<P> Neptune was one of the first pieces of orchestral music to have a fade - out ending, although several composers (including Joseph Haydn in the finale of his Farewell Symphony) had achieved a similar effect by different means . Holst stipulates that the women's choruses are "to be placed in an adjoining room, the door of which is to be left open until the last bar of the piece, when it is to be slowly and silently closed", and that the final bar (scored for choruses alone) is "to be repeated until the sound is lost in the distance". Although commonplace today, the effect bewitched audiences in the era before widespread recorded sound--after the initial 1918 run - through, Holst's daughter Imogen (in addition to watching the charwomen dancing in the aisles during Jupiter) remarked that the ending was "unforgettable, with its hidden chorus of women's voices growing fainter and fainter...until the imagination knew no difference between sound and silence". </P> <P> Several attempts have been made, for a variety of reasons, to append further music to Holst's suite, though by far the most common presentation of the music in the concert hall and on record remains Holst's original seven - movement version . </P> <P> Pluto was discovered in 1930, four years before Holst's death, and was hailed by astronomers as the ninth planet . Holst, however, expressed no interest in writing a movement for the new planet . He had become disillusioned by the popularity of the suite, believing that it took too much attention away from his other works . </P> <P> In the March 1972 final broadcast of his Young People's Concerts series, conductor Leonard Bernstein led the New York Philharmonic through a fairly straight interpretation of the suite, though Bernstein discarded the Saturn movement because he thought the theme of old age was irrelevant to a concert for children . The broadcast concluded with an improvised performance he called "Pluto, the Unpredictable". The 26 March 1972 performance may be viewed on the Kultur DVD set . </P>

Who wrote the best known choral piece in the world