by Gustav Holst

Gustav Holst’s The Planets is an epic, seven-movement orchestral suite that takes listeners on a majestic journey through the solar system. Written over the course of two years, beginning in summer 1914, The Planets is Holst’s most popular work and the piece that gave Holst his fame.  Today’s performance features the fourth movement, “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity.”

The Planets is an astrological (rather than astronomical) exploration, although Holst was also interested in the planets themselves. Each movement relates to its titular god and distinctive character of the god, opening with “Mars, the Bringer of War” and ending with “Neptune, the Mystic.”  That Holst turned to astrology as an inspirational muse is hardly surprising.  Shortly before he began to write The Planets, during a visit to Majorca, Holst became acquainted with astrology, a fascination that would become a lifelong interest.

Other explorations and interests of Holst also played a role in the creation of The Planets. During this period he became fascinated with Hindu philosophy and religious texts, learning Sanskrit to translate works to his own satisfaction. Influences from the works of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, whose music had greatly impressed Holst before he began the composition, and Arnold Schoenberg’s Five Orchestral Pieces are also evident.

Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity

In the preface to The Planets that Holst wrote for the 1920 premiere, the composer advised that the “pieces were suggested by the astrological significance of the planets,” and that the subtitle for each planet should be sufficient to guide the imagination of the listener.  For Jupiter, Holst wrote, “Jupiter brings jollity in the ordinary sense, and also the more ceremonial type of rejoicing associated with religions or national festivities.”

“Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity,” is the most quintessentially British section of The Planets, reflecting Holst’s interest in English folk tunes and later setting of the movement’s hymn tune to the patriotic text, “I Vow to Thee, My Country.” As suggested by the subtitle, the music is unabashedly joyous, projecting Jupiter’s happiness, enthusiasm, and high spirits through energetic melodies.

By Charles Hubert Hastings Parry

In 1916 Hubert Parry (formally, Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry) set words extracted from an obscure poem by William Blake to music, aiming to boost the flagging morale of Britain’s soldiers and citizens brought on by World War I.  Parry’s “Jerusalem” would become one of England’s most beloved and well-known hymns. Sung at sporting events, royal weddings, and other large gatherings, “Jerusalem” serves as an unofficial national anthem for England, recalling in its verses the glories of a “green and pleasant land,” free of war’s scars and destruction.

The all-but-forgotten composer Hubert Parry was nearing the end of his life when he wrote “Jerusalem.”  Two years later, Parry contracted Spanish influenza and died on October 7, 1918.  Although he composed a wealth of musical compositions in many genres, Parry is famous for just two works: "Jerusalem” and the coronation anthem “I was glad.”  Of note, Parry is also hailed as an outstanding teacher, counting among his Royal College of Music pupils Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, and Frank Bridge.

Robert Bridges, poet laureate of the United Kingdom from 1913 to 1930 and a friend of Parry, had commissioned Parry to set the opening verses of Blake’s poem “Milton” to music. (Blake’s  poem was supposedly inspired by the story that as a boy, Jesus traveled with Joseph of Arimathea, a tin merchant, to what is now England: “And did those feet in ancient time).” A literary scholar, Bridges had included Blake’s verse in an anthology of poetry and philosophy he had compiled specifically to boost morale of his compatriots, titled “The Spirit of Man.” The anthology was published in 1916. 

“Jerusalem” was performed for the first time in March 1916 by a 300-member volunteer choir at a “Fight for Right” meeting, registering an immediate success among those in attendance. (“Fight for Right” was a movement established during the war to reinforce British resolve and counteract German propaganda. Music played an important part in its meetings). Other groups and institutions, to include the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Society and Women's Institutes, adopted Parry’s exultant song as their anthem, leading to the immense popularity that “Jerusalem” now enjoys.

Parry had written “Jerusalem” for choir and organ, the setting that was used for the March 2016 performance. Owing to the hymn’s tremendous success, Parry was requested to write an orchestral arrangement, which was used during his lifetime. Sir Edward Elgar, who greatly admired the piece, composed a more opulent arrangement in 1922.  It is Elgar’s arrangement of “Jerusalem” that is most commonly used today.

“Jerusalem” was sung in the 1981 Oscar-winning film “Chariots of Fire.” The film’s title was inspired by a line from Blake’s poem, “Bring me my Chariot of fire.”

EXTRA CREDIT READING:  Our concert’s featured composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, sought to study orchestration with Sir Edward Elgar, but was unsuccessful.  Vaughan Williams subsequently reached out to Maurice Ravel, studying with the French composer in 1908, leading to the two men becoming close friends.  Maurice Ravel later would teach orchestration to George Gershwin.

By Ralph Vaughan Williams

1. Easter

2. I Got Me Flowers

3. Love Bade Me Welcome

4. The Call

5. Antiphon: Let All the World

Timothy Mix, baritone

The collaboration between religious poet George Herbert and Ralph Vaughan Williams that produced “Five Mystical Songs,” a work that explores the soul’s and church’s relations to God, spans three centuries and the Atlantic Ocean.

George Herbert was a 17th century Welsh-born English poet and Anglican priest. The collection of his verses entitled “The Temple: Sacred Poems” was published just after Herbert’s death from tuberculosis in 1633. 

