Lyric Movement

The Lyric Movement is scored for viola with flute, oboe, B{{music|b}} clarinet, bassoon, and strings.{{sfn|Short|1974|p=70}} There is also a reduction for viola and piano by Imogen Holst.{{cite book |last1=Tinker |first1=Christopher |last2=Strode |first2=Rosamund |last3=Grogan |first3=Christopher |editor-last1=Grogan |editor-first1=Christopher |date=2007 |chapter=Catalogue of Imogen Holst's Works |title=Imogen Holst: A Life in Music |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TcrmlzyU2QAC&pg=PA461 |location=Woodbridge |publisher=Boydell Press |page=461 |isbn=9781843832966 |access-date=13 January 2024 }}

In 1932 Holst contracted haemorrhagic gastritis caused by a duodenal ulcer, followed by periods of related ill-health which recurred at intervals for the rest of his life.{{cite web |url=http://www.gustavholst.info/biography/index.php?chapter=6 |title=A Biography of Gustav Holst. 6: Journey's End |last=Lace |first=Ian |date=1996–2007 |website=Gustav Holst (1874–1934) |access-date=13 January 2024 }} Suffering from pain and weakness, he turned in 1933 to an idea he had previously had of writing something for the violist Lionel Tertis, whom he rated among the greatest of living instrumentalists. The piece was completed by 1934, and Tertis paid Holst several visits during the early weeks of that year to confer with him on details of interpretation.{{sfn|Holst|1969|pp=162, 167}} It was first performed in a BBC studio by Tertis with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Adrian Boult. This was broadcast from London,{{sfn|Short|1974|p=71}} and was heard by Holst on a radio Boult had set up in his sick-room. Holst congratulated Tertis on a performance he considered perfect,{{sfn|Short|2014|pp=208–209}} a judgement which his daughter Imogen many years later endorsed.{{sfn|Holst|1969|p=167}}

In 1949 Bernard Shore recalled that the Lyric Movement's initial performers had found it "bare, impersonal music, terribly aloof", but he asserted that it had since become "appreciated as a cherished gift to the viola player".{{sfn|Short|2014|p=209}} In part, its continuing rehabilitation has been due to the advocacy of Imogen Holst, who considered that it was one of her father's best works.{{sfn|Holst|1968|p=1}} She found in it an ardour, ease, passion and spontaneity which recalled the music of his earlier years.{{sfn|Holst|1969|p=162}}{{sfn|Holst|1968|pp=138–139}} Diana McVeagh wrote in 1967 that it was a "real find...a bigger, stronger, darker conception than the title suggests. It...is economical but not self-denying. There is more than a hint of passion and vehemence".{{cite journal |last=McVeagh |first=Diana |author-link=Diana McVeagh |date=July 1967 |title=[Review of Lyrita SRCS 34] |journal=The Musical Times |volume=108 |issue=1493 |page=622 }} It has since become one of the best-known works of Holst's last period. Among contemporary critics, Colin Matthews believed that it "cannot fail to impress with [its] sincerity and depth of feeling – the 'tender austerity' of which he himself spoke",{{Cite AV media notes |title=Imogen Holst Conducts Gustav Holst |last=Matthews |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Matthews |url=https://www.chandos.net/chanimages/Booklets/LY0223.pdf |date=1992 |access-date=4 January 2024 |pages=3–4 |type=booklet |publisher=Lyrita |id=SRCD.223 }} while Michael Short has written that it is a thoughtful, well-organized yet rhapsodic piece which displays a free, relaxed lyricism and avoids the mannerisms apparent in many of Holst's works from the previous ten years.{{sfn|Short|2014|p=209}} Other critics have judged that "Holst achieves a remarkable eloquence...an authority he had been searching for all his life",{{cite web |url=https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W4772_GBAJY0127009 |title=Lyric Movement, H191 |last=Foreman |first=Lewis |date=2001 |website=Hyperion |access-date=13 January 2024 }} and that it is "one of the most beautiful of Holst's later pieces".{{cite book |last1=March |first1=Ivan |author-link1=Ivan March |last2=Greenfield |first2=Edward |author-link2=Edward Greenfield |last3=Layton |first3=Robert |author-link3=Robert Layton (musicologist) |date=2001 |title=The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs: 2002 Edition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zLIQAQAAMAAJ&q=%22one+of+the+most+beautiful+of+Holst%27s+later+pieces%22 |location=London |publisher=Penguin |page=644 |isbn=014051497X |access-date=13 January 2024 }} Stephen Barber, who thought it a "melancholy but restrained...masterpiece", believed also that "nobody now would consider this style particularly austere".{{cite web |url=https://musicweb-international.com/classrev/2017/Nov/Holst_orchestral_CHAN10948X.htm |title=[Review of] Chandos CHAN10948X |last=Barber |first=Stephen |date=November 2017 |website=MusicWeb International |access-date=13 January 2024 }} Nevertheless, Leslie Wright did indeed call the Lyric Movement "rather austere",{{cite web |url=https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2017/Nov/Holst_orchestral_CHAN10948X_LW.htm |title=[Review of] Chandos CHAN10948X |last=Wright |first=Leslie |date=November 2017 |website=MusicWeb International |access-date=13 January 2024 }} and Rob Barnett has written of its "icy endearments".{{cite web |url=https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2017/Aug/Holst_orchestral_CHAN10948X.htm |title=[Review of] Chandos CHAN10948X |last=Barnett |first=Rob |date=August 2017 |website=MusicWeb International |access-date=13 January 2024 }}

