This series revisits our Book of the Month archive to highlight some of our favourite articles and explore the ASC collections they describe with new eyes.

This article was originally published in September 2004 by Morag Greig and the full article canstill be found on our website in the本月存档的书。

The composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934) died on 25^th1934年5月，标志着这个ASC倒退将专注于霍尔斯特和他的朋友和同事威廉·吉利斯惠特克劳特之间的对应关系。1913年至1934年间编写的两百封信由图书馆持有，以及Holst的少数作品稿件。1963年由Whittaker的女儿和女婿，玛丽和爱德华的Pollitzer捐赠给大学图书馆，以及由惠特柜的工作图书馆的分数。Further details of the material在收藏中可用。

Holst and Whittaker were born within two years of each other, Holst in 1874 and Whittaker in 1876. Best known nowadays as the composer of the行星套房, Holst was a prolific composer as well as a dedicated and enthusiastic teacher. He undertook his education at the Royal College of Music between 1893 and 1898. Following a short period as an orchestral trombone player Holst then moved to teaching as his main occupation, and became Director of Music at St Paul’s Girls’ School in Hammersmith, and later the Director of Music at Morley College. Later in his career he took on appointments at University level. His works range from orchestral, choral and operatic works to instrumental music.

Whittaker had a less conventional music education, starting his education as a student of science but then deciding to switch to music. Unlike Holst he was never an orchestral player, but immediately entered the teaching profession. He was appointed as an Instructor of Music at Armstrong College, Newcastle in 1898. In 1929 he was appointed as the first Gardiner Professor of Music at Glasgow University, while also simultaneously holding the post of Principal of the Scottish National Academy if Music (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). Whittaker’s compositions include choral and orchestral music as well as many arrangements of North country folk tunes.

Holst and Whittaker were both busy and enthusiastic teachers as well as being composers. It is clear from the letters that the two composers were keen supporters of each others work, and were happy to offer advice on compositional matters. Here Holst offers some suggestions on the process of composition:

L.开始etter 4 (MS Gen 1350/4): December 13, 1915

I’m no good at teaching by correspondence, but here are three suggestions.

1)让我看看年接下来处于早期阶段。

2) Never write music when you feel excited.

3）避免从一个关键到另一个关键跳跃。现代倾向是扩大关键的范围 - 一个非常不同的东西。这只是事情的边缘，但我们必须达到一些时间，然后我们将有一个很好的糟糕。然而，这些点就像他们走的那样。

The letters reveal that they regularly sent one another compositions in preparation, and furthermore that both men undertook to perform each others compositions whenever possible:

L.开始Etter 12（MS Gen 1350/12）：1916年4月24日

我非常喜欢这两个伙伴，并将在其出版物的12个月内承担至少100个。此外，我认为我可以帮助他们出售。我只希望我能踢钢琴零件 - 我担心当我们希望让我们想要全力以赴地对歌手的关注时，就会有点努力。

我希望我通过送“爱的种子”来说，我并没有让事情变得更糟。我已经放弃了所有人希望在24小时前同时在这一切时写作YR音乐会的希望随着更多的想法来安排愚蠢。

所提到的工作'爱的种子'，成为一系列Holst的“六个合唱民谣”中的第一个，适用于无人陪伴的混合声音。Whittaker是一个热衷的合唱导体，在他在纽卡斯尔的生命期间，于1915年在纽卡斯尔·巴赫合唱团成立，成为纽卡斯尔和盖茨黑尔格尔联盟的指挥。所提到的工作的签名得分是致力于'W.G. Whittaker和他的歌手'。

Whittaker是一个伟大的巴赫爱好者，在纽卡斯尔的时间内，众多表演了巴赫坎塔科塔。这封信显示了他在编程巴赫寻求霍尔特的建议。然而，从Holst的回答显而易见的是，惠特·惠特克劳特的知识却优于他自己，因此他只觉得能够肯定惠特坦的建议：

我希望我对你有更多的用途，但事实是我只知道你提到的每五个坎塔塔，当然我还没有得到gesellschaft。

据我所知，你的程序看起来很靠我，这就是我可以去的那样。

I think no one would object to JSB’s bourees and minuets in church – anyhow in London.

L.开始埃特尔123年创女士(1350/123):1月1922

Later letters reveal continued mutual support. This postcard refers to Whittaker’s work for piano quintet ‘Among the Northumbrian Hills’, which he dedicated to Holst. The work earned Whittaker an award from the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, hence Holst’s delight:

h骄傲的傲慢是挖掘。

LEtter 115（MS Gen 1350/115）：1921年5月24日

后来在他们的友谊霍尔斯特热衷于支持惠特克，因为他寻求一个新的帖子。1926年至1929年间，Holst在Leeds和Liverpool的帖子中提到了他的信件，并提供了写作支持任何惠特员可能希望制作的申请。事实上，直到1929年，惠特克被委任为格拉斯哥大学的Gardiner教授，一个动作Holst明显批准：

Excerpt from letter 198 (MS Gen 1350/198):
December 19, 1929

I send you this with my warmest greetings. You will find most of the tales soothing in the midst of all your labours and worries while settling down. When once you are fairly fixed in Glasgow I believe you will be recognised and honoured by people whose regard will mean much. I know of no other place where I would prefer you to be and I know no man whom I want to see in your post as much as I want to see you.

So it’s a case of congratulations all round – to Glasgow as well as to you.

