Neptune, the Mystic

This is the final piece in the planets suite, composed by Gustav Holst. The piece is named after Neptune, the God of the Sea in Roman Mythology. It starts of pianissimo and immediately gets louder. It goes to a piano, and then mezzo piano. The music is slow but with high middle length notes. There is a crescendo and the music rises to forte. The dynamics are fast but slow at the same time. The music gives me a forbidden feeling, kind of like there is something I shouldn't know, like a mysterious feeling. This feeling is probably what gave the piece it's name- the mystic. Another reason why this piece could be called the mystic is that the ocean and the sea can be mysterious and if the music is named after the sea god, that is probably the effect Holst was trying to create. The music now carries on with slow dynamics, high pitched notes and long length and short length notes. The effect the long notes have is really strange, the contrast between long notes and a high pitch is again forbidding and eerie. The music then has a diminuendo dropping to almost silence then rising almost straight away to a mezzo piano volume, the note lengths are the same and so is the pitch. The music fades out slightly and human voices are incorporated into the music. This gives the effect of mermaids singing on the rocks drawing sailors in. They are singing long high notes, just like the instruments were playing. The volume increases slightly to a mezzo forte volume. The singing fades out again and the instruments return. Almost suddenly the singing returns, just the same as the time before. A harp can be heard behind the singing giving it an almost cold feeling. The singing and the harp fades away creating an end for the piece. I think this piece has a strange feeling to it creating a eerie, forbidding piece of music that can draw in any audience.