Mars the Bringer of War

This is the first piece of music in the suite, the planets composed by Gustav Holst. Holst uses a variety of techniques to create a warlike mood in the music. He starts using a snare drum to create the effect of soldiers marching into battle. This links to the name of the music as it the piece is named after Mars the Roman God of War. Also when Holst wrote this piece of music,the first world war had started. Also the piece starts with a crescendo and gets gradually louder throughout the music. There is a huge rise in the volume as if the battle had just started then it has a diminuendo as it is the middle of the war. This is created by a fast rhythm but a slightly low pitch. There is another sudden drop in volume as the piece goes really quiet for about four bars. Then there is another crescendo but this one goes slower in the rise of volume as if it is building up to the end. The ostinato is playing all the way through the piece of music in the background. There was a very dramatic ending as the piece was forte and then stopped.The main instruments in the piece are brass- trombones and trumpets. Some percussion instruments were used to create the crescendo-snare drum, bass drums and cymbols. To describe this piece of music, I would say it has crescendos,can be fortissimo and has some piano parts. It has a warlike mood and is cleverly constructed by Gustav Holst.