Where was the composer Gustav Holst born?

He sounds a bit like a Swiss watchmaker but Gustavus Theodore von Holst was assuredly English, born the eldest of two in the Regency spa town of Cheltenham, albeit of Swedish parentage. His father, Adolph von Holst, was an organist and piano teacher, who graced All Saints’, Cheltenham, with his music, and the third successive generation of the family earning a living from music, his mother Clara von Holst, née Lediard, a singer and pianist herself, was more British and the daughter of a Cirencester solicitor, and one time pupil of his older father. 1874 was not a particularly auspicious year; it saw the birth of another composer, the Austrian Arnold Schönberg and the ending of a brief flirtation with republicanism in Spain. The birth of Holst would prove to be perhaps that year’s standout event. Gustav would lose his mother in February 1882 when he was just seven, his father recruiting an aunt to help raise the two boys (brother Emil, a.k.a. ‘Ernest Cossart’, would become a successful film and theatre actor). Adolph remarried in 1885 and had two further children, but neither he, nor his new wife, seemed particularly interested in either their combined brood or domesticity in general. Gustav had every right to regard his upbringing as neglectful. A pupil of Cheltenham Grammar (1886-91), Holst began composing around the time he started there and developed this further with a four month stint in Oxford when he was taught by the organist of Merton College, George Frederick Sims. Aged 17, Holst then became choirmaster and organist at Wyck Rissington (Glos); his first professional role.

Inside the church of St Lawrence in Wyck Rissington (Glos) where the 17 year old Gustav Holst was the organist and choirmaster. It was his first professional role. The organ he played is still in use (Image: Ashley Columbus) Holst would conduct village choirs, including one at Bourton-on-the-Water, before entering the Royal College of Music on a scholarship in 1893. He studied under Charles Villiers Stanford, a composer of the English nationalist school, but an affliction of neuritis in the hand prevented him from pursuing his ambition to be a concert pianist. Instead of this he played first trombone in the Carl Rosa Opera Company and later on would join the Scottish Orchestra, all very necessary as he struggled to make a living solely from composing.

Gustav Holst conducted village choirs including here at Bourton-on-the-Water (Image: Bin im Garten) Holst married Emily Isobel Harrison in 1901, their daughter to be named Imogen, who would also turn out to be a musical whizz, and like her father a musical educator, conductor and composer of folksong arrangements. In 1905 he became music master at St Paul’s Girls’ School, in London (until his death), and in 1907 he was musical director at Morley College, also in London (until 1924). He was a gifted teacher. It took Holst some time to work out his personal style as a composer and to shake off the influence of the likes of Wagner, Richard Strauss and Grieg, plus an early liking for Hindu literature which we can see in the opera ‘Sida’, the ‘opera di camera’, ‘Savitri’, and the ‘Hymns from the Rig-Veda’. He shared the enthusiasm of another Cotswolds boy, Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), for the English folksong tradition which revived in the early-20th century and would inspire his ‘St Paul’s Suite for Strings’ (1913), which is Holst’s other ‘must listen’ piece, aside from his Planets. The two composers became good friends. Holst never really lost the international influence on his work, however, it became conflated with the best traditions of English romanticism. It was during WW1 that Holst became concerned about his German-sounding name prompting a potential backlash, so opted for a shorter version of the name, in the process ditching the very German, aristocratic sounding ‘Von’ (and there was some German blood on his father’s side of the family).

