Multiple times when I've attended The Planets in concert, the girls choir was placed outside the auditorium, making their voices come from literally nowhere (you could see). Extremely haunting experience.
In the score, the women’s choir at the end is actually directed to be in a separate room from the concert hall so the audience can’t see them! Then at the end, the doors are supposed to be closed slowly until you can’t hear the choir anymore! Also this entire movement, like Mars, is in 5/4.
The choral work on this track is sublime. When performed live, they just sing quieter and quieter until it's barely a whisper. If you are looking to try some more classical pieces, I would recommend Sibelius' Symphony No. 5 and Karelia Suite and Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F and Rhapsody In Blue.
My daughter performed this in a girls' choir some years back, and to get the vocal to fade out the singers left the auditorium one by one, singing softly. It was also odd that their only role was at the end of the last piece of the concert
In the score, they’re actually directed to be in a separate room from the concert hall so the audience can’t see them! Then at the end, the doors are supposed to be closed slowly until you can’t hear the women’s choir anymore!
@@JustJP There was a Pluto movement added by another composer about a decade ago but its gone the way of Pluto itself. I much prefer the gradual fading into the silence of interstellar space.
Neptune is such a sublime piece! I've recently gone into a Mahler binge, and I would really recommend Mahler's Rückert-Lieder, which are orchestral songs that are just sooooo beautiful and transcendental. They are pretty short too! My favorite recording is with Bruno Walter conducting, and Kathleen Ferrier as the soloist.
You can really hear how this influenced John Williams Star Wars. The choir fading to nothing at the end is ghostly. You should try a symphony next. Four movements that you could do one at a time I suggest Dvorak Symphony No. 9 from the New World.
I hear it even more so in Gordy Haab and Mark Griskey's music for Star Wars: The Old Republic, an MMO computer game I played for many years and still listen to the music from.
Gorgeous piece. Thanks for that.A suggestion for another classical suit id suggest is Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, where he took late Medieval songs and texts and arranged them into a magnificent suit (some of which you may well have heard before).
Colin Matthews was commissioned to write a final movement to the suite, “Pluto, the Renewer”. It was first released by the Berlin Philharmonic (Simon Rattle - Conductor) in 2006. It may be worth your while to explore it on your own. It’s a footnote in music history especially now that Pluto has been demoted.
Afternoon Justin. Dave from London. This suite has Everything Under The Sun (or at least in the solar system). If you (or any other subscriber) haven't seen it performed live, you really must. Not only is this a wonderful suite, it is so varied, and so influential on modern music. P.S. my song ref Everything Under The Sun is by Extreme.
Its very much the end of the solar system.. it sounds like your moving out into the darkness and emptiness of space. The choir is fantastic, and hidden from the audience, before the door is closed on them as you move into nothingness.
JP one of my all-time favorite classical albums. Great job!! Others.....Handel's Messiah or Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade are a MUST. Too many to cover.
Back in the '80s, I guess it was, our local Charlotte NPR classical music station played Neville Marriner and the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields in their performance of Holst's "Planets"...with "Neptune" concurring with a scheduled meteor shower. When you said: "Could you imagine lying in a field at night, looking at the stars"(paraphrasing)...that is exactly what I was doing, only reclining in my Mazda (to the extent that it would recline) and the experience was cosmic inside of cosmic. Choir akin to Ligeti (2001) and Gorecki and Part. Nudging forward. What a great journey to share...thanks! Marriner is probably the most democratic of conductors, giving power back to the musicians. Gorecki's Third is one to know, but is as sorrowful as it is beautiful and haunting. Neptune seems to lead into it. We personally prefer the second and third movements, which are both holy.
The beginning of the music reminds me very much of an intro to some exciting fantasy or Hollywood fairy tale, I like such melodies because I immediately remember my childhood.
I know I've said it before, but for your next classical excursion Antonin Dvorak's "New World Symphony" should be at the top of your list. Four longer pieces (about 9 minutes each on average), and each of them is magnificent.
You can really hear the influence on John Williams in all of the Planets Suites especially for Star Wars however Neptune I feel sounds more like it inspired The Harry Potter music as its has a more Magical feel. Absolutely Beautiful.
