Program

Holst     The Planets, Op. 32
                 I.    Mars, the Bringer of War
                 II.   Venus, the Bringer of Peace
                 III.  Mercury, the Winged Messenger
                 IV.  Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity
                 V.   Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age
                 VI.  Uranus, the Magician
                 VII. Neptune, the Mystic


Williams     Adventures on Earth from E.T.

Program Notes

GUSTAV HOLST (1874-1934): THE PLANETS

Gustav Holst enjoyed reading Alan Leo’s book What is a Horoscope? It became a springboard for his own ideas; i.e., the subtitles he affixed to the seven movements of his enduringly popular orchestral suite The Planets, such as Mercury, the Winged Messenger, Mars, the Bringer of War, and Venus, the Bringer of Peace. While each movement of the work bears the name of a planet in our solar system, Holst sought to convey ideas and emotions associated with the influence of each orbital body on the psyche, which may be why Earth is not included. The Planets was originally intended as a piano duet, except for Neptune, which was scored for solo organ. Holst felt the piano was too percussive for a world as mysterious and distant. Holst scored the work for large orchestra, and it was in that form that it gained such enormous popularity.

The order of the movements in The Planets seems to correspond with the increasing distance of the actual planets from Earth. However, critic David Hurwitz suggests that Jupiter is the "centrepoint of the suite and the movements on either side are mirror images." Thus Mars is active and Neptune is static; Venus is sublime and Uranus seems ominous and dark: Mercury is light while Saturn is heavy and plodding.

It is believed that Neptune was the first piece of orchestral music to have a fade-out ending. Holst stipulates that the women’s choruses are “to be placed in an adjoining room, the door of which is to be left open until the last bar of the piece, when it is to be slowly and silently closed,” and that the final bar is “to be repeated until the sound is lost in the distance.” We are told the effect bewitched audiences in that era before widespread recorded sound. After a 1918 run-through, Holst’s daughter Imogen remembered watching charwomen dancing in the aisles during Jupiter, and said that the ending of Neptune was "unforgettable, with its hidden chorus of women’s voices growing fainter and fainter…until the imagination knew no difference between sound and silence."

Pluto was discovered in 1930. Holst, however, expressed no interest in writing a movement for the new celestial object. He had become somewhat dismayed by the popularity of The Planets and believed that it took too much attention away from his other works.       

JOHN WILLIAMS (b. 1932):  Adventures on Earth from E.T.

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is considered to be Stephen Spielberg’s most beloved family film. The story has enthralled children for years. Stereotypes about suburban lifestyles of the 1980s, as well as deeply rooted fears about the intentions of the government play well with adults, too, making E.T. one of the greatest blockbuster successes ever to overwhelm the box office. The bond between a loveable extra-terrestrial and a young human boy leads the two to common curiosity, friendship, illness, escape, and salvation.

The soaring E.T. Flying Theme is what most of us think of first, but the entire John Williams score is considered by many to be among the composer’s finest. Overall, according to one critic, the “multitude of themes for E.T. merge to form a spectacular accompaniment for the film and an undeniably rewarding listening experience.”