Gustav Holst wrote his suite The Planets during the early years of the First World War. The expansive movement, Jupiter, contained a tune that Holst later used to set the poem by Cecil Spring-Rice, I Vow To Thee, My Country. 

 

Originally set for unison voices with orchestra, Holst adapted it as a hymn tune and called it Thaxted, named after the village where he lived for many years. The American composer, Geoff Knorr, incorporated Holst’s music into his score for the strategy-based video game Civilisation V, where it is used to depict the England of Elizabeth I. It is from this music that this transcription is made. Although written in 1908 and entitled Urbs Dei, Spring-Rice revisited to the text of his poem in January 1918 and significantly altered both the first and second verses to reflect his feelings about the war, and those that gave the ultimate sacrifice. He also renamed the poem with the title we know today. It is because of its sentiment that it has become a staple of Remembrance services.