Every musical genre we have has to have come from somewhere, but some influences aren’t as obvious as they seem. For example, rock and roll was born out of rhythm and blues in the late 1940s and continues to evolve to this day. The I-IV-V progressions and rowdy personas can be linked back to blues, but modern heavy music can also be directly linked back to classical music. In fact, there’s one classical piece that left an imprint on rock pioneers and showed up in the DNA of three influential albums of 1970, over five decades after its first performance.
English composer Gustav Holst was vacationing in Spain in 1913 when, after a discussion on astrology, he came up with the idea to write a suite with each movement representing the “character” of each planet. However, the piece would carry more weight and emotion than a reflection on the heavens. The seven-movement orchestral suite “The Planets” was composed during the First World War and made its premiere during a private performance just two months before the armistice in 1918.
He began by writing “Mercury, the Winged Messenger,” but in the end, he rearranged the planetary order for musical reasons. Holst, therefore, put the thunderous and dramatic “Mars, the Bringer of War” as the opening movement to capture the attention of listeners.
“Mars” is written in 5/4, which is reinforced by a jarring ostinato that carries through much of the song. The repeating pattern is played softly for two bars with percussion, harp, and col legno strings (playing percussively with the back of the bow), tapping out the repeated rhythm of a triplet followed by two quarter notes, two eighth notes, and finally a quarter note on beat five. Holst then wrote the ominous theme to be played by bass instruments, including bass oboe, bassoon, double bassoon, and horns. While the entire piece is a masterpiece, this particular motif is what eventually launched heavy metal as we know it.
The melody ascends a perfect fifth of D to A before dropping down a half step to accent Ab, the tritone of D. This interval, also known as an augmented fourth or diminished fifth, is one of the most dissonant and unsettling sounds in music, which earned it the nickname the “devil’s interval.” The sound captured the angst and struggle of war, and it would become a hallmark of heavy metal.
Direct Influence on Key Bands and Tracks
Black Sabbath – “Black Sabbath”
They may not have been the only ones playing heavy music, but Black Sabbath is generally considered the first band to create and popularize what is now called heavy metal. Their debut self-titled album in 1970 began a wave of bands exploring riff-based dissonance with detuned guitars, rumbling bass, and roaring drums. But their signature self-titled song may have never come about if not for “Mars.”
Bassist Geezer Butler explained how the song came directly out of Holst’s music.
“I was a medium-sized fan of Holst’s ‘The Planets’ Suite, particularly ‘Mars’ in those days,” Butler said in an interview. “One of the days we were rehearsing and I was trying to play ‘Mars.’ Then the next day, [guitarist Tony Iommi] went in and [played the riff from ‘Black Sabbath’]. That’s how ‘Black Sabbath’ came about.”
Instead of playing a fifth down to the tritone, the riff from “Black Sabbath” begins with a root and a fifth (known to guitarists as a power chord) before jumping to the octave and descending to a trill on the tritone. Similar to Holst’s suite, the metal pioneers made it the first track on their album to rattle the nerves of unsuspecting listeners.
(View the score for “Black Sabbath“)
King Crimson – “The Devil’s Triangle”
King Crimson was another band that pioneered heavy music on their debut album, “In the Court of the Crimson King.” They were also progenitors of progressive rock, partly thanks to their interest in complex music. The band started playing “Mars” itself during their live concerts in 1969, but then reworked the piece to create “The Devil’s Triangle” for the 1970 record, “In The Wake of Poseidon.”
The piece has many similar elements, including a 5/4 time signature and a very similar ostinato to “Mars.” However, they expanded the soundscape with new melodies, textures, and tons of psychedelia.
Led Zeppelin – “Friends”
Led Zeppelin released their first album in January of 1969, but by October of 1970, they were already on their third. “Led Zeppelin III” featured fan favorites like “The Immigrant Song,” “That’s the Way,” and “Friends,” the latter of which interpolates the theme from “Mars.” But it wasn’t the first time guitarist Jimmy Page had started working the sound into the band’s repertoire. The jam section on “Dazed and Confused” (another song with borrowed content) featured the motif during their Royal Albert Hall performance.
“Friends” opens with Page jamming on a 12-string guitar. When vocalist Robert Plant comes in at the 50-second mark, he’s accompanied by a string section highly reminiscent of the “Mars” theme. Just like Holst’s music, the use of the tritone creates an uneasiness as well as a sense of mystique.
Legacy and Continuing Impact
“Mars” reshaped the musical landscape for decades and, in turn, influenced the music we still hear today. These three songs are just a small reflection of the shadow that Holst cast with his work. “Mars” was also the basis for songs from the Super Mario Bros and Star Wars franchises, while other movements from “The Planets” made their own mark on modern music.
It created a bridge from classical music to heavy metal by establishing a musical vocabulary built on tension. That tension reflected the stresses of World War I just as much as it did in 1970 during the height of the Vietnam War, and it still does today – 107 years after its debut.
It’s just another great reason to dig into the rich musical history we have. Check out the score to “Mars” and get inspired.