Oxford University Press published a full score of the Lyric Movement in 1948, a reduction for viola and piano by Imogen Holst in 1971,{{sfn|Short|1974|p=71}} and a revised edition of the full score in 1986.{{cite web|url=https://catalog.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/447726 |title=Lyric movement [music]: for viola and small orchestra = Lyrischer Satz für Bratsche und Kleines Orchester / Gustav Holst|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Libraries|date=3 February 1986|access-date=13 January 2024}} Catalog entry for {{ISBN|978-0-19-364710-7}}. A facsimile edition by Imogen Holst and Colin Matthews of Holst's original manuscript was published by Faber Music in 1977.{{cite book |last=Huismann |first=Mary Christison |date=2011 |title=Gustav Holst: A Research and Information Guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BmKRAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA142 |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |pages=41–42 |isbn=9780415995252 |access-date=13 January 2024 }}

• {{cite AV media |people=Cecil Aronowitz (viola), English Chamber Orchestra, cond. Imogen Holst |date=1967 |title=Gustav Holst: Lyric Movement, Brook Green Suite, Nocturne, A Fugal Concerto, St. Paul's Suite |type=LP |publisher=Lyrita |id=SRCS 34 }}
• {{cite AV media |people=Ronald Golan (viola), MIT Symphony Orchestra, cond. David Epstein |date=1987 |title=Works for Viola and Orchestra |type=CD |publisher=Pantheon |id=D 0981 X }}
• {{cite AV media |people=New Zealand Chamber Orchestra, cond. Nicholas Braithwaite |date=1991 |title=Holst: Works for Chamber Orchestra |type=CD |publisher=Koch |id=370582 H1 }}
• {{cite AV media |people=Stephen Tees (viola), City of London Sinfonia, cond. Richard Hickox |date=1994 |title=St. Paul's Suite, Brook Green Suite, Double Concerto, A Fugal Concerto, Lyric Movement, Two Songs Without Words |type=CD |publisher=Chandos |id=CHAN 9270 }}
• {{cite AV media |people=Rachel Bolt (viola), London Festival Orchestra, cond. Ross Pople |date=1997 |title=Orchestral Works: Gustav Holst |type=CD |publisher=Arte Nova |id=74321 34022 2 }}
• {{cite AV media |people=Timothy Pooley (viola), Hallé Orchestra, cond. Mark Elder |date=2001 |title=Gustav Holst: The Planets. Colin Matthews: Pluto |type=CD |publisher=Hyperion |id=CDA67270 }}
• {{cite AV media |people=Sarah-Jane Bradley (viola), Orchestra Nova of London, cond. George Vass |date=2007 |title=British Viola Music |type=CD |publisher=Dutton |id=CDLX 7186 }}
• {{cite AV media |people=Andriy Viytovych (viola), English Sinfonia, cond. Howard Griffiths |date=2007 |title=Holst: Double Concerto, St Paul's Suite, Brook Green Suite |type=CD |publisher=Naxos |id=8.570339 }}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Holst |first=Imogen |author-link=Imogen Holst |date=1968 |title=The Music of Gustav Holst |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KcYHAQAAMAAJ |location=London |publisher=Oxford University Press |edition=2nd |isbn=0193154161 |access-date=4 January 2024 }}
• {{cite book |last=Holst |first=Imogen |author-link=Imogen Holst |date=1969 |title=Gustav Holst: A Biography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vcUHAQAAMAAJ |edition=2nd |location=London |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0192821938 |access-date=3 January 2024 }}
• {{cite book |last=Short |first=Michael |date=1974 |title=Gustav Holst (1874–1934): A Centenary Documentation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vJ5HAAAAMAAJ |location=London |publisher=White Lion |isbn=0728500000 |access-date=4 January 2024 }}
• {{cite book |last=Short |first=Michael |date=2014 |title=Gustav Holst: The Man and His Music |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7pTUrQEACAAJ |location=Hastings |publisher=Circaidy Gregory Press |isbn=9781906451820 |access-date=4 January 2024 }}

• {{IMSLP|work=Lyric Movement (Holst, Gustav)|cname=Lyric Movement (Holst)}}
• [https://archive.org/search?query=Holst+%22Lyric+Movement%22 Recordings] at the Internet Archive

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Category:1933 compositions

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