Editing Gustav Holst (section)

==Music==
{{see also|List of compositions by Gustav Holst}}

===Style===
Holst's absorption of folksong, not only in the melodic sense but in terms of its simplicity and economy of expression,<ref>Short, p. 346</ref> helped to develop a style that many of his contemporaries, even admirers, found austere and cerebral.<ref name=H664>Holst (1980), p. 664</ref><ref name=OCM>{{cite web|last= Kennedy|first= Michael|author-link= Michael Kennedy (music critic)|title= Holst, Gustav|url= http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t114/e3305?q=Gustav+Holst&search=quick&pos=2&_start=1#firsthit|publisher= Oxford Companion to Music Online edition|accessdate= 14 April 2013|archive-date= 20 September 2020|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200920112812/https://www.oxfordreference.com/documentid/acref-9780199579037-e-330521/#firsthit|url-status= live}}{{subscription required}}</ref> This is contrary to the popular identification of Holst with ''The Planets'', which Matthews believes has masked his status as a composer of genuine originality.<ref name=grove/> Against charges of coldness in the music, Imogen cites Holst's characteristic "sweeping modal tunes mov[ing] reassuringly above the steps of a descending bass",<ref name=H664/> while [[Michael Kennedy (music critic)|Michael Kennedy]] points to the 12 [[Humbert Wolfe]] settings of 1929, and the 12 Welsh folksong settings for unaccompanied chorus of 1930–31, as works of true warmth.<ref name=OCM/>

Many of the characteristics that Holst employed — unconventional [[time signatures]], rising and falling scales, [[ostinato]], [[bitonality]] and occasional [[polytonality]] — set him apart from other English composers.<ref name=grove/> Vaughan Williams remarked that Holst always said in his music what he wished to say, directly and concisely; "He was not afraid of being obvious when the occasion demanded, nor did he hesitate to be remote when remoteness expressed his purpose".<ref>Quoted in Short, p. 347</ref> Kennedy has surmised that Holst's economy of style was in part a product of the composer's poor health: "the effort of writing it down compelled an artistic economy which some felt was carried too far".<ref name=OCM/> However, as an experienced instrumentalist and orchestra member, Holst understood music from the standpoint of his players and made sure that, however challenging, their parts were always practicable.<ref name=Short336/> According to his pupil [[Jane Joseph]], Holst fostered in performance "a spirit of practical comradeship&nbsp;... none could know better than he the boredom possible to a professional player, and the music that rendered boredom impossible".<ref>Gibbs, p. 25</ref>

===Early works===
Although Holst wrote a large number of works—particularly songs—during his student days and early adulthood, almost everything he wrote before 1904 he later classified as derivative "early horrors".<ref name=grove/><ref name=H661>Holst (1980), p. 661</ref> Nevertheless, the composer and critic Colin Matthews recognises even in these apprentice works an "instinctive orchestral flair".<ref name=grove/> Of the few pieces from this period which demonstrate some originality, Matthews pinpoints the G minor String Trio of 1894 (unperformed until 1974) as the first underivative work produced by Holst.<ref name=Matthews84>{{cite journal|author-link= Colin Matthews|last= Matthews|first= Colin|title= Some Unknown Holst| jstor= 961565|work=[[The Musical Times]]|volume= 125|issue= 1695|pages= 269–272|date= May 1984|doi=10.2307/961565}}</ref> Matthews and Imogen Holst each highlight the "Elegy" movement in ''The Cotswold Symphony'' (1899–1900) as among the more accomplished of the apprentice works, and Imogen discerns glimpses of her father's real self in the 1899 ''Suite de ballet'' and the ''Ave Maria'' of 1900. She and Matthews have asserted that Holst found his genuine voice in his setting of Whitman's verses, ''The Mystic Trumpeter'' (1904), in which the trumpet calls that characterise Mars in ''The Planets'' are briefly anticipated.<ref name=grove/><ref name=H661/> In this work, Holst first employs the technique of bitonality—the use of two keys simultaneously.<ref name=dnb/>

===Experimental years===
At the beginning of the 20th century, according to Matthews, it appeared that Holst might follow [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]] into late [[Romantic music|Romanticism]]. Instead, as Holst recognised afterwards, his encounter with Purcell's ''Dido and Aeneas'' prompted his searching for a "musical idiom of the English language";<ref name=GHolstWhit23/> the folksong revival became a further catalyst for Holst to seek inspiration from other sources during the first decade or so of the new century.<ref name=grove/>

