Always a favorite, although I haven't listened to it in a while. Time to revisit. I wore out an old cassette copy (I can't remember who the performers were - this was when I was about ten years old) and was told by my family that I was playing the tape "ad nauseum", which at the time was the most hilarious word I'd ever heard. I also remember playing chess with my father, and part of our trash talk / banter was humming the theme from "Mars" whenever either of us made a particularly bold and ominous move.
"Saturn" has always been my favorite movement. In my mind, it describes the approach of senility. The clanging bells represent strokes or perhaps a particularly bad memory-loss incident; the ethereal closing section evokes a sense of the "second infancy" undergone by people with advanced dementia. I don't know if this is what Holst was thinking of when he wrote the piece, though!
Thanks for the fine appreciation of a splendid work.
That is an interesting interpretation: senility and second infancy. As stated in the piece, I thought of it as growing old, decrepit and then dying. The "ethereal closing section" is the peace of death. I also associate this movement with a fantasy novel I am (or was) working on from a number of years ago.
Always a favorite, although I haven't listened to it in a while. Time to revisit. I wore out an old cassette copy (I can't remember who the performers were - this was when I was about ten years old) and was told by my family that I was playing the tape "ad nauseum", which at the time was the most hilarious word I'd ever heard. I also remember playing chess with my father, and part of our trash talk / banter was humming the theme from "Mars" whenever either of us made a particularly bold and ominous move.
"Saturn" has always been my favorite movement. In my mind, it describes the approach of senility. The clanging bells represent strokes or perhaps a particularly bad memory-loss incident; the ethereal closing section evokes a sense of the "second infancy" undergone by people with advanced dementia. I don't know if this is what Holst was thinking of when he wrote the piece, though!
Thanks for the fine appreciation of a splendid work.
That is an interesting interpretation: senility and second infancy. As stated in the piece, I thought of it as growing old, decrepit and then dying. The "ethereal closing section" is the peace of death. I also associate this movement with a fantasy novel I am (or was) working on from a number of years ago.
I just realized I wrote "Afterward" instead of "Afterword." That is the trouble with spell check. Remember, boys and girls, always proofread!