Composers Corner: Gustav Holst

Gustav Holst (September 21, 1874 - May 25, 1934) grew up in a musical family in England. His grandfather was a harp player and music teacher, and his father taught piano and played the organ at a local church. Gustav and his brother Emil took piano lessons from their father starting at an early age. Gustav also played violin but did not like it.

Holst had some health problems as a boy. He had bad eyesight, but nobody realized that he needed glasses. He also suffered from asthma. Holst's father thought that playing a wind instrument might help his breathing, so he had him take trombone lessons starting when Gustav was 12 years old.

Holst's father hoped that Gustav would have a successful career as a pianist. Unfortunately, Holst had a condition with the nerves in his arm called neuritis, which made playing the piano very painful and difficult. Holst was more interested in composing than performing and started writing music around age 12. He later attended the Royal College of Music in London where he studied composition and the trombone.
After college, he decided that he could not make a living as a composer, so he continued to work as a performer. He took positions as an organist for churches in London, and he played trombones with orchestras. His work as an orchestral trombonist helped him as a composer; he learned how to write music for many different instruments of the orchestra and bring all of their sounds together into wonderful works.

A few years after he was married, Holst decided to stop performing and concentrate on composing. Holst still could not earn enough money to make a living as a composer, so he took a job as the director of music at St. Paul's Girls School in London. Holst worked at St. Paul's for almost the rest of his life. Several of Holst's students at St. Paul's went on to have successful careers in music.