By the autumn of 1921, Gustav Holst was arguably becoming a victim of his own success. Following the breakthrough of The Planets and The Hymn of Jesus, he found himself exhausted by a relentless schedule of teaching and conducting. Yet, fame brought opportunity; tempted by “dollars from the USA,” Holst accepted a commission from wealthy American patron Alice Barney to write a ballet for a Chicago dance company.

The genesis of the piece occurred during a walking tour of Herefordshire with his close friends Ralph Vaughan Williams and W. G. Whittaker. Despite his fatigue, Holst viewed the project with a mix of pragmatism and mischief. Biographer Michael Short notes that Holst wrote to Whittaker regarding the commission: “I got the books [of folk songs] and a little commission from the USA about the same time… But I shall ill-treat them disgracefully.”

Holst composed the work rapidly in the autumn of 1921. The manuscript betrays signs of this haste, functioning almost as a “cut-and-paste” of Holstian ideas. He admitted at the time to being “over-worked and over-weary.

The ballet follows a somewhat melodramatic scenario provided by Alice Barney. It depicts a Candle Flame that shines brilliantly, entrancing a group of moths. One moth, “Folia,” is indifferent. This only inflames the Flame’s desire. Eventually, she is drawn in, crushed, and burnt. The ballet ends with the Flame being snuffed out, symbolizing that “there are greater powers than he.”

The intent was a functional ballet score for Chicago, but the production never materialized. Although Holst tried to secure a performance in 1926, the work sat on the shelf, unpublished and unperformed, for decades.