What was the fly-by flight plan through “The Planets” by Gustav Holst?

One of my favorite pieces of classical music is “The Planets” by Gustav Holst. Here’s my story on that: I was a fan of the Japanese musician Isao Tomita, and I bought his “The Planets” record way back in 1976 when I was just an impressionable teenager. I was listening to a lot of synthesizer music back at the time. Otherwise, I was not educated enough to know the first thing about Holst.

Much later in life, I bought a CD of Planets by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Recently I started a playlist of several different symphonic versions. Indeed, There are a lot of good ones to choose from all over YouTube … but I will share this recent one with you today. This is from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, recorded live at the Esplanade Concert Hall, Singapore, on November 8th 2019.

I love it of course! The Planets is kind of like a “concept album” that a rock group might make. Each part, or “movement” is a musical description of each planet. Let me also share with you, this gallery of “The Planets” album covers. Do you own any of these?

Before I proceed much farther, I also want to share this video from YT user Classics Explained. His video  is a whimsical history about how Holst came to write “The Planets”. CE vividly and accurately describes how each movement relates to each planet musically.

This music history got me thinking about the ORDER of the planets in the symphony. The order of Host’s planets are Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. This order does not seem to make sense at first — and where is Earth, anyway? If one were to navigate in a space craft, and view and explore Mars (the fourth planet in our solar system) first, then how or why would one go back to Venus (the second planet) next?  The order should be: Mercury, Venus, (Earth), Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Part of the wrong order of the planets may have to do with the order that Holst wrote the movements. He wrote “Mars: The Bringer of War” first, and “Mercury: The Winged Messenger” was written last.

So … what ever was the flight plan through “The Planets” by Gustav Holst? The only way I can excuse the order when I listen now, is to envision this travel plan scenario:

Our craft zips from Earth out to Mars first. Modern planetary explorers are in a hurry to explore and colonize Mars, so it does not surprise me that the planet is explored first. Our craft circles Mars, but not before dropping two surface probe-droids — which land, then drive around Mars to measure, dig and modify the Martian surface. The two land probes may even be in competition with each other, and may even have “wargames” at the surface. Our spaceship uses the gravity of Mars to fling our craft back to the other side … the inner side … of the solar system. We will use a GRAVITY ASSIST – similar to how the Cassini spacecraft used the gravity slingshot technique to zip around  Earth twice to get to Saturn.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah … man those cats can really swing!

Our ship will need more speed to travel the outer solar system, so our spaceship next flies AROUND Venus. (The surface is too hot to land anyway.) The path around Venus gives it a gravity boost – and propels it rapidly to Mercury, where our craft picks up even more speed through the fastest planet’s gravity.

After that gravity boost, our ship begins the long journey to the outer solar system, eventually graduating to the pull of Jupiter. At this point, our journey is in the correct order. We get flung around Jupiter and voyage out to Saturn where after a dance there, we are flung out to Uranus, then finally Neptune.

Oh —  I forgot to tell you – our craft does not go back to Earth. I probably should have said something. We keep going as the music to “Neptune” fades. Oh Ok … OK … if you really, really need to go back, listen to “Space Trucking” by Deep Purple for a straight path back. DP song linked here. Yeah, Yeah Yeah Yeah … the freaks said: man those cats can really swing! And yes, Bob, I digress once again.

Do you know what would have been a hoot?  if Host had wrote music for Earth, or perhaps even Earth’s moon – Luna. Why not a special movement for the Asteroid Belt? There was no planet Pluto at the time Host wrote, so we cannot blame him for not including it.

Remembder to use the “gravity assist”!!!

Starlight: Forty-four light years it has been! Do you have a favorite “Planets” album? Please share with me in the Comments!

Suggested Links:

https://www.classicalmpr.org/story/2018/09/27/for-holsts-the-planets-one-fans-online-quest-to-rank-every-recording-is-out-of-this-world

https://petersplanets.wordpress.com/

 

My memories of Isao Tomita

It is with sadness …  I will return from my blogging exile today … in order to tell you about the recent death of Japanese musician Isao Tomita.

He was known simply as “Tomita” — and during the 1970s I was a big fan of his synthesizer-meets-classical music. I just now found out about his passing. (Cough) It was a few days ago.

His obituary in the New York Times is linked here.  I would not be able to do justice to what is in the article, or even to this discography from Wikipedia linked here. Instead, I will share some of my memories of his work. I can’t say that I was a big follower of his recent work, but his early albums are a big influence on who I am as a music listener today.

