Holy Week. K. JENKINS
Holy Week. K. JENKINS
Conductor JOSE MARIA MORENO
The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace, K. Jenkins
Monica Campaña soprano
Marina Pinchuk mezzosoprano
José Manuel Sánchez tenor
Rodrigo Álvarez barítono
Nur Bió tenor Adhaan (The Call to Prayers)
Coral Carmina Nova
Choir conductor Michele Paccagnella
1.10 h (w/out intermission)
orquestafilarmonicademalaga.com
Program notes Jose Antonio Canton
photo ©Jesus Gomez
L’Homme armé is an old melody from the Renaissance. Its origin is unknown, but there is evidence that it was used in many masses of the 15th century by noteworthy composers such as Dufay, Desprez, Morales, Ockeghem and Palestrina. In the past century, the British composer Peter Maxwell Davies used it in 1968 to compose his Missa super l’homme armé and later, in 1975, the Danish composer Poul Ruders also used it for his Bravour studies for solo cello over L’homme armé, before inspiring Jenkins for The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace.
This piece, like Benjamin Britten’s famous War Requiem, composed in the first years of the decade of the sixties of the 20th century, has a profoundly anti-war sentiment, and was thus dedicated to the victims of the war in Kosovo, a tragedy that occurred at the same time it was being composed. It was premiered in 2000 by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, conducted by Jenkins himself.
