A competent trombonist and organist, Gustav Holst entered the 20th century with a Royal College of Music background, a lifelong friend, the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, and the dream of becoming a composer himself. Despite inadequate income and time-consuming teaching work at two girls' schools and Morley College, he accomplished his dream - most notably in his masterpiece, The Planets (1918). This work alone was enough to ensure his place in the musical pantheon.  His other works included a choral symphony, a comic opera, a film score and many poem settings (especially those of Thomas Hardy and Walt Whitman).