Always fascinates me to realize that all those musical tropes that suggest "space" and "cosmos" that we hear used everywhere in movies and TV shows, and which seem so innate to our culture that we take them for granted, they actually have a history - someone, maybe even one person, invented them from scratch. That seems to be what happened here with Holst's Planet Suite.
Yes, my favourite piece. Holst continually undercuts the dominant harmonies by use of odd modulation and chromatic notes, leaving you floating, untethered from the earth...a fitting way to end the suite.
🌞-🌎-🪐-🌌In your mind your free. To sail on imagination through the galaxy. The music made along the ride. Mimic the oceans of the Universe, rolling on a tide.😁🧑🚀-✌&❤
I can't remember if you have listened to Oscar Peterson or not. Somehow I seem to remember that you have. If not "Night Train" is one of my favourites.
I've seen this performed live, with the choir emerging from the darkness in the wings up above, in gossamer shimmering white gowns, for this final movement - you can imagine how spectacular that was! And there is a Pluto movement written for this in 2000, by Colin Matthews, called Pluto, the Renewer - and dedicated to Holst's daughter, who was also a composer. This was, of course, written between Pluto's discovery, and it's unfortunate downgrading from a planet to a "dwarf planet". ua-cam.com/video/KQ9qYmqDqOc/v-deo.html Keep going with classical, and I agree with @jameswarner5809, try Sibelius' Symphony No. 5, it's amazing - or the 3rd is also great, but maybe a more approachable starting place with Sibelius - Jon Anderson's favorite composer, and mine.
@@Quotenwagnerianer I'm glad you are certain that following a rule about this is the only possible right way. But for me, I assure you, having then gradually visible in the dim light of the highest wings, in their gossamer gowns, looked and sounded spectacularly moving.
I'm all about following the composers intentions. He wanted distant, invisble voices. I see similar stuff happen in opera productions. The composer asks for "Stage Trumpets" which would make them sound farther away than the orchestra to the audience, and conductors put them in the auditorium where they sound closer to the audience instead...@@DavidImiri
It's almost a form of ambient music, isn't it? Only the ambience is from somewhere "beyond the 9th wave", where the Otherworld begins. So a mystical ambience from myths that formed almost yesterday. Off topic, seeing as you'll presumably be going back to taking it easy ( ;-) ) in May, you might find that one day you find a spare three hours or so (or one and a half at double-time) to experience some of the best historiography ( "history done right") that the Internet has to offer, learning the forgotten story of the life and death of the city of Vijayanagra, in South India. It's worth the time if you can find that amount to spare. (And when have I ever been wrong in such matters, said he, humbly?) Here: ua-cam.com/video/nlMpxUYKTcU/v-deo.html (Every one of his podcasts - with images for UA-cam - has been excellent. So once you've lost and won that three hours, there are several more available and at risk, from the same source.) Short version: Against the odds, what was once one of the greatest cities on Earth was founded within the last thousand years; then it flourished under good kings for several hundred years; and then it was brought to complete and utter disaster, and was in ruins, already, a few hundred years ago. As background to that, you'll know a lot of what made India, at the end, too. It would be a shame to miss out on a tale like that. Maybe listen to it in half hour sessions? That would make it easy to do, and leave you impatient to hear the next episode all the time.
The suite, taken as a whole, is one of the great artistic achievements of the 20th Century.
Multiple times when I've attended The Planets in concert, the girls choir was placed outside the auditorium, making their voices come from literally nowhere (you could see). Extremely haunting experience.
Well, that is what Holst instructed to do.
In the score, the women’s choir at the end is actually directed to be in a separate room from the concert hall so the audience can’t see them! Then at the end, the doors are supposed to be closed slowly until you can’t hear the choir anymore!
Also this entire movement, like Mars, is in 5/4.
The choral work on this track is sublime. When performed live, they just sing quieter and quieter until it's barely a whisper. If you are looking to try some more classical pieces, I would recommend Sibelius' Symphony No. 5 and Karelia Suite and Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F and Rhapsody In Blue.
My daughter performed this in a girls' choir some years back, and to get the vocal to fade out the singers left the auditorium one by one, singing softly. It was also odd that their only role was at the end of the last piece of the concert
In the score, they’re actually directed to be in a separate room from the concert hall so the audience can’t see them! Then at the end, the doors are supposed to be closed slowly until you can’t hear the women’s choir anymore!
I always think of Space with this last piece, I often have mental images of strange life on the other planets and moons in the system.