====Indian period====
Holst's interest in Indian mythology, shared by many of his contemporaries, first became musically evident in the opera ''Sita'' (1901–06).<ref name=H1>{{cite journal|last=Head|first=Raymond|title=Holst and India (I): 'Maya' to 'Sita'|jstor=944947|journal=Tempo|issue=158|date=September 1986|pages=2–7}} {{subscription}}</ref> During the opera's long gestation, Holst worked on other Indian-themed pieces. These included ''Maya'' (1901) for violin and piano, regarded by the composer and writer Raymond Head as "an insipid salon-piece whose musical language is dangerously close to [[Michael Maybrick|Stephen Adams]]".<ref name=H1/>{{refn|"Stephen Adams" was the assumed name of [[Michael Maybrick]], a British composer of Victorian sentimental ballads, the best known of which is "[[The Holy City (song)|The Holy City]]".<ref>{{cite web|title= Maybrick, Michael|url= http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t237/e6647|publisher= Oxford Dictionary of Music Online edition|accessdate= 6 April 2013|archive-date= 20 June 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210620115625/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199578108.001.0001/acref-9780199578108|url-status= live}}{{subscription}}</ref>|group=n}} Then, through Vaughan Williams, Holst discovered and became an admirer of the music of [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]],<ref name=HolstEB>{{Britannica|269664}}</ref> whom he considered a "model of purity" on the level with Haydn,<ref>Short, p. 61</ref> another composer he greatly admired.<ref>Short, p. 105</ref>

The combined influence of Ravel, [[Hindu]] spiritualism and English folk tunes<ref name=HolstEB/> enabled Holst to get beyond the once all-consuming influences of Wagner and Richard Strauss and to forge his own style. Imogen Holst has acknowledged Holst's own suggestion (written to Vaughan Williams): "[O]ne ought to follow Wagner until he leads you to fresh things". She notes that although much of his grand opera, ''Sita'', is "'good old Wagnerian bawling'&nbsp;... towards the end a change comes over the music, and the beautifully calm phrases of the hidden chorus representing the Voice of the Earth are in Holst's own language."<ref>Holst (1986), p. 134</ref>

According to Rubbra, the publication in 1911 of Holst's Rig Veda Hymns was a landmark event in the composer's development: "Before this, Holst's music had, indeed, shown the clarity of utterance which has always been his characteristic, but harmonically there was little to single him out as an important figure in modern music."<ref name=r30>Rubbra, p. 30</ref> Dickinson describes these [[Vedas|vedic]] settings as pictorial rather than religious; although the quality is variable the sacred texts clearly "touched vital springs in the composer's imagination".<ref>Dickinson (1995), pp. 7–9</ref> While the music of Holst's Indian verse settings remained generally western in character, in some of the vedic settings he experimented with Indian ''raga'' (scales).<ref name=H2>{{cite journal|last=Head|first=Raymond|title=Holst and India (II)|jstor=944789|journal=Tempo|issue=160|date=March 1987|pages=27–36}} {{subscription}}</ref>

The chamber opera ''[[Savitri (opera)|Savitri]]'' (1908) is written for three solo voices, a small hidden female chorus, and an instrumental combination of two flutes, a cor anglais and a double string quartet.<ref name=H3>{{cite journal|last= Head|first= Raymond|title= Holst and India (III)|jstor= 945908|journal= Tempo|issue= 166|date= September 1988|pages= 35–40}} {{subscription}}</ref> The music critic [[John Warrack]] comments on the "extraordinary expressive subtlety" with which Holst deploys the sparse forces: "...&nbsp;[T]he two unaccompanied vocal lines opening the work skilfully convey the relationship between Death, steadily advancing through the forest, and Savitri, her frightened answers fluttering round him, unable to escape his harmonic pull."<ref name=dnb/> Head describes the work as unique in its time for its compact intimacy, and considers it Holst's most successful attempt to end the domination of Wagnerian [[chromaticism]] in his music.<ref name=H3/> Dickinson considers it a significant step, "not towards opera, but towards an idiomatic pursuit of [Holst's] vision".<ref name=D20>Dickinson (1995), p. 20</ref> Of the Kālidāsa texts, Dickinson dismisses ''The Cloud Messenger'' (1910–12) as an "accumulation of desultory incidents, opportunistic dramatic episodes and ecstatic outpourings" which illustrate the composer's creative confusion during that period; the ''Two Eastern Pictures'' (1911), in Dickinson's view, provide "a more memorable final impression of Kālidāsa".<ref name=D20/>