Ralph Vaughan Williams composed “Five Mystical Songs” between 1906-1911, rearranging and adapting Herbert’s poems for his own compositional purposes.  For a three-month period in 1908, Vaughan Williams had studied composition in Paris with composer Maurice Ravel, the influence of which can be heard in “Five Mystical Songs.”  The choral work, written for a baritone, chorus, and orchestra, premiered at the Worcester Three Choirs Festival in 1911.  The baritone soloist features heavily in four of the five songs.

Verses from “The Temple” chosen by Vaughan Williams for his composition depict images of Easter, love, and light.  The joy of the Resurrection is expressed in “Easter,” carried into “I Got Me Flowers,” with the baritone soloist reflecting on the mystery of the Resurrection.  “Love Bade Me Welcome,” at the center of the work, takes the form of a dialogue between the human sinner and God, symbolized through the sacrament of Communion.  “The Call,” with three verses written in triple time, evokes the Trinity, expressing confidence in the presence of divine love.  The climatic final song “Antiphon” bursts out in triumphant praise of “My God and King.”

EXTRA CREDIT READING:  A connection between a 17th century Welsh-born British poet/Anglican priest and a U.S. president may seem to be highly improbable, but it’s a reality. George Herbert Walker Bush inherited his name from a grandfather, who was named after the poet George Herbert.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1875, George Herbert Walker would become a wealthy financier and president of the U.S. Golf Association. He founded the Walker Cup, a golf tournament still played today.

In 1921, Walker's daughter, Dorothy, married an up-and-coming Ohio-born, Yale-educated, St. Louis businessman/banker, Prescott Bush, who joined his father-in-law's banking firm in New York City and in later years, would be elected a United States Senator from Connecticut. When their son was born on June 12th, 1924, Dorothy and Prescott named him after his maternal grandfather. Sixty-four years later, George Herbert Walker Bush would become the 41st President of the United States.

by Ralph Vaughan Williams

1. Agnus Dei

2. Beat! Beat! Drums!

3. Reconciliation

4. Dirge for Two Veterans

5. The Angel of Death

6. O Man Greatly Beloved

Colleen Daly, soprano
Timothy Mix, baritone

Ralph Vaughan Williams’s cantata Dona Nobis Pacem, composed in 1936, sets a variety of texts to music to describe the vast emotions of wartime and give voice to the human plea “Grant us peace.”

To shape his narrative, Vaughan Williams turned to the poetry of Walt Whitman, a political speech, the Bible, and the Latin mass. Lyrics from three Whitman poems, harkening back to the poet’s experiences as a nurse in the American Civil War, appear in Vaughan Williams’s cantata.  In the movement “Angel of Death,” Vaughan Williams borrowed from the speech that orator John Bright delivered to the House of Commons in February 1855 to oppose Britain’s entry into the Crimean War. Interspersed among the words of Whitman and Bright is a collage of Biblical texts, both from ancient prophets and the Gospel of Luke, and text from the Latin mass.

The creation of Dona Nobis Pacem had its origins in a commission from the Huddersfield Choral Society, which wanted a work to celebrate its centenary.  It was the mid-1930s. England’s citizens were in an anxious mood, watching the rise of Hitler and of fascism threaten the western world, with the unimaginable slaughter of World War I still fresh in their minds. Against this backdrop of political unrest, Vaughan Williams created a piece that would reflect his and the public’s agitation with events and feelings about war, warn against violence, and plea for peace. Dona Nobis Pacem, first performed on October 2, 1936, was an immediate success.

“Agnus Dei.” Although Dona Nobis Pacem is in six movements, each movement flows into the next without pause, creating a unified whole.  The work 0pens with the soprano introducing the theme in Latin, which translates to “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.”

“Beat! Beat! Drums!” draws its inspiration from Walt Whitman’s poem “Drum  Taps,”describing how the Civil War violently disrupted the peaceful lives of every American and every aspect of life in the United States. Accompanying Whitman’s text are drums, trumpets, and horns, shattering the quiet of Agnus Dei.

“Reconciliation.” The violence of the second movement fades, moving into a quieter section that sets one of Whitman’s most famous poems, “Reconciliation,” in its entirety.  The baritone soloist, gazing on his fallen enemy in a coffin, recognizes their shared humanity (“a man divine as myself is dead”) and offers a final kiss of forgiveness and reconciliation on the face of the deceased.  The movement ends with the soloist repeating a variation of the opening “Dona Nobis Pacem,” with the drums of war heard again in the distance.

“Dirge for Two Veterans.”  Whitman’s final poem describes a funeral cortege for two soliders, father and son, who have died in battle and are being marched to their double grave. The drums beat out the solemn cadence of a stately funeral procession.  The moonlight offers hope, as the chorus sings “My heart gives you love.”

“The Angel of Death.” The baritone soloist begins the fifth movement by intoning lines from British orator John Bright’s 1855 speech given in opposition to Britain’s entry into the Crimean War, “The Angel of Death has been abroad throughout the land…”  Bright’s words are draped with imagery from the Old Testament—blood above the door protecting the Hebrews from the Angel of Death—followed by foreboding texts from the prophet Jeremiah, fearing that peace itself is dead.  The chorus and soprano intervene with cries for peace, “Dona Nobis Pacem.”

“O Man Greatly Beloved!”  Vaughan Williams compiles a number of New Testament sayings calling for peace, hope, and rejuvenation.  Festive instruments like the tambourine, chimes, and bells make their first appearance, ringing in a sense of optimism to lift the audience out of the depths of war’s despairs.  The work closes as it began, with a prayer to grant us peace, while appealing to humanity’s responsibility to create a more peaceful world.