Gustav Holst

4/5

Biography

English compose . He is most famous fo his ochestal suite The Planets. His music was influenced by Indian spiitualism and English folk tunes, and is well known fo unconventional use of mete and haunting melodies. Fathe of AImogen Holst.

  • Real name
  • Gustavus Theodor von Holst
  • Name variations
  • Eduard Holst·G Holst·G. Holst·G. Holsts·G. T. Holst·G.Holsts·G.T. Holst·Gustav Hoist·Gustav Holst !874-1934)·Gustav T. Holst·Gustav T. Holtz·Gustav Theodore Holst·Gustav von Holst·Gustave Holst·Gustavus Theodor Holst·Gustaw H
  • Primary profession
  • Soundtrack·music_department·composer
  • Country
  • United Kingdom
  • Nationality
  • British
  • Gender
  • Male
  • Birth date
  • 21 September 1874
  • Place of birth
  • Cheltenham
  • Death date
  • 1934-05-25
  • Death age
  • 60
  • Place of death
  • London
  • Children
  • Imogen Holst
  • Education
  • Royal College of Music·University College London
  • Knows language
  • English language

Music

Movies

Books

Awards

Trivia

Brother of Ernest Cossart and uncle of Valerie Cossart.

Known for his orchestral suite, The Planets.

Around 1931, Holst was asked to compose music for a film. He attended a conference about the film, which was to be called The Bells , based on a book by J.R. Ware, titled The Polish Jew. The directors wanted Holst to finish the composition within a month so that recording could start. The music was to contain, "a storm prelude, a wedding feast and some dance music", and was to be written for small orchestra. When he was done composing, the recording sessions soon took place. Holst was very disappointed when the directors asked him to make changes in the scores. He became even more upset when he viewed a private screening of the movie and could not hear anything that was recognizable in his music, the recording and speakers both being so poor. The film was scheduled to be released in 1931, but in the end it was sold off to an American company to be premiered in the USA. Mysteriously enough, it was never released and neither the company nor film can found. The scores which Holst composed have also disappeared, and biographer Michael Short writes of Holst, "the only person who could remember them was an official of Associated Sound Films, who remembered a two track sequence in which a brass band and a pipe band, playing their own tunes, marched from different directions and came together.".

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