====Folksong and other influences====
Holst's settings of Indian texts formed only a part of his compositional output in the period 1900 to 1914. A highly significant factor in his musical development was the English folksong revival, evident in the orchestral suite ''A Somerset Rhapsody'' (1906–07), a work that was originally to be based around eleven folksong themes; this was later reduced to four.<ref name=D192>Dickinson (1995), p. 192</ref> Observing the work's kinship with Vaughan Williams's ''Norfolk Rhapsody'', Dickinson remarks that, with its firm overall structure, Holst's composition "rises beyond the level of&nbsp;... a song-selection".<ref>Dickinson (1995), pp. 110–111</ref> Imogen acknowledges that Holst's discovery of English folksongs "transformed his orchestral writing", and that the composition of ''A Somerset Rhapsody'' did much to banish the chromaticisms that had dominated his early compositions.<ref name=H661/> In the ''Two Songs without Words'' of 1906, Holst showed that he could create his own original music using the folk idiom.<ref>Short, p. 65</ref> An orchestral folksong fantasy ''Songs of the West'', also written in 1906, was withdrawn by the composer and never published, although it emerged in the 1980s in the form of an arrangement for wind band by [[James Curnow]].<ref>Dickinson (1995), pp. 192–193</ref>
{{listen|type=music
|filename=Holst First Suite March.ogg
|title=March from Holst's First Suite in E-flat for Military Band
|description=Performed by the U.S. Marine Band}}
In the years before the First World War, Holst composed in a variety of genres. Matthews considers the evocation of a North African town in the ''[[Beni Mora]]'' suite of 1908 the composer's most individual work to that date; the third movement gives a preview of [[Minimal music|minimalism]] in its constant repetition of a four-bar theme. Holst wrote two suites for military band, in [[First Suite in E-flat for Military Band|E flat (1909)]] and [[Second Suite in F for Military Band|F major (1911)]] respectively, the first of which became and remains a brass-band staple.<ref name=grove/> This piece, a highly original and substantial musical work, was a signal departure from what Short describes as "the usual transcriptions and operatic selections which pervaded the band repertoire".<ref>Short, p. 82</ref> Also in 1911 he wrote ''Hecuba's Lament'', a setting of [[Gilbert Murray]]'s translation from [[Euripides]] built on a seven-beat refrain designed, says Dickinson, to represent [[Hecuba]]'s defiance of divine wrath.<ref>Dickinson (1995), p. 22</ref> In 1912 Holst composed two psalm settings, in which he experimented with [[plainsong]];<ref name=H662>Holst (1980), p. 662</ref> the same year saw the enduringly popular ''St Paul's Suite'' (a "gay but retrogressive" piece according to Dickinson),<ref>Dickinson (1995), p. 167</ref> and the failure of his large scale orchestral work ''Phantastes''.<ref name=grove/>

===Full flowering===
====''The Planets''====
{{Main|The Planets}}
[[File:Holst-Planets-Saturn-score.jpg|thumb|The opening of "Saturn", the fifth movement of ''The Planets'']]
Holst conceived the idea of ''The Planets'' in 1913, partly as a result of his interest in astrology,{{refn|Holst was reading [[Alan Leo]]'s booklet ''What is a Horoscope?'' at the time.<ref>Short, p. 122</ref>|group=n}} and also from his determination, despite the failure of ''Phantastes'', to produce a large-scale orchestral work.<ref name=dnb/> The chosen format may have been influenced by Schoenberg's [[Five Pieces for Orchestra|''Fünf Orchesterstücke'']], and shares something of the aesthetic, Matthews suggests, of [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]]'s ''[[Nocturnes (Debussy)|Nocturnes]]'' or ''[[La mer (Debussy)|La mer]]''.<ref name=grove/><ref>Dickinson (1995), p. 169</ref> Holst began composing ''The Planets'' in 1914; the movements appeared not quite in their final sequence; "Mars" was the first to be written, followed by "Venus" and "Jupiter". "Saturn", "Uranus" and "Neptune" were all composed during 1915, and "Mercury" was completed in 1916.<ref name=grove/>

