THE ARMED MAN - A MASS FOR PEACE
Sat Oct 15, 20:00 - Sat Oct 15, 22:00
CITY HALL
ABOUT
The Philharmonia Choir of Cape Town, in collaboration with the Johannesburg Symphony Choir and the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, will be performing 'The Armed Man - A Mass for Peace', in Cape Town and Johannesburg, under the baton of Richard Cock.
The Armed Man, or "Mass for Peace" is a powerful musical argument against war. A sweeping condemnation of violence, it evokes the terrible sadness, loss and waste of conflict, as well as the peace, serenity and beauty of a world in harmony. It is strikingly relevant to our modern world.
Johannesburg: Linder Auditorium Sunday 9th October 3pm.
Cape Town: The City Hall Saturday 15th October 8pm
The Armed Man, a Mass by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins, who is also the creator of the well-known "Adiemus".
The piece was commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum for the Millennium celebrations, to mark the museum's move from London to Leeds, and it 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 fifteenth century folk song "L'homme armé" in the first and last movements.
It was written for SATB chorus with soloists - Maudee Montiere is the soprano soloist for this concert, and a Muezzin, with a symphonic orchestra. Guy Wilson then master of the museum, selected the texts for the mass.
In addition to extracts from the Ordinary of the Mass, the text incorporates words from other religious and historical sources, including the Islamic call to prayer, the Bible (e.g. the Psalms and Revelation), and the Mahabharata. Writers whose words appear in the work include Rudyard Kipling, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Sankichi Toge, who survived the Hiroshima bombing. (Wikipedia)
There are two films made to accompany live performances of The Armed Man. We will be using The Armed Man Film. This was created by film maker and director Hefin Owen. The film was ‘premiered’ in its current form in Johannesburg in 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.
The Philharmonia Choir of Cape Town's online crowd-funding campaign through Thundafund that ran for two months earlier this year, has helped contribute towards making this performance possible.