

Gustav Holst
The Planets
for ensemble or chamber orchestra
Short instrumentation: 1 1 1 1 - 2 1 1 0 - perc, pno, str (min. 1 1 1 1 1, max. 6 5 4 3 2)
Duration: 50'
Bearbeitung: George Morton
Choir: SSAA
Instrumentation details:
flute (+picc)
oboe
clarinet in Bb
bassoon
1st horn in F
2nd horn in F
trumpet in C
trombone
percussion
piano
1st violin
2nd violin
viola
violoncello
double bass
Holst - The Planets for ensemble or chamber orchestra
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Gustav Holst
Holst: The Planets - op. 32
UE37314
Orchestration: for ensemble or chamber orchestra
Type: Dirigierpartitur
Sample pages
Work introduction
This chamber edition of Holst’s The Planets was commissioned to be performed at Latitude Music Festival 2015 as part of the University of Sheffield’s Sounds of the Cosmos project. The chamber editions of Mahler’s symphonies were a great place to start to see what was possible and I spent a lot of time studying Holst’s own edition for piano duet. I completed the arrangement of Mars first to test the viability of the arrangement; after a lot of tweaking to get a balanced ensemble and to retain Holst’s fantastic textures and colors, I was confident the new orchestration would stand-up to the full orchestral edition and accepted the commission.
Over the space of about a month I completed the first draft, with Neptune providing the biggest difficulties. Contrary to what I first thought, the loud and dense movements and sections (Saturn and Neptune climaxes) were relatively simple to piece together and balance; the ethereal and sustain sounds in the opening of Saturn and the whole of Neptune provided the biggest headache. I decided to reduce the choral parts at the very end, so as to make it easier to perform with only a handful of singers. The missing vocal parts are entwined within the instrumental ensemble, with optional stage movements to facilitate the disappearing effect Holst created, recreating that true void of space! The original choral parts will work perfectly well with this orchestration, if the performance is blessed with a large choir (or conversely, without a superb collection of singers!).
George Morton
Over the space of about a month I completed the first draft, with Neptune providing the biggest difficulties. Contrary to what I first thought, the loud and dense movements and sections (Saturn and Neptune climaxes) were relatively simple to piece together and balance; the ethereal and sustain sounds in the opening of Saturn and the whole of Neptune provided the biggest headache. I decided to reduce the choral parts at the very end, so as to make it easier to perform with only a handful of singers. The missing vocal parts are entwined within the instrumental ensemble, with optional stage movements to facilitate the disappearing effect Holst created, recreating that true void of space! The original choral parts will work perfectly well with this orchestration, if the performance is blessed with a large choir (or conversely, without a superb collection of singers!).
George Morton