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\u2018I\u2019m not really a composer,\u2019 Imogen Holst declared when she went on BBC Radio\u2019s Desert Island Discs<\/em> in 1972. Even when pressed, she gave the impression that she knew very little about music at all. She lamented that she was \u2018really not very bright I\u2019m afraid\u2019, especially at school, and of her time at the newly formed Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts in World War II, when she travelled across the country promoting community music-making, she had little to say except that she had been one of a group of \u2018missionary-minded spinsters\u2019.\u00a0<\/p> She had worked with Benjamin Britten<\/a><\/strong> for years as an amanuensis \u2013 although \u2018amanuensis\u2019 doesn\u2019t fully communicate the extent of the creative support that she offered the composer \u2013 a period she described as \u2018the most wonderful experience in learning about music\u2019. When asked which of her own compositions pleased her the most, she simply replied that she was \u2018grateful that I know enough about it to be able to edit music\u2019, immediately moving on to talk about Purcell<\/a><\/strong> instead, and her edition of The Fairy Queen<\/em>.<\/p> If Imogen Holst doesn\u2019t count a composer, though, it\u2019s very unclear who would. She penned over 200 original works and arrangements, including a ballet<\/a><\/strong>, an opera<\/a><\/strong>, a Mass, a violin<\/a><\/strong> concerto<\/a><\/strong>, oboe<\/a><\/strong> concerto, songs, hymn<\/a><\/strong>s, choral works, chamber<\/a><\/strong> pieces, orchestra<\/a><\/strong>l suites and incidental music. It is only very recently, though, that her reputation as a composer has started to grow, following the publication and recording of major works including her 1927 Mass in A Minor, 1929 symphonic poem Persephone<\/em> and 1930 Suite for Unaccompanied Viola<\/a><\/strong>. This, however, is only scratching the surface of her compositional output. The majority of her catalogue has yet to be recorded. Modest to a fault, she never pressed for recognition for any of her own works. She preferred to let others take the limelight \u2013 especially her father, Gustav Holst<\/a><\/strong>, and Britten, to whom she was devoted.\u00a0<\/p>Imogen Holst \u2013 a talented, though modest, composer<\/h2>