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 Gustav Theodor Holst (1874–1934) Gustav Holst (originally named Gustavus Theodor von Holst) was born in Cheltenham, England to a family of Swedish extraction (by way of Latvia and Russia), and was educated at Cheltenham Grammar School for Boys. His father was the organist at All Saints' Church in Pittville, and his childhood home is now a small museum, devoted partly to Holst, and partly to illustrating local domestic life of the mid 19th century. He grew up in the world of Oscar Wilde, H. G. Wells, Doyle, Gauguin, Monet, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, and Puccini. (He dropped the 'von' from his name in response to anti-German sentiment in England during World War I, making it official by deed poll in 1918). Both he and his sister learned piano from an early age, but Holst, stricken with a nerve condition that affected the movement of his right hand, in adolescence gave up the piano for the trombone, which was less painful to play. He attended the newly founded Royal College of Music in London on a scholarship, studying with Charles V. Stanford, and there he met fellow student and lifelong friend Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose own music was for the most part quite different from Holst’s, but whose praise for his work was abundant. Holst was influenced during these years by socialism, and attended lectures and speeches by Bernard Shaw, with whom he shared a passion for vegetarianism, and William Morris, both of whom were of England’s most outspoken supporters of the socialist movement in England. I
t was also during these years that Holst became interested in Indian mysticism and spirituality, and this interest was to influence his later works, including Sita, a three-act opera based on an episode in the Ramayana, Savitri, a chamber opera based on a tale from the Mahabharata, and Hymns from the Rig Veda, in preparation for which he taught himself basic Sanskrit so that he didn’t have to rely on the ‘substandard’ translations of the day. To earn a living in the era before he had a satisfactory income from his compositions, he played the trombone in a popular orchestra called the 'White Viennese Band', conducted by Stanislas Wurm. The music was cheap and repetitive and not to Holst's liking, and he referred to this kind of work as 'worming' and regarded it as 'criminal'. Fortunately his need to 'worm' came to an end as his compositions became more successful, and his income was given stability by his teaching posts. During these early years he was influenced greatly by the poetry of Walt Whitman, as were many of his contemporaries, and set his words in The Mystic Trumpeter (1904). He also set to music poetry by Thomas Hardy and Robert Bridges. In 1905, Holst was appointed Director of Music at St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, London, where he composed the successful and still popular St Paul's Suite for the school orchestra in 1913. During the first two decades of the 20th century, musical society as a whole, and Holst's friend Vaughan Williams in particular, became interested in old English folksongs, madrigal singers, and Tudor composers. Holst shared in his friend’s admiration for the simplicity and economy of these melodies, and their use in his compositions is one of his music’s most recognizable features.
Holst was an avid rambler. He walked extensively in Italy and France, and had covered nearly every path in England by the time of his death. He also travelled outside the bounds of Europe, heading to French-controlled Algeria in 1906 on doctor's orders as a treatment for asthma and the depression that crippled him after his submission failed to win the Ricordi Prize, a coveted award for competition. His travels in the Arab and Berber land, including an extensive bicycle tour of the Algerian Sahara, inspired the suite Beni Mora, written upon his return. After the lukewarm reception of his choral work The Cloud Messenger in 1912, Holst was again off travelling, financing a trip with fellow composers Balfour Gardiner and brothers Clifford Bax and Arnold Bax to Spain with funds from an anonymous donation. Despite being shy, Holst was fascinated by people and society, and had always believed that the best way to learn about a city was to get lost in it. In Gerona, Catalonia, he often disappeared, only to be found hours later by his friends having abstract debates with local musicians. It was in Spain that Clifford Bax introduced Holst to astrology, a hobby that was to inspire the later Planets suite. He read astrological fortunes until his death, and called his interest in the stars his ‘pet vice’.
Shortly after his return, St Paul’s Girls School opened a new music wing. At around this time (1913), Stravinsky premiered the Rite of Spring, sparking riots in Paris and caustic criticism in London. A year later, Holst first heard Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra, an ‘ultra-modern’ set of five movements employing ‘extreme chromaticism’ (the consistent use of all 12 musical notes). Holst would have certainly been affected by the performance and, although he had earlier lampooned the stranger aspects of modern music (he had a strong sense of humour), the new music of Stravinsky and Schoenberg influenced, if not initially spurred, his work on The Planets. Towards the end of his life, in 1930, Holst was commissioned by the BBC to write a piece for military band, and the resulting Hammersmith was a tribute to the place where he had spent most of his life; a musical expression of the borough which begins with an attempt to recreate the haunting sound of the River Thames sleepily flowing its way. In the following years, Holst grew ill with stomach problems. One of his last compositions, The Brook Green Suite, named after the land on which St Paul’s Girls’ School was built, was performed for the first time a few months before he died of complications following stomach surgery.
Wikipedia
Savitri, ópera de cámara en un acto (1908). I am with thee.
At the Boar's Head, interludio en un acto (1924). Fragmento.
The Wandering Scholar, ópera de cámara en un acto (1929/30). Inicio.
Última edición por Zelenka el 22 May 2014 20:20, editado 2 veces en total
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...interesante el Calamares éste... 
Holst compuso nueve óperas y tres ballets 
la verdad es que en inglés se encuentra información generalmente mas rápido y mas amplia que en espagnol y como solo copio y pego 
De Kalomiris no encontré nada en espagnol 
