Doing it badly

I got into my car this morning on my way to work, and what was on the radio the moment it started? Why, Gustav Holst’s St. Paul’s Suite! I LOVE St. Paul’s Suite! I played it my freshman year of high school, the really awesome year where we had like five people in the orchestra and I WAS the first violin section. I stayed in my car three extra minutes after pulling into a parking space at work to hear the end of the fourth movement (no worries; I was early).

This evening I had dinner with my grandmother, and as I started my car for that trip I was regaled with the final few bars of the “Jupiter” movement from Holst’s The Planets. And I said to myself, what, is it Holst’s birthday or something? The deejay confirmed. So as a means of commemorating this very special day, being as it is the day of possibly my very favorite British composer, I present to you: a quote by the man himself, on amateur musicianship.

“If a thing is worth doing at all, it is worth doing badly.”

Amen, brother.