The Armed Man

film
 


I wrote The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace as a millennium commission for the Royal Armouries. A couple of years after the premier and it's recording on  EMI/Virgin, I was approached by my good friend and eminent film maker and director, Hefin Owen, who suggested, as part of a televised birthday concert of mine at St, David's Hall, Cardiff, that we perform the work to a backdrop of a film that he would make for the occasion. 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. 


Since then, the film has been seen as a backdrop to performances innumerable times all over the world; from Carnegie Hall to the Royal Festival Hall, from Johannesburg to Shanghai! It's presence greatly enhances the musical performances and inevitably leaves the audience emotionally drained, often in tears. The work has now been performed nearly one thousand times, which is about twice weekly, somewhere or other in the world since its 2000 premier, and is the highest placed work by a living composer in the Classic FM Hall of Fame. I am thrilled and proud to have this extra dimension available to accompany performances. 




Dr. Karl Jenkins CBE B.Mus., F.R.A.M., L.R.A.M.