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Karl Jenkins chose a Renaissance French secular song, "L'homme armé", "The Armed Man", as the basis for his "Mass for Peace". The song, which may have gained in popularity after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453, was used as the cantus firmus in many Latin masses. The tradition of using the tune lasted into the 16th century and composers as notable as Dufay and Ockeghem employed it. Although Jenkin's work is the most widely known in the contemporary repertoire, Peter Maxwell Davies wrote his "Missa super l'homme armé" in 1968. The message, which Jenkins expands throughout his mass, is that soldiers–armed men, "bloody men"– are to be feared. The tune returns in a triumphant major at the end in the movement "Better is Peace".
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