Gustav Holst (1874-1934)
Autograph manuscript signed ('Gustav Holst'), the 'Violin I Desk I' part for his Choral Fantasia, op. 51, n.d. [1931]
Gustav Holst and the Poet Laureate. Autograph music manuscripts by Holst are rare at auction: only three have appeared in the last two decades.

2½ pages, 310 x 234mm, bifolium, 12-stave paper, a few erasures, one minor pencil marking, the part including an unusually large proportion of autograph cue notes from other parts.

Provenance:
(1) Musikantiquariat Dr. Ulrich Drüner, Stuttgart, December 2015.

(2) Schøyen Collection, MS 5565.

A Choral Fantasia was originally conceived as an organ concerto, but later adapted by Holst into a striking work that incorporated his friend Robert Bridges' poem Ode to Music. Described by Holst's biographer as 'impressively individual', A Choral Fantasia features a concertante organ alongside brass, percussion and strings, a chorus and solo soprano. With the 1931 Three Choirs Festival in mind, Holst started work on the piece in 1930; the decision to set a selection of Robert Bridges' verses from Ode to Music, composed for the Bicentenary Commemoration of Henry Purcell, took A Choral Fantasia in an unusual new direction. Holst conducted the piece himself when it was first performed in Gloucester Cathedral in 1931.