Intreresting Background

At our first choral rehearsal for "The Armed Man" a few weeks ago, I shared some interesting background to the work.

• The melody on which the first and last movements are based is L'homme Arme. This secular tune was perhaps the "greatest hit" of the Renaissance period. Over 40 composers wrote Mass settings based on this tune as a cantus firmus, including Josquin des Prez, Palestrina, Dufay, Ockeghem, and Busnois. Each composer paid homage to those before, but also tried to outdo the predecessors.
• John Rutter was one of the other English composers on the "short list" for the TAM commission.
• The Armed Man (2000) has been compared to Britten's War Requiem (1962) and Ralph Vaughn Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem (1936) because of its use of sacred and secular texts juxtaposed within the large cantata form and because of its themes about war and peace.

TAM is an ambitious work, and it seeks to find a place in a musical tradition that dates back many centuries. By incorporating a Renaissance era tune, biblical and liturgical texts, and secular texts ancient and modern, TAM encourages us to think about war and its effects on humans historically and throughout our civilization. Experiencing TAM may help us better understand the conflicts in our world today, or at least gain perspective.