Commissioned by Guy Wilson, Master of the Royal Armouries, Britain’s oldest national museum, The Armed Man was concieved, initially, as a Millennium project but was dedicated by the composer to the victims of Kosovo.
A marching army merges into reflections on Islamic and Christian calls to prayer, but a menacing Sanctus leads to war and mass destruction. The point that one death is one too many is made by the Agnus Dei but it is left to the Benedictus to heal the wounds of the survivors. The Mass ends with the the affirmation from Revelations that change is possible, that pain and death can be overcome.
Jenkins has created moving and exciting music around excerpts from such sources as the Bible, poetry, songs and chants. These range from L’Homme Arme (“The armed man must be feared…”, anon. 1450 – 63) through the Islamic call to prayer, parts of the Christian Mass, poems by Dryden, Kipling, Malory, Swift, Sankichi and Wilson and from the Mahabharata.
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