The Four Elements

The Four Elements is Ensemble Altera’s a cappella journey through wind, earth, water and fire, arriving at a fifth chapter, quintessence, that stands for what lies beyond them. Under director Christopher Lowrey, the programme treats the elements as symbolic encounters rather than literal tone-painting. Wind opens with Owain Park’s The Wings of the Wind, Michael Garrepy’s arrangement of Westron wynde, Ivo Antognini’s Dickinson setting Hope is the thing with feathers and Eric Whitacre’s Leonardo dreams of his flying machine. Earth follows with Byrd’s Terra tremuit, Park’s Upheld by Stillness, Piers Connor Kennedy’s Bailey and Daniel Gledhill’s For the beauty of the earth, the last a world-premiere recording that won the 2021 Ensemble Altera Composition Competition.

Water brings Luboff’s arrangement of the spiritual Deep river, Stanford’s The Blue Bird and Rebecca Dale’s There will come soft rains. Fire begins with Kenneth Leighton’s God’s Grandeur and Lauridsen’s Io piango, moves to Lucy Walker’s I saw eternity, and culminates in Michael Garrepy’s Flame of Love, a world-premiere recording written for the ensemble on St John of the Cross. The set closes with Ēriks Ešenvalds’s Salutation, setting Tagore, a piece of gathered stillness that completes the cycle. Recorded at St. Rocco’s Church in Johnston, Rhode Island, the album pairs rich choral textures with subtle percussion and recorder colours in selected tracks.

Ensemble Altera
Christopher Lowrey, director