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Holst, Gustav - Cotswold Suite 2nd movement
Identifier
012031
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
In 1902 Dan Godfrey and the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra premiered Holst's Cotswold Symphony, the slow movement of which is a lament for William Morris, a very close friend of Holsts's, who had died in October 1896, three years before Holst began work on the piece. In 1903, his father Adolph von Holst died.
William Morris was a great influence on Holst's music. In Vaughan Williams's words, "It was now that Holst discovered the feeling of unity with his fellow men which made him afterwards a great teacher. A sense of comradeship rather than political conviction led him, while still a student, to join the Kelmscott House Socialist Club in Hammersmith." Kelmscott House was Morris's home.