I owned his great 1976 album “The Planets” — Tomita’s version of Gustav Holst’s famous symphony. I LOVED IT! Some of it was hokey, but most of it was AMAZING!

I was working in a Chinese restaurant at the time. I was a long-haired 16-year old stoner teenager. I remember a time, when one of the cute waitresses borrowed my LP … as she was a big classical music buff. We talked. She was a nice lady. I wonder what ever happened to her?

Um … through Tomita, I learned a little more appreciation for classical music. I also loved his “Pictures at an Exhibition” from the Mussorgsky symphony. I think I might have to go out and buy another copy tomorrow.

My burn-out friends hated Tomita of course. When I would try to play it for my stoner friends they would give me the old: “Get Away From Me Man!!!” routine.

Shit … KISS and Aerosmith are OK, but sometimes a young, developing mind needs to hear something else. Also, I was having dreams and visions about the information contained in libraries. I was starting to think that maybe I should not be another stoner-loser in an industrial hick town. You see, “pictures at an exhibition”. Open up those “Great Gates of Kiev” through Tomita-visions!

Every once in a while, I would catch some Tomita music which was being used in a commercial or TV show. I would sputter … IT’S TOMITA!!! You know, like when you go to one of those Marvel “Avengers” movies, and Stan Lee makes a cameo … and you nudge your friend and then whisper – THAT”S Stan Lee!!! 

Another time in college, I heard the Tomita version of “Mars: the Bringer of War” from the Planets in an educational film about atmospheric storms. Weird.  I’m sitting there in class thinking: THAT’S TOMITA! Of course, I could not say anything. Also you can’t look at your classmates sexy legs in those tight hot pants for too long either.  Think of looking at girl’s legs is just like you are looking at the Sun. Look briefly, then away … and yes, I am digressing again. Still, no one to talk to about Tomita with — all through college.

Oh, my other Tomita story? One time in about 1976,  I made an 8-track “mix tape” of rock music and I snuck a little bit of Tomita in. When I was 16 and 17, my friends and I would get 12 packs of beer and ride around Oldsmobile 442s and drink and smoke marijuana joints. (Dear Readers: This was me long before I became anti-drugs. Thinking back, it was a pretty crazy thing to do. Drive around with drunken friends and smoke out of a bong.) Oh, back to Tomita … Um, in among the tracks by Kansas, The Who, Rolling Stones, that I taped,  I snuck in the Tomita electronic-synthesizer version of “Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells” from Pictures at an Exhibition.

We had just smoked this killer joint, and we were on the verge of tripping … it was so potent.  Anyway, they start cracking up at how ridiculous it sounded. Laughing and coughing all that marijuana smoke. You know how ANYTHING can be funny when one is really, really high? Well, that was the only time I ever got my druggie friends to like something by Tomita. Don’t worry — I changed. I’m now drug free.

Kids: Learn from your Uncle Denny’s mistakes — Don’t do drugs.

Of course my  grown-up friends still say “Get Away From Me Man” — when I talk about the music I like these days (cough .. Japanese Idols).

Tomita went on to record a lot of great electronic music in his later years. Some of it was goofy. Most of it was mystical and magical. He scored a number of  Japanese films, TV dramas and animes. I liked what he composed for “Twilight Samurai” – one of my favorite Japanese films. Really, you should watch it.

I think I am going to catch up on some Tomita now, and listen to his work from the 1990s and beyond.

Starlight: Isao Tomita 冨田 勲 (Tomita Isao),  April 22, 1932 – May 5, 2016.

“I will listen for you … out in the dark matter, Tomita-san”

“To the Devil, drink a toast…”

Yes, it was also difficult for me to get past that lyric …

Hopefully, I can find redemption by the end of my post. This week I would like to share some swashbuckling excitement from another chapter of “Denny-Lived-Through-It-Music-History!”

Emerson Lake and Palmer were one of the greatest “Progressive Rock” groups of the 1970s.  The song “Pirates” has always been one of my favorites.  The track is from their album “Works Vol.1”. This critically-acclaimed record was actually a significant departure from their previous hard rock/synthesizer work.  They used a full orchestra for some songs, and much of the double-album had a “classical music” sound and feel to it.

I think that the song holds up well.  In fact, the music is often “pirated” in many TV shows and movie soundtracks.  “HEY! – that music is from Pirates”  … It never surprises me to hear excerpts from it. I hope that Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Carl Palmer and Peter Sinfield receive royalties.

