– GUSTAV HOLST

Gustav Holst and Thaxted — by Imogen Holst

The editor of the Thaxted Bulletin has asked me to write something about my father for the spring of 1974, in celebration of the hundredth anniversary of his birth. His first glimpse of Thaxted was in the winter of 1913, when he was on a five-days walking holiday in north-west Essex. He stayed a night in the ‘Enterprise’ in Town Street and he liked the place so much that he made up his mind to return there. In the following year a friend told him of a cottage belonging to the writer S.L.Bensusan, which was to let Although it poured with rain on the day he and my mother went to see it, they immediately knew that Thaxted was the right place to live, and Monk Street Cottage became our home for a short time.

Unfortunately it was burnt down more than forty years ago and the recent road-widening had destroyed all trace of the garden. The cottage dated from 1614: it had a thatched roof, and open fire-places, and a wonderful view across meadows and willow trees to the church spire in the distance. In the fields beyond our garden we could watch the farmer sowing the seed broadcast. Farm horses moved a leisurely pace between the hedges of what is now (in 1974) the A.130, and there was a carrier’s cart on Wednesday afternoons. Here, in this quietness, my father, who had been rejected by the recruiting authorities as unfit for war service, was able to work at The Planets.

The neighbours were at first suspicious, because our name was then ‘von Holst’. They told the police dramatic stories of the stranger who walked alone for mile after mile. The police, however, merely noted in their report: ‘Many rumours are current about this man, but nothing can be traced against him.’ Meanwhile, my father and Conrad Noel had become friends, and he began helping the singers in the church choir, who spoke of him affectionately as ‘our Mr.Von’.

‘We kept it up at Thaxted about fourteen hours a day,’ my father told a friend, ‘and I realise now why the bible insists on heaven being a place where people sing and go on singing’.

After the unforgettable weekend he wrote several works specially for Thaxted, such as the Festival Chorus Our Church-bells in Thaxted at Whitsuntide say, Come all you good people and put care away, and Tomorrow shall be my dancing day, which he considered his best ‘part-song’. He dedicated this to Conrad Noel. (It is commemorated on one of the Thaxted bells, with the inscription ‘I ring for the General Dance’.

For the past century his music has been adored, quoted, borrowed and pilfered, has been the inspirational compositional source of film music more than any other in the entire canon of classical music. But more importantly for us, Gustav Holst has been our guiding inspiration for music making in Thaxted.

It was once jested to a completely unknown, bespectacled young musician playing trombone deep in the theatre pits at the back of the brass section of the Carl Rosa Opera Company orchestra, that ‘with a name like his, he could go a long way in British music’.

Today, those words of banter would seem to have turned into the greatest understatement uttered during the past century, for that shy young man was indeed Gustavus Theodore von Holst.

History enlightens us that Holst was a humble man, whilst at the same time an extraordinary man and a truly great British composer. His magical Planets Suite, a work he had dreamt of years earlier whilst teaching at St Paul’s Girls’ School, Hammersmith and Morley College was finally completed in the peace and quiet of our town, Thaxted.

The Planets, by far his largest and best loved orchestral work, had its first public performance in London’s Queen’s Hall under the baton of Adrian Boult at the beginning of the twentieth century. His astrological orchestration was described as quite unlike anything else that had been previously composed. Music critics on both sides of the Atlantic became greatly enthused about his complex, yet astonishing score and his fame was established, for Holst had achieved a position that was rare for an Englishman, of becoming a really popular composer.

Holst was also a highly gifted teacher, whose contribution to the development of musical education in our schools is still to this day widely acknowledged, he was the man who put English music to the fore, most especially for us in Thaxted.

Born in the then unfashionable spa resort of Cheltenham in 1874, the Holst family had originally come from Latvia, then part of Russia, although culturally they were German. Gustav’s great- grandfather, Matthias, had met his wife Katherina when he had been a musician at the Imperial Russian Court in St Petersburg. He left Latvia, following its political upheaval, with his young family in the early 19th century and eventually settled in London during very exciting times, as continental musicians were in demand and well paid. Holst’s grandfather, Gustavus Valentin was a composer, harpist and pianist, whilst his father, Adolphus played the piano and the organ and also taught music.

Gustav’s newly-wedded parents, Adolph and Clare moved into 4 Pittville Terrace, now the home of the Holst Birthplace Museum in Cheltenham, just before the birth. With a pedigree to die for, the young Gustav seems to have got off to a difficult start, and was to have a rather sad childhood, firstly losing his mother at the early age of eight, then as a young man found that his poor physical disposition left him feeling weak, his eyesight was poor and he was to suffer from a respiratory disease, something that was to plague him throughout his life. I find it incomprehensible to understand just how one of Britain’s most famous composers emerged from such difficult beginnings.

It must be remembered that the world Holst was born into was a world completely different from our world today: it was before the age of the car, the aeroplane or even electricity, there was neither radio nor gramophone, television or even iPhones. Music-making formed the greater part of entertainment.

