illusory world was ignorant and deluded. According to Blavatsky's teaching, every solar system in
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#173277341505911904-770: The Body ( Rupa ), Vitality ( Prana-Jiva ), the Astral Body ( Linga Sarira ), the Animal Soul ( Kama-Rupa ), the Human Soul ( Manas ), the Spiritual Soul ( Buddhi ), and the Spirit ( Atma ). According to Theosophical teaching, it is the latter three of these components that are immortal, while the other aspects perish following bodily death. Theosophy teaches that the Spiritual Soul and the Spirit do not reside within
12096-531: The Earth as Krishna , a figure from Hinduism. They also said that he had entered Jesus of Nazareth at the time of the latter's baptism , and that henceforth Maitreya would be known as "the Christ". Besant and Leadbeater said that Maitreya would again come to Earth by manifesting through an Indian boy named Jiddu Krishnamurti , whom Leadbeater had encountered playing on a beach at Adyar in 1909. The introduction of
12288-700: The Fraternisation movement. During its first century, Theosophy established itself as an international movement. Campbell believed that from its foundation until 1980, Theosophy had gained tens of thousands of adherents. He noted that in that latter year, there were about 35,000 members of the Adyar-based Theosophical Society (9000 of whom were in India), c. 5,500 members of the Theosophical Society in America, c. 1,500 members of
12480-476: The Hermetic Society, and the Rosicrucian Society. The term was not new; originally it appeared in the works of early Church Fathers , as a synonym for theology . It derives from Ancient Greek : θεός , romanized : theós , lit. 'god' and Ancient Greek : σοφῐ́ᾱ , romanized : sophíā , lit. 'wisdom'; thus meaning "god-wisdom", "divine wisdom", or "wisdom of God". Its esoteric meaning emerged during
12672-502: The Imperial Russian Court in St Petersburg . Matthias's son Gustavus, who moved to England with his parents as a child in 1802, was a composer of salon-style music and a well-known harp teacher. He appropriated the aristocratic prefix "von" and added it to the family name in the hope of gaining enhanced prestige and attracting pupils. Holst's father, Adolph von Holst, became organist and choirmaster at All Saints' Church , Cheltenham; he also taught, and gave piano recitals. His wife, Clara,
12864-535: The Krishnamurti belief into Theosophy has been identified as a millenarian element. According to Theosophy, the purpose of human life is the spiritual emancipation of the soul. The human individual is described as an "Ego" or "Monad" and believed to have emanated from the Solar Deity, to whom it will also eventually return. The human being is presented as composed of seven parts, while operating on three separate planes of being. As presented by Sinnett and often repeated in Theosophical literature, these seven parts are
13056-462: The London Symphony Orchestra in the first two recorded performances: the first was an acoustic recording made in sessions between September 1922 and November 1923; the second was made in 1926 using the new electrical recording process. Holst's tempi are in general faster than those of most of his successors on record. This may have been due to the need to fit the music on 78 rpm discs, although later 78 versions are slower. Holst's later recording
13248-483: The Masters had revealed to him a plot that Olcott was orchestrating to kill her. In 1893, Besant came down on Olcott's side in the argument and backed the internal proceedings that Olcott raised against Judge. A two-stage enquiry took place, which concluded that because the Society took no official stance on whether the Masters existed or not, Judge could not be considered guilty of forgery and would be allowed to retain his position. The details of this trial were leaked to
13440-581: The RCM offered Holst a further year's scholarship, but he felt that he had learned as much as he could there and that it was time, as he put it, to "learn by doing". Some of his compositions were published and performed; the previous year The Times had praised his song "Light Leaves Whisper", "a moderately elaborate composition in six parts, treated with a good deal of expression and poetic feeling". Occasional successes notwithstanding, Holst found that "man cannot live by composition alone"; he took posts as organist at various London churches, and continued playing
13632-448: The RCM were Frederick Sharpe (piano), William Stephenson Hoyte (organ), George Case (trombone), Georges Jacobi (instrumentation) and the director of the college, Hubert Parry (history). After preliminary lessons with W. S. Rockstro and Frederick Bridge , Holst was granted his wish to study composition with Charles Villiers Stanford . To support himself during his studies Holst played the trombone professionally, at seaside resorts in
13824-719: The Rev Conrad Noel , known as the "Red Vicar", who supported the Independent Labour Party and espoused many causes unpopular with conservative opinion. Noel also encouraged the revival of folk-dancing and processionals as part of church ceremonies, innovations which caused controversy among traditionally-minded churchgoers. Holst became an occasional organist and choirmaster at Thaxted Parish Church. He started an annual music festival at Whitsuntide in 1916; students from Morley College and St Paul's Girls' School performed together with local participants. Holst's
14016-521: The SPGS turned out the only women conductors in the world!" In his soundproof room at SPGS he composed the Ode to Death , a setting of a poem by Whitman, which according to Vaughan Williams is considered by many to be Holst's most beautiful choral work. Holst, in his forties, suddenly found himself in demand. The New York Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony Orchestra vied to be the first to play The Planets in
14208-472: The Society was taken over by George Arundale , who led it until 1945; the group's activities were greatly curtailed by World War II . Judge left no clear successor as leader of the Theosophical Society in America, but the position was taken by Katherine Tingley , who said that she remained in mediumistic contact with Judge's spirit. Tingley launched an international campaign to promote her Theosophical group, sending delegations to Europe, Egypt, and India. In
14400-635: The Thaxted choir and to play the church organ on occasion. At the outbreak of the First World War, Holst tried to enlist but was rejected as unfit for military service. He felt frustrated that he could not contribute to the war effort. His wife became a volunteer ambulance driver; Vaughan Williams went on active service to France as did Holst's brother Emil; Holst's friends the composers George Butterworth and Cecil Coles were killed in battle. He continued to teach and compose; he worked on The Planets and prepared his chamber opera Savitri for performance. It
14592-672: The Theosophical Society International (Pasadena), and about 1200 members of the United Lodge of Theosophy. Membership of the Theosophical Society reached its highest peak in 1928, when it had 45,000 members. The HPB Lodge in Auckland, New Zealand, was one of the world's largest, with over 500 members in 1949. Theosophical groups consist largely of individuals as opposed to family groups. Campbell noted that these members were alienated in ways from conventional social roles and practices. As noted by Dixon, in
