DANGIT I was right the first time...It's 7 movements 😂oops. That's because he didn't write one for Earth. I wonder what that would've sounded like? Lmao endless car horns, probably.
Hey man also the thing that you said reminded you of sweeney todd sounds a lot like the main title for Aliens (the sequel to Ridley Scott's Alien). Who would've guessed lol...
I’m a production manager for a major Symphony… We did the planets last season and I can tell you this is exactly what we did. We had the choir backstage and we slowly open the door when they were holding that single note and then near the end, we slowly shut the door and they just diminished into nothing.
if i recall correctly, the choir was behind a giant cathedral door, and to get the "fade out" effect, they slowly closed the door while they recorded the part.
I saw a performance of it recently in Dublin where the choir walked away through the back corridors of the concert hall until it faded and eventually disappeared. F*#king magic!!!!
I'm 62 now and, as a very young child (under 10), was one of those kids who imagined being inside a glass sphere floating through space for eternity observing the wonders and mystery of the universe forever and being content with it. I've always loved and and been grippingly inspired by Holst's The Planets and this dissertation of Neptune by you perfectly captures my own experiences and wonderment with it. Sharing your excitement and reverence for both the fear and compelling draw of infinity, which the soundscapes and 'pallets' in the piece produce, was truly enjoyable. Thankyou.
I love Holst's Neptune. It's by far my favorite piece from the planets. It's eerie in its entirety, but that choir at the end is certainly one of the most transcendental experiences I've ever had. So mysterious, as you're about to enter the void after the Solar System, into the complete unknown, and it somehow feels like it's also taking you to the after life too. This video is certainly the most perfect birthday gift I could ever ask for (my birthday is months away but still)
I feel like a lot of the pieces in this suite are kind of overshadowed by Jupiter and Mars, but Neptune is one of my favorites. I’m so excited that to watch this video, thank you so much!
Dies Irae is a Gregorian chant thats been showing up in music since the Middle Ages, so way earlier than Berlioz. But yes, I thought the same thing when I heard the Debussy/Sondheim
The Sweeney Todd and Nocturnes sections mentioned are variations of / inspired by the Dies Irae. That is correct. [Edit: I see several others came to point that out too. Our music history professors would be proud. 😂]
One thing to point out is that (if I recall correctly) technically The Planets is not about astronomy but about astrology. From the former we think of the planet as far out, but from the latter, "Neptune is considered a planet of inspiration, dreams, psychic receptivity, illusion, and confusion. Neptune rules spirituality, and all things subtle." (It's also why he didn't have a movement for the earth, because it's not an astrological sign, and neither is the moon.)
It's often a point made by contemporary commentators on The Planets - and it is certainly true that Holst was very interested in Astrology - but what is missed is Holst was also most certainly influenced by the massive revolution in scientific knowledge, particularly in astronomy, that was going on at the time he wrote The Planets. Personally I believe that he must have also been influenced massively by this - by the wonder of scientific discovery - when he wrote this music. Or perhaps because I know that astrology is pure B.S., I just prefer to think about it that way.
He learned astrology only as a source of inspiration for music. He was inspired by the characters of the planets but it was only initial inspiration. He never suggested the suites had any astrological meaning.
I heard a performance of this at the Royal Albert hall in London many years ago and they put the choir up in the rafters high above the audience. It was hauntingly beautiful - they sounded like angels
9:36 Don't you know about Dies Irae (original theme)? You can hear it in the shining, the isle of the dead, Totentanz, Symphony Fantastique, and many other pieces.
it even often makes small appearances in film scores such as when the man shoveling salt is shown in Home Alone, the tubular bells play the first 4 notes of dies irae
@@MusicBlik it's probably not carol of the bells because of the connotation of death that dies irae has. kevin feels fear when told that there could be dead bodies hidden in the salt and so I think dies irae best represents that
For me, the most... shocking? gigantic? terrifying? moment of Neptune is the moment before the rising oboes/cor/baritone oboe theme, just after the celeste runs. The moment the organ 16 and 32 ft pedals hit a subsonic low Ab, with a gentle rumble of the bass drum. That moment, is like falling off your spaceship into the abyss of the universe. Something that must be amazing to experience in person with a real pipe organ - you would feel the sound more than hear it.
Mars and Jupiter are great, but I think the real beauty of this suite is in the slow movements. Venus is simply blissful, Neptune is mysterious but beautiful. And the ending of Saturn is moving in a way I can’t even describe. It’s just… acceptance.
I find that's so often true of long pieces of orchestral music. For me, the loud bombastic sections are rarely my favorites. There's always too much going on. The quiet sections are when you can tease out the subtle, beautiful themes.
I completely agree with everything you said in this video. Neptune is my most favourite piece of music in Holst's timeless masterpiece The Planets, always and forevermore.
Fantastic episode, Charles! I’m so fortunate to have found you! Sincere thanks! I remember as a young teenager, my first recording of “The Planets”. My wonderful uncle gifted a classical record to me every year at Christmas. I distinctly remember being blown away by this haunting, beautiful, but mysterious music. Since those days in the 1960’s, I’ve worn out several LPs and CDs of this work! I wish everyone had a beautiful, supportive person to inspire love and affection for classical music like my uncle, Arnold York. I miss him :-(
I haven't seen anyone mention it yet so That melody from Nocturne that was also used in Sweeney Todd is ALSO used in Rey's Theme from Star Wars: The Force Awakens It all comes full circle
In college we did a performance where the choir left the stage down the aisles of the audience, out through the lobby, into the courtyard and street in front of the concert hall. The conductor didn't out down his baton until she got the signal that the last singer had left tthe building.
