Editing Gustav Holst (section)

===Composer and teacher===
[[File:St Paul's Girls' School, London 03.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=commemorative plaque to Holst|Blue plaque at [[St Paul's Girls' School]], London]]
While in Germany, Holst reappraised his professional life, and in 1903 he decided to abandon orchestral playing to concentrate on composition.<ref name=dnb/> His earnings as a composer were too little to live on, and two years later he accepted the offer of a teaching post at [[James Allen's Girls' School]], [[Dulwich]], which he held until 1921. He also taught at the [[Mary Ward Centre|Passmore Edwards Settlement]], where among other innovations he gave the British premieres of two Bach cantatas.<ref>Holst (1981), p. 30</ref> The two teaching posts for which he is probably best known were director of music at [[St Paul's Girls' School]], [[Hammersmith]], from 1905 until his death, and director of music at [[Morley College]] from 1907 to 1924.<ref name=dnb/>

Vaughan Williams wrote of the former establishment: "Here he did away with the childish sentimentality which schoolgirls were supposed to appreciate and substituted Bach and [[Tomás Luis de Victoria|Vittoria]]; a splendid background for immature minds."<ref name=archive/> Several of Holst's pupils at St Paul's went on to distinguished careers, including the soprano [[Joan Cross]]<ref>Gibbs, pp. 161–162</ref> and the oboist and [[cor anglais]] player Helen Gaskell.<ref>Gibbs, p. 168</ref>

Of Holst's impact on Morley College, Vaughan Williams wrote: "[A] bad tradition had to be broken down. The results were at first discouraging, but soon a new spirit appeared and the music of Morley College, together with its offshoot the 'Whitsuntide festival'&nbsp;... became a force to be reckoned with".<ref name=archive/> Before Holst's appointment, Morley College had not treated music very seriously (Vaughan Williams's "bad tradition"), and at first Holst's exacting demands drove many students away. He persevered, and gradually built up a class of dedicated music-lovers.<ref>Holst (1969), p. 30</ref>

According to the composer [[Edmund Rubbra]], who studied under him in the early 1920s, Holst was "a teacher who often came to lessons weighted, not with the learning of [[Ebenezer Prout|Prout]] and [[John Stainer|Stainer]], but with a miniature score of ''[[Petrushka]]'' or the then recently published [[Mass in G minor (Vaughan Williams)|Mass in G minor]] of Vaughan Williams".<ref>Rubbra, p. 40</ref> He never sought to impose his own ideas on his composition pupils. Rubbra recalled that he would divine a student's difficulties and gently guide him to finding the solution for himself. "I do not recall that Holst added one single note of his own to anything I wrote, but he would suggest—if I agreed!—that, given such and such a phrase, the following one would be better if it took such and such a course; if I did not see this, the point would not be insisted upon&nbsp;... He frequently took away [because of] his abhorrence of unessentials."<ref>Rubbra, p. 41</ref>

[[File:Muller-Whitman-Hardy-Bridges.tif|thumb|left|alt=mug shots of four literary luminaries from the 19th and 20th centuries|Literary influences, from top left clockwise: [[Max Müller]], [[Walt Whitman]], [[Thomas Hardy]], [[Robert Bridges]]]]
As a composer Holst was frequently inspired by literature. He set poetry by [[Thomas Hardy]] and [[Robert Bridges]] and, a particular influence, [[Walt Whitman]], whose words he set in "Dirge for Two Veterans" and ''The Mystic Trumpeter'' (1904). He wrote an orchestral ''Walt Whitman Overture'' in 1899.<ref name=grove/> While on tour with the Carl Rosa company Holst had read some of [[Max Müller]]'s books, which inspired in him a keen interest in [[Sanskrit]] texts, particularly the [[Rigveda|Rig Veda]] hymns.<ref name=r30/> He found the existing English versions of the texts unconvincing,{{refn|Holst considered them either "misleading translations in colloquial English" or else "strings of English words with no meanings to an English mind."<ref name=h24>Holst (1981), p. 24</ref>|group=n}} and decided to make his own translations, despite his lack of skills as a linguist. He enrolled in 1909 at [[University College London|University College, London]], to study the language.<ref name=h24/>

