What happened to Pluto?
As readers of this space probably know, Andrew Litton will conduct the North Carolina Symphony in concerts March 4-6. Perhaps the best known piece on his program is Gustav Holst’s The Planets. We thought you might enjoy these bits of random information:
1. The concept for the work is astrological, rather than astronomical. Holst’s friend Clifford Bax introduced him to astrology and he became quite committed to the subject, casting his friends’ horoscopes for fun. The idea for the piece came to him during a holiday with a group of artists in Majorca.
2. “Saturn” was Holst’s favorite movement, HOWEVER…
3. …he become perturbed at the popularity of The Planets, complaining that it overshadowed his other work.
4. He hated The Planets fame so much, in fact, that when fans of the work asked for his autograph, he handed out a sheet of paper that stated he didn’t give autographs.
5. After writing the piece, disillusioned by its celebrity, he swore off astrology. However, he still enjoyed casting horoscopes to the end of his life.
6. Pluto was discovered in 1930, four years before Holst’s death but he had no interest in writing a new movement for it (see 3, 4 and 5). As it turns out, he probably made the right decision since the International Astronomical Union downgraded Pluto to a dwarf planet in 2006. Did Holst forsee this in his study of astrology? Hmmm.
7. Charlotte Llewellyn’s middle name is Imogen, named after Holst’s daughter, “a wonderful woman,” according to Grant. Grant and Charlotte’s eldest daughter is also named Imogen.
Please join us for the performance of this popular work! In the end, we don’t think Holst will really mind.
and Tombaugh discovered Pluto by searching an area of the sky where it was predicted (by Lowell and Pickering) that there would be such a body, to account for [i]perturbations[/i] in Neptune's orbit!