IMSLP Forums

The orchestral scores and parts are on the site, but I know a few people like myself looking for Holst's personal transcriptions.

Where did you get the idea he made any?

Certainly his daughter didn't mention it in the catalog of works she compiled.

On the wind band transcriptions you can purchase from sheet music sites, only his name is listed.

WorldCat lists several recent publications with the name of the transcriber listed -- Ralph Sauer, Tony Mason, etc. But there are also several 1924 Boosey & Hawkes publications, from their "Symphonic Band Series" or "Boosey's Military Journal". It seems to be individual movements, but I can only find Mars and Jupiter.

In one entry there is no arranger listed, and in another the arranger is "G. Smith".

WorldCat's entry on G Smith is very confused, listing publications starting in the 1720s, so they must be adding together publications by two people of the same name.

Trying to find a G. Smith in Music Sack who was alive in the period 1913-1924 which is between when the Planets was written, and when the Boosey band transcriptions, is difficult, given that it is a common name and only the initial is given.

Does anyone have any more information about a G Smith that would have been close to Holst?

@jfro1994:

The fact that sheet-music sites failed to mention the name of the arranger is not an indication that Holst arranged these for band himself. There are a number of arrangements available. One of the very best I've heard was done by Clark McAlister and is published by LudwigMasters. It is quite advanced in terms of playing skill required, but sounds very much like the original in terms of texture.

This discussion is very interesting but I would like to suggest based on evidence I've discovered that Holst did indeed complete his own transcriptions of Mars & Jupiter for military/symphonic band.

My community band owns an old edition of Jupiter of which I'm trying to untangle the flute part. This edition carries a copyright from 1924 by Boosey & Co. But most significantly is the fact that no arranger is listed, only the composer: Gustav Holst. These tiny bits of information has led me on a bit of a search to see what I can glean about the original scoring of this edition (my band only has a reduced score), and to see what else I could find out about it. The 'Wind Repertory Project' lists the scoring of this edition; the Program notes say: "This is Holst's own transcription for military band of the 4th movement from "The Planets."" (Link to website: http://www.windrep.org/Jupiter)

Boosey & Hawkes indicate that you can still buy a set of parts for this early edition from their archive: http://www.boosey.com/shop/prod/Holst-G ... rts/800645

There are many other arrangements for band that I've seen (and played0 over the years however this edition that our community band owns seems to be a true transcription by the composer himself.

Given the fact that Imogen Holst didn't list it, not is there any indication he made wind band transcriptions for any of his works, I find it hard to believe. Once again, no arranger listed is NOT evidence. And a note on some wiki is hardly evidence either, especially as they may have used the same false reasoning as you.

I finally located a copy of the Rehrig index to band music in the local university library. The band arrangements issued as part of Boosey & Co.'s Band Journal starting in 1921 were all arranged by G. Smith (good luck with finding any info on a name like that - which could very well be a pseudonym used by one or more Boosey employees). So, there's good reason these early arrangements were never included in any of the standard listings of Holst's work: He didn't arrange them.

After doing some exploring I found the following information about the arrangements of "Mars, Venus, and Mercury" movements from Holst's "The Planets. In the book "Ralph Vaughan Williams' Wind Works" by Jon C. Mitchell (p. 42) there is a listing of a concert July 4th, 1923 that includes three movements from "The Planets". It also says that George Smith and Louis Pay are the arrangers of these movements (Louis Pay is the conductor for the performance). Both were students at the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall. Incidentally, this was the same concert where Vaughan Williams' "Folk Song Suite" was premiered (with "Sea Songs" listed as the Second movement). Here is a link...

http://books.google.com/books?id=fnhswt ... ll&f=false

I wasn't able to find much more out about either George Smith or Louis Pay but I did see some instances where the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall will provide some information about former students (for a fee). If you'd like to know more about them I would start there. Best of luck!