The Chakra music today emphasizes the sounds from the brass instruments, which correspond best to the Throat Chakra, which is the focus for the Blue Ray of the Holy Spirit. One of my all-time favorite pieces of orchestral music that focuses the brass instruments is the music by composer Gustav Holst, Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity, the Fourth Movement of the Suite of The Planets. This music - and not only Jupiter, but the whole monumental suite of the Planets, -was incredibly popular, and still is today, one of the most performed pieces by symphonies and musicians around the world. Ralph Vaughan Williams, Holsts best friend and fellow composer, once said that The Planets was the perfect equilibrium of Holsts nature--the melodic, precise, and structured, combined with the mystic and unexplainable. Ironically, this success was a bane to Holst himself, feeling that it was very atypical of his composition style, and even to his dying day he had a distasted for this piece due to its great success. The inspiration for the pieces was based on astrology, rather than astronomy, and this explains the lack of a movement for Earth. When Holst started this composition, he told us where this inspiration was coming from: As a rule I only study things that suggest music to me...Recently the character of each planet suggested lots to me. ~Holst To understand the music deeply, please allow me to explain a little about this beautiful piece. The Jupiter planet has the fastest planetary rotation of any in our system of worlds, and Holst exhibited that idea in the first notes. The violin strings were asked to play a tiny 3 note figure in 2/4 time over and over. Listen carefully. Over top of this, you will hear the main theme, syncopated, with 6 horns, and all of the viola and cello sections. In this piece, Holst orchestrates a completely virtuosic use of the timpani, with two sets of timpani arranged in the composition. You can hear them clearly, each one sharing all the notes for this instrument. The piece explodes with different sections throughout, and just as you get used to one, he changes to another completely different time signature. There is the most popular section by most people, which was also matched to the hymn, I Vow to Thee My Country, which emphasizes the violin, the pizzicato playing the cello in the background, the harp, and the brass. I could say for me, it is one of the most exquisite pieces of music ever composed, deeply moving every single time, even if I listen to it over and over and over. This musical suite was completed in 1916, but the orchestral premiere was not conducted until 1918, during the last weeks of World War I, in the Queens Hall, in Langham Place, London, which was Englands premiere concert venue. It was hastily rehearsed; the musicians of the Queens Hall Orchestra first saw the complicated music only two hours before the performance with the financial support of Holsts friend and fellow composer H. Balfour Gardiner. At the request of Gustav Holst, it was conducted by Adrian Boult: Just before the Armistice, Gustav Holst burst into my office: Adrian, the YMCA are sending me to Salonika quite soon and Balfour Gardiner, bless his heart, has given me a parting present consisting of the Queens Hall, full of the Queens Hall Orchestra for the whole of a Sunday morning. So were going to do The Planets, and youve got to conduct. ~ Adrian Boult. For the picture for this link, I am showing you the written note of the musical score given to Boult from Gustav Holst himself. It states, This copy is the property of Adrian Boult, who first cause the Planets to shine in public, and thereby earned the gratitude of Gustave Holst. This performance took place at the BBC Prom Festival, which was first created and performed at the same Queens Hall. Holsts Suite was performed here to commemorate the 75th anniversary of his transition. It features the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by David Atherton. Watch carefully and you will see the many different instruments playing their part in this magnificent piece of music. As always, headphones help a great deal in hearing the detail in all the instruments. Thank you for your kind attention for reading, and I hope this piece becomes all the richer because of it. With Love
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 05:53:17 +0000
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