Definitely conjuring up some cosmic imagery
I watched the whole concert live at the Royal Albert Hall in London what an experience wonderful.
Its basically taking leave of Neptune and drifting off into the infinity of space.
You know, that makes a lot of sense. The whole suite is a journey outwards, towards the endless
@@JustJP There was a Pluto movement added by another composer about a decade ago but its gone the way of Pluto itself. I much prefer the gradual fading into the silence of interstellar space.
Neptune is such a sublime piece! I've recently gone into a Mahler binge, and I would really recommend Mahler's Rückert-Lieder, which are orchestral songs that are just sooooo beautiful and transcendental. They are pretty short too! My favorite recording is with Bruno Walter conducting, and Kathleen Ferrier as the soloist.
You can really hear how this influenced John Williams Star Wars. The choir fading to nothing at the end is ghostly. You should try a symphony next. Four movements that you could do one at a time I suggest Dvorak Symphony No. 9 from the New World.
...and some of the middle sections remind me of his Indiana Jones scores.
I hear it even more so in Gordy Haab and Mark Griskey's music for Star Wars: The Old Republic, an MMO computer game I played for many years and still listen to the music from.
@@lord_chozo7341 me too!!
@@kevind4850 the mystery of it definitely influenced his approach to the wizarding world in Harry Potter
I just became a patron because you are always reacting to stuff that’s right up my alley, thanks for all you do JP! 👌
Gorgeous piece. Thanks for that.A suggestion for another classical suit id suggest is Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, where he took late Medieval songs and texts and arranged them into a magnificent suit (some of which you may well have heard before).
Colin Matthews was commissioned to write a final movement to the suite, “Pluto, the Renewer”. It was first released by the Berlin Philharmonic (Simon Rattle - Conductor) in 2006. It may be worth your while to explore it on your own. It’s a footnote in music history especially now that Pluto has been demoted.
This is one of my favorite classical pieces - good choice!
Very chilled piece, or should that be peace. I needed that! I have been binging on reactions to Hi Ren.
Afternoon Justin. Dave from London. This suite has Everything Under The Sun (or at least in the solar system). If you (or any other subscriber) haven't seen it performed live, you really must. Not only is this a wonderful suite, it is so varied, and so influential on modern music.
P.S. my song ref Everything Under The Sun is by Extreme.
Its very much the end of the solar system.. it sounds like your moving out into the darkness and emptiness of space. The choir is fantastic, and hidden from the audience, before the door is closed on them as you move into nothingness.
So i just happen to be setting an art video to this and I find my fave music reactor is giving this a go. Today is a good day.
Btw Justin the oceanic connection is strong, as you pointed out, via Neptune/Poseidon. Mysticism relies on the psychic sphere, which relates to water.
Never knew that, ty for the info
@@JustJP 🙃
Great choice and great job. It was a pleasure touring our neighborhood with you.
JP one of my all-time favorite classical albums. Great job!! Others.....Handel's Messiah or Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade are a MUST. Too many to cover.
Back in the '80s, I guess it was, our local Charlotte NPR classical music station played Neville Marriner and the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields in their performance of Holst's "Planets"...with "Neptune" concurring with a scheduled meteor shower. When you said: "Could you imagine lying in a field at night, looking at the stars"(paraphrasing)...that is exactly what I was doing, only reclining in my Mazda (to the extent that it would recline) and the experience was cosmic inside of cosmic. Choir akin to Ligeti (2001) and Gorecki and Part. Nudging forward. What a great journey to share...thanks! Marriner is probably the most democratic of conductors, giving power back to the musicians.
Gorecki's Third is one to know, but is as sorrowful as it is beautiful and haunting. Neptune seems to lead into it. We personally prefer the second and third movements, which are both holy.
The beginning of the music reminds me very much of an intro to some exciting fantasy or Hollywood fairy tale, I like such melodies because I immediately remember my childhood.
By the score, the choir is not in the same room as the orchestra, coming in from the outside.
And the door is slowly shut.
I know I've said it before, but for your next classical excursion Antonin Dvorak's "New World Symphony" should be at the top of your list. Four longer pieces (about 9 minutes each on average), and each of them is magnificent.
Two of my favourites. The Planets and The New World are both magnificent.
Mars, Bringer of War is the first song on my workout playlist!