14784-450: The Theosophical Society raised internal charges against him, although Besant came to his defense. In a move probably designed to limit negative publicity for the Society, they accepted his resignation rather than expelling him. On Olcott's death in 1907, he had nominated Besant to be his successor, and she was then elected to the position with a large majority in June. In her first years as
14976-468: The Theosophical Society was involved in projects connected to a range of progressive political causes. In England, there were strong links between Theosophy and first-wave feminism . Based on a statistical analysis, Dixon noted that prominent English feminists of the period were several hundred times more likely to join the Theosophical Society than was the average member of the country's population. Theosophical contingents took part in feminist marches of
15168-531: The Theosophical movement. The Adyar Society membership later peaked at 40,000 in the late 1920s. The Order of the Star had 30,000 members at its height. Krishnamurti himself repudiated these beliefs, insisting that he was not the World Teacher, and then resigned from the Society; the effect on the society was dramatic, as it lost a third of its membership over the coming few years. Besant died in 1933, when
15360-453: The Theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater said that it was only 200. Theosophy espouses the existence of karma as a system which regulates the cycle of reincarnation, ensuring that an individual's actions in one life affect the circumstances of their next one. This belief therefore seeks to explain why misery and suffering exist in the world, attributing any misfortune that someone suffers as punishment for misdeeds that they perpetrated in
15552-539: The US, lecturing and conducting at the University of Michigan . After he returned he found himself more and more in demand, to conduct, prepare his earlier works for publication, and, as before, to teach. The strain caused by these demands on him was too great; on doctor's orders he cancelled all professional engagements during 1924, and retreated to Thaxted. In 1925 he resumed his work at St Paul's Girls' School, but did not return to any of his other posts. Holst's productivity as
15744-488: The US. The success of that work was followed in 1920 by an enthusiastic reception for The Hymn of Jesus , described in The Observer as "one of the most brilliant and one of the most sincere pieces of choral and orchestral expression heard for some years." The Times called it "undoubtedly the most strikingly original choral work which has been produced in this country for many years." To his surprise and dismay Holst
15936-579: The United States was experiencing challenges in the second half of the nineteenth century, a result of rapid urbanization and industrialization, high rates of immigration, and the growing understanding of evolutionary theory which challenged traditional Christian accounts of history. Various new religious communities were established in different parts of the country, among them the Free Religious Association , New Thought , Christian Science , and Spiritualism . Theosophy would inherit
16128-636: The artists have a sort of masonic signal by which they recognise each other in the crowd." He was invited to conduct the Hammersmith Socialist Choir, teaching them madrigals by Thomas Morley , choruses by Purcell, and works by Mozart , Wagner and himself. One of his choristers was (Emily) Isobel Harrison (1876–1969), a beautiful soprano two years his junior. He fell in love with her; she was at first unimpressed by him, but she came round and they were engaged, though with no immediate prospect of marriage given Holst's tiny income. In 1898
16320-557: The author Clifford Bax . A discussion about astrology piqued Holst's interest in the subject. Clifford Bax later commented that Holst became "a remarkably skilled interpreter of horoscopes". Shortly after the holiday 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". He told Clifford Bax in 1926 that The Planets : ... whether it’s good or bad, grew in my mind slowly—like
16512-414: The beliefs regarding the existence of the Masters are among the weakest made by the movement. Such statements are open to examination and potential refutation, with challenges to the existence of the Masters therefore undermining Theosophical beliefs. The idea of a brotherhood of secret adepts had a long pedigree stretching back several centuries before the foundation of Theosophy; such ideas can be found in
16704-574: The boy's instruction for two years. With Besant, Leadbeater established a group known as the Order of the Star in the East to promote the idea of Krishnamurti as World Teacher. Leadbeater also wanted more ritual within Theosophy, and to achieve this he and J. I. Wedgwood became bishops in the Old Catholic Church . They then split from that to form their own Liberal Catholic Church , which
16896-409: The central largo is one of the last romantic melodies Holst allowed himself before turning to a more austere manner in later works. Leo called the planet "the most fortunate star under which to be born"; Short calls Holst's Venus "one of the most sublime evocations of peace in music". Mercury is in 8 and is marked vivace throughout. The composer R. O. Morris thought it the nearest of
17088-426: The centuries, and that members of this fraternity hold the key to understanding miracles, the afterlife, and psychic phenomena, and that moreover, these adepts themselves have paranormal powers. She stated that this ancient religion would be revived and spread throughout humanity in the future, replacing dominant world religions such as Christianity , Islam , Buddhism , and Hinduism . Theosophy tended to emphasize
17280-481: The character of the movement as that of "a clumsy dance, which gradually gets more and more out of hand (not unlike Dukas's Sorcerer's Apprentice ) until, with what seems like a magic wand, all is abruptly swept away into the far distance". The movement, which begins with what Short calls "a tremendous four-note brass motif", is marked allegro in 4 . The music proceeds in "a series of merry pranks" with occasional interjections in 4 , building to
17472-560: The characteristics the composer attributed to the planets may have been suggested by Alan Leo 's booklet What Is a Horoscope? , which he was reading at the time. Holst took the title of two movements – "Mercury, the Winged Messenger" and "Neptune, the Mystic" – from Leo's books. But although astrology was Holst's starting point, he arranged the planets to suit his own plan: ... ignoring some important astrological factors such as
17664-422: The complete vocal and orchestral parts. There were 1,500 pages of music and it took the students almost eighteen months to copy them out in their spare time. A concert performance of the work was given at The Old Vic , preceded by an introductory talk by Vaughan Williams. The Times praised Holst and his forces for "a most interesting and artistic performance of this very important work". After this success, Holst
17856-452: The composer Edmund Rubbra , who studied under him in the early 1920s, Holst was "a teacher who often came to lessons weighted, not with the learning of Prout and Stainer , but with a miniature score of Petrushka or the then recently published Mass in G minor of Vaughan Williams". He never sought to impose his own ideas on his composition pupils. Rubbra recalled that he would divine a student's difficulties and gently guide him to finding
