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100 years ago, a symphonic blockbuster was born in London. The planets, by Gustav Holst, created on this date in 1918. The sequel in seven movements, representing planets from our solar system, was sampled, stolen and beloved by Frank Zappa, John Williams, and Hans Zimmer rock and metal bands.
To mark this anniversary, we called on two experts to guide us on an interplanetary journey through Holst's long classic.
First, someone who knows the music: Sakari Oramo, conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, this summer inaugurated the Proms Festival, the largest classical music event in London. The planets. "Work has always exalted me," says Oramo. "Each of the planets has a different orchestration style and that is why it stays interesting all the time for the ear."
Then, someone who knows the real the planets. Heidi Hammel is a planetary astronomer specializing in outer planets and executive vice-president of AURA, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy.
Holst, however, was not an astronomer. He was more than one astrologer; his inspiration came from the personalities of the planets. He gave each of them nicknames (not related to their Roman counterparts) as "Mars: the war bearer" where we begin our planetary journey. Oramo says that Holst drops the big guns in his first explosive move.
March
"Mars is a war machine," says Oramo. "You can refer to Mars as the ancestor of music for movies describing interstellar warfare."
Since we are talking about movies, what about the "Imperial March", perhaps the most recognizable music for which John Williams wrote? Star wars? I played a clip for Oramo while we were discussing Holst's music.
"Yes, Star wars. Oh, I love it! "Oramo said, but is not it a scam of" Mars? "
"I would not call it a scam," Oramo answers. "It's based on the principles Holst created for" Mars. "And all composers steal each other."
(And some get caught.) The Holst Foundation sued Hans Zimmer, an Oscar winner, for writing music like "Mars" in his score for gladiator.)
Venus
The second movement of Holst brings us to "Venus: the bearer of peace". The planet is named after the goddess of love.
"Venus is not at all a place of love," notes our astronomer Hammel. "It's an infernal landscape that melts lead on its surface."
Hellish maybe, but Oramo says his music could not be more opposed to "Mars".
"Venus is beautiful but enigmatic," says Oramo. "The music is particularly beautiful for the winds and the horn.I find that" Venus "is one of the most rewarding movements to lead because it has this fragility and sensitivity."
Mercury
Approaching the sun, we arrive at Mercury, which Holst subtitled "The Winged Messenger".
"Mercury is a very active and dynamic figure," notes Oramo. "It's definitely a creature with wings."
"Something crazy about" Mercury ", Hammel adds, is that even though it's so close to the sun and is simply cooked in the heat of the sun, it has craters, and some of these craters are deep enough to shadows that are cold and have ice in them. "
Jupiter
Gustav Holst planets do not align exactly like the real ones – he jumps the Earth and Pluto, which will be discovered only twelve years later The planets created. So after "Mercury", we move to "Jupiter: The Jollity Bringer".
Jupiter is the giant of our planets – says Hammel, he is so big, it's like a little solar system.
"There are a whole series of moons," she says. "Seventy-nine moons now, it's a lot of moons." In addition, she does not get the whole thing "happy". "I do not think of Jupiter as an old happy soul," she says. "When I listen to these themes, it does not make me think of happy things, I am thinking of greatness, of expansion."
According to Oramo, one of the most important aspects of Holst's "Jupiter" is the large number of songs in orbit around the movement. One of them, a playful melody fed by strings and brass, Oramo calls "rumbustious".
"It's like an elephant in a porcelain store," he says, "very happy to destroy everything and be very happy about it". The song was so catchy that it was diverted by the British rock band Manfred Mann, Earth Band, in 1987.
Saturn
And now, we are approaching outer planets, with "Saturn: the Bearer of old age", where time flows like an old clock. The flutes come and go while Holst gives a theme to the double bass glaciers.
"Saturn's main claim is of course its fantastic ring system," says Hammel. But what are these rings made of? "Sometimes people say it's lost luggage," said Hammel laughing. (This is an astronomer's joke.) In fact, she explains, the rings are particles of dust and ice, some of a size comparable to that of one's own. House.
Uranus
As we leave Saturn now, our next stop is Uranus, the planet that is pronounced in two ways. Hammel says that astronomers pronounce it YER-ah-nuss. (Eighth grade boys can insist on a different syllable.) Holst subtitled his title "The Wizard".
"Doing magic does not necessarily aim for the common good," says Oramo. "It's slightly vulgar, it has this slight malice in the rhythm." Starting with a fanfare of brass and timpani, "Uranus" strolls and finally falls into a clumsy air that ends with a huge glissando on the pipe organ.
Neptune … and beyond
Finally, there is "Neptune: The Mystic". Holst does not finish his cycle as he started, with a big bang. Instead, the music is calm and slow.
"As an astronomer who has studied this planet, this movement is in fact aligned with my mental interpretation of the planet," says Hammel. Neptune is so far from the sun that she says the sun looks like a moderately bright star. "When I listen to the movement, I hear mysticism through," she says. "It's calm, it's very questioning, it's noticeable."
"It's soft music for a big orchestra," says Oramo. "It has a strange halo effect and it glitters rather than shines.Holst uses effects like glissandos harps and celestial characters that float within the chords of the rest of the orchestra."
But Holst's true masterpiece lies in the way he incorporates a feminine, wordless choir behind the scenes halfway through the movement.
"They are here, but they are not there," says Hammel. Like the worlds furthest from our solar system, she says, "they are surrounded by secrecy". Oramo says that it is ethereal, "radiating a strange strange light that is not known to us."
Astrologers equate Neptune with transcendence, myth and hope. The musical version of Holst never really ends. While the choir is slowly moving away, far into the cosmos, it seems to be asking: what else exists?
"We now have the ability to build tools that can look at planets around other stars and tell us if there are any signs of life there," notes Hammel. "We just have to choose to do it, whether we like it or not, it's something that exceeds my salary."
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