Who’ll make his mark / The captain cried
To the devil drink a toast / We’ll glut the hold
With cups of gold / And we’ll feed the sea with ghosts
I see your hunger for a fortune / Could be better
Served beneath my flag / If you’ve the stomach
For a broadside / Come aboard my pretty boys …

The brilliant lyrics are by Peter Sinfield, British poet, and occasional songwriting partner with Greg Lake. These full lyrics (linked here in a new window) are good at describing what pirates were actually like in history.

Six days off the Cuban coast, / When a sail ahead they spied
“A galleon of the treasure fleet” / The mizzen lookout cried
Closer to the wind my boys / The mad eyed captain roared,
For every man that’s alive tonight / Will be hauling gold aboard …

“Spare us” the galleon begged / But mercy’s face had fled
Blood ran from the screaming souls / The cutlass harvested
Driven to the quarter deck / The last survivor fell
She’s ours my boys / The captain grinned
And no one left to tell …

So brilliant. Such imagery and colorful language! You can really feel the sea air, the tense fighting, the heaving ship, the merciless killing …

The captain rose from a silk divan / With a pistol in his fist
And shot the lock from an iron box / And a blood red ruby kissed
I give you jewelry of turquoise / A crucifix of solid gold
One hundred thousand silver pieces / It is just as I foretold
You, you see there before you / Everything you’ve ever dreamed

If you only know what you see in Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” you might think that pirates were harmless flakes or fruits (e.g. Johnny Depp).  Of course real pirates drunk toasts to the Devil … they were leaving their Christian life behind.

Anchored in an indigo moonlit bay / Gold eyed ’round fires
The sea thieves lay / Morning, white shells
And a pipe of clay / As the wind filled their footprints
They were far, far away …

The first video features famous scenes from pirate movies, and mixed in with live performances of ELP during the “Works Volume #1” tour. The one below plays and shows only the lyrics.  Such great DRIVING music!

I always thought that this song was great music for a road trip and  highway driving! … but you are not driving right now, are you, my pretty boys? I can remember seeing ELP live on the Works tour during the summer of 1977. Oh it was a great experience. The legal drinking age in my state was 18 back then, so there was plenty of rum (actually 3.2 beer) on the trip. My friend had a black 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass (Like the pirate sword, get it?). He tied a black pirate flag to the antenna so it snapped in the breeze (“closer to the wind my boys” ) as we drove westward on USA 80.

I was very much looking forward to seeing ELP perform their great new album live with a full orchestra … however the group ran out of money to pay the orchestra just two dates prior to the show I saw. They had to drop the orchestra and performed as a three piece again.

I like how the music video had scenes from the orchestral performances. Darn it.  It was still a great show. We had tickets right on the floor of the arena, only a few rows back from the stage. I was surrounded by drunkards, thieves, thugs and assorted scoundrels – but I didn’t care – and you would have thought that I was a bit of a scoundrel back then anyway.

It was one of the best rock concerts I ever attended.  ELP was still at their peak in those days, and the group played all their great AOR favorites.  It was an evening of great adventure. “Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash” indeed.

However, If you would like to see a good pirate movie without any of all that, and with a more Christian theme, then I suggest:

You may like these “Pirate Fruits” (no not Johnny Depp)

ELP received mixed reviews from the serious music critics. Some liked them because the group incorporated classical music elements. ELP recorded Aaron Copeland’s “Hoedown” and “Fanfare for the Common Man” as well as Mussorgsky’s “Great Gates of Kiev” and “Pictures at an Exhibition”, amongst others.

The group is mainly known for their one AM radio hit “Lucky Man”. Some critics panned them because they were so bombastic! So pompous — so full of sound and fury — but YOU COULD NOT DANCE TO IT! The group could switch from gentle Greg Lake love songs – “Still You Turn Me On”, etc, to Kieth Emerson’s long piano concertos, to synthesized percussion noise masquerading as classical music (Alberto Ginastera’s Concerto for Piano “Tocatta” )

Basically, whether or not you would like ELP comes down to one question: DO YOU LIKE GARGOYLES?

Whoop whoop weeeep woop woop … bumm bumm bumm wooop weeep

No, the songs were not about gargoyles.  However, if you think that the gargoyles on gothic cathedrals are beautiful or at least interesting, then you may like ELP. I always thought that ELP were the musical equivalent of gargoyles.  Tarkus, for example.

Starlight: Has it been 38 light years?