18048-528: The composition scholarship for that year was won by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor . Holst was accepted as a non-scholarship student, and Adolph borrowed £100 to cover the first year's expenses. Holst left Cheltenham for London in May 1893. Money was tight, and partly from frugality and partly from his own inclination he became a vegetarian and a teetotaller. Two years later he was finally granted a scholarship, which slightly eased his financial difficulties, but he retained his austere personal regime. Holst's professors at
18240-603: The conductorship of the Bourton-on-the-Water Choral Society, which offered no extra remuneration but provided valuable experience that enabled him to hone his conducting skills. In November 1891 Holst gave what was perhaps his first public performance as a pianist; he and his father played the Brahms Hungarian Dances at a concert in Cheltenham. The programme for the event gives his name as "Gustav" rather than "Gustavus"; he
18432-567: The creation of gorillas and chimpanzees . The Atlanteans were decadent and abused their power and knowledge, so Atlantis sank into the sea, although various Atlanteans escaped, and created new societies in Egypt and the Americas. The fifth Root Race to emerge was the Aryans, and was found around the world at the time she was writing. She believed that the fifth Race would come to be replaced by
18624-584: The early Theosophists is "not as obvious as one might think". As used by Olcott, the term "Theosophy" appeared to be applied to an approach that emphasized experimentation as a means of learning about the "Unseen Universe"; conversely, Blavatsky used the term in reference to gnosis regarding said information. Although the writings of prominent Theosophists lay out a set of teachings, the Theosophical Society itself states that it has no official beliefs with which all members must agree. It therefore has doctrine but does not present this as dogma. The Society stated that
18816-472: The extra tone colour and knows how to use it". The score calls for the following instrumentation. The movements vary in the combinations of instruments used. In Neptune, two three-part women's choruses (each comprising two soprano sections and one alto section) located in an adjoining room which is to be screened from the audience are added. Mars is marked allegro and is in a relentless 4 ostinato for most of its duration. It opens quietly,
19008-542: The first Root Race were created from pure spirit, and lived on a continent known as the "Imperishable Sacred Land". The second Root Race, known as the Hyperboreans, were also formed from pure spirit, and lived on a land near to the North Pole , which then had a mild climate. The third lived on the continent of Lemuria , which Blavatsky alleged survives today as Australia and Rapa Nui. Blavatsky alleged that during
19200-516: The first Scottish lodge, in Edinburgh. In 1980, Campbell noted that Theosophical books were selling at record levels. In the United States, Judge had been devoting himself to the promotion of Theosophy with little success. During her lifetime, Blavatsky had suggested to many different people that they would be her successor. Three of the most prominent candidates – Olcott, Judge, and Besant – all met in London shortly after her death to discuss
19392-684: The first two bars played by percussion, harp and col legno strings. The music builds to a quadruple-forte, dissonant climax. Although Mars is often thought to portray the horrors of mechanised warfare, it was completed before the First World War started. The composer Colin Matthews writes that for Holst, Mars would have been "an experiment in rhythm and clashing keys", and its violence in performance "may have surprised him as much as it galvanised its first audiences". Short comments, "harmonic dissonances abound, often resulting from clashes between moving chords and static pedal-points", which he compares to
19584-477: The form of Mesmerism, Swedenborgianism, Freemasonry, and Rosicrucianism, was present. Recent developments in science led by the 1870s to renewed interest in reconciling science and religion. There was present also a hope that Asian religious ideas could be integrated into a grand religious synthesis. — Bruce F. Campbell, 1980 The Theosophical Society was largely the creation of two individuals: Helena Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott. Established Christianity in
19776-519: The former establishment: "Here he did away with the childish sentimentality which schoolgirls were supposed to appreciate and substituted Bach and Vittoria ; a splendid background for immature minds." Several of Holst's pupils at St Paul's went on to distinguished careers, including the soprano Joan Cross and the oboist and cor anglais player Helen Gaskell. Of Holst's impact on Morley College, Vaughan Williams wrote: "[A] bad tradition had to be broken down. The results were at first discouraging, but soon
19968-484: The fourth Round of the Earth, higher beings descended to the planet, with the beginnings of human physical bodies developing, and the sexes separating. At this point, the fourth Root Race appeared, living on the continent of Atlantis ; they had physical bodies but also psychic powers and advanced technology. She said that some Atlanteans were giants, and built such ancient monuments as Stonehenge in southern England, and that they also mated with "she-animals", resulting in
20160-731: The general public in February 1919, critical opinion was divided. Greene prints a summary of reviews of the first four public performances of the suite (or movements from it) in February and November 1919 and October and November 1920. Positive reviews are recorded in 28 of the 37 papers, magazines and journals cited. A small minority of reviewers were particularly hostile, among them those of The Globe ("Noisy and pretentious)"; The Sunday Times ("Pompous, noisy and unalluring"), and The Times ("a great disappointment … elaborately contrived and painful to hear"). The critic in The Saturday Review wrote that Holst evidently regarded
20352-637: The head of the Society, Besant oversaw a dramatic growth in its membership, raising it by 50%, to 23,000. She also oversaw an expansion of the Adyar property, from 27 to 253 acres. Besant was involved in various activist causes, promoting women's rights in India through the Women's Indian Association and helping to establish both the Central Hindu College and a Hindu girls' school. Besant also began
20544-562: The higher self is made; this is then followed by the Vale of Bliss. At this point the human soul can merge into the One. Throughout her writings, Blavatsky made a variety of statements about rebirth and the afterlife, and there is a discrepancy between her earlier and later teachings on the subject. Between the 1870s and c. 1882 , Blavatsky taught a doctrine called "metempsychosis". In Isis Unveiled , Blavatsky stated that on bodily death,
20736-592: The historian Joy Dixon called it an "esoteric religion". More specifically, it is considered a form of occultism. Along with other groups such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn , the Theosophical Society has been seen as part of an "occult revival" that took place in Western countries during the late 19th century. The historian of religion Wouter Hanegraaff noted that Theosophy helped to establish
