Gustav Holst - VI. Uranus: The Magician (The Planets)

Uranus is Holst’s magician. True to form, this hazy ice giant has more than one magic trick up its sleeves. Uranus is so dim in Earth’s night sky that it hid more or less in plain sight for thousands of years. Not until 1781 did we identify it as a planet. Even then, Uranus still had tricks to share. Rings were discovered by chance almost 200 years later. These tenuous “now you see them, now you don’t” bands are so faint as to be all but invisible to most telescopes. The magic doesn’t end there: Every planet in the solar system more or less spins like a top in circling the sun – but Uranus rolls sideways, choosing instead to somersault. Like any great magic act, Uranus is both bombastic and playful in Holst’s score.

The Planets, Op. 32, is a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the solar system and its corresponding astrological character as defined by Holst. This is the 6th movement, “Uranus: The Magician”, from orchestral suite “The Planets” (Op. 32) composed by Gustav Holst in 1914-1916.

Images: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Music: United States Air Force Band | IPGS Music

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