Mars, the Bringer of War
Venus, the Bringer of Peace
Mercury, the Winged Messenger
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity
Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age
Uranus, the Magician
Neptune, the Mystic

For female chorus (offstage); piccolos I-II, flutes I-IV, alto flute, oboes I-III, English horn, bass oboe, clarinets I-III, bass clarinet, bassoons I-III, contrabassoon; horns I-VI, trumpets I-IV, trombones I-III, tenor tuba, tuba; timpani, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, tam-tam, glockenspiel, chimes; xylophone, celesta; harps I-II, organ; strings
Composed 1914-16; arranged from a work for two pianos
First performed 29 September 1918 by the New Queen’s Hall Orchestra in Queen’s Hall, London, Adrian Boult conducting (this was a private performance given as a present by Balfour Gardiner, a patron of the composer); complete public performance 15 November 1920
Published by Goodwin & Tabb (London, 1921)
Duration about 50 minutes

Holst’s large-scale works before The Planets were not especially successful in their dealing with extended form and were, moreover, highly derivative -thick, one might say, with Wagnerian soup. ( “He had a lot to unlearn,” remarks his daughter Imogen.) It was his developing interest, from 1913, in astrology that appears to have opened new vistas: the contrasting characters of the planets suggested a lucidity of global structure that had so far eluded him. The seven-movement scale of the piece (Pluto was not discovered until 1930, and Earth is not included) is innovative indeed and has few predecessors, although Holst apparently knew Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra . The original manuscript, in fact, bears the title Seven Pieces for Orchestra; here the individual movements are headed not by the planet names but with what became the subtitles (The Bringer of War, etc.) “For instance, Jupiter brings jollity in the ordinary sense,” he told the London press, “and also the more ceremonial type of rejoicing associated with religious or national festivities. Mercury is the symbol of mind.”

In short, the subtitles, more than the planet names, are the key to the composer’s descriptive intent. Mars, with its 5/4 meter and incessant rhythmic motive, and Saturn, with its plodding accompaniment, are the dark movements. Mars is the more forceful, the rhythmic motto an underlying constant that sometimes clashes sharply with the ever-shifting tonality. (The violence of the movement, and the fact that Mars comes at the beginning of the work, was taken by wartime audiences to be commentary on the outbreak of World War I; in fact, it had been sketched before the war began.) The motto never fully relents; even in the contrasting slow section toward the middle of the movement, the snare drum quietly plays a fragmented version of it. Saturn, by contrast, is static and cold. The melodic lines are compressed, and the harmony often approaches monotony as it oscillates between two chords. Slow, careful crescendos keep things from grinding to a halt, and a flirtation with a more animated tempo toward the end offers some respite from the chill.

Mercury, Jupiter, and Uranus are lighter in vein. Mercury is a nimble scherzo reminiscent of Mendelssohn and Berlioz. There is cleverness common to scherzo, including simultaneous subdivision of measures of fast 6/8 into two groups of three and three groups of two ; additionally Holst sometimes complicates the matter by superposing 3/4, where four eighth notes take the space of six. In Jupiter , the flurry of strings at the opening goes on to accompany the strongly syncopated melody. This section is answered, after a pause, with a boisterous music-hall theme. The grand melody of the contrasting section is probably the most famous in the score (and, like the march Pomp and Circumstance, has had words added to it). Uranus is more impish. The four-note motive at the beginning introduces a dry, sardonic figure in the woodwind that goes on to control an exuberant play of the orchestral choirs.

Venus and Neptune are the tranquil movements. In Venus, Holst uses his two harps to great effect as they support a sensuous melodic undulation characterized for the most part by its minimalism. Neptune is the most abstract of Holst’s conceptions, and appears to have made the greatest impression on his audience. The twinkle comes from the use of fast, quiet passagework in the strings and the harps, the arpeggios of the celesta, and the sustained percussion. Toward the end, a female chorus is heard offstage: they repeat the last measure of the work again and again as the stage door is slowly closed. “The sound,” Holst instructs, “is lost in the distance.”

The Planets is scored for monster orchestra, with women’s chorus, organ, huge percussion battery, harps and celesta, and various unusual woodwinds including alto flute and heckelphone (a bass oboe). It is an impractical group to assemble, and thus a live performance of The Planets merits your excitement.