My favourite thing about seeing this live, especially, is that the choir at the end fades out so slowly that at the end, for a moment, you can't tell if they're still singing or if you're just hearing things and they have stopped. It's a beautiful moment of mystery to end the piece and the suite.
Last time I saw the suite live was a BBC prom at the Albert Hall. The Neptune choir was out of sight 100 feet up on the Promenade level, and the voices came floating down. One of my favourite musical memories.
@@Teladian2 okay Look I'm 64 and since I was a teenager I've listened to the Right of Spring at least once a year. If you guys ever watched the "Unanswered Question" you would've too. Anyway Stravinsky is truly the source of so very much Modernism and film and TV music. An inordinate amount.
I performed in the treble choir for this. It was so difficult (singing so high. Orchestra cuts out. Trying to blend while singing so soft). I still got goosebumps every time we sang it with the orchestra
Fantastic video, Charles. I absolutely love the Planet Suite. It gets dismissed a lot as a 'crowd pleaser', but there's so much more to it than that. Do more!
I don't mean to belittle your comment, but Issac Newton created laws of gravity relative to earth and the Sun... there's nothing more inspiring than the wonders of nature.
@@henrique88tyes and it’s so obvious listening to the Neptune piece. It has a very “aquatic” atmosphere which represents Neptune, god of the sea. Most of the other pieces perfectly represent their Greek/Roman deities. It seems to me that people who think of the Planets as “space” music have somewhat missed the point. Still as long as the music is enjoyed its “meaning” matters little.
You inspired me to order a physical copy of The Planets. After careful research and listening to five different versions, I've decided to go with the Adrian Boult/London Philharmonic performance.
See this suite live if you can! My family and I had the pleasure of hearing the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra perform The Planets live earlier this year. Mars kept me on the edge of my seat. The choir at the end of Neptune was unreal. They came out for a curtain call and got a standing ovation.
I love how this channel has something for everybody. I’d like to think that someone who originally followed you for anime and video game content is now discovering Gustav Holst like, “wait this is dope too.”
Neptune has always been my favorite movement of the Planets. It’s just so beautiful and lets my mind just wonder about anything and everything. Watching it performed live is even better.
I was able to listen to this live performed by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. The choir was actually hiding somewhere, I believe, under the stage. It was hauntingly beautiful.
A jazz theorist looking back on the beauty of classical harmony really makes me feel like there’s some continuity and progress that can be taken and advanced into the modern world. We don’t have to abandon good ideas in order to advance musical harmony. Now, if I could hear these chords as easily, I feel like it would be as mind blowing as it is presented but just being able to see someone look at musical tension and resolution in this way is so inspiring. Maybe one day hearing and understanding chords relations like this will make me relate to the art of harmony in new ways just it is shown here. Kind of an exciting prospect to be able to be included in a private world that few can truly hear or understand.
9:40 That melody is from a gregorian chant for the "dies irae" part of the catholic mass. "Day of Wrath" Composers have long used it when referencing death, the macabre, etc. The soundtrack for "The Shining" comes to mind as a quick example, but it's used tons of other movie/show/game scores as well.
I can't recall if you've done a video on Saturn yet, but the entire back half of that movement is buttery 6 and 9 and major 7 chords, and right at the end it features my FAVORITE resolution in the entire suite. There a cluster of tension and a release as the violins slide up into a high major seventh that just melted me the first time I heard it ❤
The Planets is one of my all-time favorite compositions. Holst's harmonic work here is, in my opinion, pure genius ... for all of the reasons you've covered in the video. I especially love the mysterious fad away at the end, to actually end the entire suite. Just magical. Thanks for posting this!
10:42 Debussy's sirens piece sounds a lot like the opening of Ravel's 'Daphnis et Chloe'! Ravel also uses the choir purely as an instrument without any lyrics
Hi Charles, I think that both the Debussy Nocturne and Sweeney Todd are taking quotations from the funeral Gregorian chant 'Dies Irae', which is one of if not the most quoted chant. See Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, and Danny Elfman's score to Beetlejuice among many others.
This is literally MY FAVORITE MOVEMENT from the planets collection. I used to go to sleep to this nightly back in the 90’s on CD. Neptune, Mercury and Jupiter are my favorite movements and I love hearing different interpretations of them by various groups. Aurally, Neptune is just so calming, eerie, and mysterious and you can lose yourself exploring the spaciousness of the arrangement
Awesome! People always talk about "Mars" which is an incredible piece, don't get me wrong, but the entirety of Holst's suite is worthy of being enjoyed, in my opinion
I've been listening to The Planets a bunch recently and am so glad to see this in my recommended. Neptune is easily one of my favorites, with such an imaginative ending to the suite.
I had the wonderful privilege to perform the Holtz Planets Suite as the Organist/Celesta player and this movement was my favorite to play because of the beautiful harmonies and arpeggios. Absolutely brilliant
Neptune has been one of my favorite pieces of music since I was a child. Hauntingly beautiful. Holst wrote The Planets through an astrological lens, he studied astrology. ;-)
I would love to see you tackle the finale of Wyschnegradsky's *La Journée de l'Existence*, there's this absolutely insane chord that's very hard to describe. You can hear it at 51:00. Man, the horns and everything is just incredible and terrifying.
The most important contribution Charles! By the way Neptune is the planet of spiritual growth and the composition swings between inspiration, discovery and hope which makes it accurate and beyond good and bad. But in Star Wars these spiritual chords are used for the evil dark force, which is the biggest mistake in history of cinematography. Long live Neptune's magnanimous signature. Thanks again.
I would adore a series where you breakdown each movement of The Planets, and how they came to be, and what all they have influenced. Hell i'd even pay for that series!
