Why would the whole idea of Mars most likely have been in Holst's mind at the time when he wrote this piece?
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He had lost many friends in the Boer War at the turn of the 20th century
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World War I was beginning at the time when he began composing The Planets
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H G Wells had fairly recently published The War of the Worlds in which Martians were 'the enemy'
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The Mars Bar was newly on sale, so the name was in people's minds
Q.2.
has many obvious, and intentional, 'warlike' and military features of style: not least that it is march-like ... though not quite. What's 'deliberately wrong' with it as a march?
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It uses stringed instruments, which would plainly be impractical for marching people to play
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It has the wrong number of beats in the bar (5 rather than 4)
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It isn't loud enough from the outset
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There are no 'effects' to suggest gunfire during it
Q.3.
What is the usual semi-technical name for a 'call' by one or more trumpets?
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A peal
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A blast
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A fanfare
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A blether
Q.4.
What unusual technique are the string players asked to use during the outer section of ?
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They flick the bodies of their instruments with their fingernails
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They pluck the strings with their fingertips instead of stroking them with the bow
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They turn the bow over and bounce the wooden side off the string instead of stroking it with the horsehair
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They tune their strings to pitches different from the usual
Q.5.
What is the Italian musical term for the insistent use of a rhythm or shape right through a piece, such as the 'wonky-march' motif in this movement?
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Ground bass
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Chaconne
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Round
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Ostinato
Q.6.
Apart from , what musical forces did Holst originally have in mind for this Suite?
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Brass / military band
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Piano duo or duet (2 players at 1 instrument each)
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Chamber orchestra with enlarged percussion section
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Organ
Q.7.
There is another link between and the organ: what is it?
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Holst's first schoolgirl choir (from St Paul's, where he taught) rehearsed their notes to the accompaniment of an organ before practising with the full orchestra
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The singers were instructed to vocalise without forming actual words, so as to sound as near as possible like the tone of an organ
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The singers could breathe 'secretly' whenever they wanted, so the overall sound of their chords never ran out of puff ~ like the potentially unbroken sound of an organ
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The final 'fade' is achieved by slowly closing a door so that the audience can no longer hear the offstage chorus: this is the same basic acoustic / mechanical principle as the pedal-controlled 'swell box' on all but the smallest pipe organs
Q.8.
What is the simple but startling musical 'recipe' for the first three notes around which Holst builds the tune in ?
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Up by a fifth, then down by a tone
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Up by a fifth, then down by a semitone
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Up by a tritone, down by a diminished second
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Up by an augmented fourth, down by a third
Q.9.
Which of the following types of drum, used in this piece, would feature in an actual marching military band?
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Side drum
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Bass drum
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Kettledrum
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Snare drum
Q.10.
Who conducted the first performance of the suite?
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Sir Adrian Boult
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John Barbirolli
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Malcolm Sargent
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Thomas Beecham
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