Born on September 21, 1874, we're celebrating the English composer throughout the day here on Classic 107. Tune in!
Music being identical with heaven, isn't a thing of momentary thrills, or even hourly ones. It's a condition of eternity. - Gustav Holst 
Born in Cheltenham in 1874,the first of two children to Adolph and Clara von Holst, Gustav Holst had professional musicians stretching back three generations in his family. Adolph Holst was an accomplished pianist who taught piano and practiced many hours during the day, much to the neglect of his wife, Clara, and their two children. Adolph's family was of Swedish origin. One of his ancestors served as a court composer in Russia until he fell out of favor and exiled to Germany. Soon afterwards, the family emigrated to England. Holst's mother, Clara, was a piano student of Adolph when first they met.
Gustav was a frail child who suffered from a number of ailments. His eyes were weak, but no one realized that he had to wear spectacles. His chest was also weak, and again no one bothered much with his asthma. He had to rest while climbing stairs.
In his youth, Gustav hated practicing the violin, but enjoyed the piano, which he had began to practice as soon as his fingers could reach the keyboard. Gustav had hoped to be a pianist but was prevented by neuritis. He said that his right arm felt "like a jelly overcharged with electricity". He kept up with it though and at 17 he was appointed organist at a Gloucestershire church. He also conducted a local church choir, providing him with invaluable experience.
At 18 Holst wrote the music for an operetta in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan. The piece was performed at Cheltenham’s Corn Exchange and was well received. Its success encouraged him to persevere with composing, despite his father's reservations.
Holst studied composition at the Royal College of Music under Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. He wrote piano and organ pieces, songs and a symphony. His main influences were Mendelssohn, Chopin, Grieg and above all, Sir Arthur Sullivan.
A year before attending the Royal College of Music, Gustav heard Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung under Gustav Mahler at the Covent Garden. He was overwhelmed by the lush sonorities. Reinforced by the friendship of a fellow student at the College, Fritz Hart, Gustav became an ardent Wagner enthusiast. Once after hearing Tristan and Isolde in the gallery, he walked all night through the streets of London with his mind in a whirl.
Another overwhelming experience was hearing the Bach Mass in B Minor at the Three Choirs Festival in Worchester in 1893. He was so taken aback by the choruses that he felt as if he was floating about the crowds. It was one of the few memorable musical events in his young life thus far. The cramping neuritis in his right hand was perpetually defeating him as a keyboardist. Prolonged practice was impossible and he was forced to realize that he could not keep up his technique any longer. Holst therefore decided to take up the trombone. It would allow him to play in orchestras and provide him with an income. Also, the experience would be useful to him as a composer. Perhaps, he also thought that playing the trombone would even help to strengthen his chest and lungs.
Shortly after celebrating his 21st birthday, Holst met Ralph Vaughan Williams, who became a lifelong friend and had a great influence on Holst's music. The two budding composers became one another's chief critics. In fact they would play their compositions to each other while they were still working on them. Sometimes they would walk along Chiswick Mall or by the river with other college friends while discussing the poetry of Walt Whitman or the socialist works of William Morris. 
Holst joined the Hammersmith Socialist Club and listened to Bernard Shaw's lectures. He conducted the Hammersmith Socialist Choir at William Morris' house in Hammersmith Mall. And he fell in love with his youngest soprano. Her name was Isobel Harrison. She was a pretty blue-eyed blonde who persuaded him to eat properly, shave his beard, and improve hid sense of dress.
Unable to support himself by composition alone, Holst played the trombone professionally. By now he was playing trombone in theater orchestras and organ at several London churches. In fact, in 1897, he even played under the baton of the composer Richard Strauss. In the autumn of 1898, the Carl Rosa Opera Company offered him an appointment as first trombone and so he regretfully left the Royal College of Music. At Carl Rosa, Holst coached soloists in unfamiliar repertoire. By playing trombone in the orchestra, he came to know an orchestra from the inside; this is invaluable training for a composer. In his mind's ear, he always heard the orchestration of a work from the moment he began composing it.
Gustav Holst came into a small legacy when his father died, so he and Isobel - whom he married in 1901 - went to Berlin for a short holiday. He returned to London vowing to give up the trombone and concentrate on composing. Like Edward Elgar before him, Holst was at first destined to be disappointed. He wrote many good songs but they were constantly refused by publisher after publisher. His wife copied his music and also made clothes for her friends to help make ends meet. Just as Gustav's resolution was wavering, he was asked to deputize for the singing teacher at James Allen School in Dulwich. Vaughan Williams played a role in getting him the job. Gustav Holst's career as a gifted teacher had begun.
The two teaching posts for which Holst is probably best known were director of music at St Paul's Girls' School, Hammersmith - pictured - from 1905 until his death, and director of music at Morley College from 1907 to 1924. In 1913, St Paul's opened a new music wing, and Holst composed his St Paul's Suite for the occasion. The new building contained a sound-proof room where he could work undisturbed.
Holst was often inspired by literature. He made settings of poetry by Hardy and Whitman. He also took a keen interest in ancient sacred Sanskrit texts, particularly the Rig Veda hymns. His settings of translations included Sita, a three-act opera based on an episode in the Ramayana, and Savitri - pictured - a chamber opera based on a tale from the Mahabharata.
Holst was a keen rambler. In 1908 he travelled to Algeria on medical advice. The trip inspired his suite Beni Mora, which incorporated music he heard in the Algerian streets. Vaughan Williams wrote of this piece, "if it had been played in Paris rather than London it would have given its composer a European reputation, and played in Italy would probably have caused a riot."
In June 1911, Holst and his Morley College students gave the first performance since the 17th century of Purcell's The Fairy Queen. The full score had been lost soon after Purcell's death in 1695, and had only recently been found. A concert performance of the work was given with an introductory talk by Vaughan Williams. The Times praised Holst and his performers for 'a most interesting and artistic performance of this very important work'.
During a holiday in Spain, the writer Clifford Bax – brother of the composer Arnold Bax - introduced Holst to astrology, an interest that inspired his suite The Planets. Holst cast his friends' horoscopes for the rest of his life and referred to astrology as his ‘pet vice’.
The first performance of The Planets was given on September 29, 1918 to an invited audience including Sir Henry Wood and most of the professional musicians in London. Five months later, Sir Adrian Boult introduced The Planets to the general public, at a concert in February 1919; but he gave only five of the seven movements on that occasion thinking they would not be able to cope with the full work.
It was not until the international success of The Planets that Holst became a well-known figure. A shy man, he did not welcome this fame and preferred to be left in peace to compose and teach.
On May 25, 1934, Gustav Holst died aged 59 of heart failure, following an operation on an ulcer. His ashes were interred at Chichester Cathedral in Sussex, close to the memorial to Thomas Weelkes, his favourite Tudor composer.
Sources: http://www.classicfm.com/composers/holst/guides/holst-facts/
http://www.gustavholst.info/biography/index.php?chapter=1
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