20928-536: The human body alongside the other components, but that they are connected to it through the human soul. In The Voice of the Silence , Blavatsky said that within each individual human there is an eternal, divine facet, which she referred to as "the Master", the "uncreate", the "inner God", and the "higher self". She promoted the idea that uniting with this "higher self" results in wisdom. In that same book, she compared
21120-567: The human past. Theosophical organizations have maintained the belief that Theosophy should not be labeled a religion; instead, they regard it as a system that embraces what they see as the "essential truth" underlying religion, philosophy, and science. As a result, Theosophical groups allow their members to hold other religious allegiances, resulting in Theosophists who also identify as Christians, Buddhists, or Hindus. Scholars of religion who have studied Theosophy have characterized it as
21312-576: The human soul progresses through more spiritual planes. Two years later, she introduced the idea of reincarnation into Theosophical doctrine, using it to replace her metempsychosis doctrine. In The Secret Doctrine , she stated that the spirit was immortal and would repeatedly incarnate into a new, mortal soul and body on Earth. According to Theosophical teaching, human spirits will always be reborn into human bodies, and not into those of any other life forms. Blavatsky stated that spirits would not be reborn until some time after bodily death, and never during
21504-453: The idea – then popular in the United States – that emphasized the idea of free will and the inevitability of progress , including on a spiritual level. It was also influenced by a growing knowledge about Asian religions in the United States. Prior to her arrival in the United States, Blavatsky had experience with esoteric currents such as Spiritualism. It was through Spiritualism that Blavatsky and Olcott met. In 1884, Olcott established
21696-400: The importance of ancient texts over the popular ritual and custom found within various religious traditions. The Theosophical depiction of Buddhism and Hinduism, however, drew criticism both from practitioners of orthodox Buddhist and Hindu traditions, as well as from Western scholars of these traditions, such as Max Müller , who believed that Theosophists such as Blavatsky were misrepresenting
21888-419: The influence of the sun and the moon, and attributing certain non-astrological qualities to each planet. Nor is the order of movements the same as that of the planets' orbits round the sun; his only criterion being that of maximum musical effectiveness. In an early sketch for the suite Holst listed Mercury as "no. 1", which Greene suggests raises the possibility that the composer's first idea was simply to depict
22080-558: The journalist F. Edmund Garrett , who used them as the basis of his critical book, Isis Very Much Unveiled . Judge then announced that the Masters had informed him that he should take sole control of the Esoteric Section, deposing Besant; she rejected his beliefs. Amid calls from Olcott that Judge should stand down, in April 1895 the American section voted to secede from the main Society. Judge remained its leader, but died within
22272-444: The karmic evolutionary leap to becoming a human in her next incarnation. Theosophy does not express any formal ethical teaching, a situation that generated ambiguity. However, it has expressed and promoted certain values, such as brotherhood and social improvement. During its early years, the Theosophical Society promoted a puritanical attitude toward sexuality, for instance by encouraging chastity even within marriage. By 1911,
22464-680: The late 1920s, before going into decline after the Great Depression. TSA has since been reincorporated as a national section of the global Theosophical Society, which has a global membership of roughly 26,606 across 70 countries, including over 3,550 in the United States. Theosophy played a significant role in bringing knowledge of Eastern religions to the West and encouraging cultural pride in South Asia. Many prominent artists and writers have also been influenced by Theosophical teachings. Theosophy has an international following, and during
22656-732: The late 19th century their chief residence was in the Himalayan kingdom of Tibet . She also said that these Masters were the source of many of her published writings. The Masters are believed to preserve the world's ancient spiritual knowledge, and to represent a Great White Brotherhood or White Lodge which watches over humanity and guides its evolution. Among those whom the early Theosophists believed as Masters were Biblical figures such as Abraham , Moses , Solomon , and Jesus , Asian religious figures such as Gautama Buddha , Confucius , and Laozi , and modern individuals such as Jakob Bohme , Alessandro Cagliostro , and Franz Mesmer . However,
22848-423: The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Theosophical Society "appealed above all to an elite, educated, middle- and upper-middle-class constituency". It was, in her words, "a religion for the 'thinking classes'." Campbell stated that Theosophy attracted "unconventional, liberal-minded Westerners", and according to Dixon they were among those "who constituted themselves as the humanitarian conscience of
23040-510: The latter country they clashed with the Adyar-based Theosophical Society, and were unsuccessful in gaining converts. Her leadership would be challenged by Ernest T. Hargrove in 1898, and when he failed he split to form his own rival group . In 1897, Tingley had established a Theosophical community, Lomaland , at Point Loma in San Diego , California. Various Theosophical writers and artists congregated there, while horticultural development
23232-481: The latter. At the age of twelve he took up the trombone at his father's suggestion, thinking that playing a brass instrument might improve his asthma . Holst was educated at Cheltenham Grammar School between 1886 and 1891. He started composing in or about 1886; inspired by Macaulay 's poem Horatius he began, but soon abandoned, an ambitious setting of the work for chorus and orchestra. His early compositions included piano pieces, organ voluntaries, songs, anthems and
23424-440: The lifetime of the deceased's relatives. Blavatsky taught that on the death of the body, the astral body survives for a time in a state called kama-loka , which she compared to limbo , before also dying. According to this belief, the human then moves into its mental body in a realm called devachan , which she compared to Heaven or paradise . Blavatsky taught that the soul remained in devachan for 1000 to 1500 years, although
23616-517: The lowest note of the double bassoon to the philosophy of Jude the Obscure . In 1949 he wrote of their relationship, "Holst declared that his music was influenced by that of his friend: the converse is certainly true." The year 1895 was also the bicentenary of Henry Purcell , which was marked by various performances including Stanford conducting Dido and Aeneas at the Lyceum Theatre ;
23808-519: The melody of the central section of "Jupiter" for a setting ("Thaxted") of the hymn "I Vow to Thee, My Country" in 1921. The Planets has been taken as an influence by various rock bands , and for film scores such as those for the Star Wars series. There have been numerous references to the suite in popular culture, from films to television and computer games. Theosophy (Blavatskian) As presented by Blavatsky, Theosophy teaches that there