Each planet is represented with a distinct character; Dickinson observes that "no planet borrows colour from another".<ref>Dickinson (1995), p. 168</ref> In "Mars", a persistent, uneven [[Cell (music)|rhythmic cell]] consisting of five beats, combined with trumpet calls and harmonic dissonance provides battle music which Short asserts is unique in its expression of violence and sheer terror, "...&nbsp;Holst's intention being to portray the reality of warfare rather than to glorify deeds of heroism".<ref>Short, p. 123</ref> In "Venus", Holst incorporated music from an abandoned vocal work, ''A Vigil of Pentecost'', to provide the opening; the prevalent mood within the movement is of peaceful resignation and nostalgia.<ref name=Matthews84/><ref>Short, pp. 126–127</ref> "Mercury" is dominated by uneven metres and rapid changes of theme, to represent the speedy flight of the winged messenger.<ref>Dickinson (1995), pp. 121–122</ref> "Jupiter" is renowned for its central melody, "[[Thaxted (tune)|Thaxted]]", in Dickinson's view "a fantastic relaxation in which many retain a far from sneaking delight".<ref name=Dickinson123>Dickinson (1995), pp. 123–124</ref> Dickinson and other critics have decried the later use of the tune in the patriotic hymn "[[I Vow to Thee, My Country]]"—despite Holst's full complicity.<ref name=dnb/><ref name=Dickinson123/>{{refn|Alan Gibbs, who edited Dickinson's book, remarks in a footnote that, perhaps fortunately, neither Dickinson nor Imogen was alive to hear the "deplorable 1990s version" of the Jupiter tune, sung as an anthem at the Rugby World Cup.<ref name=Dickinson123/>|group=n}}

For "Saturn", Holst again used a previously composed vocal piece, ''Dirge and Hymeneal'', as the basis for the movement, where repeated chords represent the relentless approach of old age.<ref>Short, pp. 128–129</ref> "Uranus", which follows, has elements of [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]]'s ''[[Symphonie fantastique]]'' and [[Paul Dukas|Dukas]]'s ''[[The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Dukas)|The Sorcerer's Apprentice]]'', in its depiction of the magician who "disappears in a whiff of smoke as the sonic impetus of the movement diminishes from [[Dynamics (music)#Dynamic markings|fff to ppp]] in the space of a few bars".<ref>Short, pp. 130–131</ref> "Neptune", the final movement, concludes with a wordless female chorus gradually receding, an effect which Warrack likens to "unresolved timelessness&nbsp;... never ending, since space does not end, but drifting away into eternal silence".<ref name=dnb/> Apart from his concession with "I Vow to Thee..."', Holst insisted on the unity of the whole work, and opposed the performance of individual movements.<ref name=dnb/> Nevertheless, Imogen wrote that the piece had "suffered from being quoted in snippets as background music".<ref name=H663>Holst (1980), p. 663</ref>

====Maturity====
[[File:Holst-by-rothenstein-1920.jpg|left|thumb|upright=0.6|alt=pencil drawing of Holst in middle age|Holst drawn by [[William Rothenstein]], 1920]]
During and after the composition of ''The Planets'', Holst wrote or arranged numerous vocal and choral works, many of them for the wartime Thaxted Whitsun Festivals, 1916–18. They include the ''Six Choral Folksongs'' of 1916, based on [[West Country]] tunes, of which "Swansea Town", with its "sophisticated tone", is deemed by Dickinson to be the most memorable.<ref>Dickinson (1995), pp. 96—97</ref> Holst downplayed such music as "a limited form of art" in which "mannerisms are almost inevitable";<ref>Short, p. 137</ref> the composer Alan Gibbs, however, believes Holst's set at least equal to Vaughan Williams's ''Five English Folk Songs'' of 1913.<ref>Gibbs, p. 128</ref>

