Holst and Hammersmith in Punch Magazine

The long running humorous and satirical magazine Punch (9 December 1931) carried a small tribute to Gustav Holst and his then latest work Hammersmith: Prelude and Scherzo, op.52. The work, originally for wind band was completed in 1930. It was arranged for full orchestra the following year. The premiere performance of the latter was given on 25 November 1931 at the Queen’s Hall, London by the BBC Orchestra conducted by Adrian Boult. Readers will see allusions to Handel and the apocryphal story of him taking refuge in a smithy to avoid the rain. Vulcan’s song in the Gounod opera Philemon et Baucis, “Al suon del mio martel d’acciar” (So loud the heavy hammers fall/So red the furnace flame is glowing) is also alluded to. The Wagner song comes from the end of Act 1 of Siegfried.

Finally, the writer of the poem seems to have forgotten the Anvil Chorus is from Verdi's 1853 opera Il Trovatore.

Imogen Holst wrote about the genesis of her father’s composition: “Those who knew nothing of this forty-year-old affection for the Hammersmith W6 were puzzled at the title ... It was the outcome of long years of familiarity with the changing crowds and the changing river: those Saturday night crowds, who were always good-natured even when they were being pushed off the pavement into the middle of the traffic ... As for the river, he had known it since he was a student ...In Hammersmith the river is the background to the crowd: it is a river that goes on its way unnoticed and unconcerned.”

Holst, Imogen Gustav Holst: A Biography (OUP, 1938,1958 p.144)

ANVIL MUSIC.

Mr. Gustav Holst, the distinguished British composer, has recently produced an orchestral work entitled "Hammersmith." For further enlightenment on the subject, see "Hammerschmidt," "Hammerstein," "Hammer-Klavier" and " Twankydillo" in any Dictionary of Music.

The first forge music on my list

Is that of Edgware's organist

Who charmed succeeding generations

With his "harmonious" variations.

A century passed by, and then

The smithy theme cropped up again,

This time in Vulcan's jolly song,

With its reiterate ding-dong,

In Gounod's Philemon et Baucis.

But for its true apotheosis

The anvil waited - who can doubt it?

Till Wagner made great songs about it,

When Siegfried forged the magic sword

With which he slew the beast abhorred.

The old order to the new must yield,

But still the old theme holds the field,

For Holst, re-marshalling the forces

That hymned the planets in their courses,

Now thrills the waves of ether with

The glories of his "Hammersmith."

C.L.G.