24000-412: The memorial to Thomas Weelkes, his favourite Tudor composer. Bishop George Bell gave the memorial oration at the funeral, and Vaughan Williams conducted music by Holst and himself. Holst's absorption of folksong, not only in the melodic sense but in terms of its simplicity and economy of expression, helped to develop a style that many of his contemporaries, even admirers, found austere and cerebral. This
24192-492: The most prominent Masters to appear in Theosophical literature are Koot Hoomi (sometimes spelled Kuthumi) and Morya , with whom Blavatsky said to be in contact. According to Theosophical belief, the Masters approach those deemed worthy to embark on an apprenticeship or chelaship . The apprentice would then undergo several years of probation, during which they must live a life of physical purity, remaining chaste, abstinent, and indifferent to physical luxury. Blavatsky encouraged
24384-456: The movements to "the domain of programme music pure and simple ... it is essentially pictorial in idea. Mercury is a mere activity whose character is not defined". This movement, the last of the seven to be written, contains Holst's first experiments with bitonality . He juxtaposes melodic fragments in B ♭ major and E major , in a fast-moving scherzo . Solo violin, high-pitched harp, flute and glockenspiel are prominently featured. It
24576-534: The music was "trashy" but thought it had been useful to Holst nonetheless: "To start with, the very worst a trombonist has to put up with is as nothing compared to what a church organist has to endure; and secondly, Holst is above all an orchestral composer, and that sure touch which distinguishes his orchestral writing is due largely to the fact that he has been an orchestral player; he has learnt his art, both technically and in substance, not at second hand from text books and models, but from actual live experience." With
24768-527: The musicologist Richard Greene both think it likely that another inspiration for the composer to write a suite for large orchestra was the example of Schoenberg 's Five Pieces for Orchestra . That suite had been performed in London in 1912 and again in 1914; Holst was at one of the performances, and he is known to have owned a copy of the score. Holst described The Planets as "a series of mood pictures", acting as "foils to one another", with "very little contrast in any one of them". Short writes that some of
24960-407: The need for his students to be self-critical, but Holst and Vaughan Williams became one another's chief critics; each would play his latest composition to the other while still working on it. Vaughan Williams later observed, "What one really learns from an Academy or College is not so much from one's official teachers as from one's fellow-students ... [we discussed] every subject under the sun from
25152-557: The offer of a teaching post at James Allen's Girls' School , Dulwich , which he held until 1921. He also taught at the Passmore Edwards Settlement , where among other innovations he gave the British premieres of two Bach cantatas. The two teaching posts for which he is probably best known were director of music at St Paul's Girls' School , Hammersmith , from 1905 until his death, and director of music at Morley College from 1907 to 1924. Vaughan Williams wrote of
25344-410: The older Christian theosophy movement. The term " Neo-Theosophy " would later be adopted within the modern Theosophical movement itself, where it was used—largely pejoratively—to describe the teachings promoted by Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater by those who opposed their innovations. According to the scholar of religion James A. Santucci, discerning what the term "Theosophy" meant to
25536-503: The only tenet to which all members should subscribe was a commitment "to form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color". This means that there are members of the Theosophical Society who are skeptical about many, or even all, of the Theosophical doctrines, while remaining sympathetic to its basic aim of universal brotherhood. As noted by Santucci, Theosophy
25728-449: The only times when he could really get on with his own work, which is why it took him over two years to finish The Planets " . She added that Holst's chronic neuritis in his right arm was troubling him considerably and he would have found it impossible to complete the 198 pages of the large full score without the help of two colleagues at St Paul's, Vally Lasker and Nora Day, whom he called his "scribes". The first movement to be written
25920-602: The organization. In retaliation, a "Back to Blavatsky" movement emerged within the Society. Its members pejoratively referred to Besant and her followers as practitioners of "Neo-Theosophy", objecting to the Liberal Catholic Church's allegiance to the Pope, and to the prominence that they were according to Besant and Leadbeater's publications. The main benefactor of the disquiet within the Back to Blavatsky movement
26112-482: The period; for instance, a Theosophical group operating under the banner of Universal Co-Freemasonry marched as part of the Women's Coronation Procession in 1911. The Theosophical Society did not prescribe any specific rituals for adherents to practice. However, ritualized practices have been established by various Theosophical groups; one such group is the Liberal Catholic Church . Another
26304-494: The piano difficult. He said that the affected arm was "like a jelly overcharged with electricity". After Holst left school in 1891, Adolph paid for him to spend four months in Oxford studying counterpoint with George Frederick Sims, organist of Merton College . On his return, Holst obtained his first professional appointment, aged seventeen, as organist and choirmaster at Wyck Rissington , Gloucestershire. The post brought with it
26496-513: The piece. In 1903 Adolph von Holst died, leaving a small legacy. Holst and his wife decided, as Imogen later put it, that "as they were always hard up the only thing to do was to spend it all at once on a holiday in Germany". While in Germany, Holst reappraised his professional life, and in 1903 he decided to abandon orchestral playing to concentrate on composition. His earnings as a composer were too little to live on, and two years later he accepted
26688-531: The planets "as objectionable nuisances that he would oust from our orbit if he could". The Times rapidly changed its mind; in July 1919 it called Holst the most intriguing of his compeers and commented, " The Planets still leaves us gasping"; after hearing Holst conduct three of the movements in November 1919 the paper's critic declared the piece "the first music by an Englishman we have heard for some time which
26880-428: The planets in the obvious order, from nearest the sun to the farthest. "However, opening with the more disturbing character of Mars allows a more dramatic and compelling working out of the musical material". Holst had a heavy workload as head of music at St Paul's Girls' School , Hammersmith , and director of music at Morley College , and had limited time for composing. Imogen Holst wrote, "Weekends and holidays were
27072-401: The premiere his colleague Geoffrey Toye said that a bar where the brass play chords of E minor and G ♯ minor together was "going to sound frightful". Holst agreed, and said it had made him shudder when he wrote it down but, "What are you to do when they come like that?" As the movement develops, the orchestra is joined by an offstage female chorus singing a soft wordless line: this
