Saturday, July 10, 2021

A wee bit of musical talent please

 This week's Sepia Saturday puzzled me.


I'd never heard of Grace Holst of Norway. So I tried Duck Duck search. They hadn't heard of her either...so I went to a bigger search engine, Google. And besides finding that she wasn't related to Gustav Holst, I found there was a larger photo just like the one above..


Apparently she was a soprano who sang operas in America.

This marker suggests she was still alive as of 2009 when her husband George died.

Gustav Holst was a composer, with his most famous piece being The Planets.
Surprisingly enough, I listened to it on Tuesday as I treated myself to NPR's classical station. 





19 comments:

  1. ...thanks for the history lesson this morning.

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    1. Thanks to Sepia Saturday, I sure wouldn't have heard of her otherwise...not being an opera fan.

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  2. Good to see both surnames on the headstone, as it is done in Scotland.
    Interesting history..and good music!

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    1. The only women that I've noticed to do this are Quakers, having their surnames kept even after marriage. I didn't know Scots also did it.

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  3. Replies
    1. Me too...as I'm sure opera singers had many a costume to wear when singing, it's a neat hat!

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  4. Hello,
    Thanks for sharing some of the Holst history. Wonderful sepia photos.
    Take care, enjoy your weekend!

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    1. True enough, thanks to the internet, and Sepia Saturday.

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  5. Never heard of Duck Duck Search. Interesting that it brought up another photo taken at the same time.

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    1. Both Duck Duck and Google give an option for "images" at some point, and that's where these came from.

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  6. Rather neat you found the second pose from the same photographic sitting! I like both poses, but I think there's more of her personality in the second one you found. :)

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    1. I liked seeing more of her dress in the second one.

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  7. P.S. On these sweltering triple digit days we're having here in Calif., I love tuning into your blog and seeing that wonderfully cool-looking Lake Tamahawk at the top of it. Thank you ever so much!!! :)

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    1. Thanks...I haven't been in swimming in ages. What a nice thought!

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  8. I imagine Grace and her husband George endured countless questions about their family connection to Gustav Holst. Sadly most of his music has been eclipsed by his greatest piece, The Planets. Unfortunately it has been so overplayed into a cliché like Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture that it has lost its original meaning and intensity.

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    1. I didn't find out any family connection, so must continue to wonder if they were cousins or what. You are so right about The Planets...but I enjoy it as much as the 1812 Overture.

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  9. Kudos to you, Barb, for actually finding out more about the prompt photo! I think I like the one you found of her even better. Interesting that, although unrelated to Gustav, she was also musically inclined.

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