I’m really surprised you don’t know this. Both Debussy and Sondheim use the Dies Irae as a basis for their respective works. It’s absolutely not a coincidence.
You should check out binks sake from one piece. Still in my opinion one of the saddest piano parts especially the walking down part when he said “it isn’t right leaving just the accompaniment” really made me cry. Even though Charles might not see this comment, would mean a lot if he would at least walk through it like he does with we are and coconut mall. Love ur vids man!
I'm an orchestral musician (percussion) and have performed this and also saw a concert with the New York Philharmonic years ago. On both occasions, the choir of women were actually offstage the entire time, being conducted via video feed. That way, it's easier to control the fade at the end and it's also the craziest surprise to an audience to has no clue that they are going to hear voices because they aren't on stage (the choir was in the printed program, but the effect was still insane). Also, as a percussionist, I can say that Holst (and Debussy before him) uses a great blend of bells, harp, and celesta where sometimes it's hard to tell which is which. Love the videos!
As a kid my Mum used to listen to various classical music pieces as well as contemporary pop music of her time, and the Planet's Suite by Holst was one of those pieces. It sticks in my mind as one of the first classical music pieces that I became familiar with as a child. I love the way you break down music into its working parts and the various devices used by composers.
Day 29939 of Charles being baffled by intermediate music theory. Isn't this just the III of the relative major? Talk about the orchestration itself, thats far more interesting.
Love this channel! Explains why I love all the stuff I love! I always heard Ravel's "Pavane" as a set with this piece (my two all-time faves!), but the "Sirenes" is spot on (another fave, but somehow hadn't connected the dots). In the Sweeney Todd part, I actually hear a lot of the more chill parts of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" (also heavily influencing Star Wars). But the wordless choirs and ascending REALLY sound like Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe. After watching this, "Neptune" seems like a Venn Diagram of all my favorite classical pieces! Thanks so much!!! PS - There's also a tune on Air's "The Virgin Suicides" called "Dirty Trip" that uses the same progression (maybe not the same key, though). Makes sense since that album is super mysterious sounding.
this is cool cuz i just brought home Isao Tomita's "The Planets" on vinyl (used) the other day. Tomita was an early electronic composer who did a lot of Moog interpretations of classical music. super dank, highly recommend him
Minor chords built on the root notes of an augmented triad provide that certain feeling. Major chords with roots half a step lower than the roots of those minor chords also work. Those 6 chords are closely related to an augment triad.
I have the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal recording from 1986, and in the Saturn movement, just after the 7:00 mark, there’s a bass note that has some frequency that I use to test speaker setups. First time I ever heard it, my dad had gifted me two Polk floorstanding speakers, and I hooked it up to his old Yamaha stereo. Playing that track through those speakers, even just in stereo, shook the whole house.
Gosh, really enjoyed this. Longer ago than I care to admit, I was one of those high school students who, in concert band, had to play Holst’s suites in E flat for military band. They’re fine pieces, but we played it so often that I burned out on it, which, unfairly, soured me on Holst. Your video brought the sweetness back. Thanks!
I LOVE Neptune! Its such a wild rollercoaster of emotion and some of the best composition ever. The performance is PERFECT! The choir in a different room backstage! Makes me tear up!
Wonderful episode! Bernard Hermann did this too, and I swear I was hearing this in some of the music they used in Stargate: Universe! Now you need to do Satie! And Ligetti's Atmospheres!
When I ran a Star Wars DnD game based on The Odyssey I spent about a month or two locating and cataloguing several hours worth of John Williams’ scores for Star Wars. But it wasn’t enough. So I began combing through the original Star Wars music: Holst! I found two themes especially useful for my villain, Darth Plagueis: Hymn to the Unknown God from his first group of Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, and, of course, Neptune! I fell in love with this piece, and all it’s themes which would eventually become allusions to Star Wars. The choir was mimicked by Williams in his music for Otoh Gungah on Naboo, tying into the sound world of the Prequels since my game was set just before and during the Phantom Menace. The alternating minor chords a major third apart seem to echo Vader’s Imperial March, when it is very heavily implied that Vader was the direct result of Plagueis. And the spirit and emotion of the piece is an incredibly beautiful but unsettling curiosity, which, between the flutes, treble voices, and trembling orchestrations, seems to invoke images of tiny fairy-like beings. Plagueis is most famous for “influencing the Midichlorians to produce life”; he did dark science and magic to the microscopic symbionts responsible for all living things’ connection to the force, in order to resurrect the dead and, perhaps, immaculately conceive Anakin Skywalker. It’s the perfect theme for Plagueis, in my opinion, a dark alchemist hiding away in dire secrecy from the rest of the Galaxy, which moves to his whim when he pulls its strings, obsessively pursuing his curiosity with the Force and the very tools of life and death in our universe.
The whole Planets suite is a phenomenal piece of work. I discovered it when I was at Junior School, and it blew my mind. I'm 33 now, and I still regularly listen to it. Neptune isn't called the Mystic for nothing! Such beauty, mystery, and dissonance.
Haven't seen anyone else pointing it out in the comments yet (apologies if someone has, and I missed it), but the characters of the pieces are not actually derived from astronomical characteristics of the planets themselves, but from the ancient Roman deities of the same names. In that pantheon, Neptune is considered the bringer of old age.
Literally one of my FAVORITE compositions of musical art and story telling!! I have loved Planets since I was first introduced to it in high-school concert band and it has lived in my heart and imagination ever since! Thank you so much for sharing just how delicious, provoking, and pure genius is in the Neptune movement. This episode was a comic blast to listen to 😁🤙🏽!!
