Les quatre élémens

Les quatre élémens (The Four Elements), S.80, is a cycle of four choral pieces by Franz Liszt, to words by Joseph Autran.

Liszt's starting-point for the cycle was Les aquilons ("The North Winds"), a male chorus with piano accompaniment composed on 24 July 1844 in Marseille.

Liszt had arrived in Marseille the day before and met with choristers of a German travelling company, who requested an original chorus piece of the composer.

For the manuscripts of La terre and Les flots, Emil Haraszti and Theodor Müller-Reuter give the dates "Lisbon and Málaga, April 1845" and "Valencia, Easter Sunday 1845", respectively.

[4] The earliest sources for attempts of orchestrating the cycle Les quatre élémens are written in the hand of Liszt's copyist, August Conradi, in early 1848.