Editing Gustav Holst (section)

===First World War===
At the outbreak of the First World War, Holst tried to enlist but was rejected as unfit for military service.<ref name=dnb/> He felt frustrated that he could not contribute to the war effort. His wife became a volunteer ambulance driver; Vaughan Williams went on active service to France as did Holst's brother Emil; Holst's friends the composers [[George Butterworth]] and [[Cecil Coles]] were killed in battle.<ref>Holst (1969), pp. 51–52</ref> He continued to teach and compose; he worked on ''The Planets'' and prepared his chamber opera ''[[Savitri (opera)|Savitri]]'' for performance. It was first given in December 1916 by students of the London School of Opera at the Wellington Hall in [[St John's Wood]].<ref>Short, p. 144</ref> It attracted no attention at the time from the main newspapers, though when professionally staged five years later it was greeted as "a perfect little masterpiece."<ref>{{cite news|title=Savitri|newspaper=The Times|date=24 June 1921|page=13}}</ref> In 1917 he wrote ''[[The Hymn of Jesus]]'' for chorus and orchestra, a work which remained unperformed until after the war.<ref name=grove/>

In 1918, as the war neared its end, Holst finally had the prospect of a job that offered him the chance to serve. The music section of the [[YMCA]]'s education department needed volunteers to work with British troops stationed in Europe awaiting demobilisation.<ref>Short, p. 159</ref> Morley College and St Paul's Girls' School offered him a year's leave of absence, but there remained one obstacle: the YMCA felt that his surname looked too German to be acceptable in such a role.<ref name=h196952>Holst (1969) p. 52</ref> He formally changed "von Holst" to "Holst" by [[deed poll]] in September 1918.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30928|page=11615|date=1 October 1918|}}</ref> He was appointed as the YMCA's musical organiser for the Near East, based in [[Thessaloniki|Salonica]].<ref>Mitchell, p. 161</ref>

[[File:Holst-planets-inscription.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.4|alt=Handwritten inscription: "This copy is the property of Adrian Boult, who first caused the Planets to shine in public and thereby earned the gratitude of Gustav Holst"|Holst's inscription on [[Adrian Boult]]'s score of ''[[The Planets]]'']]
Holst was given a spectacular send-off. The conductor [[Adrian Boult]] recalled, "Just before the Armistice, Gustav Holst burst into my office: 'Adrian, the YMCA are sending me to Salonica quite soon and Balfour Gardiner, bless his heart, has given me a parting present consisting of the Queen's Hall, full of the Queen's Hall Orchestra for the whole of a Sunday morning. So we're going to do ''The Planets'', and you've got to conduct'."<ref name=b35>Boult (1973), p. 35</ref> There was a burst of activity to get things ready in time. The girls at St Paul's helped to copy out the orchestral parts,<ref name=b35/> and the women of Morley and the St Paul's girls learned the choral part in the last movement.<ref>Boult (1979), p. 32</ref>

The performance was given on 29 September to an invited audience including [[Henry Wood|Sir Henry Wood]] and most of the professional musicians in London.<ref name=m165>Mitchell, p. 165</ref> Five months later, when Holst was in Greece, Boult introduced ''The Planets'' to the general public, at a concert in February 1919; Holst sent him a long letter full of suggestions,{{refn|In the letter, sent according to Holst from "Piccadilly Circus, Salonica", one suggestion read, "Mars. You made it wonderfully clear&nbsp;... now could you make more ''row''? And work up more sense of climax? Perhaps hurry certain bits? Anyhow, it must sound more unpleasant and far more terrifying".<ref>Boult (1979), p. 34</ref>|group=n}} but failed to convince him that the suite should be played in full. The conductor believed that about half an hour of such radically new music was all the public could absorb at first hearing, and he gave only five of the seven movements on that occasion.<ref>Boult (1979), p. 33</ref>

Holst enjoyed his time in Salonica, from where he was able to visit Athens, which greatly impressed him.<ref name=s171>Short, p. 171</ref> His musical duties were wide-ranging, and even obliged him on occasion to play the violin in the local orchestra: "it was great fun, but I fear I was not of much use".<ref name=s171/> He returned to England in June 1919.<ref>Holst (1969), p. 77</ref>