War Requiem The chamber orchestra accompanies the intimate settings of the English poetry, while soprano, choirs and orchestra are used for the Latin sections; all forces are combined in the conclusion. The Requiem has a duration of approximately 80-85 minutes. The "War Requiem", first performed on 30 May 1962, was commissioned to mark the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, which was built after the original fourteenth-century structure was destroyed in a World War II bombing raid. The reconsecration was an occasion for an arts festival, for which Michael Tippett also wrote his opera "King Priam". Britten, a pacifist, was inspired by
Friends of Cathedral Music clerks could watch the weekly football at Newark-on-Trent. There was also a similar incident at Truro Cathedral. Sibthorp, in an effort to reverse the decline in interest in cathedral music after World War II, sought to create a promoting organization the Cathedral Music Advisory Committee. However the committee failed to get off the ground, so he tried a new tack and sent a letter on June 2, 1956, that jump-started a new cathedral music organization, "The Friends of Cathedral Music". Until 1962 FCM met only once a year but because of the interest shown in FCM and due in a