{"id":16811,"date":"2018-09-30T13:22:29","date_gmt":"2018-09-30T17:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=16811"},"modified":"2018-09-30T13:22:29","modified_gmt":"2018-09-30T17:22:29","slug":"space-music-the-planets-at-100-a-new-suite-of-planets-for-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=16811","title":{"rendered":"Space Music: The Planets at 100 + A new suite of Planets for 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the 100th anniversary of the debut of Gustav Holst’s Planets Suite, Brian Cox compares the actual planets to their personas in the music: Brian Cox on Holst’s Planets then and now – The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n

When The\u00a0Planets<\/a>\u00a0was completed in 1916, little was known about the physical nature of the worlds represented musically by Gustav Holst, and he didn\u2019t care. His focus was on the planets as metaphors for different facets of the psyche; War, Peace, Jollity, Old Age, Messenger, Magician and Mystic. Indeed, Holst wrote parts of the work as stand-alone pieces and co-opted them later.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today we have visited all the planets and our discoveries have replaced their ancient astrological characters. At first sight, this new knowledge might appear to jar with Holst\u2019s work, but this would be a superficial conclusion to draw. The planets have histories far richer than Holst could have imagined and reality delivers more powerful metaphors than myth. Set against what we now know, Holst\u2019s work catalyses new ideas and generates powerful intellectual challenges which enrich and inform important debates in progress today, as art with depth can and perhaps must do.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here is one orchestral rendition of the Suite:<\/p>\n