Symphony to perform Savitri
By Sarah Gurley
(An edited version of this article appeared in the November 2, 2006 Lexington Minuteman)
Best known for the frequently performed orchestral suite, The Planets, the English composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934) was an important and transitional figure in music. Along with composers like Edward Elgar and his close friend Ralph Vaughn Williams, Holst's career overlapped the 19th and 20th centuries and changed the English musical landscape. Until then, German composers dominated English music and English composers embraced the German style. We are fortunate to hear locally a rarely-performed gem by Holst: The Lexington Symphony will perform his Savitri in Lexington on Saturday November 4, 2006 at the National Heritage Museum.
Holst was born in Cheltenham, England. Highly unconventional in the most conventional of times-- Victorian England -- he was greatly influenced by Eastern thought and philosophy. His spiritual study of other cultures and his rejection of norms inspired experimentation in his compositions and made him open to new styles of musical expression, whether found in Indian culture or English country folk music. For about 20 years up until World War I's onset, Holst was influenced by and studied Indian culture and philosophy, and even learned Sanskrit so as not to rely on suspect translations.
The importance to Holst's way of thinking through the study of Eastern philosophy cannot be understated, and the thirty-minute opera Savitri is the most remarkable of the music from his "Indian period". The story of Savitri and Satyavan comes from the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata together with the Ramayana form the important philosophical and religious books of Hindu culture of India. The stories are about the lives of gods, kings and holy teachers. It consists of more than 100,000 stanzas and is the world's longest epic poem.
The story of Savitri and Satyavan has a universal theme, relevant to all ages and times: Love triumphs over death. Savitri is a princess who is a gift from a god to the King Madras for his devotion. Her father eventually allows her to choose her own husband. She chooses the son of a blind and deposed King who lives in the forest. Even though she is told that her woodcutter husband is destined to die in one year, she will not marry any other man. She argues that she has made up her mind and it is her authority. Her father eventually agrees.
She lives in the forest with her husband and his family and after one year Satyavan, while working in the forest, becomes weak and puts his head in her lap and dies. Yama, the god of death himself, comes to claim Satyavan's soul. Savitri tries to follow. Through a speech that shows Yama her devotion and her wisdom, Savitiri impresses him so much that he grants her any wish other than the life of Satyavan. She asks for five things the last of which is children. She is of course unable to have children without her husband, and Yama finally concedes to her clever manipulation and spares Satyavan's life.
The opera Savitri is remarkable for its simplicity and intimacy with only three singers, off-stage female choir, and a small ensemble orchestra, so contrary to the massively-scaled Wagnerian operas of its time. It is staged minimally and Holst even suggested that it be staged outside. Quite extraordinarily modern for 1909! Indeed it is a reaction against the pomp and grandeur of European opera. It is rightly acknowledged as a masterpiece and a milestone.
Holst is intriguing to a modern audience for many reasons. He was and perhaps still would be considered avant-garde in many of his beliefs and philosophy. Although the success of The Planets made him a celebrity in his day, he flouted his fame. When asked for his autograph, he would instead give out printed cards saying he did not give autographs! He was wary of success, feeling that the public would make a composer repeat himself musically. "Failure is the most important part of an artist's training and one you cannot afford to do without," he told his students. Although successful enough to stop teaching he continued throughout his life to teach at St. Paul's School for Girls, taking valuable time from his composing.
Politically, Holst was a socialist. He was an active participant of the socialist circles in London that included George Bernard Shaw and William Morris. According to his friend Vaughn Williams, "He loved his fellow creatures too much to allow his message to them appear in vague or incomprehensible terms." Indeed, although detesting sentimentality in music, he felt that the role of music was the expression of emotion: "Musicians express in sound what all men feel."
Holst was not conventionally religious. He believed strongly in the supra-human forces and was much influenced by Eastern religious thought. He was involved with Theosophy, a religious movement incorporating Buddhism and a belief in reincarnation and karma.
Holst was equally devoted to pursuing his craft in the writing of large orchestral and choral pieces and to writing small carols and hymns. Even if someone is unfamiliar with Holst, most have enjoyed hearing or singing the Christmas carol, In the Bleak Midwinter. His student and fellow composer Edmund Rubbra commented: "His influence is lasting in the work of all of us who value directness and sincerity and who view music as not so much a secret preserve for the leisured few [but] as a vital part of everyday life." Indeed, this philosophy expresses the mission of the Lexington Symphony.
