Why The Royals Should Not Abuse the Memory of Gustav Holst

Cover of Gustav Holst

 The BBC have moved from the deferential to idolatry of the Royal Family in recent times.  Although not a Christian one of the Ten Commandments I believe says something along the lines of, "Thou shalt not worship any false idol" but this does not seem to apply at the Beeb, who blow me down gave Obama the very same treatment during his recent visit. The bowing and scraping are almost sickening and one can only suppose that they are following orders from on high or need to divert our attention from the many horrors that this government is inflicting on its citizens as well as bombing the hell out of Johnny Foreigner abroad.
 I have no time for the atrocities committed in the Balkans in recent times but the BBC have already condemned the Serbian Ratko Mladic before the bloke has even been found guilty before the international court. Hardly the stuff of impartial reporting.
 However The Royal lovefest continues unabated with the announcement that we are all going to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee with a Sunday lunch next year, although sadly Queenie will not be paying for it. It is somewhat of an irony therefore that The Royals are obsessed with having, "I Vow to The My Country" played at their funerals and weddings of late.
 The tune was written by Gustav Holst and originally called "Thaxted" and formed part of "Jupiter" from "the Planets Suite". Not only would Holst not have approved but nor it would seem do many senior  members of the church who do not consider it to be a hymn at all. Holst was a composer and revolutionary - a man who taught himself Sanskrit; lived in a street of brothels in Algiers; cycled into the Sahara Desert; allied himself during the First World War with a 'red priest' who pinned on the door of his church 'prayers at noon for the victims of Imperial Aggression'; hated the words used to his most famous tune, I Vow to Thee My Country, because it was the opposite of what he believed; and distributed a newspaper called the Socialist Worker. Holst's music - especially the Planets - owed little or nothing to anyone, least of all the English folk song tradition, but he was a great composer who died of cancer, broken and disillusioned, before he was 60.
 A man of modest means he composed only in his part time and for most of his life took teaching posts which pleased him greatly as he felt that music was for all and not just the establishment elite. Most famous for, "The Planets" he had very catholic tastes and wrote music for brass bands and even did a film score as well as numerous pieces for choirs including the classic, "In the Bleak Midwinter".

Related articles

• The inner orbit of Gustav Holst (guardian.co.uk)

  The Bishop of  Hulme, Stephen Lowe said of I Vow to The My Country, "It actually says we're going to support my country entire and whole and perfect, the love unquestioned, right or wrong. That I'm afraid, is actually heretical because what it is saying is that my country's approach to things must be my first call on myself and that my relationship with God or what I believe to be right or wrong is secondary to that." I doubt if the inbreds who advise The Royals are even aware of these opinions but surely the composer of the work deserves better.