Holst, Imogen (1907 - 1984)

[smittims]

I urge anyone looking for the sort of thing Radio 3 used to so well, to listen to this week's Composer of the Week. I'd heard some of Imogen Holst's music but the chance to hear an extended selection from her whole output shows her to have been a more original and diverse composer than I had thought. And if you're new to her music, don' t be misled by the surname. The music is much more than a copy of her Dad's.

It struck me that the format of this programme : a few minutes of narrative alternating with few minutes of music, is best suited to composers who wrote works of short duration, and this suits IH very well as hardly any of ther works are much more than 15 minutes in length.

Donald is doing well so far this week, in my opinion. And well done Alice Farnham and the BBC Concert Orchestra, who it seems have recorded much of the music specially.

The reason her music is so little-known is part due to her extreme modesty. What seems to have been her longest work, a one-act opera written for Dartington, was performed once, Christopher Grogan's excellent book telling us that 'IH was adamant it should not be played again' . And there are other works of hers which she withdrew after one hearing.

[Master Jacques]

She was equally protective of her father's legacy and reputation, to the detriment of both of them, I feel. A lot of Gustav Holst's early works which have leapt back into the world since her death have proved eminently able to stand on their feet, without any apology.

As for Imogen's own music, she would have intensely disliked the idea of a week's programmes devoted to her work. Quite wrongly so. It's not earth-shaking, but it is well-crafted, intelligent and imaginative.

[Serial_Apologist]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0026wst

[Serial_Apologist]

I would say Imogen's music owed more to her father's than Smittims argues. That small snippett at the beginning of the first programme of this week's series betrayed a strong pull from the end of "Saturn" as that ominous bass line emerges from under Daphnis's Daybreak duvet, but it was the later, austerer Phrygian Gustav whose modalities echoed on through a lot of her own less folk-influenced work. I've always felt sadness that she would become prime (as well as prim!) amanuensis for Britten - whose music, for all its showiness, lacked both the musical integrity and follow-through of hers - as well as in the tragedy of her clearly unrequited love for her younger champion.

[smittims]

Apparently she gave up composition during her 'Britten ' years, and these would probably have been the best years of her creativity. The String Quartet, whch will be played about 1630 GMT today, is the most original of her works I've heard.

[Pulcinella]

Her Mass setting is in the minster's repertoire here.

[Master Jacques]

I've always felt sadness that she would become prime (as well as prim!) amanuensis for Britten - whose music, for all its showiness, lacked both the musical integrity and follow-through of hers - as well as in the tragedy of her clearly unrequited love for her younger champion.

I suppose that Imogen Holst herself (though fully aware of the compositional debt to her father which you outline) would disagree vehemently with the mosaic of "sadness", "lack of musical integrity" and "tragedy of unrequited love" which you present. If anyone was pretty clearly having a ball with life, it was Miss Holst. From what little I've read, I doubt she saw any heavenly prospect in the idea of a nice, cosy marriage and three kiddies - though I'm open to correction.

[smittims]

I think Dr. Freud would have summed her up quicky. I think she had a fear of physical contact (i.e. sex) and chose people who were not likely to want it from her (Britten , Arthur Caton). But her suppression of her own compositional gift is possibly due to fear of rejection or criticism. She had plenty of opportunities to get her music performed.