27264-424: The production of images of the Masters. The most important portraits of the Masters to be produced were created in 1884 by Hermann Schmiechen . According to scholar of religion Massimo Introvigne , Schmiechen's images of Morya and Koot Humi gained "semi-canonical status" in the Theosophical community, being regarded as sacred objects rather than simply decorative images. Campbell noted that for non-Theosophists,
27456-453: The progress of the human soul to a transition through three halls; the first was that of ignorance, which is the state of the soul before it understands the need to unite with its higher self. The second is the Hall of Learning, in which the individual becomes aware of other facets of human life but is distracted by an interest in psychic powers. The third is the Hall of Wisdom, in which union with
27648-469: The rest of his life and referred to astrology as his "pet vice". In 1913, St Paul's Girls' School opened a new music wing, and Holst composed St Paul's Suite for the occasion. The new building contained a sound-proof room, handsomely equipped, where he could work undisturbed. Holst and his family moved to a house in Brook Green , very close to the school. For the previous six years they had lived in
27840-417: The same space. According to Blavatsky, evolution occurs on descending and ascending arcs, from the first spiritual globe on to the first mental globe, then from the first astral globe to the first physical globe, and then on from there. She said that there were different levels of evolution, from mineral on to vegetable, animal, human, and then to superhuman or spiritual. Different levels of evolution occur in
28032-424: The same tempo, is in 4 time, as is the broad melody of the middle section, marked andante maestoso , which Holst marks to be taken at half the speed of the opening section. The opening section returns and after a reappearance of the maestoso tune – its expected final cadence unresolved, as in its first appearance – the movement ends with a triple forte quaver chord for the full orchestra. Saturn
28224-540: The scholar of esotericism Wouter J. Hanegraaff distinguished the Blavatskian movement from its older namesake by terming it "modern Theosophy". Followers of Blavatsky's movement are known as Theosophists, while adherents of the older tradition are termed theosophers. Causing some confusion, a few Theosophists – such as C. C. Massey – were also theosophers. In the early years of Blavatsky's movement, some critics referred to it as "Neo-Theosophy" to differentiate it from
28416-515: The score, "This copy is the property of Adrian Boult who first caused the Planets to shine in public and thereby earned the gratitude of Gustav Holst." At a Royal Philharmonic Society concert at the Queen's Hall on 27 February 1919 conducted by Boult, five of the seven movements were played in the order Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Uranus, and Jupiter. It was Boult's decision not to play all seven movements at this concert. Although Holst would have liked
28608-415: The situation. Judge said that he too was in contact with the Masters, and that they had provided him with a message instructing him to co-delegate the Society's Esoteric Section with Besant. Olcott, however, suspected that the notes from the Masters which Judge was producing were forged, exacerbating tensions between them. Besant attempted to act as a bridge between the two men, while Judge informed her that
28800-400: The sixth, which would be heralded by the arrival of Maitreya , a figure from Mahayana Buddhist mythology. She further believed that humanity would eventually develop into the final, seventh Root Race. At this, she stated that humanity will have reached the end of its evolutionary cycle and life will withdraw from the Earth. Lachman suggested that by reading Blavatsky's cosmogonical beliefs as
28992-407: The solution for himself. "I do not recall that Holst added one single note of his own to anything I wrote, but he would suggest—if I agreed!—that, given such and such a phrase, the following one would be better if it took such and such a course; if I did not see this, the point would not be insisted upon ... He frequently took away [because of] his abhorrence of unessentials." As a composer Holst
29184-526: The subject as his friend, he incorporated a number of folk melodies in his own compositions and made several arrangements of folk songs collected by others. The Somerset Rhapsody (1906–07), was written at the suggestion of the folk-song collector Cecil Sharp and made use of tunes that Sharp had noted down. Holst described its performance at the Queen's Hall in 1910 as "my first real success". A few years later Holst became excited by another musical renaissance—the rediscovery of English madrigal composers. Weelkes
29376-431: The subtlest and most original minds of our time. It begins working at a musical problem where most other minds would leave off". Newman compared Holst's harmonic innovations to those of Stravinsky, to the latter's disadvantage, and expressed none of the reservations that qualified his admiration of Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra . There have been at least 80 commercial recordings of The Planets . Holst conducted
29568-588: The suite at a public concert was on 15 November 1920; the London Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Albert Coates . The first complete performance conducted by the composer was on 13 October 1923, with the Queen's Hall Orchestra. The work is scored for a large orchestra. Holst's fellow composer Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote in 1920, "Holst uses a very large orchestra in the Planets not to make his score look impressive, but because he needs
29760-449: The suite to be played complete, Boult's view was that when the public were being presented with a completely new language of this kind, "half an hour of it was as much as they could take in". Imogen Holst recalled that her father "hated incomplete performances of The Planets , though on several occasions he had to agree to conduct three or four movements at Queen's Hall concerts. He particularly disliked having to finish with Jupiter, to make
29952-452: The suite were played were given in 1919 and early 1920. The first complete performance at a public concert was given at the Queen's Hall on 15 November 1920 by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Albert Coates . The innovative nature of Holst's music caused some initial hostility among a minority of critics, but the suite quickly became and has remained popular, influential and widely performed. The composer conducted two recordings of
30144-426: The summer and in London theatres in the winter. His daughter and biographer, Imogen Holst , records that from his fees as a player "he was able to afford the necessities of life: board and lodging, manuscript paper, and tickets for standing room in the gallery at Covent Garden Opera House on Wagner evenings". He secured an occasional engagement in symphony concerts, playing in 1897 under the baton of Richard Strauss at
30336-519: The task of finding words that would be 'clear and dignified' and that would 'lead the listener into another world'". His settings of translations of Sanskrit texts included Sita (1899–1906), a three-act opera based on an episode in the Ramayana (which he eventually entered for a competition for English opera set by the Milan music publisher Tito Ricordi ); Savitri (1908), a chamber opera based on
