''Egdon Heath'', Op. 47, H. 172, subtitled "A Homage to

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Wor ...

", is a

tone poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...

Gustav Holst Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite ''The Planets'', he composed many other works across a range ...

, written in 1927. Holst considered it his most perfectly realised composition.

Composition

Egdon Heath is a fictional place in the equally fictional region of Wessex in the south-west of England, where

set all his major works. The novel '' The Return of the Native'' is entirely set on Egdon Heath, and it is also referred to in ''

The Mayor of Casterbridge ''The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character'' is an 1886 novel by the English author Thomas Hardy. One of Hardy's Wessex novels, it is set in a fictional rural England with Casterbridge standing in for Dorchester in D ...

'' and the short story ''The Withered Arm''. During the writing of the tone poem, Holst met and walked with Hardy on a real heath reminiscent of Egdon Heath, between

Wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

and

Bere Regis Bere Regis () is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated north-west of Wareham. In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 1,745. The village has one shop, a family-owned cheese barn, a post office, and two pubs ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

. Hardy accepted Holst's dedication of the piece to him in August 1927. Holst included a quotation from ''The Return of the Native'' at the head of the score. He expressed the desire that the Hardy quote always appear in programme notes. Holst calls for a normal orchestra but with extra strings and no percussion section. The work typically takes about 13–14 minutes to play.

Performances

The work was written for the

New York Symphony Orchestra The New York Symphony Orchestra was founded as the New York Symphony Society in New York City by Leopold Damrosch in 1878. For many years it was a rival to the older Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York. It was supported by Andrew Carnegie, ...

, in response to their commission of a symphony. The NYSO premiered it at the

Mecca Temple New York City Center (previously known as the Mecca Temple, City Center of Music and Drama,. The name "City Center for Music and Drama Inc." is the organizational parent of the New York City Ballet and, until 2011, the New York City Opera. and th ...

on 12 February 1928, conducted by

Walter Damrosch Walter Johannes Damrosch (January 30, 1862December 22, 1950) was a German-born American conductor and composer. He was the director of the New York Symphony Orchestra and conducted the world premiere performances of various works, including Geo ...

.Adams, Byron
"Review: Egdon Heath, for Orchestra, Op. 47 by Gustav Holst; Occasional Overture (1946), for Orchestra by Benjamin Britten"
''Notes'', Second Series, Vol. 45, No. 4 (June 1989), pp. 850–852 DOI: 10.2307/941241 Hardy had died three weeks earlier, on 11 January, and in tribute to him, an extract from ''The Return of the Native'' was read out by Paul Leyssac at the first performance. The first British performance took place the next day, 13 February 1928, at

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

, with the

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is a British orchestra based in Birmingham, England. It is the resident orchestra at Symphony Hall: a B:Music Venue in Birmingham, which has been its principal performance venue since 1991. Its a ...

conducted by the composer. The first performance in London, on 23 February 1928, conducted by

Václav Talich Václav Talich (; 28 May 1883, Kroměříž – 16 March 1961, Beroun) was a Czech violinist and later a musical pedagogue. He is remembered today as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, the object of countless reissues of his ...

, was met with a noisy audience; the composer's daughter Imogen described the performance as disastrous. The audience applauded loudly, but according to the anonymous reviewer in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'', it was from respect for the composer rather than from "that spontaneity which shows that a piece of music has come home to the hearers". ''

The Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the G ...

's'' critic agreed that the reception was "respectful rather than enthusiastic", but declared that nevertheless, "there is not the smallest doubt that ''Egdon Heath'' will long outwear '' The Planets''." Holst considered the work his most perfectly realised composition, an opinion shared by

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

and others. But it has never had the profile of works such as ''The Planets'' and ''

St Paul's Suite ''St Paul's Suite'' in C major ( Op. 29, No. 2), originally titled simply Suite in C, is a popular work for string orchestra by the English composer Gustav Holst. Finished in 1913, but not published until 1922 due to revisions, it takes its name ...

''. In 1934 Edwin Evans speculated on why the public had not yet shared the composer's assessment:

Recordings

:Source: WorldCat."Egdon Heath"
WorldCat. Retrieved 3 September 2021

Notes, references and sources

Notes

References

Sources

* * * {{Gustav Holst Compositions by Gustav Holst Symphonic poems 1927 compositions Thomas Hardy