HOLST, GUSTAV (1874-1934), English composer, was born at Cheltenham on Sept. 21, 1874. His father came of a Swedish family, one branch of which had settled in England early in the century. Holst entered the Royal College of Music, London, in 1893, and was a pupil of Stanford for composition, in which branch he gained a scholarship after two years. He also studied piano, organ and trombone. In 1898 he left the College and for some years played trombone in an orchestra. As a teacher he became associated with the Passmore Edwards Settlement (1904), Morley College (1907), Reading College (1909) and St. Paul's Girls' School, London (1905), and since 1919 has taught composition at the Royal College. In 1918 he worked among the troops in Salonika, organizing music under the Young Men's Christian Association. He visited Michigan university in 1923 for the purpose of conducting a concert of his own works. Hoist's international reputation as a composer dates from the appearance of his largest symphonic work, The Planets (op. 32), in 1919.
Next in importance are the Hymn of Jesus, op. 37, No. 1 0917), for chorus and orchestra ; the Choral Symphony, op. 41 (1923); the Vedic Hymns for voice and piano, op. 24 and for chorus and orchestra, op. 26, which, with the opera Savitri, op. 28, repre sent the Eastern period in Hoist's music ; the opera : The Perfect Fool (produced at Covent Garden, London, 1923) ; and the very charming examples of his lighter style—St. Paul's Suite for string orchestra (written for St. Paul's Girls' School), and the mediaeval Songs for voice and violin. Hoist produces his choral effects with a sureness and ease that tell of long experience. He is particularly successful in writing for female voices. As an instance of the thoroughness of his methods it may be noted that he studied Sanskrit for the purpose of making his own translations for his songs, and himself wrote the libretto for Savitri. Charac teristic of his idiom is the folk-song strain in his melody and the frequent use of unusual time-signatures. His other works in clude Beni Mora, op. 29, No. 1, oriental suite for orchestra; Suites for military band, op. 28, a, b; Japanese Suite for orch. op. 33 ; part-songs for mixed voices, op. 34 ; choral folk-songs, op. 36, No. 2 ; Ode to Death (Whitman) for chorus and orch.; Fugal overture for orch. op. 4o, No. 1; Fugal concerto for flute, oboe and string accpt. op. 4o, No. 2.