The Four Elements

 

When I recently went for a walk through the countryside with a friend, we came across the philosophical topic of being. We were discussing the extent to which the four-element doctrine created by the Greek philosophers - that all existence is made up of a certain mixture of the four basic elements ‘earth’, ‘water’, ‘air’ and ‘fire’ as the principles of solid, liquid, gaseous and red-hot - can still be applied today. I disagreed with the thesis that the balance of the elements is necessary for well-being, as modern science breaks the world down into ever smaller particles, which in turn make up an element as a whole. 

In the end, we were unable to finalize the topic and discussed where the four elements are reflected in the music. Here are a few examples that came to us spontaneously, which are probably well known. We'll see if they become a series.