It's amazing to then hear the added "Pluto" movement by Colin Matthews, that actually manages to continue after this ending of Neptune, which sounds like it introduces you to the next level of 'unknown space' beyond what Holst ended with. In the performance by the brittain natioinal youth orchestra, they end neptune with a high pitched harmonic in the back of the violin section, that then serves as a really nice bridge to open the Pluto movement.
The Planets is a masterpiece. I've spent 35+ years studying it. I have an alternate idea for the genesis of this work. Holst had been working with these musical ideas for a long, long time. I think this work is the musical depiction of a year in rural England. Mars is the depiction of a nasty blizzard in January. Move through to the late spring festivals that would be Jupiter. Saturn is a vicious late summer thunder storm. Neptune is the special kind of dark mystery of the harvest festival. Neptune is the end of the year and the soft, gentle atmosphere of the first snowfall. A lot of scholarship has been done with Holst and The Planets. I love the idea that this drama that he evokes is the drama that people, especially common folk, get to experience every day. Great videos! Thanks so much for your work!
09:24 Ha! The moment you mentioned Debussy in the context of Holst's "Planets" and "Star Wars", I immediately thought about "Nocturnes", because it's like something straight out of "Star Wars". There's a lot of great moments in it that you could switch for the score in "Star Wars" and it would fit perfectly :)
That little bit of Debussy you found in Sweeney Todd … I immediately recognised it as Art of Noise’s “Instruments of Darkness”. But since they went on to make an album called “The Seduction of Claude Debussy” we shouldn’t be entirely surprised.
Williams used lot of these themes in Close Encounters as well, with the beautiful angelic voices. Its fits perfectly. Also I love Sirenes and listen to it often, so many great versions here on the Tube, but you can't go wrong with Boulez!
Years ago, I wrote a progression that is in all minor chords, ascending in thirds with the roots all on the white keys. So every other change has this type of transition: Am, Cm, Em, Gm, Bm, Dm, Fm. The harp is doing arpeggios using the leading tones on the low and high end.
DANGIT I was right the first time...It's 7 movements 😂oops. That's because he didn't write one for Earth. I wonder what that would've sounded like? Lmao endless car horns, probably.
'the sticky middle of the night Summer serenade
Of taxi horns and fun arcades'.
Hey man also the thing that you said reminded you of sweeney todd sounds a lot like the main title for Aliens (the sequel to Ridley Scott's Alien).
Who would've guessed lol...
Someone did a earth version here on youtube, and they have a pluto version on one compulation album of holst.
@@ThePapaja1996 who?
@@ThePapaja1996 planet earth johan de meij
ahhh yes, Holst's 'this is literally how all space music will sound for the next hundred years' suite.
Copland: “Imma do that but for America.”
@@michaellinnehan9589curse you and the horse you rode in on! ( accompanied by wood block clip clop) super cringe 😬
He did it right
@@michaellinnehan9589 Spot on.
😂
Saturn, Neptune and Uranus are tragically underrated movements. So so so so so good
Movement... Uranus.... 😂😂😂 . There's nothing underrated about that.
I love the ending in Uranus. Love those brass chords.
I love Saturn too. My experience listening to it was like watching a dying old man getting glimpses of the life he had.
I thought Saturn was much weaker than the rest personally
I’m a trombone player so you know I love the trombone choral early on in the movement lol!
I have always loved Holst's music. Was literally playing Jupiter on the piano today lol.
i played that piece in 8th grade orchestra
I have 3 Seiko clocks that all play The Planets: Jupiter. Now I kinda wonder how they’d play Neptune?
@@rogue_114same. Cello
I’m a production manager for a major Symphony… We did the planets last season and I can tell you this is exactly what we did. We had the choir backstage and we slowly open the door when they were holding that single note and then near the end, we slowly shut the door and they just diminished into nothing.
I saw something similar done at the Royal Albert Hall in London. You could hear a pin drop
Something about that is written and performed, it sucks out all the sound and vibrations in a sort of vacuum.
I imagine the choir making their exit on hoverboards so the audience doesn't hear their footsteps.
if i recall correctly, the choir was behind a giant cathedral door, and to get the "fade out" effect, they slowly closed the door while they recorded the part.
@@firebert123yes, according to the score the choir isn’t even on stage
I saw a performance of it recently in Dublin where the choir walked away through the back corridors of the concert hall until it faded and eventually disappeared. F*#king magic!!!!
@@firebert123Hopefully the door didn't creak too much!
Imagine twelve little beasts nibbling on your body and cackling their demonic laughter all the while
I'm 62 now and, as a very young child (under 10), was one of those kids who imagined being inside a glass sphere floating through space for eternity observing the wonders and mystery of the universe forever and being content with it. I've always loved and and been grippingly inspired by Holst's The Planets and this dissertation of Neptune by you perfectly captures my own experiences and wonderment with it. Sharing your excitement and reverence for both the fear and compelling draw of infinity, which the soundscapes and 'pallets' in the piece produce, was truly enjoyable. Thankyou.
I love that shit. Hell yeah 💯🆒🆒🆒
I love Holst's Neptune. It's by far my favorite piece from the planets. It's eerie in its entirety, but that choir at the end is certainly one of the most transcendental experiences I've ever had. So mysterious, as you're about to enter the void after the Solar System, into the complete unknown, and it somehow feels like it's also taking you to the after life too.
This video is certainly the most perfect birthday gift I could ever ask for (my birthday is months away but still)
I feel like a lot of the pieces in this suite are kind of overshadowed by Jupiter and Mars, but Neptune is one of my favorites. I’m so excited that to watch this video, thank you so much!
Both Sweeney Todd and La Mer sound like variations on the DIES IRAE theme which people have been using since at least Berlioz up to John Williams
Dies Irae is a Gregorian chant thats been showing up in music since the Middle Ages, so way earlier than Berlioz.
