Cheltenham Civic Society

Promoting good design in a historic environment

Hamond Bequest – Gustav Holst Memorial Fountain

Holst’s statue celebrates for the first time in a public place Cheltenham’s most famous and respected son. The statue erected in Imperial Gardens was unveiled on 4th April 2008 at 12 noon by Mark Elder, the Music Director of the Hallé Orchestra.
The statue of Gustav Holst standing aloft the Gustav Holst Memorial Fountain awaiting the unveiling on 4^th April 2008 by Mark Elder. See video of Unveiling Ceremony	GUSTAV HOLST Gustav Holst was at the heart of the renaissance in English music during the first half of the 20^th century. He was born at 4 Clarence Road in Cheltenham, the present Holst Birthplace Museum, on 21^st September 1874. Influenced by William Morris’s ideals of socialism, he believed that every person should have the opportunity to make music. His profound interest in Indian philosophy is particularly relevant in today’s multicultural society, and is manifested in the short opera Savitri. It is as the composer of The Planets, one of the world’s most popular masterpieces that Holst seems to speak to us directly. His other works, some 400 in number include opera, ballet, symphonies and vocal music. He attended Pate’s Grammar School in Cheltenham and went on to teach at St Paul’s Girls’ School in London where his composing room is still preserved. Holst’s music is especially admired in the USA. In his last years he taught composition at Harvard University and lectured at the University of Michigan, ensuring an international reputation. Yale University awarded Holst the prestigious Elias Howland Memorial prize in 1924. Holst wrote that he was grateful for three things in his life: music, friendship and the Cotswold Hills. He walked far and often with his friend Ralph Vaughn Williams, exchanging musical ideas: “walking always sets me thinking of new tunes’. He conducted The Planets in Cheltenham 80 years ago in the Town Hall in March 1927, which he described as ‘ ... the most overwhelming event of my life...’	MISS ELIZABETH HAMOND For many years Miss Hamond lived and worked in Cheltenham and was devoted to the town. In her will she left a generous legacy to the Cheltenham Civic Society to be used to benefit the town. The Civic Society decided that this would be used for a full size bronze statue of Gustav Holst with an octagonal plinth depicting the planets. THE SCULPTOR Anthony Stones FRBS, FRSA has completed numerous prestigious public commissions both in Britain and abroad, particularly in New Zealand and China where he holds two professorial posts. The Pangolin Foundry in Chalford cast the figure together with seven plaques depicting the Planets incorporated in the plinth
© Cheltenham Civic Society 2007