My essay outline :)

Introduction
“In claiming for Gustav Holst that he is essentially a modern composer, I am from the outset laying myself open to misconstruction” (Vaughan Williams 1920, 181), these were the words of Vaughan Williams on his close friend and fellow composer, Gustav Holst. It is known that English composers generally did not make quite as big an impact on music of the 20th century than its other European composers. The English were still quite conservative in their musical language through the early years of the 20th century. However, with the revival of interest in folk music, the interest of musical ideas and philosophy drawn from oriental traditions as well as inspirations found in early English composers such as Bach and Purcell, English composers started to use these as platforms to create new musical language within a rather traditional framework. One can indeed see the pride the English had in their traditional music, yet embracing and drawing upon the musics of others. Gustav Holst (1874-1934) was no exception. Holst’s other sources of inspiration included astrology, Hindu philosophy and Sanskrit literature. Holst’s interests in folk songs were expressed in his music through the use of modes and asymmetrical rhythmic patterns. Through my analysis of Mars, the Bringer of War from The Planets Op. 32 (1914-1916), I will examine the ways in which Holst still kept to traditional musical forms and structures, yet at the same time creating a musical language that was modern.

Main Points
Like traditional forms, Holst makes use of large-scale tonic-dominant relationship

• But a little different, not so ‘symmetrical’
• Instead of tonic-dominant-tonic arch-like framework, he works within a dominant-tonic-dominant-tonic framework
  

Comments on the general form

• Resembles traditional sonata form
• Mars is the first movement. First movements of symphonies are usually in sonata form. Maybe Holst was drawing inspiration from traditional forms in this way.

Ways in which it resemble the sonata form and ways in which it’s not

• Themes are stated in the exposition and are recapitulated later
• Key centre in these sections are relatively more stable than the development section, which can be said of Mars. Ostinato pedal bass gives them the stability.
• Motifs are more developmental in nature, undergoing transient / variety of keys in the development section
• However, can’t really call it a development section because new material is presented here

Instead of functional harmony and cadences that tell us the key centre of the work, the tonality or key centre is largely established by assertion i.e. by emphasizing a central pitch.

• Ostinato pedal pattern used extensively, characteristic feature
• Emphasizing through rhythmic means
• Changes in keys are abrupt and forced, but listeners become accustomed to the new “key” simply because of the persistent emphasis on the new central pitch

The one example I find that is an exception (i.e. some sense of a cadence felt) is the preceding bars to the recap.

• Ex. 4 of 28/8/2008
• There seems to be a cadential gesture here, like a dominant preparation before the recap, like in traditional forms like sonata form / turnery form, where the dominant preparation anticipates the return to the tonic.
• Sounds like a dominant 13 chord of C major going to an expected I. But there’s the missing root, G note.
• Instead of resolving to C, Holst introduces the persistent ostinato pedal on G, quite against expectations

Instead of working with themes, Holst decides to work with short motives. The 3 motives that occur in Mars are distinct in their own way. However the unifying factor is that they make use of the pitch class set of notes [0 1 6] (Forte name: 3-5)

· Motive 1
o 3-note motif first introduced at the beginning
o Simplest manifestation of [0 1 6]

· Motive 2
o Makes use of the idea of couplets of semitones
o Some references made to mixed modes – C Aeolian and C Lydian modes

· Motive 3
o More tuneful motif
o Semitones expressed in chromatic neighbour notes a feature of this motive
o Intervallic expansions up to a tritone makes reference to the pitch class set

Besides making use of pitches from the pitch class set 3-5 in the form of motives, Holst also makes use of this set of notes in other harmonic ways. Their occurrences represent important structural points in Mars.

• 5 bars before rehearsal mark XI / place where time signature changes to 5/2
  Ab-Db-G chord over C bass, a vertical manifestation of [0 1 6] (Ex. 8)
• Tritone interval is resolved
• Gives the music a sense of finality and resolution, signaling end of piece
• However, not the last time it’s heard
• Final time heard in closing bars, unresolved; just a single bare 5ths, C-G to end

Other relationships involving tritones

• Occurrence of vertical [0 1 6] at the beginning and at the end relate to each other by a tritone. However, their ostinato bass has a dominant-tonic relationship
• Vertical chord spacing in Ex. 8 relates to opening motive (tritone and interval of 4th)

From these examples, I conclude that Holst was very much interested in tonic-dominant relationships as well as tritone relationships.

We’ve seen how pitches and intervals from 3-5 are used both melodically and harmonically. Intervallic expansion seems to be a common device Holst uses to treat his motifs

• Ex. 7 and Ex. 6-1

Conclusion
Through my analysis, I have perhaps learnt something more besides these initial impressions. I used to think that the music of Holst was “modern” and “20th century” just because he used an unusually large orchestra, not only in terms of size but also in terms of the variety of instruments used. The effects that were created in The Planets, such as the two 3-part female choir, which was screened away from the audience in an adjoining room, and the fact that the final bar of Neptune was to be repeated until their voices faded in the distance highlighted how composers were beginning to experiment with sound in their compositions.

(and still under construction)