The Malta Independent on Sunday
Creating The Planets
of the planets was believed to have on those living on Earth. For this reason, Earth is not depicted in the piece.
So ultimately, beyond Holst’s own musical background, the work owes its existence to millennia of astrological beliefs, as well as a chance holiday which spurred the English composer’s interest in the subject.
Wandering stars
While presently, astronomy is treated a proper science and astrology deemed to have no scientific validity, for much of their history, they were effectively different facets of the same academic subject.
Stars have long fascinated man, and numerous ancient cultures across the world have come up with detailed observations of the skies. Often, stars were divided into two categories. The vast majority maintained a constant relative position in the skies, even as they moved across them. Many cultures grouped these stars into constellations, although since these groupings were arbitrary, constellations varied from place to place.
But a handful of “stars” – among the brightest of them all – did not follow this rule, and were seen to change their location relative to other stars over time. The ancient Greeks, who believed that the earth was the centre of the universe and everything revolved around it, called them “wandering stars” or simply “wanderers” – planetai.
The five observable planets were associated with Greek deities, namely Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares, Zeus and Cronus. The Roman equivalents of these deities – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – are still their name in much of the world.
In various cultures, astrologers ascribed meaning to these planets, often that they represented the will of the gods, and in the Greeks’ case, naturally, they represented that of their namesake.
While suggestions that the Earth is just another planet orbiting the sun date back to antiquity, it took the invention of the telescope in the early 17th century to improve people’s understanding of the planets, and also led to the discovery of new ones. Uranus – visible to the naked eye in ideal night skies, but never previously found to be a planet – was discovered in 1781. Neptune was discovered in 1846.
These discoveries may have led to astronomy and astrology diverging, but while interest in astrology waned, astrologers nevertheless took new discoveries on board. Various interpretations of the “new” planets’ significance were made, largely reflecting the period in which they were discovered.
At the 20th century approached, however, astrology underwent a revival, not least through the help of Alan Leo, dubbed the father of modern astrology. Leo incorporated various traditions and beliefs, particularly from the east, and his 1912 book The Art of Synthesis is widely believed to have influenced Holst’s work.
Astrology once more became a popular subject amongst artists and intellectuals, and it is through these circles that Holst developed his own interest.
A fateful holiday
In the years preceding The Planets, Gustav von Holst – he only dropped the Germanic “von” prefix in World War I – often found himself disappointed with the lukewarm reception that his compositions often received.
In 1913, the main source of this disappointment was a mixed reception to The Cloud Messenger, his musical setting of an ancient Sanskrit poem. So when that spring, he accepted an invitation to travel to Majorca with a small group of English artists, Holst was in serious need of cheering up.
The island seems to have done