The Armed Man

The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace is a mass by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins written in reflection of the passing of ‘the most war-torn and destructive century in human history’ and as a message of hope that the world of the future would have more peace and fewer wars. It was commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum for the Millennium celebrations, to mark the museum's move from London to Leeds, and was dedicated to victims of the 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, as well as during the Kyrie. It was written for SATB chorus with soloists (soprano and muezzin) and a symphonic orchestra.