ImogenHolst, CBE (April 12, 1907-March 9, 1984) was a British composer and conductor, and the only child of composer Gustav Holst.
ImogenHolst was brought up in west London and educated at St Paul's Girls' School, where her father was director of music.
In 1931 Holst began earning her living as a freelance musician, though her hopes of being a concert pianist were dashed by incipient phlebitis in her left arm.
Holst was influenced during these years by socialism, and attended lectures and speeches by George Bernard Shaw, with whom he shared a passion for vegetarianism, and William Morris, both of whom were of England’s most outspoken supporters of the socialist movement in England.
Holst shared in his friend’s admiration for the simplicity and economy of these melodies, and their use in his compositions is one of his music’s most recognizable features.
Holst would have certainly been affected by the performance, and although he had earlier lampooned the stranger aspects of modern music (he had a strong sense of humour), the new music of Stravinsky and Schoenberg influenced, if not initially spurred, his work on The Planets Suite.
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