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From: gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Tone poems (Holst's "Mars")
Message-ID: <1950@amdahl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 27-Aug-85 14:53:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: amdahl.1950
Posted: Tue Aug 27 14:53:54 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 30-Aug-85 00:22:22 EDT
References: <478@petrus.UUCP> <472@olivee.UUCP>
Reply-To: gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett)
Distribution: net
Organization: Blue Mouse Trailer Resort, Hellmouth, CA
Lines: 14

Holst's "Mars" (from "The Planets") has brought to my mind visions of
war (surprise!), but in particular, the final "blast" being that of
a nuclear bomb.  I also associate some of the discordant tones with
drawings by Goya of mutilated victims of war.  And there is of course
the mindless marching of soldiers on both sides committing these
attrocities.

Because of these associations, this music has always been at once
a thrilling and terrifying experience.  After it all, there is the
refreshing reassurance of "Venus" -- I haven't decided if this is a
pastoral view of an earlier time, or the regrowth of the (now human-less)
world after the holocaust.
-- 
Gordon A. Moffett		...!{ihnp4,cbosgd,hplabs}!amdahl!gam