30528-477: The term Theosophy had been coined by "the Alexandrian philosophers", especially Ammonius Saccas . Blavatsky's Theosophy is not the only movement to use the term "theosophy" and this has resulted in scholarly attempts to differentiate the different currents. Godwin drew a division by referring to Blavatskian Theosophy with a capital letter and older, Boehmian theosophy with a lower-case letter. Alternately,
30720-967: The time between its discovery in 1930 and its downgrading to " dwarf planet " in 2006. The most prominent of these was Matthews's 2000 composition, "Pluto, the Renewer", commissioned by the Hallé Orchestra . Dedicated posthumously to Imogen Holst, it was first performed in Manchester on 11 May 2000, with Kent Nagano conducting. Matthews changed the ending of Neptune slightly so that the movement would segue into Pluto. Matthews's Pluto has been recorded, coupled with Holst's suite, on at least four occasions. Others who have produced versions of Pluto for The Planets include Leonard Bernstein and Jun Nagao . The suite has been adapted for numerous instruments and instrumental combinations, including organ, synthesiser, brass band, and jazz orchestra. Holst used
30912-448: The timpani no percussion is used in this movement except for tubular bells at climactic points. At the beginning, flutes, bassoons and harps play a theme suggesting a ticking clock. A solemn melody is introduced by the trombones (Holst's own main instrument) and taken up by the full orchestra. A development of the ticking theme leads to a clangorous triple forte climax, after which the music dies away and ends quietly. Matthews describes
31104-567: The trombone in theatre orchestras. In 1898 he was appointed first trombonist and répétiteur with the Carl Rosa Opera Company and toured with the Scottish Orchestra . Though a capable rather than a virtuoso player he won the praise of the leading conductor Hans Richter , for whom he played at Covent Garden. His salary was only just enough to live on, and he supplemented it by playing in a popular orchestra called
31296-501: The universe is the expression of what is termed a "Logos" or "Solar Deity". Ranked below this Solar Deity are seven ministers or planetary spirits, with each of these celestial beings being in control of evolution on a particular planet. In The Secret Doctrine , Blavatsky stated that each planet had a sevenfold constitution, known as the "Planetary Chains"; these consist not only of a physical globe but also of two astral bodies, two mental bodies, and two spiritual bodies, all overlapping in
31488-401: The view of Imogen Holst , it has been compromised by its later use as the melody for a solemn patriotic hymn, " I Vow to Thee, My Country "; the musicologist Lewis Foreman comments that the composer did not think of it in those terms, as shown by his own recordings of the movement. The opening section of the movement is marked allegro giocoso , in 4 time. The second theme, at
31680-539: The war neared its end, Holst finally had the prospect of a job that offered him the chance to serve. The music section of the YMCA 's education department needed volunteers to work with British troops stationed in Europe awaiting demobilisation. Morley College and St Paul's Girls' School offered him a year's leave of absence, but there remained one obstacle: the YMCA felt that his surname looked too German to be acceptable in such
31872-406: The work "as uncompromising in its way as Egdon Heath , discovering, in the words of Imogen Holst, 'in the middle of an over-crowded London ... the same tranquillity that he had found in the solitude of Egdon Heath'". The work was unlucky in being premiered at a concert that also featured the London premiere of Walton 's Belshazzar's Feast , by which it was somewhat overshadowed. Holst wrote
32064-535: The work of the Rosicrucians , and was popularized in the fictional literature of Edward Bulwer-Lytton . The idea of having messages conveyed to a medium through spiritually advanced entities had also been popularized at the time of Theosophy's foundation through the Spiritualist movement. According to Blavatsky's teachings, many of the world's religions have their origins in a universal ancient religion,
32256-473: The work profoundly impressed Holst, who over twenty years later confessed to a friend that his search for "the (or a ) musical idiom of the English language" had been inspired "unconsciously" by "hearing the recits in Purcell's Dido ". Another early influence was William Morris . In Vaughan Williams's words, "It was now that Holst discovered the feeling of unity with his fellow men which made him afterwards
32448-500: The work, and it has been recorded at least 80 times subsequently by conductors, choirs and orchestras from the UK and internationally. The Planets was composed over nearly three years, between 1914 and 1917. The work had its origins in March and April 1913, when Gustav Holst and his friend and benefactor Balfour Gardiner holidayed in Spain with the composer Arnold Bax and his brother,
32640-402: The world that will again come to eclipse existing world religions . Theosophy holds a monist position that there exists a single divine Absolute and articulates an emanationist cosmology in which the universe is perceived as outward reflections from this Absolute. The purpose of human life is spiritual emancipation and the human soul undergoes reincarnation upon bodily death according to
32832-411: Was Holst's favourite movement of the suite. Matthews describes it as "a slow processional which rises to a frightening climax before fading away as if into the outer reaches of space". The movement opens as a quiet adagio in 4 and the basic pace remains slow throughout, with short bursts of animato in the first part and a switch to andante in 2 in the later section. Apart from
33024-421: Was Mars in mid-1914, followed by Venus and Jupiter in the latter part of the year, Saturn and Uranus in mid-1915, Neptune later in 1915 and Mercury in early 1916. Holst completed the orchestration during 1917. Just before the Armistice, Gustav Holst burst into my office: "Adrian, the YMCA are sending me to Salonika quite soon and Balfour Gardiner , bless his heart, has given me a parting present consisting of
33216-635: Was a rival group called the United Lodge of Theosophists . One of the most prominent figures to switch allegiance was B. P. Wadia . The United Lodge of Theosophists had been established in Los Angeles in 1909, when it had split from Judge's Theosophical Society in America, seeking to minimize formal organization. It focused on publishing new editions of Blavatsky and Judge's writings, as well as other books, which were usually released anonymously so as to prevent any personality cults developing within
33408-465: Was a schism in the Society, with Judge leading the Theosophical Society in America (TSA) to split from the international organization. Under Judge's successor Katherine Tingley , a Theosophical community named Lomaland was established in San Diego , California. At its height in 1895, there were 102 American branches with nearly 6,000 members. The Adyar -based Society was later taken over by Annie Besant , under whom it grew to its largest extent during
33600-409: Was absorbed in theosophy and not greatly interested in domestic matters. All four of Adolph's sons were subject to what one biographer calls "benign neglect", and Gustav in particular was "not overburdened with attention or understanding, with a weak sight and a weak chest, both neglected—he was 'miserable and scared'." Holst was taught to play the piano and the violin; he enjoyed the former but hated
