Arthur Bliss thought Bliss's music competent but unremarkable. In 1961, Bliss and Hassall collaborated on a cantata, "The Beatitudes", commissioned for the opening of the new Coventry Cathedral. Reviews were friendly, but the work has rarely been performed since, and has been eclipsed by another choral work written for Coventry at the same time, Britten's "War Requiem". Bliss followed this with two further large-scale choral works, "Mary of Magdala" (1962) and "The Golden Cantata" (1963). Throughout his life, Bliss was vigilant on the state of music in Britain, about which he had written extensively since the 1920s. In 1969 he publicly censured
George Coventry, 8th Earl of Coventry George Coventry, 8th Earl of Coventry George William Coventry, 8th Earl of Coventry (16 October 1784 – 15 May 1843), styled Viscount Deerhurst from 1809 to 1831, was a British peer and Tory Member of Parliament. Coventry was the eldest son of George Coventry, 7th Earl of Coventry, and his wife Peggy (née Pitches), and was educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He was elected to the House of Commons as one of two representatives for Worcester in 1816, a seat he held until 1826. In 1831 he succeeded his father in the earldom and entered the House of Lords. In