The Armed Man - A Mass for Peace | Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields

In this performance, the second in The Sound of St Martin’s choral concert series for 2014/15, we continue our commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War One.

Karl Jenkins’s The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace was commissioned by the Royal Armouries in Leeds to mark the passing of the 20th century, “the most war-torn and destructive century in human history”. It was first performed in London in 2000 and dedicated to the victims of the tragedy in Kosovo, whose conflict moved the composer whilst he worked on the score. It has since become one of the best loved and well known choral works of recent times, having received well over a thousand performances to date.

The concert opens with Vaughan Williams’ Lord, thou hast been our refuge, based on the hymn tune ‘St Anne’ – ‘O God our help in ages past’. This is followed by Haydn’s Nelson Mass, written at the end of the eighteenth century whilst Europe was again in conflict.