The three words of the album title, Et in terra… are normally followed by pax, the Latin word for peace. The ellipsis may represent the prayer for peace and tranquility. Our thoughts turn to Erich Maria Remarque’s novel Im Westen nichts neues (All Quiet on the Western Front) about the horrors of the First World War. That war ended over a hundred years ago, but its consequences are still being felt today.

The Mass in G minor for double choir and soloists by 150-year anniversary composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) is one of the largest a cappella choral masses composed in the 20th century. It was written in 1920–21, just after the First World War and after the first waves of Spanish flu. Two clear features can be discerned in Vaughan Williams’s compositional work after the war: firstly that he was immensely productive, and secondly that the works represent a quest for peace and harmony. With great expressive power and wonderful beauty of sound, five contemporary pieces by composer friends of the choir are presented on this recording.