But yes, I thought the same thing when I heard the Debussy/Sondheim
The Sweeney Todd and Nocturnes sections mentioned are variations of / inspired by the Dies Irae. That is correct. [Edit: I see several others came to point that out too. Our music history professors would be proud. 😂]
Haha! Yeah I thought I wouldn't be the first to notice that so I thought I check the comments before posting "well actually.."🤓😆
Much of Sweeney Todd is based on the Dies Irae. Not just the opening.
Please god do more analysis on Holst’s The Planets!! I can’t get enough of how it laid so much of the groundwork for future music in media
One thing to point out is that (if I recall correctly) technically The Planets is not about astronomy but about astrology. From the former we think of the planet as far out, but from the latter, "Neptune is considered a planet of inspiration, dreams, psychic receptivity, illusion, and confusion. Neptune rules spirituality, and all things subtle." (It's also why he didn't have a movement for the earth, because it's not an astrological sign, and neither is the moon.)
It's often a point made by contemporary commentators on The Planets - and it is certainly true that Holst was very interested in Astrology - but what is missed is Holst was also most certainly influenced by the massive revolution in scientific knowledge, particularly in astronomy, that was going on at the time he wrote The Planets. Personally I believe that he must have also been influenced massively by this - by the wonder of scientific discovery - when he wrote this music. Or perhaps because I know that astrology is pure B.S., I just prefer to think about it that way.
He learned astrology only as a source of inspiration for music. He was inspired by the characters of the planets but it was only initial inspiration. He never suggested the suites had any astrological meaning.
It must also have to do with the gods they're named after. What do you guys think, yea or nay?
@@Just_Sara Absolutely, as you can tell by the subtitles - Mercury the Winged Mesenger, Mars the bringer of War and so on.
I think it's both. It's literally called 'The Planets', but their personalities are determined by their Astrological significance.
I heard a performance of this at the Royal Albert hall in London many years ago and they put the choir up in the rafters high above the audience. It was hauntingly beautiful - they sounded like angels
Sounds sublime!
I think I was there! It was astonishing.
Now that's an amazing experience...
9:36 Don't you know about Dies Irae (original theme)? You can hear it in the shining, the isle of the dead, Totentanz, Symphony Fantastique, and many other pieces.
it even often makes small appearances in film scores such as when the man shoveling salt is shown in Home Alone, the tubular bells play the first 4 notes of dies irae
@@drumming_cat Who's to say it wasn't the first four notes of the Carol of the Bells?
@@MusicBlik it's probably not carol of the bells because of the connotation of death that dies irae has. kevin feels fear when told that there could be dead bodies hidden in the salt and so I think dies irae best represents that
I was surprised he didn't see it as that, but it just goes to show you can find clues from other music everywhere :D
I love the use of it in the third movement of Longford Legend
One of my favorite orchestral suites. Indeed one of the most drawn from inspirations for many a movie's music.
For me, the most... shocking? gigantic? terrifying? moment of Neptune is the moment before the rising oboes/cor/baritone oboe theme, just after the celeste runs. The moment the organ 16 and 32 ft pedals hit a subsonic low Ab, with a gentle rumble of the bass drum.
That moment, is like falling off your spaceship into the abyss of the universe. Something that must be amazing to experience in person with a real pipe organ - you would feel the sound more than hear it.
I want to find this place, can you give me a timestamp? (I understand its different between recordings but an approximation atleast)
Is it where the celesta suddenly plays much slower runs (quintuplets) after the faster ones along with harp?
I know exactly the moment you mean. It has always given me goosebumps.
well said.
Mars and Jupiter are great, but I think the real beauty of this suite is in the slow movements. Venus is simply blissful, Neptune is mysterious but beautiful. And the ending of Saturn is moving in a way I can’t even describe. It’s just… acceptance.
Saturn was purportedly Holst's personal favorite.
I find that's so often true of long pieces of orchestral music. For me, the loud bombastic sections are rarely my favorites. There's always too much going on. The quiet sections are when you can tease out the subtle, beautiful themes.
I completely agree with everything you said in this video. Neptune is my most favourite piece of music in Holst's timeless masterpiece The Planets, always and forevermore.
Fantastic episode, Charles! I’m so fortunate to have found you! Sincere thanks!
I remember as a young teenager, my first recording of “The Planets”.
My wonderful uncle gifted a classical record to me every year at Christmas.
I distinctly remember being blown away by this haunting, beautiful, but mysterious music.
Since those days in the 1960’s, I’ve worn out several LPs and CDs of this work!
I wish everyone had a beautiful, supportive person to inspire love and affection for classical music like my uncle, Arnold York. I miss him :-(
I haven't seen anyone mention it yet so
That melody from Nocturne that was also used in Sweeney Todd is ALSO used in Rey's Theme from Star Wars: The Force Awakens
It all comes full circle
Came here looking for this comment lol
that's what I was thinking
overall Rey's Theme sounds like Ralph Vaughan Williams to me
Rey's theme is entirely modal, both melodically and harmonically. Neptune is entirely mixed chromaticism. Not remotely related in any way.
@@toddlevin The commenter is referring to Dies Irae (though doesn't mention it by name). Those pieces all quote Dies Irae in some way.
In college we did a performance where the choir left the stage down the aisles of the audience, out through the lobby, into the courtyard and street in front of the concert hall. The conductor didn't out down his baton until she got the signal that the last singer had left tthe building.
Wow I bet that was phenomenal!
My favourite thing about seeing this live, especially, is that the choir at the end fades out so slowly that at the end, for a moment, you can't tell if they're still singing or if you're just hearing things and they have stopped. It's a beautiful moment of mystery to end the piece and the suite.
