Imogen Holst, A Hymne to Christ

Imogen Holst (1907-1984) was the daughter of composer Gustav Holst. She received a composition scholarship at the Royal Conservatory of Music. She worked as a composer, writer, educator, performer, conductor, and arts administrator.

Her writings include the definitive biography of Gustav Holst (1938) and, subsequently, The Music of Gustav Holst (1951). She also penned a biography of English composers Benjamin Britten and Henry Purcell.

Like her father, Holst was active in promoting English folk music, a topic that we have frequently addressed in this series. She began working for the English Folk Dance and Song Society in 1932 when that organization was formed by a merger of the Folk Song Society (est. 1898) and the English Folk Dance Society (est. 1911). She supplemented her musical activities during this period as a teacher and freelance conductor, and much of her compositional work focused on making arrangements of folk music. During the war years, she worked with the government Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts, arranging and conducting concerts by professionals and various local ensembles.

In 1952, she began a 12-year stint working as assistant to Benjamin Britten. That association led to her being named a director of the annual Aldeburgh Festival that had been founded by Britten and Peter Pears. She also formed a successful vocal ensemble, the Purcell Singers, that regularly performed at the Aldeburgh Festival.

In 1964, she withdrew from many of these activities to focus on her own original compositions. A Hymne to Christ is based on John Donne’s 1619 poem by the same name.