Music : Jenkins: The Armed Man - A Mass For Peace

Rating: - Emotional music
This piece just reduces me to tears - probably because my closet friend served in both the Falklands War and the first Gulf War.

A most moving piece of music - to anyone's ears, if only they've got ears to hear.

I am singing it with my choir this year and find it almost impossible to sing it without welling-up.

Worth every penny of the CD's price.

---

Rating: - Meretricious pap
I'm sorry but anyone who thinks this is good music needs to get out more. At best it's second-rate, at worst it's meretricious pap. For anti-war music listen to Britten's War Requiem, for settings of the mass listen to any one of a hundred composers who have done it better. Stick to Adiemus Karl, you'll never hack it as a proper composer.

---

Rating: - surprised
I wasn't keen on Adiemus, and wasn't expecting to like this, though I had heard bits on classic fm that grabbed my attention (while working with the radio on).

However, I do find this enjoyable from start to finish, skipping over the muezzin's prayer (which I could hear out my window in certain locales). Maybe it is not complex, but there are surprising moments and there is plenty of passion throughout.

Obviously this is something that splits opinion, so I must be a prole. Yes, I even like Andrew Lloyd Webber at times. But then I also listen to Arvo Part, to Tavener and others in abundance, alongside the likes of Ali Farka Toure and Santana (in his prime), so... I consider myself to be without baggage but not without ears. It's worth a listen. Make up your own mind.

---

Rating: - The worst piece of music I have ever performed.
I have been singing since I was a chorister at the age of 8 and I am sorry, but 17 years later this the only peace that I would never perform again. It is musically uninspiring and monotonous. I am sorry that I will be accused of being elitist but I know of no redeeming features for this work.

---

Rating: - Simply Stunning
The BBC recently used the "Benedictus" from "The Armed Man" for one of it's "Natural World" programmes. I had heard this piece before but could not decide where and it drove me mad for 2-3 weeks before I finally tracked it down to Karl Jenkins and his fantastic work for the Royal Armouries. The "Benedictus" alone is a gorgeous example of writing of this highest calibre. It's wonderful how music can manage to be melancholy and uplifting and bring such peace to your heart, all at the same time. It stirs up so many emotions in me that tears come easily.
Now that I own the whole work and have listened to it all I am now a complete Karl Jenkins convert and have lots of catching up to do. "The Armed Man" is simply stunning and should provide food for thought for anyone who has a care for the appalling things we have done and continue to do to each other.
If you love music you will not be disappointed!