Imogen commented on his translations: "He was not a poet, and there are occasions when his verses seem naïve. But they never sound vague or slovenly, for he had set himself the task of finding words that would be 'clear and dignified' and that would 'lead the listener into another world'".<ref name=h198125>Holst (1981), p. 25</ref> His settings of translations of Sanskrit texts included ''Sita'' (1899–1906), a three-act opera based on an episode in the ''[[Ramayana]]'' (which he eventually entered for a competition for English opera set by the Milan music publisher [[Casa Ricordi|Tito Ricordi]]);<ref>Short, p. 55</ref> but which was not performed until October 2024 in [[Saarländisches Staatstheater|Saarbrücken]].<ref>Jaffé, Daniel. Review of Sita in Saarbrücken. ''[[Opera (British magazine)|Opera]]'', January 2025, Vol. 76 No. 1, pp. 78–80.</ref> ''[[Savitri (opera)|Savitri]]'' (1908), a [[chamber opera]] based on a tale from the ''[[Mahabharata]]''; four groups of ''Hymns from the Rig Veda'' (1908–14); and two texts originally by [[Kālidāsa]]: ''Two Eastern Pictures'' (1909–10) and ''The Cloud Messenger'' (a setting of the ''[[Meghadūta]]'', 1910, premiered in 1913).<ref name=grove/>

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, British musical circles had experienced a new interest in national folk music. Some composers, such as Sullivan and [[Edward Elgar|Elgar]], remained indifferent,<ref>Hughes, p. 159 (Sullivan); and Kennedy, p. 10 (Elgar)</ref> but Parry, Stanford, Stainer and [[Alexander Mackenzie (composer)|Alexander Mackenzie]] were founding members of the [[English Folk Dance and Song Society|Folk-Song Society]].<ref name=graebe/> Parry considered that by recovering English folk song, English composers would find an authentic national voice; he commented, "in true folk-songs there is no sham, no got-up glitter, and no vulgarity".<ref name=graebe/> Vaughan Williams was an early and enthusiastic convert to this cause, going round the English countryside collecting and noting down folk songs. These had an influence on Holst. Though not as passionate on the subject as his friend, he incorporated a number of folk melodies in his own compositions and made several arrangements of folk songs collected by others.<ref name=graebe>{{cite journal|last=Graebe|first=Martin|title=Gustav Holst, Songs of the West, and the English Folk Song Movement|journal=Folk Music Journal|year=2011|volume=10|issue=1|pages=5–41|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/884536926 }}{{subscription}}</ref> The ''Somerset Rhapsody'' (1906–07), was written at the suggestion of the folk-song collector [[Cecil Sharp]] and made use of tunes that Sharp had noted down. Holst described its performance at the Queen's Hall in 1910 as "my first real success".<ref>Short, p. 88</ref> A few years later Holst became excited by another musical renaissance—the rediscovery of English madrigal composers. [[Thomas Weelkes|Weelkes]] was his favourite of all the Tudor composers, but [[William Byrd|Byrd]] also meant much to him.<ref>Short, p. 207</ref>

[[File:House on The Terrace, Barnes - geograph.org.uk - 1309706.jpg|thumb|right|alt=exterior of small, pretty early 19th-century house|upright|The house in [[Barnes, London|Barnes]] where Holst lived between 1908 and 1913. A commemorative [[blue plaque]] is fixed to the front]]
Holst was a keen [[hiking|rambler]]. He walked extensively in England, Italy, France and Algeria. In 1908 he travelled to Algeria on medical advice as a treatment for asthma and the depression that he suffered after his opera ''Sita'' failed to win the Ricordi prize.<ref>Short, pp. 74–75</ref> This trip inspired the suite ''[[Beni Mora]]'', which incorporated music he heard in the Algerian streets.<ref>Mitchell, p. 91</ref> Vaughan Williams wrote of this exotic work, "if it had been played in Paris rather than London it would have given its composer a European reputation, and played in Italy would probably have caused a riot."<ref name=ml2>{{cite journal|last=Vaughan Williams|first=Ralph|title=Gustav Holst (Continued)|journal=[[Music & Letters]]|date=October 1920|volume=1|issue=4| jstor= 726997|pages=305–317|doi=10.1093/ml/1.4.305}} {{subscription}}</ref>