Holst's first major work after ''The Planets'' was ''[[The Hymn of Jesus]]'', completed in 1917. The words are from a [[Gnosticism|Gnostic]] text, the apocryphal [[Acts of John#Section B|Acts of John]], using a translation from the Greek which Holst prepared with assistance from Clifford Bax and Jane Joseph.<ref>Dickinson (1995), p. 25</ref> Head comments on the innovative character of the ''Hymn'': "At a stroke Holst had cast aside the Victorian and Edwardian sentimental oratorio, and created the precursor of the kind of works that [[John Tavener]], for example, was to write in the 1970s".<ref name=Hymn>{{cite journal|last= Head|first= Raymond|title= The Hymn of Jesus: Holst's Gnostic Exploration of Time and Space|jstor= 946668|journal= Tempo|issue= 209|date= July 1999|pages= 7–13}}</ref> Matthews has written that the ''Hymn''{{'}}s "ecstatic" quality is matched in English music "perhaps only by Tippett's ''The Vision of Saint Augustine''";<ref name=grove/> the musical elements include plainsong, two choirs distanced from each other to emphasise dialogue, dance episodes and "explosive chordal dislocations".<ref name=Hymn/>

In the ''Ode to Death'' (1918–19), the quiet, resigned mood is seen by Matthews as an "abrupt volte-face" after the life-enhancing spirituality of the ''Hymn''.<ref name=grove/> Warrack refers to its aloof tranquillity;<ref name=dnb/> Imogen Holst believed the ''Ode'' expressed Holst's private attitude to death.<ref name=H663/> The piece has rarely been performed since its premiere in 1922, although the composer [[Ernest Walker (composer)|Ernest Walker]] thought it was Holst's finest work to that date.<ref>Dickinson (1995), p. 36</ref>

The influential critic [[Ernest Newman]] considered ''The Perfect Fool'' "the best of modern British operas",<ref>{{cite news|last=Newman|first=Ernest|title=The Week in Music|newspaper=The Manchester Guardian|date=30 August 1923|page=5}}</ref> but its unusually short length (about an hour) and parodic, whimsical nature—described by ''The Times'' as "a brilliant puzzle"—put it outside the operatic mainstream.<ref name=timespf>{{cite news|title=The Perfect Fool|newspaper=The Times|date=15 May 1923|page=12}}</ref> Only the ballet music from the opera, which ''The Times'' called "the most brilliant thing in a work glittering with brilliant moments", has been regularly performed since 1923.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Unfamiliar Holst|newspaper=The Times|date=11 December 1956|page=5}}</ref> Holst's libretto attracted much criticism, although [[Edwin Evans (music critic)|Edwin Evans]] remarked on the rare treat in opera of being able to hear the words being sung.<ref>Short, p. 214</ref>

===Later works===
[[File:Moritz Retzsch Henry IV part 1 act 2 sc 4.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|"Boar's Head" scene from ''Henry IV, Part 1'' (1853 outline)]]
Before his enforced rest in 1924, Holst demonstrated a new interest in [[counterpoint]], in his ''[[A Fugal Overture|Fugal Overture]]'' of 1922 for full orchestra and the [[Neoclassicism (music)|neo-classical]]'' [[A Fugal Concerto|Fugal Concerto]]'' of 1923, for flute, oboe and strings.<ref name=grove/> In his final decade he mixed song settings and minor pieces with major works and occasional new departures; the 1925 [[Terzetto for flute, oboe and viola|''Terzetto'' for flute, viola and oboe]], each instrument playing in a different key, is cited by Imogen as Holst's only successful [[chamber music|chamber work]].<ref>Holst (1986), p. 72</ref> Of the ''Choral Symphony'' completed in 1924, Matthews writes that, after several movements of real quality, the finale is a rambling anticlimax.<ref name=grove/> Holst's penultimate opera, ''At the Boar's Head'' (1924), is based on tavern scenes from Shakespeare's ''[[Henry IV, Part 1|Henry IV, Parts 1]]'' and ''[[Henry IV, Part 2|2]]''. The music, which is largely derived from old English melodies gleaned from Cecil Sharp and other collections, has pace and verve;<ref name=grove/> the contemporary critic Harvey Grace discounted the lack of originality, a facet which he said "can be shown no less convincingly by a composer's handling of material than by its invention".<ref>{{cite journal|last= Grace|first= Harvey|title= At the Boar's Head: Holst's New Work|jstor= 912399|journal=[[The Musical Times]]|volume= 66|issue= 986|date= April 1925|pages= 305–310}}</ref>

