Exploring the music of Gustav Holst
- Course Code: MD036B
- Dates: 05/11/24 - 03/12/24
- Time: 10:30 - 12:30
- Taught: Tue, Daytime
- Duration: 5 sessions (over 5 weeks)
- Location: Keeley Street
- Tutor: Katy Hamilton
Course Code: MD036B
Duration: 5 sessions (over 5 weeks)
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Centre for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
What is the course about?
Holst is an unusual figure in turn-of-the-century British music, slow to make his name as a composer and busy working as a teacher and orchestral trombonist until the early 1900s. We will trace his development as a musician, including his training at the RCM (where he became a close and lifelong friend of Ralph Vaughan Willliams), and the shape of his later life as he juggled teaching positions and composition projects. Above his choral, orchestral and operatic projects take centre stage.
What will we cover?
- Holst’s biography including his training, orchestral work and teaching jobs
- Major influences on Holst’s compositional approaches
- Study of key compositions including (of course) The Planets!
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
- Summarise the key events of Holsts’s biography
- Identify some of the principal characteristics of his earlier music and compare these with later works
- Explain the ways in which Holst’s music differs from those of his contemporaries
- Describe the impact of his life as a performer and teacher on his compositional work.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
The course is intended to be accessible for anyone with an interest in western classical music. We will look at various scores and historical documents during this course but you do not need to read music notation to participate in these activities. All texts will be in English, or accompanied by an English translation. Musical scores are all available free online via IMSLP.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
- Sessions will comprise combinations of lecture, discussion, quizzes, guided listening, video and score study.
- Course materials (handouts, scores, links to online videos) will be shared via google classroom.
- You will be encouraged to do extra reading outside class.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
Please have a notebook and pen handy for note-taking.
You may wish to buy some of the music or books recommended in class.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
To find out more about music history classes Music history courses in London and online which lists our full programme of classes ordered by term, and by day of the week. You may then click on each title to read the full course outline.
Dr Katy Hamilton is a freelance researcher, writer and presenter on music. She is fast becoming one of the UK’s most sought-after speakers on music, providing talks for a host of organisations including the Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre, BBC Proms, Ryedale Festival and Oxford Lieder Festival. In addition, she regularly writes programme notes for the Salzburg Festival, North Norfolk Festival and the Philharmonia Orchestra, and is a frequent contributor to BBC Radio 3’s Record Review. Katy worked as Graham Johnson’s research assistant for his monumental Franz Schubert: The Songs and their Poets (Yale University Press, 2014) and is co-editor of Brahms in the Home and the Concert Hall (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and Brahms in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2019). In addition to her research and presentation work, Katy has taught at the Royal College of Music, City Lit, the University of Nottingham and Middlesex University, working with students in performance workshops and music history classes. She has been teaching Music History courses at City Lit since 2015. She is also Public Events Programmer at the Foundling Museum in central London.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.