Touring the Solar System with Holst's The Planets
I. Mars, the Bringer of War
The Planets, Op. 32
I'm Gustav Holst, and I'm delighted to introduce you to I. Mars, the Bringer of War, the first movement of my suite. You'll hear a relentless pulse in groups of five, starting almost in a whisper and swelling into a harsh, overwhelming roar, which makes it a thrilling piece to follow closely. Along with my fellow composers, I teach you here to recognize our pieces when they play, so why not see how you do and head over to the Trainer ?
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How to Listen Without a Degree
Before you press play, I'd ask you to listen for one thing above all: a steady pulse that counts in fives, again and again. That pulse is what musicians call an ostinato, a short pattern that keeps repeating, and it stays with you for most of the piece. At the start, listen for the strings tapping with the wood of their bows, which is called col legno, along with the harp and the percussion, all of them very quiet. After that, just follow how the rest of the orchestra gathers around the pulse until the sound becomes enormous.Why Mars Got Its Name
My starting point for the whole suite was astrology, not astronomy and not mythology, and in astrology every planet has a character of its own. I gave Mars the character that its title announces, and I wanted the music to be relentless in the way a marching army is. Many people assume I wrote it as a reaction to the fighting, but it was the first movement I composed, in mid-1914, and I had finished it before the war began. So the title describes a force I imagined, and it doesn't describe a battle I had seen.A Shape of My Own Making
Choosing the form for this piece was an adventure, because I didn't want a tidy sonata or a friendly rondo with tunes that come back to say hello. Instead I marked it Allegro, set it in 5/4, and let it grow like one long, determined build. You can think of it as four stages, which I'll call sections, and each one adds weight to the one before. I'll take them one by one in the next paragraphs, so you can follow the story as it unfolds.Section 1: Tiptoeing Into the Room
The piece opens quietly, with the percussion, the harp and those wood-tapping strings setting the pulse in motion. Nothing here is loud, but the mood is already uneasy, because the beat of five never lets you settle comfortably. The tempo stays exactly the same from this point on, so the tension comes from what gets added and not from speeding up. Listen closely, because this is where you learn the pattern that everything else will be built on.Section 2: The Pulse Moves In
Now the ostinato becomes the ground beneath your feet, and more and more of the orchestra starts to play along with it. The mood shifts from a warning to a threat, because the pattern keeps coming and nothing interrupts it. I don't change the pulse at all here, and that stubbornness is exactly what makes it feel so hard to escape. If you tap along in fives, you'll notice how quickly your own foot starts to feel like part of the army.Section 3: Everyone Joins the March
In this stretch the volume climbs steadily and the orchestra thickens, until the sound is wide and heavy. The harmony turns harsher too, and I let the notes grind against each other in dissonance instead of blending politely. I won't bother you with key names, because what matters is the feeling that the music is being pushed further than it wants to go. By the end of this section, the quiet start of the piece feels like a memory from another day.Section 4: The Roof Comes Off
This is the climax, and I marked it quadruple forte, which is about as loud as I can ask an orchestra to play. The dissonance is at its sharpest here, and the whole weight of the orchestra falls on that same relentless beat. Notice that nothing in it is meant to be pretty, because I wanted it to feel overwhelming and not beautiful. If you've been following the build since the first tap of the bows, you'll feel how every earlier section was leading to this moment.Over to You
Now it's your turn to hear Mars for yourself, so go ahead and press play and let the sound take over the room. As you listen, keep that beat of five in the back of your mind and try to notice the moment when the quiet start turns into something huge. Think too about how the pattern, the tempo and the harsh harmony all work together to tell the story. I hope you find the journey as thrilling as I did when I was writing it.---
I hope you enjoyed learning about my Mars, the Bringer of War, and that this listen guide gave you a few new things to notice the next time you hear it. Did you find that the steady beat in fives and the slow build to the great climax made the piece feel clearer? Mars is only the first of seven movements, and The Planets has a good deal more to discover. Each of the other movements has its own character, from the calm of Venus to the hushed, distant voices that close Neptune. If you'd like to go further, I invite you to click on the links on this page and keep exploring The Planets at your own pace. When you come back to Mars, I think you'll hear that opening whisper and that relentless pulse in a new way.
Best MomentsBackstoryListen Guide 2: II. Venus, the Bringer of PeaceListen Guide 3: III. Mercury, the Winged MessengerListen Guide 4: IV. Jupiter, the Bringer of JollityListen Guide 5: V. Saturn, the Bringer of Old AgeListen Guide 6: VI. Uranus, the MagicianListen Guide 7: VII. Neptune, the MysticMore about HolstLearn to recognize it when you hear it