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
History of Coventry motor manufacture which grew to employ 38,000 people by 1939. Coventry had become a centre of the British motor industry; Jaguar, Rover and Rootes being just three of many famous British manufacturers to be based in the area. The cycle and motor manufacturing industries brought into existence a wide variety of subsidiary trades. Most notably these were general engineering, metal casting, drop forging, chain-making and the manufacture of instruments and gauges, machine tools, and all types of electrical equipment. The manufacture of aircraft, aero engines and related equipment also took place in Coventry as early as 1916, and during World