GUSTAV HOLST!S SAVITRI ELUCIDATED EY HINDU THOUGHT Scott Alan Landvatter A thesis submitted to the faculty of The University of Utah partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music Department of Music The University of Utah December 1984 Copyright© 1984. Scott Alan Landvatter All Rights Reserved THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE APPROVAL of a thesis submitted by Scott Alan Landvatter This thesis has been read by eac h member of the following supervisory committee and by majority vote has been found to be satisfactory. Chairman: ^ M argaret Rorke f r a y > 7 (j Bruce Reich A / / / /W -------------------- Jay Welch THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS FINAL READING APPROVAL T o the Graduate Council of The University o f Utah: I have read the thesis of S c o tt A la n L a n d va tter_______________________ in its final form and have found that (1) its format, citations, and bibliographic style are consistent and acceptable; (2) its illustrative materials including figures, tables, and charts are in place; and (3) the final manuscript is satisfactory to the Supervisory Committee and is ready for submission to the Graduate School. JQL . i , lM ___ ,____________ Date J Margaret Rorke Chairperson, Supervisory Committee Approved for the Major Department — v-—^^------ ^ f Edgar Thompson Chairperson Approved for the Graduate Council -y- -----Y ^ - Keith Engar Dean. College ofr rts ABSTRACT Gustav Holst, throughout his life manifesting a rather mystic penchant, was, in his early career, quite taken with Hindu writings? it was as a result of his studies in Sanskrit that his chamber opera Savitri, Opus 25, emerged in 1908. Based on a story in the Mahabha- rata, the one act opera tells of a devoted wife (Savitri) who, through unusual fortitude and pointed acumen, releases her husband (Satyavan) from the supposedly irrevocable call of Death. While a detailed analysis of the work is fascinating in and of i t s e l f f disclosing important attributes of Holst*s compositional ap­ proach at a turning point in his creative life, such an analysis be­ comes much more valid when it sheds light on the aesthetic, artistic, and, in this instance, spiritual meaning of the piece. This is the purpose of the analysis undertaken for this study. Here, musical sounds become symbols for ideas and broad philosophical concepts. Motifs, themes, key and pitch areas, specific vertical harmonies, the use of choral parts and instrumental writing— all these serve to vitalize Savitri, Satyavan, and Death, revealing the three char­ acters, not as isolated physical entities, but rather as symbols themselves, paradigmatic representations of otherwise ineffable con­ ceptions. As Holst1s opera successfully renders each character real and accessible to the listener, it thoroughly identifies them, distin­ guishing them musically from one another. Yet, just as Hindu scrip- ture itself, the opera functions simultaneously on numerous levels. For as the music stylistically demarcates the dramatic personalities, it also unites them, a close theoretical scrutiny showing that, for all their differences, Savitri, Satyavan, Death, and even Maya, the goddess of illusion, are one and the same. Certainly, one of the most important aspects of Hindu thought is the notion of unity, of all divergencies being mere extensions of one omnipresence. And in Hindu belief it is manfs eventual ability to recognize the mislead­ ing sway of seeming opposition and polarity that admits him at last into eternity and truth. Such is the message of Holst's opera, a message that, for all its transcendence, is completely demonstratable in theoretical anal­ ysis, an approach which could be no more tangible and concrete. And by the concreteness of just such a cerebral approach, one validates not only Holst!s ideas concerning his opera, but also his overall notions as regards the arts in general: Art is at once physical and incorporeal, for in actuality any presumed division between the spir­ itual and the earthly is unreal, all is and must be one. v TABLE OF CONTENTS iv INTRODUCTION 1 General Background ........... 1 The Tale of Savitri from the Mahabharata .... 5 Holst's Libretto ............ 10 Hindu Background for Holstfs Opera ........... 13 Maya ...................... U Unity ...................... 16 Summary ....................... 2k Notes ....................... 26 THE ANALYSIS ....................... 33 33 38 Satyavan the Victim 43 The Mirror and the Nameless Unknown .......... 50 Maya— The Veil of Illusion ., 55 The Circle of Death ..... 68 Death Becomes Flesh ........ 75 S a v i t r i fs L u l l a b y ........... 81 Death and Love— Holiness and 90 Death the Blessed God ...... , 100 Savitri1s Song for Life . 119 136 151 155 164 175 CONCLUSION .........................., 181 The Character Complex ...... 