Last time I saw the suite live was a BBC prom at the Albert Hall. The Neptune choir was out of sight 100 feet up on the Promenade level, and the voices came floating down. One of my favourite musical memories.
the way there’s another comment talking about this exact same thing at this exact same concert 😭😭 /pos
@@wooogie672 Wow, didn't realise that- small world, and a memorable concert ❤
John Williams didn't always use Holst, he also uses Prokofiev a huge ton, as well as Mahler, Shostikovich and Wagner
Everyone uses mahler
Don’t forget brahms
He's a big Stravinsky thief
And. Dvorak
@@Teladian2 okay Look I'm 64 and since I was a teenager I've listened to the Right of Spring at least once a year. If you guys ever watched the "Unanswered Question" you would've too. Anyway Stravinsky is truly the source of so very much Modernism and film and TV music. An inordinate amount.
I performed in the treble choir for this. It was so difficult (singing so high. Orchestra cuts out. Trying to blend while singing so soft). I still got goosebumps every time we sang it with the orchestra
Great episode! Your enthusiasm for music is contagious. Thanks for sharing.
Fantastic video, Charles. I absolutely love the Planet Suite. It gets dismissed a lot as a 'crowd pleaser', but there's so much more to it than that. Do more!
16:00 it’s the underwater tune from The Phantom Menace. There’s always a bigger fish.
Glad I wasn't the only one to notice! All of a sudden I could see Qui-gon, Obi-wan, and Jar Jar swimming down to the Gungan city.
It still amazes me that someone actually composed an entire “soundtrack” for the literal solar system (planets, but ya get it).!.!
I don't mean to belittle your comment, but Issac Newton created laws of gravity relative to earth and the Sun... there's nothing more inspiring than the wonders of nature.
I believe it wasn't as much the literal solar system itself but some sort of astrological interpretation of the planets.
@@henrique88tyes and it’s so obvious listening to the Neptune piece. It has a very “aquatic” atmosphere which represents Neptune, god of the sea. Most of the other pieces perfectly represent their Greek/Roman deities. It seems to me that people who think of the Planets as “space” music have somewhat missed the point. Still as long as the music is enjoyed its “meaning” matters little.
I hear strong echoes of both the Debussy and Holst pieces in Jerry Goldsmith’s scores for Alien and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
You inspired me to order a physical copy of The Planets. After careful research and listening to five different versions, I've decided to go with the Adrian Boult/London Philharmonic performance.
That one is great, my favorite is Charles Dutoit with Montreal 😊
See this suite live if you can! My family and I had the pleasure of hearing the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra perform The Planets live earlier this year. Mars kept me on the edge of my seat. The choir at the end of Neptune was unreal. They came out for a curtain call and got a standing ovation.
I love how this channel has something for everybody. I’d like to think that someone who originally followed you for anime and video game content is now discovering Gustav Holst like, “wait this is dope too.”
Neptune has always been my favorite movement of the Planets. It’s just so beautiful and lets my mind just wonder about anything and everything. Watching it performed live is even better.
I was able to listen to this live performed by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. The choir was actually hiding somewhere, I believe, under the stage. It was hauntingly beautiful.
The one just a few years ago? I was there, too! The female chorus was up in the loft I think, behind the organ. It was an amazing performance.
@@redshirtvideos622 Aahh, that's out they did it. Either way, it was a really cool effect
A jazz theorist looking back on the beauty of classical harmony really makes me feel like there’s some continuity and progress that can be taken and advanced into the modern world. We don’t have to abandon good ideas in order to advance musical harmony. Now, if I could hear these chords as easily, I feel like it would be as mind blowing as it is presented but just being able to see someone look at musical tension and resolution in this way is so inspiring. Maybe one day hearing and understanding chords relations like this will make me relate to the art of harmony in new ways just it is shown here. Kind of an exciting prospect to be able to be included in a private world that few can truly hear or understand.
9:40 That melody is from a gregorian chant for the "dies irae" part of the catholic mass. "Day of Wrath"
Composers have long used it when referencing death, the macabre, etc.
The soundtrack for "The Shining" comes to mind as a quick example, but it's used tons of other movie/show/game scores as well.
I can't recall if you've done a video on Saturn yet, but the entire back half of that movement is buttery 6 and 9 and major 7 chords, and right at the end it features my FAVORITE resolution in the entire suite. There a cluster of tension and a release as the violins slide up into a high major seventh that just melted me the first time I heard it ❤
Very underrated channel keep the great work
The Planets is one of my all-time favorite compositions. Holst's harmonic work here is, in my opinion, pure genius ... for all of the reasons you've covered in the video. I especially love the mysterious fad away at the end, to actually end the entire suite. Just magical. Thanks for posting this!
The planets suite is one of my favourite classical works
10:42 Debussy's sirens piece sounds a lot like the opening of Ravel's 'Daphnis et Chloe'! Ravel also uses the choir purely as an instrument without any lyrics
Hi Charles, I think that both the Debussy Nocturne and Sweeney Todd are taking quotations from the funeral Gregorian chant 'Dies Irae', which is one of if not the most quoted chant. See Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, and Danny Elfman's score to Beetlejuice among many others.
This is literally MY FAVORITE MOVEMENT from the planets collection. I used to go to sleep to this nightly back in the 90’s on CD. Neptune, Mercury and Jupiter are my favorite movements and I love hearing different interpretations of them by various groups. Aurally, Neptune is just so calming, eerie, and mysterious and you can lose yourself exploring the spaciousness of the arrangement
Awesome! People always talk about "Mars" which is an incredible piece, don't get me wrong, but the entirety of Holst's suite is worthy of being enjoyed, in my opinion
"Awesome" 💩
I've been listening to The Planets a bunch recently and am so glad to see this in my recommended. Neptune is easily one of my favorites, with such an imaginative ending to the suite.