Early in his career he was to develop neuritis in his right arm curtailing his original ambition to follow in the family tradition and become a concert pianist. This ailment would necessitate the use of a distinctive grand piano with a specifically built light action. His two most talented and trusted literary assistants, Vally Lasker and Nora Day from St Paul’s School where a great help to Gustav when it came to copying out all his hand written orchestral parts as his composing came to the fore, and as we now know from listening to his Planets Suite, Gustav used every instrument in the orchestra and then a few more besides.

Throughout his life, illness would force him to seek short breaks from work, and with the growing number of conducting and teaching positions he was to accept as his career blossomed he needed to rest more and more. Luckily, one of his passions was walking in the countryside and it was on one of these rambling excursions through Essex that he stumbled across Thaxted, and this is where our never-ending legacy begins, for he was so taken with it’s charms that he vowed to return.

Within a year he had received an offer he could not refuse from one of his literary colleagues. Samual Bensusan: writer, journalist and music critic for the Illustrated London News and Van`ity Fair, and more importantly, one of the Countess of Warwick’s famous circle of literary and theatrical friends who enjoyed the Countess’ hospitality at Easton Lodge. Bensusan’s chronicles of rural life, most especially his portrayals of traditional Essex life and its characters still remain classics. This kind offer gave Holst the chance to escape the hustle and bustle of London and move into a peaceful Monk Street thatched cottage overlooking Thaxted. According to Holst’s daughter Imogen, her father loved working there at weekends and in the school holidays. In her memoirs, she recalls those early days in Thaxted as an extraordinarily quiet place in which to live, and that the family commanded such fine views across the valley towards Thaxted with its magnificent church spire standing proudly in the distance amongst the red-tiled roofs, with only the sound of singing birds and the gentle sighing of the wind in the trees for company.

The workings of the Countess of Warwick were to figure shortly afterwards in Holst’s life and our own, for it was at her command that Conrad Noel had been installed as vicar of Thaxted only a few years earlier, the two famous men were to finally meet face to face as Holst entered the Parish Church he had admired from across the scenic valley.

At the time of entering Thaxted, Holst still held the position of Director of Music at both St Paul’s Girl’s School, Hammersmith and Morley College for Working Men and Women on the Waterloo Road, London. Later he was to receive the great honour of being made a Fellow of the Royal College of Music, where he had studied as a young man and struck up his lifelong friendship with Ralph Vaughan Williams, who was to have a great influence upon both his music and career.

I’ve written before of this very important chance meeting in the Church between Noel and Holst in the Winter Issue No 80 in 2007, so I will not repeat myself, only to say his early teaching experiences gave him the complete understanding of the workings of a choir, which would have put him in good stead as he began the daunting task of grooming Thaxted’s factory and farm workers into a choir of repute that could, and would, proudly stand side by side with the girls of St Paul’s and Morley choirs in our own church during the first Thaxted Whitsun Music Festival in 1916. From these humble musical beginnings; music making and dancing, our unstoppable Festival concert scene and a Church renowned for its excellent musical tradition are now a way of life that we can all enjoy in Thaxted a century later.

A year later, Gustav along with his wife Isobel and young daughter Imogen along with their famous grand piano moved into The Manse in Town Street, then called ‘The Steps’. It was in these new surroundings that Holst would finally find the peace and tranquility that inspired him to utter those famous words, that he was now able to live the life he called ‘that of a real composer’.

It was at this grand house and walled garden in the centre of Thaxted that he would complete his most celebrated work. The Planets Suite, which since its inception has proved one of the most popular works by a British composer, and is now performed throughout the world by both amateur and professional orchestras and its influence on music, especially popular music for television, film scores and now computor games has been gigantic. Statistics state that the number of CDs sold of The Planets place it in the same league as Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, even the piano duet version first played by Lasker and Day has become appealing.

In fact looking through the records of the Festival, even as recent as 2009 Pascal and Ami Roge’ played the same Holst Planets duet for piano. The original copy, which had been lost for decades was found hidden away in a cupboard at St Paul’s School. In fact it was considered a major find within the music world, as it was signed by the composer himself and credited to Vally Lasker and Nora Day, his valued colleagues from the music department mentioned earlier in the article.

Way back in 1914, a young man called Jack Putterill, who was to become vicar of Thaxted many years later, first met and had the privilege of being taught by Holst himself at Morley College. But I’ll let Putterill tell you in his own words, as like his mentor Conrad Noel, he loved writing and I quote from his book. ‘One day I wandered into the magnificent church at Thaxted while the organ was playing. When the organist had finished playing – I think it was something from ‘Parsifal’, of which Holst was very fond – he turned round and with his characteristic smile looked at me through his strong glasses. Hullo, he uttered, what is your name and where do you live? I told him I had a cottage in Thaxted, but that I lived and worked in London. He then asked if I sang and what did I play? When I told him of my interest in music he asked me if I knew Morley College in the Waterloo Road, and could I go there tomorrow night and play in his orchestra. I told him I could, and I did.’