''Egdon Heath'' (1927) was Holst's first major orchestral work after ''The Planets''. Matthews summarises the music as "elusive and unpredictable [with] three main elements: a pulseless wandering melody [for strings], a sad brass processional, and restless music for strings and oboe." The mysterious dance towards the end is, says Matthews, "the strangest moment in a strange work".<ref name=grove/> Richard Greene in ''[[Music & Letters]]'' describes the piece as "a [[Tempo|larghetto]] dance in a [[Siciliana|siciliano]] rhythm with a simple, stepwise, rocking melody", but lacking the power of ''The Planets'' and, at times, monotonous to the listener.<ref>{{cite journal|last= Greene|first=Richard|title=A Musico-Rhetorical Outline of Holst's 'Egdon Heath'|jstor=735933|journal=[[Music & Letters]]|volume= 73|issue=2|date=May 1992|pages=244–67|doi=10.1093/ml/73.2.244}} {{subscription}}</ref> A more popular success was ''[[A Moorside Suite]]'' for brass band, written as a test piece for the National Brass Band Festival championships of 1928. While written within the traditions of north-country brass-band music, the suite, Short says, bears Holst's unmistakable imprint, "from the skipping [[Time signature#Most frequent time signatures|6/8]] of the opening Scherzo, to the vigorous melodic fourths of the concluding March, the intervening Nocturne bearing a family resemblance to the slow-moving procession of ''Saturn''".<ref>Short, p. 263</ref> 'A Moorside Suite' has undergone major revisionism in the article 'Symphony Within: rehearing Holst's 'A Moorside Suite' by Stephen Arthur Allen in the Winter 2017 edition of 'The Musical Times'.<ref>Stephen Arthur Allen, 'Symphony within: rehearing Holst's "A Moorside Suite"', The Musical Times (Winter, 2017), pp.7–32</ref> As with 'Egdon Heath' – commissioned as a symphony – the article reveals the symphonic nature of this brass-band work.

After this, Holst tackled his final attempt at opera in a cheerful vein, with ''The Wandering Scholar'' (1929–30), to a text by Clifford Bax. Imogen refers to the music as "Holst at his best in a scherzando (playful) frame of mind";<ref name=H664/> Vaughan Williams commented on the lively, folksy rhythms: "Do you think there's a ''little'' bit too much {{music|time|6|8}} in the opera?"<ref>Quoted in Short, p. 351</ref> Short observes that the opening motif makes several reappearances without being identified with a particular character, but imposes musical unity on the work.<ref>Short, p. 420</ref>

Holst composed few large-scale works in his final years. ''A Choral Fantasia'' of 1930 was written for the [[Three Choirs Festival]] at [[Gloucester]]; beginning and ending with a soprano soloist, the work, also involving chorus, strings, brass and percussion, includes a substantial organ solo which, says Imogen Holst, "knows something of the 'colossal and mysterious' loneliness of ''Egdon Heath''".<ref>Holst (1986), pp. 100–101</ref> Apart from his final uncompleted symphony, Holst's remaining works were for small forces; the eight ''Canons'' of 1932 were dedicated to his pupils, though in Imogen's view that they present a formidable challenge to the most professional of singers. The ''Brook Green Suite'' (1932), written for the orchestra of St Paul's School, was a late companion piece to the ''St Paul's Suite''.<ref name=H663/> The ''[[Lyric Movement]]'' for viola and small orchestra (1933) was written for [[Lionel Tertis]]. Quiet and contemplative, and requiring little virtuosity from the soloist, the piece was slow to gain popularity among violists.<ref>Short, pp. 324–325</ref> [[Robin Hull (music critic)|Robin Hull]], in ''Penguin Music Magazine'', praised the work's "clear beauty—impossible to mistake for the art of any other composer"; in Dickinson's view, however, it remains "a frail creation".<ref>Dickinson (1995), p. 154</ref> Holst's final composition, the orchestral scherzo movement of a projected symphony, contains features characteristic of much of Holst's earlier music—"a summing up of Holst's orchestral art", according to Short.<ref>Short, pp. 319–320</ref> Dickinson suggests that the somewhat casual collection of material in the work gives little indication of the symphony that might have been written.<ref>Dickinson (1995), p. 157</ref>