Gustav Holst ( Classical composer ) 1874-1934.

Born in Cheltenham,Gustav Holst was of Swedish descent ,though both his mother and grandmother were English.They were a musical family,and as a child he was taught to play the piano and violin,but always frail with neuris in his arm and in an attempt to combat asthma, switched to trombone.

Holst was educated at Cheltenham grammer school and later at the Royal Collage of Music where he be came a close friend of Ralph Vaughan Williams and together shared a love of old English folk songs and you can hear the simplicity and economy in many of his compositions.

At the onset of World War One, Holst tried to enlist but due to poor health was rejected. He and his wife Isobel then moved to Thaxted in Essex and it is here that he wrote his best known work, the orchestral  The Planets Suite

During his lifetime Holst wrote over two hundred works including Operas,Ballets and Hymns, but in 1934 he died of complications after his always poor health.deteriorated.

Jupiter (the bringer of jollity)

http://youtu.be/Nz0b4STz1lo


Gustav Holst 1921 (photograph by Herbert Lambert)

For in depth   HTTP://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Holst