User:Hmartil/sandbox

l events in rural communities. Gradually it developed into a more general musical education for a broader student intake. Under Holst's leadership the course quickly became the hub of a range of musical activities, including the foundation of an amateur orchestra: "Hardly any of us could play ... However bad we were, we went on". Holst's teaching methods, heavily based on "learning by doing" and without formal examinations, at first disconcerted her students and puzzled the school inspectors, but eventually gained acceptance and respect. Rosamond Strode, a pupil at Dartington who later worked with Holst at Aldeburgh, said of her approach: "She knew exactly how, and when, to push her victims in at the deep end, and she knew, also, that although they would flounder and splash about at first, it wouldn't be long before ... they would be swimming easily while she beamed approval from the bank".

In the conducive atmosphere of Dartington Holst resumed serious composition, largely abandoned during the hectic CEMA years. In 1943 she completed a Serenade for flute, viola and bassoon, a Suite for String Orchestra, and a choral work, Three Psalms. All these works were performed at a Wigmore Hall concert on 14 June 1943 devoted to her music. Other compositions from the Dartington years included Theme and Variations for solo violin, String Trio No. 1 (premiered by the Dartington Hall String Trio at the National Gallery on 17 July 1944), songs from the 16th-century anthology Tottel's Miscellany, an oboe concerto, and a string quartet. In October 1943 the composer Benjamin Britten and the tenor Peter Pears gave the first of several recitals at Dartington. A mutual respect and friendship developed between Britten and Holst, strengthened by their shared love of neglected music from the Renaissance and Baroque eras. Holst was convinced that Britten was the composer to continue and complete the work of her father in redefining the character of English music.

From 1945, while maintaining her commitment to Dartington, Holst began to widen her musical activities. As well as editing and preparing scores for Britten, she promoted Dartington as the base for Britten's new English Opera Group, although eventually Glyndebourne was preferred. In 1947 she encouraged the refugee violinist Norbert Brainin to form his own string quartet, and arranged its debut at Dartington, as the "Brainin Quartet", on 13 July 1947. Six months later, renamed the Amadeus Quartet, the group appeared at the Wigmore Hall, and went on to worldwide recognition. In 1948 she began work on a critical study of her father's music, a companion volume to her 1938 Gustav Holst biography. When this was published in 1951, most critics praised its objectivity, one critic venturing that she had been "unnecessarily harsh" in her judgements.

Rising standards of achievement at Dartington enabled Holst to organise performances of more demanding works, such as Bach's Mass in B minor in July 1950 to honour the 200th anniversary of Bach's death. Three years in preparation, this endeavour brought a tribute from one of the audience: "I don't know, and can't imagine what the music of heaven is like. But when we all get there, please God, if any conducting is still necessary I hope your services will be required and that I will be in the chorus".

By the middle of 1950 Holst's professional focus was changing. She had attended the first two Aldeburgh Festivals in 1948 and 1949, and in 1950 accepted a commission to provide a choral work for performance at the 1951 festival; The work was the song cycle for female voices and harp, Welcome Joy and Welcome Sorrow. Sensing that it was time to leave Dartington, she gave a year's notice, part of which was spent on sabbatical, studying Indian music at Rabindranath Tagore's university in West Bengal. A fruit of this visit was her Ten Indian Folk Tunes for recorder. On 21 July 1951 her one-act opera, Benedick and Beatrice, was performed at Dartington, to mark her departure.

Aldeburgh[edit]
Without definite plans for her future after Dartington, Holst toured Europe, collecting music that she would later edit for performance, including madrigals by Carlo Gesualdo which she found "very exciting". At home, although not formally employed by Britten, she worked with him on several projects, including a new performing version of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas,  and the preparation of the vocal and full scores for Britten's opera Billy Budd. Pears, who had observed Holst's overall contributions to musical life at Dartington, believed she could help Britten and the Aldeburgh Festival on a more formal basis, and shortly after the 1952 festival Britten invited her to come and work with him. She agreed, and moved to lodgings in Aldeburgh.

Assistant to Britten[edit]
Benjamin Britten, photographed in the mid-1960s When Holst joined Britten, the financial arrangement was vague; Britten paid her on a piecemeal basis rather th