That is the 150th start anniversary of English composer, arranger and trainer Gustav Theodore Holst (1874 – 1934). Though greatest identified for his orchestral suite ‘The Planets’ (1918), this yr presents an acceptable alternative to revisit the remainder of his huge oeuvre. That is exactly what is occurring on the ongoing BBC Proms pageant, the annual eight-week summer time pageant of each day orchestral classical music concert events and different occasions within the UK.
One such live performance that I listened to on web radio (and continues to be obtainable for the subsequent two months or so, for these ) featured a very fascinating work by him, his choral epic ‘The Cloud Messenger,’ Opus 30.
Holst performed trombone in theatre orchestras, and was organist in varied church buildings, when he discovered that, as he put it, “man can’t dwell by composition alone.” It was maybe on one such tour that he came across a e-book on Japanese philosophy in Scarborough. In keeping with author and BBC broadcaster Dr. Kate Kennedy, it woke up an curiosity in Indian music that took him to the British Library. Undeterred by the truth that many of the texts have been in Sanskrit, Holst taught himself the language, attending specialised night programs to this finish. This led to the “Indian interval” of his compositional oeuvre, roughly between the years 1901 to 1915. The record of Indian-themed works is lengthy, and ‘The Cloud Messenger’ (1913) is certainly one of them.
Extremely, it acquired its Proms debut solely this yr, greater than a century after it was written, carried out right here by the BBC Symphony Orchestra (which isn’t solely the BBC’s principal broadcast orchestra, but additionally the principal orchestra of the BBC Proms), the BBC Symphony Refrain, and contralto Jess Dandy underneath the baton of principal conductor Sakari Oramo.
The rationale for the lapse is the massive forces wanted for the work. Its fame was additionally tainted by a disastrous premiere in 1913 (by the way, the identical yr as Stravinsky’s riotous ‘Ceremony of Spring’ premiere, though the works are poles aside in each sense). One way or the other, it was forgotten {that a} semi-chorus was wanted to sing the Cloud’s textual content, an excellent second after the work’s nice climax. So the half needed to be sight-read on the evening of the premiere.
‘The Cloud Messenger’ is the English translation of ‘Meghadūta’, a lyric poem written by Kalidas (c. 4th–fifth century CE), thought-about to be one of many biggest Sanskrit poets. The 120-stanza poem is amongst his most well-known works. Within the poem, a yakṣha (nature spirit), who had been banished by his grasp to a distant area in central India for a yr, requests a cloud to take a message of affection to Mount Kailash within the Himalayas the place his loyal spouse awaits his return.
The poem impressed different poets to write down comparable poems (generally known as “messenger-poems”, or Sandesh Kavya) on comparable themes.
As in all the opposite Sanskrit texts that Holst set to music, the English translations, phrase for phrase, are painstakingly his personal. I’ve tried going by means of the Sanskrit textual content for Meghadūta’ on-line, and may recognize the labour and diligence concerned within the activity. It took Holst “seven comfortable years” (his phrases) only for the interpretation.
Holst began writing the music in 1909 and accomplished it the subsequent yr, not a lot earlier than ‘The Planets’ Opus 32, a really totally different work in each respect, (though you’ll be able to hear shades of ‘Neptune’ in the direction of the tip of ‘The cloud Messenger’).
The lukewarm reception to the 1913 premiere of ‘The Cloud Messenger’ tremendously disillusioned Holst. Whilst just lately as 1995, musicologist Alan Edgar Frederic Dickinson, in his e-book ‘Holst’s music: A information’ dismissed ‘The Cloud Messenger’ as an “accumulation of desultory incidents, opportunistic dramatic episodes and ecstatic outpourings” which illustrate the composer’s artistic confusion throughout that interval. Imogen Holst (1907 -1984), the composer’s personal daughter, and likewise a composer, conductor and musicologist in her personal proper, termed the work “a dismal failure.”
However as Kennedy identified within the dialogue aired throughout the interval of this yr’s Promenade live performance, one of many benefits of reappraising composers’ works, notably Holst, is that a few of their output was to date forward of its time then, that it’d even appear modern now.
I discovered the Promenade efficiency so beguiling that I listened to it once more, however this time by following the rating and Holst’ textual content on-line, on IMSLP (Worldwide Music Rating Library Venture, also referred to as the Petrucci Music Library). For these , even in case you can’t learn music notation, you’ll be able to simply comply with the vocal rating on the location.
That is Holst as I’ve by no means heard him earlier than, a ravishing expression of late-romanticism. If all you’ve heard of his works earlier than is ‘The Planets’ and possibly his St. Paul’s suite (opus 29), you’re in for an actual deal with.
I additionally discovered it delightfully ironic that regardless of being Indian, it took my love of western classical music to get so carefully acquainted with the work of one of many biggest Sanskrit poets of antiquity, even when in translation.
Someplace within the early 2000s I discovered myself one Financial institution Vacation weekend in Cheltenham and was happy to search out that Holst’s birthplace residence had been became a museum in 1974. I spent the entire day there. A portion of the Victorian home celebrates his life, whereas one other part offers guests, younger and previous, a hands-n training about life in nineteenth-century England, earlier than electrical energy and the fashionable comforts that got here with it.
But once more, it made me suppose we may and ought to be doing the identical right here, with as an example the homes of Abade Faria or Ángelo da Fonseca, simply to call a few Goa’s well-known figures. Apart from simply having the home open to guests, the Holst Victorian Home (wwwholstvictorianhouse.org.uk) additionally hosts occasions starting from exhibitions, workshops and actions for all ages, e-book teams, nature trails, a lot of that are offered out. Goa has a lot extra to supply than the vacuous hedonism that our authorities appears eager to supply the customer and model Goa: casinos, drug-fuelled raves and Sunburn ‘festivals’.
The Holst Museum has a kiosk the place you’ll be able to scroll by means of his unique scores whereas additionally listening to the music. You can even scroll by means of a few of his scores on their web site. You gained’t (but) discover ‘The Cloud Messenger’ however there’s one other India-themed work: Choral hymn from the ‘RigVeda’ Opus 26. You must marvel on the neatness and accuracy of Holst’s penmanship. Both he had a really regular hand, or he used a ruler for the note-stems and the joined tails of quavers, semiquavers and so forth.
I’ll depart you with the meals for thought supplied by the ultimate traces of textual content of ‘The Cloud Messenger’:
“But who hath perpetual pleasure or sorrow? Our lot doth go now up, now down, just like the rim of a wheel. No craving can shorten the times of my exile that also stay. Let this my message deliver thee consolation to the parched earth.”
This text first appeared in The Navhind Occasions, Goa, India.
