Holst

My introduction to Holst's suite The Planets was through the 1961 book Stranger in a Strange Land. It's about a young man who had survived the disastrous first Mars expedition by being taken in by the natives, who raised him almost since his birth. After the second expedition finds him and returns him to Earth, these peculiar origins result in some people believing him to be the owner of the planet Mars. When brought to meet other rulers on Earth - and being personally naive about the new culture - one of his associates asks that the Mars section be played as part of his "sovereign honors."

Without looking deeply into the history, I'll make some predictions here, based on what I do know:

• In the book, everyone knows what Mars (the musical piece) would be like. Twenty years later, it was not part of my musical experience, although I was aware of other Holst music.
• Recently, I've heard that the Planets has been out of the repertoire for a while - sure, it will be played on occasion, but it's old hat, not something a forward-looking orchestra will do.
• Still,  it had started to percolate into my peers' musical memories while in college,with some performances in ensembles and marching band.
• While the planets are described in their aspects as gods, they are not religious gods. They don't represent virtues or vices, there's no change expected from them.
• All of them bring something (The Bringer of Jollity, The Bringer of Love).
• The individual songs are hopeful, forward looking. Mars is not a cheerful tune, but it's a view of conquest and destruction, not of misery and defeat. You can imagine Saturn being used behind public service announcements in the fifties: "Commerce! Building our cities, enriching our lives!" Old Age is a quiet time to look forward to, with the universe coming back to its foundation as the piece finishes.

It was a popular piece during the First Turning, is hopeful, is much less popular now, doesn't have the religious aspects we might expect from the Second: It seems likely that it was written during a First Turning itself.

And...no. Written 1914-1916, it's solidly in the Third Turning. (As an artistic effort strongly identified with a specific person, that was my second guess, but wanted an unambiguous prediction.)  It turns out it is written from an astrological point of view, with the effects of the planets on the psyche, so the non-religous view has some merit. It was presumably popular into the First because it had continued to be  popular from when first written roughly 40 years earlier.