When war broke out in 1914 Holst was keen to enlist, but poor health prevented this. Holst found this particularly frustrating, and so he was excited to be given an opportunity to contribute to the war effort when he was asked by the Y.M.C.A. to take on the post of Musical Organizer for troops stationed in Salonica. In fact he was originally asked to go and work in Holland, but it was decided that his name (Gustav von Holst) suggested that he was of German descent, and that this would be inappropriate. Holst was actually of Swedish descent, but took the decision to drop the ‘von’ from his name before taking up the post in Salonica.

L.开始etter 73 (MS Gen 1350/73): September, 1918

用'歌'祝福你做任何旧的东西！

我正在与YMCA一起去Salonica一年 - 这是一个特殊的教育使命。为了更常用，我正在放弃'von'。我在画布下和泥泞学习我的工作。

During his time in this post Holst also worked in Constantinople. Letters he wrote to his wife and other friends during this period (accessible in Imogen Holst’sHolst: a biography) provide a fuller picture of his work here.

However, the small number of letters written to Whittaker during this period give a flavour of the constantly changing and somewhat erratic nature of the work:

非常感谢你的快乐信。现在，复员在认真的工作中设置在这里相当不稳定和不确定。你的旅程80或90英里到一个营地，发现大多数男人留下了三个小时前！这一切都非常好，非常快乐，所以我不介意。

在长期以来，我可能会向另一个中心搬到另一个中心，因为事物和男人更加静止。与此同时，我觉得我能做的最有用的工作是尽可能长时间保持在这里。例如，“时代”的Contes在这里开始了一个管弦乐队。他在11月离开了，现在他的副手离开了，所以我正在继续。这是非常快乐的机会，有机会做舒伯特的“未完成”等。作为讲座的一个例子

The rest of the work – lecturing, class teaching, organising – continues in spasms. Probably some effort is produced but it doesn’t show on the surface because one gets a fresh lot of pupils every few weeks – sometimes days.

Everything seems to show that The Planets have made the biggest impression of any of your things up to now. More than one personal account has come to me, and all are impressed by their bigness, their originality and their beauty. For instance, Dunhill, whom I saw recently, was carried away with them, and spoke in glowing terms.

To the average concert goer Holst is probably best known as the composer of the suite The Planets. The University of Glasgow Library does not hold any manuscript material relating to this work, but a number of the letters refer to it. The Planets was first performed privately in 1918 by the New Queen’s Hall Orchestra under Adrian Boult, and this was followed by a number of performances of various movements. In fact the first public performance of the whole suite did not take place until 1920, when the London Symphony performed the work under Coates. Holst mentions The Planets in passing in a number of his letters to Whittaker, but not in any great detail. Of more interest in confirming the impact created by this work is a letter sent by Whittaker to Holst in March 1919:

Heartiest of Congratulations! You have had a rare long time to wait, but at last you are coming into your own. How I wish I could have heard them!

Letter from Whittaker to Holst (MS Gen 1353/1/5）：1919年3月20日

Various manuscript copies of an important early work, ‘Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda’ op.26 are held in the Library. The background to this work arose from Holst’s interest in translations of Sanskrit literature. He decided to try and set a number of Sanskrit hymns to music, but was not happy with the existing English translations. He therefore decided to try and learn Sanskrit – a massive undertaking! Although he did not reach a level of familiarity which enabled him to read without a dictionary he was able to translate twenty hymns from the Rig Veda. These became four groups of hymns, which he composed between 1907 and 1911.

从钻机VEDA开始'赞美varma'（MS Gen 1352）

On a lighter note, the letters between Holst and Whittaker show Holst’s lively sense of humour. One of the more unusual items in the collection is a hand drawn Christmas card sent to Holst’s friend and fellow member of staff at both St. Paul’s and Morley College, Vally Lasker.

圣诞信发送到Vally Lasker（MS Gen 1353/2）：1932 *

This is explained in the following letter:

Vally is distressed (mildly) that her sofa is going phut so some of us are signing a comic Xmas letter begging to be allowed to subscribe for the necessary surgical operation.

As I know you’d like to be ‘in’ this the document will be sent you for signing in a fortnight or so.

The reference to ‘the Jolly Talgarth’ in the card refers to that fact that Vally Lasker lived at 103 Talgarth Road. In a letter sent to the ‘subscribers’ a few months after the Christmas in question the writers, Holst and the card’s artist, Amy Kemp, inform them that the ‘Talgarthian Sofa’ has been repaired, and that the cost to subscribers will be 2/1½.

Holst’s letters to Whittaker are a valuable resource in enabling us to learn more about Holst as teacher and composer, as well as providing an insight into musical life in England at the time they were written.

从Holst到Whittaker的惠特·惠特副本的稿件奉献，霍尔斯特的发布工作“耶稣赞美诗”
Sp Coll Case Whittaker Music MH760.095

Copyright

Please note that copyright for the Holst letters lies with G. & I. Holst Ltd, reproduced here by permission.

* Copyright for the following items lie with:
卡送到Vally Lasker（MS Gen 1353/2）：Vally Lasker和艺术家，艾米Kemp。
Photograph of Holst: Mr David Loeb; photograph by Sydney J. Loeb (reproduced here from University of Glasgow publicationGustav Holst: letters to W.G. Whittaker)
Photograph of Whittaker: Pollitzer family trust (reproduced here from University of Glasgow publicationGustav Holst: letters to W.G. Whittaker)

本文该书的原始建议来自受托人霍尔特出生地博物馆.

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