33792-596: Was all the public could absorb at first hearing, and he gave only five of the seven movements on that occasion. Holst enjoyed his time in Salonica, from where he was able to visit Athens, which greatly impressed him. His musical duties were wide-ranging, and even obliged him on occasion to play the violin in the local orchestra: "it was great fun, but I fear I was not of much use". He returned to England in June 1919. On his return from Greece, Holst resumed his teaching and composing. In addition to his existing work he accepted
33984-423: Was also emphasized. In 1919, the community helped establish a Theosophical University. Longstanding financial problems coupled with an aging population resulted in the Society selling Lomaland in 1942. Meanwhile, Tingley's death in 1929 had resulted in the Theosophical Society in America being taken over by Gottfried de Purucker , who promoted rapprochement with other Theosophical groups in what came to be known as
34176-514: Was an important influence on a number of younger English composers, including Edmund Rubbra , Michael Tippett and Benjamin Britten . Apart from The Planets and a handful of other works, his music was generally neglected until the 1980s, when recordings of much of his output became available. Holst was born in Cheltenham , Gloucestershire, the elder of the two children of Adolph von Holst,
34368-458: Was becoming famous. Celebrity was something wholly foreign to his nature. As the music scholar Byron Adams puts it, "he struggled for the rest of his life to extricate himself from the web of garish publicity, public incomprehension and professional envy woven about him by this unsought-for success." He turned down honours and awards proffered to him, and refused to grant interviews or sign autographs. Holst's comic opera The Perfect Fool (1923)
34560-426: Was called by the shorter version from his early years. In 1892 Holst wrote the music for an operetta in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan , Lansdown Castle, or The Sorcerer of Tewkesbury . The piece was performed at Cheltenham Corn Exchange in February 1893; it was well received and its success encouraged him to persevere with composing. He applied for a scholarship at the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London, but
34752-758: Was commissioned by the New York Symphony Orchestra to write a symphony. Instead, he wrote an orchestral piece Egdon Heath , inspired by Thomas Hardy's Wessex . It was first performed in February 1928, a month after Hardy's death, at a memorial concert. By this time the public's brief enthusiasm for everything Holstian was waning, and the piece was not well received in New York. Olin Downes in The New York Times opined that "the new score seemed long and undistinguished". The day after
34944-413: Was disappointed the following year by the lukewarm reception of his choral work The Cloud Messenger . He again went travelling, accepting an invitation from H. Balfour Gardiner to join him and the brothers Clifford and Arnold Bax in Spain. During this holiday Clifford Bax introduced Holst to astrology , an interest that later inspired his suite The Planets . Holst cast his friends' horoscopes for
35136-655: Was first given in December 1916 by students of the London School of Opera at the Wellington Hall in St John's Wood . It attracted no attention at the time from the main newspapers, though when professionally staged five years later it was greeted as "a perfect little masterpiece." In 1917 he wrote The Hymn of Jesus for chorus and orchestra, a work which remained unperformed until after the war. In 1918, as
35328-544: Was frequently inspired by literature. He set poetry by Thomas Hardy and Robert Bridges and, a particular influence, Walt Whitman , whose words he set in "Dirge for Two Veterans" and The Mystic Trumpeter (1904). He wrote an orchestral Walt Whitman Overture in 1899. While on tour with the Carl Rosa company Holst had read some of Max Müller 's books, which inspired in him a keen interest in Sanskrit texts, particularly
35520-501: Was given on 29 September to an invited audience including Sir Henry Wood and most of the professional musicians in London. Five months later, when Holst was in Greece, Boult introduced The Planets to the general public, at a concert in February 1919; Holst sent him a long letter full of suggestions, but failed to convince him that the suite should be played in full. The conductor believed that about half an hour of such radically new music
35712-403: Was hastily rehearsed; the musicians of the Queen's Hall Orchestra first saw the complicated music only two hours before the performance, and the choir for Neptune was recruited from Holst's students at Morley College and St Paul's Girls' School. It was a comparatively intimate affair, attended by around 250 invited associates, but Holst regarded it as the public premiere, inscribing Boult's copy of
35904-582: Was his favourite of all the Tudor composers, but Byrd also meant much to him. Holst was a keen rambler . He walked extensively in England, Italy, France and Algeria. In 1908 he travelled to Algeria on medical advice as a treatment for asthma and the depression that he suffered after his opera Sita failed to win the Ricordi prize. This trip inspired the suite Beni Mora , which incorporated music he heard in
36096-401: Was independent from the Theosophical Society (Adyar) while retaining an affiliation with it. The Church drew most of its membership from the Society and heavily relied upon its resources. However, in 1919 the Church was marred by police investigations into allegations that six of its priests had engaged in acts of pedophilia and Wedgewood — who was implicated in the allegations — resigned from
36288-448: Was indifferent to critical opinion of Egdon Heath , which he regarded as, in Adams's phrase, his "most perfectly realized composition". Towards the end of his life Holst wrote the Choral Fantasia (1930) and he was commissioned by the BBC to write a piece for military band; the resulting prelude and scherzo Hammersmith was a tribute to the place where he had spent most of his life. The composer and critic Colin Matthews considers
36480-597: Was the founder of a series of Whitsun music festivals, which ran from 1916 for the remainder of his life. Holst's works were played frequently in the early years of the 20th century, but it was not until the international success of The Planets in the years immediately after the First World War that he became a well-known figure. A shy man, he did not welcome this fame, and preferred to be left in peace to compose and teach. In his later years his uncompromising, personal style of composition struck many music lovers as too austere, and his brief popularity declined. Nevertheless, he
36672-410: Was unusual in orchestral works at the time, although Debussy had used the same device in his Nocturnes (1900). The orchestra falls silent and the unaccompanied voices bring the work to a pianissimo conclusion in an uncertain tonality, as a door between the singers and the auditorium is gradually closed. Imogen Holst wrote of the 1918 premiere under Boult: When the music was first introduced to
36864-403: Was widely seen as a satire of Parsifal , though Holst firmly denied it. The piece, with Maggie Teyte in the leading soprano role and Eugene Goossens conducting, was enthusiastically received at its premiere in the Royal Opera House . At a concert in Reading in 1923, Holst slipped and fell, suffering concussion . He seemed to make a good recovery, and he felt up to accepting an invitation to
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