Holst's THE PLANETS suite: the poll

"The Bringer of Jollity" is my favorite subtitle for anything, and it is also the one I voted for.

Thanks a bunch, Saturn.

Very tough. My instinct goes for Mars (which, you are right, did invent metal), but Jupiter has brought me too much jollity. Gotta go with the ole king god!

MARS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Daf_7-edy8o

When I'm in the mood for drama, Mars is the answer, but there are times when parts of Jupiter just make me want to stand up and wave my arms around with emotion. Really torn here.

Which version does everyone like best BTW? I'm partial to the Andrew Davis/Toronto Symphony version myself, but a lot of people swear by Dutoit..

http://img.snowrecords.com/lp/5/40574.jpg

Yes! I was so stoked when I first got that album – it all sounded like the theme to "Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer." Later I discovered Tomita did do that song, but on his "Snowflakes are Dancing" album...it was Debussy's "Arabesque No. 1."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdvs5nsQT2U&feature=related

I never imitate any celebrity as frequently as I imitate Jack Horkheimer.

Neptune! It invented, um, the fadeout. And 2001: A Space Odyssey. And ambient music in general. And every album that ends with the quiet song.

The rest of The Planets reminds me too much of the Star Wars themes John Williams ripped off from it.

Mars

NEPTUNE IS SRSLY SO FUKKEN RAD ALL CRANE SHOTS AND SWEEPING PANS AND MAGICAL ANTICIPATION

C'mon, you know it's "Mars" - even if it didn't invent metal, it sure's hell invented King Crimson and Led Zep's "Friends".

I've currently got the Adrian Leaper and Tomita versions.

I can't resist Uranus.

Jupiter reminds me way too much of English public schools. Going for Mars.

Mercury is totally underrated though.

Jupiter reminds me way too much of English public schools.

This statement is strangely amusing to me. Why does it remind you of public schools?

Do public schools bring you Jollity?

listening to them all again now: neptune does sound like soft snow falling on village rooftops with buttery light spilling out of narrow windows but all of these joints sound like movies 2 me tbh

cool poll, voted jupes

love the tomita versions but I kinda want to get this:

http://i44.tinypic.com/2nbt7j9.jpg

Neptune, I had a real nice recording of it on reel-to-reel years ago that I used to listen to when i went to bed. V v cosmic.

One thing about Neptune that blew my mind when I first learned it is that the choir at the end isn't gradually faded out ala pop songs (or at least isn't supposed to be), but just gradually gets quieter and quieter without the aid of a mixboard. At the time, the idea of that level of discipline was stunning....now I'm a bit more jaded but still find it fairly impressive.

this is an amazing thread. especially the horkheimer reference. love that guy.

i had to vote 'jupiter' because my high school marching band performed a version of that movement. wool uniforms and plastic hats in houston heat and humidity is a fond memory...

the choir at the end isn't gradually faded out ala pop songs (or at least isn't supposed to be), but just gradually gets quieter and quieter without the aid of a mixboard

It's not that the chorus starts singing more quietly, it's that they are (by Holst's instructions) "placed in an adjoining room, the door of which is to be left open until the last bar of the piece, when it is to be slowly and silently closed", as the last bar (the voices only) is "repeated until the sound is lost in the distance".

How cool is that! The rock star equivalent of finishing the last song with a feedback/noise solo, leaning the guitar up against the amp, and walking offstage leaving the feedback looping endlessly until management cuts the power, or the heat death of the universe (whichever comes first).

I went for Jupiter because of the bit about 2 minutes in that gives me mind orgasms, but then I heard the 'I vow to thee, my country' bit (all too redolent of the public school stuff and hideous beer adverts) but I don't regret it. Also, from reading the Wikipedia article I learnt that the fade out in Neptune was originally achieved by having the choir in a seperate room and very slowly closing the door. ( AAAAGH xpost)

I stand corrected - but yes, that's still pretty cool.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

It has to be Mars.

The Planets is funny... it is like Holst invented the LP record by accident forty years early.

Yeah, and Beethoven invented the CD with his 9th (there is some evidence the capacity of CD was gauged to be able to fit B9 on one disc).

Voted Neptune.

Years ago I tried to convince YOB to cover Mars. I still wish they would.

Neptune is pretty fucking sweet too.

As much as I like King Crimson's arrangement of Mars, the psych song 'Listen To The Sky' (can't remember the band name, but it's on the Nuggets II box set) is even better.

Oh no, I've only just seen this poll and don't have time to check it out. I imagine 'Mars' like 'Pump Up The Volume' obv, but going to go with Neptune based mostly on the wonderful write-ups (and because someone once did a little 'Pluto' across the fadeout too iirc - wonder if that got mixed down now it's not a planet no more?)

Yeah, Colin Matthews was the dude who added the Pluto movement around ten years or so ago. Found that kind of annoying tbh.

Obviously Mars.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Nobody contemplated Uranus?

Not a power-pop rendition of Holst's piece, but essential just the same:

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/object3/1130/93/n87837894105_227.jpg

this is all the rage at the moment
http://soundcloud.com/dammantle/the-bringer-of-jollity
(for some value of rage)

how the fuck did Jupiter win this?

Would have so voted for Venus if I'd seen this.

been listening to this a fair bit this week. Venus or Neptune i think but Jupiter is the straightest piece of the bunch, not that there's anything wrong with that as such but c'mon TRANSCENDENCE TRANSCENDENCE

Clearly Mars. Clearly. It's the most famous because it's the best.

Mars sees results, proclaims "FRAUD AT POLLS!", declares war

dun dun da-da-da-dun dun dun-dun dun

looks like NV hates jollity

it took this poll for you to work that out ???

fucking high school marching band.. i wish i had better memories of this music

Matt pointed out up there as well that in the UK some of the passages in "Jupiter" connote a kind of "Rule Britannia this sceptred isle" shite which I'm sure Holst never meant to happen but whoops too late thanks advertisers/party political broadcasters/whatever

neptune really is some legend of zelda shit but i love it

a lot of what seems cliche about The Planets now is because Holst's been continuously ripped off by film/game composers but he invented this shit so

also it's important to note how much The Planets is influenced by Schoenberg's 5 pieces for orch., esp. in the orchestration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXdJfabr-6I

EMI's new almost-complete-works box set is way cheap at Arkiv this weekend (20 bux for 6 CDs). I can vouch for about half the performances in it; the rest I haven't heard.

http://www.arkivmusic.com/albumpage/759173-E988-5

+1 Neptune, +1 Tomita

Would've voted for Neptune.

Would've voted for Mars, natch!