Sondheim was referencing the Dies Irae (transposed up a diatonic 3rd in the bit you played). Likely Debussy was too.
I had the wonderful privilege to perform the Holtz Planets Suite as the Organist/Celesta player and this movement was my favorite to play because of the beautiful harmonies and arpeggios. Absolutely brilliant
Neptune has been one of my favorite pieces of music since I was a child. Hauntingly beautiful. Holst wrote The Planets through an astrological lens, he studied astrology. ;-)
The recording you're using is my favorite!
I’m begging you, please make a video about each song in the suite. It’s my absolute favorite.
Loving the new place
I would love to see you tackle the finale of Wyschnegradsky's *La Journée de l'Existence*, there's this absolutely insane chord that's very hard to describe. You can hear it at 51:00. Man, the horns and everything is just incredible and terrifying.
The most important contribution Charles! By the way Neptune is the planet of spiritual growth and the composition swings between inspiration, discovery and hope which makes it accurate and beyond good and bad. But in Star Wars these spiritual chords are used for the evil dark force, which is the biggest mistake in history of cinematography. Long live Neptune's magnanimous signature. Thanks again.
OMG
I would adore a series where you breakdown each movement of The Planets, and how they came to be, and what all they have influenced. Hell i'd even pay for that series!
damn i forgot you did one for John Williams too lmao
I’m really surprised you don’t know this. Both Debussy and Sondheim use the Dies Irae as a basis for their respective works. It’s absolutely not a coincidence.
And Franz Liszt in his Dance Macabre (or Totentanz)
I like the passion you show. The entire video I was crying...
You should check out binks sake from one piece. Still in my opinion one of the saddest piano parts especially the walking down part when he said “it isn’t right leaving just the accompaniment” really made me cry. Even though Charles might not see this comment, would mean a lot if he would at least walk through it like he does with we are and coconut mall. Love ur vids man!
I'm an orchestral musician (percussion) and have performed this and also saw a concert with the New York Philharmonic years ago. On both occasions, the choir of women were actually offstage the entire time, being conducted via video feed. That way, it's easier to control the fade at the end and it's also the craziest surprise to an audience to has no clue that they are going to hear voices because they aren't on stage (the choir was in the printed program, but the effect was still insane). Also, as a percussionist, I can say that Holst (and Debussy before him) uses a great blend of bells, harp, and celesta where sometimes it's hard to tell which is which. Love the videos!
One thing Uranus reminds me of is a bowel movement performed on a trombone
As a kid my Mum used to listen to various classical music pieces as well as contemporary pop music of her time, and the Planet's Suite by Holst was one of those pieces. It sticks in my mind as one of the first classical music pieces that I became familiar with as a child. I love the way you break down music into its working parts and the various devices used by composers.
Day 29939 of Charles being baffled by intermediate music theory. Isn't this just the III of the relative major? Talk about the orchestration itself, thats far more interesting.
Prayers up for Pluto. You'll always be a planet in my heart.
Love this channel! Explains why I love all the stuff I love! I always heard Ravel's "Pavane" as a set with this piece (my two all-time faves!), but the "Sirenes" is spot on (another fave, but somehow hadn't connected the dots). In the Sweeney Todd part, I actually hear a lot of the more chill parts of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" (also heavily influencing Star Wars). But the wordless choirs and ascending REALLY sound like Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe. After watching this, "Neptune" seems like a Venn Diagram of all my favorite classical pieces! Thanks so much!!!
PS - There's also a tune on Air's "The Virgin Suicides" called "Dirty Trip" that uses the same progression (maybe not the same key, though). Makes sense since that album is super mysterious sounding.
I'm so glad that I've never heard The Planets conclude with the Jupiter movement!
this is cool cuz i just brought home Isao Tomita's "The Planets" on vinyl (used) the other day. Tomita was an early electronic composer who did a lot of Moog interpretations of classical music. super dank, highly recommend him
Minor chords built on the root notes of an augmented triad provide that certain feeling. Major chords with roots half a step lower than the roots of those minor chords also work. Those 6 chords are closely related to an augment triad.
Love those chords. Notable pop music example: "Halo" by Depeche Mode.
Dude you introduced the planets to me in one of your videos last year and I have had it on LOOP ever since. I LOVE this song.
That's really beautiful, indeed!
Great video!
Glad you made a video on this. I really love this track from The Planets ... didn't hear it until 2 years ago but it's my favorite easily.
Loved this video, particularly your explanation of the very spooky chords that work so well in this piece. Well done.
Really love the enthusiasm with which you talk about litterally all kinds of music!!
I have the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal recording from 1986, and in the Saturn movement, just after the 7:00 mark, there’s a bass note that has some frequency that I use to test speaker setups. First time I ever heard it, my dad had gifted me two Polk floorstanding speakers, and I hooked it up to his old Yamaha stereo. Playing that track through those speakers, even just in stereo, shook the whole house.
Playing viola, i LOVED performing particularly Mars and Jupiter of this series.
Gosh, really enjoyed this. Longer ago than I care to admit, I was one of those high school students who, in concert band, had to play Holst’s suites in E flat for military band. They’re fine pieces, but we played it so often that I burned out on it, which, unfairly, soured me on Holst. Your video brought the sweetness back. Thanks!
I LOVE Neptune! Its such a wild rollercoaster of emotion and some of the best composition ever. The performance is PERFECT! The choir in a different room backstage! Makes me tear up!
Neptune's my favourite movement.
It's chilling and beautiful. Gives me goosebumps every time.
