The Armed Man : A Mass for Peace

This work is a powerful and compelling account of the descent into war and its terrible consequences. Writen by Welsh composer, Karl Jenkins, the piece is dedicated to victims of the Kosovo crisis. Like Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, 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 chorus with soloists (soprano and muezzin) and a symphonic orchestra.