Picture of what is presumably the front cover of sheet music for Holst’s ‘The Planets’ suite; one of 200 copies of the 1921 edition (Image: Goodwin and Tabb Ltd, source – Imogen Holst website).) Clarity and a laudable economy became his traits, demonstrated in his seven-movement suite ‘The Planets’ (1914-17) where each satellite’s astrological associations are translated into musical terms, a revolutionary treatment that saw Holst arrive as a major composer with its international success after WW1, its first public performance having been in 1920. There are seven movements because there were seven known planets at the time (excluding Earth). Six of these represent the astrological influences of the planets; Mars (War), Venus (Peace), Jupiter (Jollity), Uranus (Magic), Saturn (Old Age), and Neptune (Mysticism). Mercury, the Gods’ winged messenger, lauds it in the other movement. Pluto had not yet been discovered but happily there’s no omission from Holst’s perspective as this one had its planetary status downgraded in any case, it being considered too titchy to qualify as a fully-fledged, grown-up planet. Whilst ‘The Planets’ is usually performed as a whole, there’s one movement that’s taken on an alternative life becoming both the hymn, ‘I Vow to Thee my country’ and the theme for the Rugby World Cup. It would be easy to conclude that Holst was classical music’s equivalent of a ‘One Hit Wonder’ because of this one suite’s phenomenal success and enduring appeal. ‘The Hymn of Jesus’ (1917) and his choral setting of Walt Whitman’s ‘Ode to Death’ (1919), however, both benefit from ‘sublime conceptions’. During this successful period he’d also founded a Whitsun music festival, in 1916, which continued to run until his death.

Plaque erected at 4 Clarence Road, Cheltenham on 30th June 1949 ahead of the 75th anniversary of the birth of Gustav Holst (Image: Spudgun67)

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Holst obtained a similar position to that he’d held at Morley College, but this time at Reading College, in 1919. Two comic operas followed, ‘The Perfect Fool’ (1921), and ‘At the Boar’s Head’ (1924), which was thoroughly ‘Falstaffian’, as in Sir John Falstaff in Shakespeare’s ‘Henry IV’ who’s described as an ‘irregular humourist’ in the play’s ‘Dramatis Personae’. Holst was certainly never a one-trick composer and he could go from humour to serious, his extraordinary orchestral piece, ‘Egdon Heath’ (1927), being ‘stark austerity’, a piece of sombre music inspired by Thomas Hardy’s ‘Return of the Native’. Holst’s delicate polytonal essay, ‘Concerto for Two Violins’ (1929), earned him the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gold Medal.

The north-west corner of Grade I Listed All Saints’ Church, Cheltenham. Gustav Holst’s father, Adolph, was the first organist here and continued in this role from 1866-94 (Image: Brian Robert Marshall/Geograph) Gustav Holst died on 25th May 1934, aged 59, and was laid to rest in Chichester Cathedral. It was the year that Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, an ominous moment for those with foresight, whilst it was also a sad time for British music with Holst joined in death by two other greats, Edward Elgar and Frederick Delius. He was a shy man who didn’t altogether welcome the fame that came his way courtesy of ‘The Planets’. He much preferred to be left in peace so that he could enjoy his teaching and composing.

Plaque recording the site of the Cheltenham Grammar School building that was demolished in 1967. Gustav Holst was a past pupil of the school which had been founded by Richard Pate in the 16th century (Image: sleepymyf/Flickr) Holst’s daughter Imogen (1907-84) published his life in 1938, followed by a study (1951). Another study of Holst’s work had been published by E. Rubbra (1947). Asked about his philosophy of composition, Holst came up with the meaningful if slightly cryptic: ‘Never compose anything unless not composing it becomes a positive nuisance to you’. A ‘Classic fM’ Hall of Fame Top 100, published in its ‘The Friendly Guide to Music’ (2006), had Holst’s Cotswold comrade and folk music lover, Vaughan Williams, at no. 1 with ‘The Lark Ascending, however, Holst did make it in to the chart, albeit at no. 31 with ‘The Planets’, which seems a bit mean. In the same book ‘Jupiter’ from ‘The Planets’ was recommended in a ‘Mood Chart’, one designed to raise your blood pressure; it’s not something you can listen to unemotionally. Holst’s birthplace, 4 Clarence Road, Cheltenham, which opened its doors to the public in October 1975, is the only Victorian home in the town that’s open to all comers.