181 184 Illusion or Reality ........ 187 The Pathway .................... 190 197 BIBLIOGRAPHY 198 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION General Background The collection of books found in Holst's London studio after his death in 1934- reveals an interest in several subjects outside music. It was a small assortment, though, and suggests also that he was not inclined toward building any sort of personal library. As his daughter wrote of him, "He had read a good deal during his life, but he had never owned a library, for books were things that 1 were either borrowed or given away .11 Any volumes which he did choose to keep, then, must have been important to him and, as such, would offer some insights into his personal tastes and beliefs. One particular text, stacked among the novels of Hardy, translations of Greek plays, editions of English poetry and the like, was a copy of the Upanishads, one of the important bodies of Hindu sacred writing. Holst's interest in Hinduism began in 1899, when he was first exposed to English translations of Sanskrit literature. He was twenty- five at the time. These writings, perhaps above all others, were to play an important role in his artistic and philosophical development, and in time became the fundamental material for a number of his com­ positions, Those writings which most attracted him in those early years were the poetic hymns from the Rig Veda, the oldest of Hindu 2 scripture, and the Bhagavad Gita, the epic tale of Krishna and Ar- juna, the warrior. The collective philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, especially as understood by Holst and thusly manifest in his temperament, is aptly capsualized in the words of his daughter: "The wise man, ac­ cording to the ‘Bhagavad Gita1, is fearless, and free from vanity, egoism, impatience, and the dread of failure. He is indifferent to worldly ambition: he is just, pure, impartial, and ready to do whatever work is given him, without complaint and without any hope of reward. He never finds fault with others, he is not jealous, and he is unmoved by good or evil fortune. He is the same in friendship as in hatred, and in pleasure as in pain. He cares nothing for prop­ erty, and he has no particular home. Praise and blame are alike to him, and he never speaks unnecessarily. And he has reached under- standing by long study and contemplation.M2 Holst never did claim attachment to any specific religion. But, he absorbed the precepts of Eastern thought with the honest enthusiasm and conviction for which he was well known. To him this was no mere esoteric, metaphysical fancy. It was a way of life, an approach to existence which was ever expanding in his thought and 3 which was forever apparent in the way he chose to live. Within time Holst became dissatisfied with the available trans­ lations of the great Hindu works. He had desired to set some of the writings to music but found English renditions awkward and ill-suited for the task. Thus began his studies of Sanskrit, an endeavor that placed him as a student in the School of Oriental Languages in Lon­ don. He never became fluent, but firmly acknowledged that reading 3 in the original, even if laboriously done, afforded him a more thor­ ough understanding of the works. In addition, his labors did bear fruit musically; he wrote four sets of choral hymns and an early group of solo hymns using his own translations from the Rig Veda. He also wrote his own libretto to his early opera, Sita, a roman­ tic drama based on the wondrous tale of Prince Rama and his remark­ able wife, Sita, a story taken from the Indian epic, The Ramayana. Sita was begun in 1900 and completed seven years later after innumerable hours of painstaking work and consideration. His close friend, Ralph Vaughan-Williams, had faithfully given musical sugges­ tions, and other friends had helped with the notation and copying. Thus, when he entered the piece in 1908 in the Ricordi Opera Compe­ tition and failed to win the prize, he was devastated. In later years he was to recognize the style of Sita as overly Wagnerian, lavish and quite uncharacteristic of his own musical voice. Still, at the time, the opera’s defeat was humiliating. He put the manu­ script away, never to be published or performed.^ Holst's next attempt at opera was in 1908, when he composed Savitri, his opus 25. Savitri, too, was based on a story taken from Sanskrit and, like Sita, its libretto was written by the composer. The musical approach, however, was entirely different. While the three-act Sita was opera on a grand scale, Savitri was composed of one continuous act lasting only about thirty minutes. Holst himself referred to the work as 1 opera di camera*, and its short length as well as its minimal resources support the appropriateness of such a designation.