Western Wind Mass

Edited by Nicholas Sandon Taverner and Tye are the predominant influences in these works. The 6-part Mass Cantate is taken from the Oxford partbooks. The source for The Western Wind Mass The Frences Mass the Mass Be not afraid and the Plainsong Mass for a Mean all in four parts is the so-called 'Gyffard' partbooks (British Library Add. MSS 17802-5) which are now known to have been copied after Elizabeth’s accession for a Catholic patron Dr Philip Gyffard Fellow of Merton College Oxford.

In recent years Karl Jenkins has become one of the world's best-selling living composers. He continues to conduct his epic Adiemus Live Concerts with distinguished orchestras including the London Philharmonic featuring in Festivals and concerts in Britain and abroad; and his moving choral work The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace is now firmly lodged as a concert favourite. This new work builds on the style which the British public have come to know and adore. Jenkins has set the usual Latin movements of the requiem mass but in keeping with his usual trait of drawing from other cultures he has also set five Japanese haiku ‘death’ poems. Such poems are usually to dowith nature have a single idea and consist of seventeen syllables divided 5-7-5 over three lines. As one can see from the text the Japanese view nature’s water cycle (precipitation) as being synonymous with life. The Western and Eastern texts are combined in two of the haiku movements Having Seen The Moon and Farewell which incorporate the Benedictus and the Agnus Dei respectively. Both are intoned by male voices in a monastic style as a counterpoint to the Japanese text sung by females. The instrumentation of these haiku settings includes the ancient Japanese wind instrument the shakuhachi. Elsewhere as usual Jenkins has used some ethnic drums (e.g. Arabic darabuca Japanese daiko frame drums) and even a hip-hop rhythm in the Dies Irae!