Editing Gustav Holst (section)

===Later years===
Holst's productivity as a composer benefited almost at once from his release from other work. His works from this period include the ''[[Choral Symphony (Holst)|Choral Symphony]]'' to words by [[John Keats|Keats]] (a ''Second Choral Symphony'' to words by George Meredith exists only in fragments). A short Shakespearian opera, ''[[At the Boar's Head]]'', followed; neither had the immediate popular appeal of ''[[A Moorside Suite]]'' for brass band of 1928.<ref>Holst, Imogen (1974), pp. 150, 153, 171</ref>

In 1927 Holst was commissioned by the [[New York Symphony Orchestra]] to write a symphony. Instead, he wrote an orchestral piece ''[[Egdon Heath (Holst)|Egdon Heath]]'', inspired by [[Thomas Hardy's Wessex]]. It was first performed in February 1928, a month after Hardy's death, at a memorial concert. By this time the public's brief enthusiasm for everything Holstian was waning,<ref name=h198164/> and the piece was not well received in New York. [[Olin Downes]] in ''[[The New York Times]]'' opined that "the new score seemed long and undistinguished".<ref>{{cite news|last=Downes|first=Olin|title=Music: New York Symphony Orchestra|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1928/02/13/archives/music-new-york-symphony-orchestra.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=13 February 1928|access-date=23 July 2018|archive-date=23 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723064934/https://www.nytimes.com/1928/02/13/archives/music-new-york-symphony-orchestra.html|url-status=live}}{{subscription}}</ref> The day after the American performance, Holst conducted the [[City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra|City of Birmingham Orchestra]] in the British premiere. ''The Times'' acknowledged the bleakness of the work but allowed that it matched Hardy's grim view of the world: "''Egdon Heath'' is not likely to be popular, but it says what the composer wants to say, whether we like it or not, and truth is one aspect of duty."<ref>{{cite news|title=Egdon Heath|newspaper=The Times|date=14 February 1928|page=12}}</ref> Holst had been distressed by hostile reviews of some of his earlier works, but he was indifferent to critical opinion of ''Egdon Heath'', which he regarded as, in Adams's phrase, his "most perfectly realized composition".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Adams|first=Byron|title=Egdon Heath, for Orchestra, Op. 47 by Gustav Holst;|journal=Notes|date=June 1989|volume=45|issue=4|page=850|jstor=941241|doi=10.2307/941241}} {{subscription}}</ref>

Towards the end of his life Holst wrote the ''[[A Choral Fantasia (Holst)|Choral Fantasia]]'' (1930) and he was commissioned by the [[BBC]] to write a piece for military band; the resulting prelude and scherzo ''[[Hammersmith (Holst)|Hammersmith]]'' was a tribute to the place where he had spent most of his life. The composer and critic [[Colin Matthews]] considers the work "as uncompromising in its way as ''Egdon Heath'', discovering, in the words of Imogen Holst, 'in the middle of an over-crowded London&nbsp;... the same tranquillity that he had found in the solitude of Egdon Heath'".<ref name=grove/> The work was unlucky in being premiered at a concert that also featured the London premiere of [[William Walton|Walton]]'s ''[[Belshazzar's Feast (Walton)|Belshazzar's Feast]]'', by which it was somewhat overshadowed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mowat|first=Christopher|year=1998|title=Notes to Naxos CD 8.553696|location=Hong Kong|publisher=Naxos Records|oclc=39462589}}</ref>

Holst wrote a score for a British film, ''[[The Bells (1931 film)|The Bells]]'' (1931), and was amused to be recruited as an extra in a crowd scene.<ref>Holst (1981), p. 80</ref> Both film and score are now lost.<ref>Holst, Imogen (1974), p. 189</ref> He wrote a "jazz band piece" that Imogen later arranged for orchestra as ''Capriccio''.<ref>Holst (1981), p. 78</ref> Having composed operas throughout his life with varying success, Holst found for his last opera, ''[[The Wandering Scholar]]'', what Matthews calls "the right medium for his oblique sense of humour, writing with economy and directness".<ref name=grove/>

[[Harvard University]] offered Holst a lectureship for the first six months of 1932. Arriving via New York he was pleased to be reunited with his brother, Emil, whose acting career under the name of Ernest Cossart had taken him to [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]]; but Holst was dismayed by the continual attentions of press interviewers and photographers. He enjoyed his time at Harvard, but was taken ill while there: a [[duodenal ulcer]] prostrated him for some weeks. He returned to England, joined briefly by his brother for a holiday together in the [[Cotswolds]].<ref>Holst (1981), pp. 78–82</ref> His health declined, and he withdrew further from musical activities. One of his last efforts was to guide the young players of the St Paul's Girls' School orchestra through one of his final compositions, the ''[[Brook Green Suite]]'', in March 1934.<ref>Holst (1981), p. 82</ref>

Holst died in London on 25 May 1934, at the age of 59, of heart failure following an operation on his ulcer.<ref name=grove/> His ashes were interred at [[Chichester Cathedral]] in Sussex, close to the memorial to Thomas Weelkes, his favourite Tudor composer.<ref>Hughes and Van Thal, p. 86</ref> Bishop [[George Bell (bishop)|George Bell]] gave the memorial oration at the funeral, and Vaughan Williams conducted music by Holst and himself.<ref>{{cite news|title=In Memory of Holst|newspaper=The Times|date=25 June 1934|page=11}}</ref>