The Armed Man

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the modern Mass. For the French Renaissance song, see L'homme armé.
The Armed Man
A Mass for Peace
by Karl Jenkins
GenreMass
Text
  • Parts of the
    Ordinary of the Mass
  • additional sacred and secular texts
Language
Composed1999 (1999)
Performed25 April 2000 (2000-04-25): London
Publishedby Boosey & Hawkes
Scoring
  • Solo female voice
  • solo cello
  • mixed choir
  • orchestra

The Armed Man is a

Kosovo crisis. Like Benjamin Britten's War Requiem before it, it is essentially an anti-war piece and is based on the Catholic Mass, which Jenkins combines with other sources, principally the 15th-century folk song "L'homme armé" in the first and last movements. It was written for SATB chorus with soloists (soprano and muezzin) and a symphonic orchestra. Guy Wilson, then master of the museum, selected the texts for the mass.[1]

Overview

In addition to extracts from the

Sankichi Toge, who survived the Hiroshima bombing
but died some years later of leukaemia.

The Armed Man charts the growing menace of a descent into war, interspersed with moments of reflection; shows the horrors that war brings; and ends with the hope for peace in a new millennium, when "sorrow, pain and death can be overcome".

Agnus Dei is followed by "Now the Guns have Stopped", written by Guy Wilson himself as part of a Royal Armouries display on the guilt felt by some returning survivors of World War I. After the Benedictus, "Better is Peace" ends the mass on a note of hope, drawing on the hard-won understanding of Lancelot and Guinevere that peace is better than war, on Tennyson's poem "Ring Out, Wild Bells" and on the text from Revelation 21:4: "God shall wipe away all tears".[2]

Derived works

In 2002, Boosey & Hawkes published a chorale suite with excerpts from the work for choir and orchestra (or organ), containing Kyrie, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei and "Hymn before Action". Jenkins wrote an Agnus Dei setting for choir a cappella based on the material from the Agnus Dei from the mass, basically assigning the chords of the accompaniment to divided male voices.

Performances

The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace was premiered at The

National Youth Choir of Great Britain and the National Musicians Symphony Orchestra with Julian Lloyd Webber as the cello soloist, and conducted by Grant Llewellyn.[2]

The piece is one of Jenkins' most popular works, and is regularly performed by professional and amateur musicians. By 2023 it had received nearly 3000 performances worldwide.[4] The 3000th performance was held at the Royal Albert Hall on the 10th March 2024, in a celebration of Karl Jenkins’ 80th birthday, under the leadership of Sir Karl himself.

Recordings

The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace
Classical; Choral
Length67:22
LabelVirgin
ProducerKarl Jenkins
Karl Jenkins chronology
Adiemus IV: The Eternal Knot

(2001) 		The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace
(2001)
Adiemus V: Vocalise

(2003)

The first CD release was recorded at

Air Studios during summer of 2000 by The London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Karl Jenkins and The National Youth Choir of Great Britain conducted by Mike Brewer, and released on the Virgin
label on September 10, 2001.

Track listing

  1. "The Armed Man" – 6:25
  2. "The Call to Prayers (Adhaan)" – 2:04
  3. "Kyrie" – 8:12
  4. "Save Me from Bloody Men" – 1:42
  5. "Sanctus" – 7:00
  6. "Hymn Before Action" – 2:38
  7. "Charge!" – 7:26
  8. "Angry Flames" – 4:44
  9. "Torches" – 2:58
  10. "Agnus Dei" – 3:39
  11. "Now the Guns Have Stopped" – 3:25
  12. "Benedictus" – 7:36
  13. "Better Is Peace" – 9:33

In October 2010, a special edition re-release of the album added a 14th track, and was packaged with a bonus DVD of a live performance of the work:

14. "For The Fallen: In Memoriam Alfryn Jenkins" – 4:41

Personnel

Links with other works by Karl Jenkins

The track "Sanctus" shares its theme with the

Adiemus IV: The Eternal Knot
.

Other media

There are two films made to accompany live performances of The Armed Man:

1. The Armed Man Film was created by film maker and director Hefin Owen, and was premiered in its current form in Johannesburg, South Africa in September 2007 with Karl Jenkins conducting. "The film echoes and traces the story as told in the text of the work; the build up to conflict, conflict itself and the aftermath, finally looking forward to a better future," says Karl Jenkins.[5]

2. The Armed Boy, an original film that was created exclusively to accompany live performances of The Armed Man, premiered in March 2007. The story of the film revolves around a young boy who suffers under the merciless hands of a bully and his gang. When he finally retaliates, he learns the greater consequences of taking up arms—an allegorical representation of Jenkins’ call for peace in times of war. Created by Robert Cucuzza and Thomas Cucuzza, the film was designed to correspond harmoniously with the theme and tone of each individual piece and the footage was edited in precise synchronicity with Jenkins’ music. The Armed Boy was commissioned by Rackham Symphony Choir and premiered in Detroit, Michigan on March 25, 2007. In January 2008, the filmmakers were presented with a Peace Award at the Ninth Annual World Sabbath of Religious Reconciliation for their work on the film.

Instrumentation

The mass is scored for a large symphony orchestra with extensive percussion.

and 5 percussionists playing:

References

  1. ^ "The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace". Archived from the original on 2010-09-04.
  2. ^ a b c Wilson, Guy. "Programme Note to The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace". Boosey & Hawkes. Archived from the original on 24 September 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  3. ^ "The Mahabharata, Book 1: Adi Parva: Khandava-daha Parva: Section CCXXVIII". "sacred-texts.com". Archived from the original on 1 June 2023. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  4. ^ "Karl Jenkins makes chart history reaching 1000 weeks". Boosey & Hawkes blog. 19 May 2023. Archived from the original on 11 October 2023. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  5. ^ "The Armed Man Film". Archived from the original on 12 Nov 2023. Retrieved 30 June 2011.

External links

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