Born in Cheltenham, England, Holst studied with the British composer Sir Charles Villiers Stanford while earning a living as a trombonist and conductor. After 1919 he taught at the Royal College of Music in London.

His important works before about 1912 are settings of Brahman scriptures, including the chamber opera Savitri (1908). Later, like his close friend the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, he turned his attention to English folk song.

His many folk song arrangements for band, orchestra, and chorus culminated in the one-act opera At the Boar's Head (1924). His most frequently performed work is The Planets (1916), an orchestral suite, the framework of which is based on the astrological symbols for planetary bodies.