What's on in Gloucestershire

Holst Birthplace Museum

Daily; not Mon or Sun

Gustav Holst was born at 4 Clarence Road, Cheltenham on 21 September 1874. His home is now a monument to his industry and fame. As well as running the house museum, The Holst Birthplace Trust aims to promote the music of Holst and encourages the performance and understanding of his work through its events.

Although chiefly remembered today as the composer of The Planets, Holst was a prolific composer who wrote in practically every classical genre from solo-song and chamber pieces to massively scored orchestral works and opera. His compositions are intensely original; he was inspired by sources as diverse as Sanskrit and English folk-song and he had an innate understanding of the descriptive qualities of orchestral instruments and the human voice.

After studying at the Royal College of Music, (where he and Vaughan Williams became life-long friends), Holst worked for the Carl Rosa Opera Company and the Scottish Orchestra playing the trombone, before settling down to a life of teaching and composing. He was music teacher at Dulwich Girls' School (1903-20), director of music at St Paul's Girls' School, Hammersmith (1905-34), music director at Morley College (1907-24) and in 1919 Professor of Music at University College, Reading. He believed passionately in the community spirit of music and that music should be accessible to everyone.

Clarence Road has been restored to much as the young Holst would have known when he was growing-up in the 1870s. The house is the only example in Gloucestershire of a Victorian-Edwardian family home complete with the furnishings and utensils of that period.

Holst Birthplace Museum