You can really hear the influence on John Williams in all of the Planets Suites especially for Star Wars however Neptune I feel sounds more like it inspired The Harry Potter music as its has a more Magical feel.
Absolutely Beautiful.
Always fascinates me to realize that all those musical tropes that suggest "space" and "cosmos" that we hear used everywhere in movies and TV shows, and which seem so innate to our culture that we take them for granted, they actually have a history - someone, maybe even one person, invented them from scratch. That seems to be what happened here with Holst's Planet Suite.
Yes, my favourite piece. Holst continually undercuts the dominant harmonies by use of odd modulation and chromatic notes, leaving you floating, untethered from the earth...a fitting way to end the suite.
Gorgeous. "Mars" and "Jupiter" are the hits, but these later movements/parts have a magical depth to them.
Neptune is my favourite movement of The Planets, but they're all good in their own special ways.
Try Mike Oldfields music of the Spheres worth a listen
Yeah, "Neptune" is my favorite part of _The_ _Planets_ and the most interesting.
This is more the Jerry Goldsmith school of soundtrack composing. Positively sublime.
Well, what you actually mean is that a legion of soundtrack composers “stole” from Gustav Holst 😎
🌞-🌎-🪐-🌌In your mind your free. To sail on imagination through the galaxy. The music made along the ride. Mimic the oceans of the Universe, rolling on a tide.😁🧑🚀-✌&❤
I can't remember if you have listened to Oscar Peterson or not. Somehow I seem to remember that you have. If not "Night Train" is one of my favourites.
I've seen this performed live, with the choir emerging from the darkness in the wings up above, in gossamer shimmering white gowns, for this final movement - you can imagine how spectacular that was! And there is a Pluto movement written for this in 2000, by Colin Matthews, called Pluto, the Renewer - and dedicated to Holst's daughter, who was also a composer. This was, of course, written between Pluto's discovery, and it's unfortunate downgrading from a planet to a "dwarf planet". ua-cam.com/video/KQ9qYmqDqOc/v-deo.html
Keep going with classical, and I agree with @jameswarner5809, try Sibelius' Symphony No. 5, it's amazing - or the 3rd is also great, but maybe a more approachable starting place with Sibelius - Jon Anderson's favorite composer, and mine.
Not a good idea. The choir is supposed to be invisible off-stage.
@@Quotenwagnerianer oh, you have no idea. It was magnificent.
@@DavidImiri I doubt it. Not only are you not supposed to see them, the sound would also be wrong.
@@Quotenwagnerianer I'm glad you are certain that following a rule about this is the only possible right way. But for me, I assure you, having then gradually visible in the dim light of the highest wings, in their gossamer gowns, looked and sounded spectacularly moving.
I'm all about following the composers intentions. He wanted distant, invisble voices. I see similar stuff happen in opera productions. The composer asks for "Stage Trumpets" which would make them sound farther away than the orchestra to the audience, and conductors put them in the auditorium where they sound closer to the audience instead...@@DavidImiri
I can't believe how bad the choir is here, and with Karajan xD I recommend the recording with Andre Previn, evrrything is perfect there.
It's almost a form of ambient music, isn't it? Only the ambience is from somewhere "beyond the 9th wave", where the Otherworld begins. So a mystical ambience from myths that formed almost yesterday.
Off topic, seeing as you'll presumably be going back to taking it easy ( ;-) ) in May, you might find that one day you find a spare three hours or so (or one and a half at double-time) to experience some of the best historiography ( "history done right") that the Internet has to offer, learning the forgotten story of the life and death of the city of Vijayanagra, in South India. It's worth the time if you can find that amount to spare. (And when have I ever been wrong in such matters, said he, humbly?)
Here: ua-cam.com/video/nlMpxUYKTcU/v-deo.html
(Every one of his podcasts - with images for UA-cam - has been excellent. So once you've lost and won that three hours, there are several more available and at risk, from the same source.)
Short version: Against the odds, what was once one of the greatest cities on Earth was founded within the last thousand years; then it flourished under good kings for several hundred years; and then it was brought to complete and utter disaster, and was in ruins, already, a few hundred years ago. As background to that, you'll know a lot of what made India, at the end, too. It would be a shame to miss out on a tale like that. Maybe listen to it in half hour sessions? That would make it easy to do, and leave you impatient to hear the next episode all the time.