The Planets, suite for orchestra and female chorus, Op. 32, H.125

The suite unfolds as seven character sketches, not a tour of the solar system in astronomical order, but the order Holst chose for contrast.

Mars, the Bringer of War opens with a relentless five-beat ostinato hammered out on strings and hit like a war machine, building to a brutal climax. Venus, the Bringer of Peace answers with a solo horn call and gentle woodwind lines, cool and still after the violence.

Mercury, the Winged Messenger is a quick, darting scherzo, light orchestration flickering between keys. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity is the suite's best-known movement, bounding horns and a broad, hymn-like middle tune that Holst later arranged separately as a patriotic song.

Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age moves slowly, with tolling harp and low chimes suggesting the passage of time and eventual acceptance. Uranus, the Magician is brash and mischievous, four crashing chords launching a lumbering dance that suddenly evaporates.

Neptune, the Mystic closes the work in eerie stillness: an offstage women's chorus, wordless, is heard through a door left ajar, singing until the sound simply fades to nothing, the door closed slowly by the performers so the ending has no audible cutoff.

Holst composed The Planets between 1914 and 1916, drawing on astrology rather than mythology or astronomy for his seven character portraits; each movement takes its subject from what that planet was thought to signify about human temperament. The work calls for a large orchestra plus an offstage women's chorus in the final movement. A private read-through took place in London in 1918, arranged by the composer's friend Balfour Gardiner as a farewell gift before Holst left for war work. The first public performance of the complete suite followed in London in 1920, conducted by Albert Coates, and the work quickly became Holst's most popular composition, eclipsing the rest of his output during his lifetime.