Jack not only joined the orchestra, playing the double bass, but also joined his harmony and composition classes as well as the choir. He explained in his book that as a teacher, Holst was always helpful and encouraging, and when he came across a bad mistake in our work he would turn round from the piano and ask, ‘Did you mean that?’ usually ending up by making some excuse: ‘Ah, well, Palestrina did it on one occasion.’

‘This all led up to a grand Whitsuntide Festival in Thaxted Church’. The very same Whitsun I mentioned earlier when Holst invited his two choirs and orchestra to Thaxted which now included Jack Putterill. Jack was duly ordained and would return to Thaxted as curate under Noel in 1925 and later as vicar in 1942. It was during this period that, Father Jack, as he was known to everyone, helped continue the legacy that Gustav Holst encouraged. In fact Father Jack went on to compose the three-part Mass entitled ‘The Thaxted Mass’ which has been sung in church ever since. His final words on Holst said that ‘Indeed he was a wonderful man, and long to be remembered in his immortal works’.

The true moral of Holst’s story is that although his orchestral suite has been a great public success, The Planets was hard won and born out of a feeling of utter failure and frustration that his earlier works had not been appreciated. Self-doubt, and an inner desire to explore and not accept received opinions, left Holst floundering and questioning the basis of his life. After his monumental opera Sita had just failed to win the prestigious Ricordi prize, you know the old saying, nobody remembers who finished second, he became more and more inconsolable. By 1912 his sense of failure was becoming acute, ‘Beni Mora’ had only a modest success and when his ambitious choral work ‘The Cloud Messenger’ only received a mixed reception he was distraught declaring that ‘I’m fed up with music, especially my own’.

This reaction was understandable, since these titles were some of his major works, most of which are now adored. We must remember, all had to be written on Sundays, after a tiring week teaching at various schools. In addition, we now know that the psychological burden placed of him for being financially beholden to a group of friends who believed in him, must have been enormous. Holst was one of only a few British composers who had no private income.

I believe Thaxted’s Church and its peaceful landscape helped bring Holst strength to continue his work, and it was here that he finally completed his unforgetable manuscript, the original which now rests in Oxford’s Bodleian Library.

Raymond Head, composer, teacher and above all else, a Holst scholar and one of the featured commentators in Tony Palmer’s brilliant film ‘Gustav Holst: In the Bleak Midwinter’, the premier of which I had the pleasure of attending, wrote in his new book entitled ‘New Light on a Famous Work’, that around 1912 Holst began looking seriously at astrology and found a book that had just been published entitled The Art of Synthesis, a most innovative astrological record, a book that is believed to have given Holst the inspiration to compose those picturesque descriptions of each of his seven planetary movements. Whatever his original thoughts were, the Planets are now considered a masterpiece that unleashed a startlingly original piece of music.

So a century later many people still consider Thaxted to be synonymous with music. From my own point of view, I recall as a young chorister singing ‘I Vow to Thee my Country’ on many Remembrance Day services in my local church and I remember my attention was always taken to the top of the music sheet where the uncommon word of ‘Thaxted’ caught my eye along with the composer ‘Gustav Holst’. Holst of course, I knew from my school music lessons, but I had to wait sixty years to put a face on the place, and did what so many people have done, I stayed.

Once here, you quickly realise that Thaxted Church and its music have certainly been inextricably interweaved through the centuries. Although Gustav Holst’s entrance brought more fame to the town, much earlier in the fifteenth century, locally born Robert Wedow became vicar of the Parish Church and had the distinction of becoming the first student to achieve a Bachelor of Music degree at Oxford and he also distinguished himself in literature and the arts. He later held office at St Paul’s and Wells Cathedrals and is in fact now remembered more for his poetry than for any musical compositions. He is still remembered in Thaxted Church by his memorial brass plaque in the Chancel, the only one to have survived the Reformation.

We had to wait another four and a half centuries before Holst found Thaxted, fell in love with the place and within the decade the seeds had been scattered and our musical legacy grew and grew.

I believe the music of Thaxted Church falls into two categories which are closely associated. Firstly there is the music of the Liturgy we sing every Sunday. Each century that passes we seem to add to the rich heritage of English Church Music, even during this passing year we have had the experience of hearing three beautiful new pieces composed especially for our church, one from our Director of Music, Christopher Bayston who wrote a new anthem entitled ‘Soul of the World’ that had its first performance during the re-dedication service of the Lincoln Organ and another from local musician, Jake Walker named ‘The Holy Trinity’, a piece that had been specially commissioned by the Lincoln Organ Restoration Committee and played by celebrated organist Anne Page on the newly restored organ during her wonderful recital.