Wonderful episode! Bernard Hermann did this too, and I swear I was hearing this in some of the music they used in Stargate: Universe! Now you need to do Satie! And Ligetti's Atmospheres!
6:32 That moment when you're in the middle of a video and you just have to stop and appreciate music for all of its awesomeness.
I am glad Neptune is getting its flowers. It is astonishing how great all of The Planets are, but Neptune is my favorite. It's just so beautiful.
When I ran a Star Wars DnD game based on The Odyssey I spent about a month or two locating and cataloguing several hours worth of John Williams’ scores for Star Wars. But it wasn’t enough. So I began combing through the original Star Wars music: Holst! I found two themes especially useful for my villain, Darth Plagueis: Hymn to the Unknown God from his first group of Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, and, of course, Neptune!
I fell in love with this piece, and all it’s themes which would eventually become allusions to Star Wars. The choir was mimicked by Williams in his music for Otoh Gungah on Naboo, tying into the sound world of the Prequels since my game was set just before and during the Phantom Menace. The alternating minor chords a major third apart seem to echo Vader’s Imperial March, when it is very heavily implied that Vader was the direct result of Plagueis.
And the spirit and emotion of the piece is an incredibly beautiful but unsettling curiosity, which, between the flutes, treble voices, and trembling orchestrations, seems to invoke images of tiny fairy-like beings. Plagueis is most famous for “influencing the Midichlorians to produce life”; he did dark science and magic to the microscopic symbionts responsible for all living things’ connection to the force, in order to resurrect the dead and, perhaps, immaculately conceive Anakin Skywalker. It’s the perfect theme for Plagueis, in my opinion, a dark alchemist hiding away in dire secrecy from the rest of the Galaxy, which moves to his whim when he pulls its strings, obsessively pursuing his curiosity with the Force and the very tools of life and death in our universe.
The whole Planets suite is a phenomenal piece of work. I discovered it when I was at Junior School, and it blew my mind.
I'm 33 now, and I still regularly listen to it. Neptune isn't called the Mystic for nothing! Such beauty, mystery, and dissonance.
Ray Lynch's "The Oh of Pleasure".
Thats some space travel music. Art Bell
Haven't seen anyone else pointing it out in the comments yet (apologies if someone has, and I missed it), but the characters of the pieces are not actually derived from astronomical characteristics of the planets themselves, but from the ancient Roman deities of the same names. In that pantheon, Neptune is considered the bringer of old age.
Indeed - astrological rather than astronomical inspiration.
Literally one of my FAVORITE compositions of musical art and story telling!! I have loved Planets since I was first introduced to it in high-school concert band and it has lived in my heart and imagination ever since! Thank you so much for sharing just how delicious, provoking, and pure genius is in the Neptune movement. This episode was a comic blast to listen to 😁🤙🏽!!
It's amazing to then hear the added "Pluto" movement by Colin Matthews, that actually manages to continue after this ending of Neptune, which sounds like it introduces you to the next level of 'unknown space' beyond what Holst ended with. In the performance by the brittain natioinal youth orchestra, they end neptune with a high pitched harmonic in the back of the violin section, that then serves as a really nice bridge to open the Pluto movement.
I'll bet Matthews was devastated when Pluto was demoted. Holst was right all along!
I always heard and thought of it as an altered dominant. Great video and insights! ❤
The Planets is a masterpiece. I've spent 35+ years studying it.
I have an alternate idea for the genesis of this work. Holst had been working with these musical ideas for a long, long time. I think this work is the musical depiction of a year in rural England. Mars is the depiction of a nasty blizzard in January. Move through to the late spring festivals that would be Jupiter. Saturn is a vicious late summer thunder storm. Neptune is the special kind of dark mystery of the harvest festival. Neptune is the end of the year and the soft, gentle atmosphere of the first snowfall.
A lot of scholarship has been done with Holst and The Planets. I love the idea that this drama that he evokes is the drama that people, especially common folk, get to experience every day.
Great videos! Thanks so much for your work!
09:24 Ha! The moment you mentioned Debussy in the context of Holst's "Planets" and "Star Wars", I immediately thought about "Nocturnes", because it's like something straight out of "Star Wars". There's a lot of great moments in it that you could switch for the score in "Star Wars" and it would fit perfectly :)
That little bit of Debussy you found in Sweeney Todd … I immediately recognised it as Art of Noise’s “Instruments of Darkness”. But since they went on to make an album called “The Seduction of Claude Debussy” we shouldn’t be entirely surprised.
Yess - Allright:-) Thx - Beethoven has is done too. (Moonlight sonatra 3rd Mve)
Lovely Vid... I was hearing John Williams already so that was also a nice resolution ( for me ) Thanks for this one.
This is probably one of your greatests analysis of a great piece.
9:38 this feeling is so incredibly relatable, love it
Neptune is absolute bliss. Takes me to another dimension every time. Incredible harmony and immersion.
These movements are my absolute favorite!! Haven't heard them for so long but always and again parts are still stuck in my ear ✨😍
Williams used lot of these themes in Close Encounters as well, with the beautiful angelic voices. Its fits perfectly. Also I love Sirenes and listen to it often, so many great versions here on the Tube, but you can't go wrong with Boulez!
9:36 that also reminded me of Star Wars, but the sequel trilogy - the theme of the Resistance, to be precise.
Years ago, I wrote a progression that is in all minor chords, ascending in thirds with the roots all on the white keys. So every other change has this type of transition: Am, Cm, Em, Gm, Bm, Dm, Fm.
The harp is doing arpeggios using the leading tones on the low and high end.
This whole suite is utterly amazing! It saddens me that most people only really know Mars :(
I absolutely love the passion in these videos. It's so enjoyable