Sir Karl’s Benedictus, the penultimate movement from his anti-war mass, The Armed Man, is featured in a special episode of BBC Radio 4’s Soul Music. The 30-minute programme offers a powerful testimony as to how this piece has moved and consoled individuals faced with adversity in their working and personal lives.

The programme, first broadcast on 9 November 2024, is now available for listening on the BBC Sounds website. Benedictus has given solace to listeners through some of the most difficult moments of their lives. The programme features British Armed Forces veteran Michael Young, who served in Kosovo, Iraq and in Afghanistan on unexploded weapons clearance, the Reverend Charles Thody, working as a priest in Lincolnshire and as a chaplain for the NHS during the COVID crisis, and cellist Dane Coetzee who performed the work in Cape Town, South Africa. Explaining the genesis and message of the Benedictus is composer Karl Jenkins, together with his wife Carol Barratt.

The Armed Man premiered in 2000, and has since been performed over 3000 times. Originally commissioned by The Royal Armouries Museum, Sir Karl dedicated the work to the victims of the 1998-99 Kosovo war. The piece as a whole reflects the descent into war, but the Benedictus movement emerges as a message of hope and peace in the aftermath. Benedictus is recognised for its haunting cello theme, in a register unusually high for this resonant instrument. The cello solo gradually expands with the music taken up by full choir and orchestra.

Listen to the programme on BBC Sounds - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0024vn6

Photograph: Rhys Frampton