The work was written in 1930 for the Three Choirs Festival by request of organist Herbert Sumsion, who wanted a work involving a concertante organ part.Short, p.289 Holst originally conceived the piece as an Organ Concerto but later changed the concept and incorporated the poem Ode to Music by his friend Robert Bridges, originally written for the Purcell bicentenary celebrations in 1895. Bridges' poem is a requiem of sorts for all past artists. The finished work is scored for the unusual forces of organ, brass, percussion and strings with chorus and solo soprano. The Choral Fantasia was first performed in 1931 at the Three Choirs festival in Gloucester Cathedral with Dorothy Silk (Holst's favorite soprano, who had premiered his Choral Symphony six years earlier) singing the solo part, and Holst conducting. The work was first performed in the United States on May 19, 1932, at Ann Arbor, Michigan's annual May Festival at Hill Auditorium; the composer conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the University of Michigan's University Choral Union, and soprano Helen Van Loon.
