Editing Gustav Holst (section)

===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>