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, 10th Earl of Coventry George Coventry, 10th Earl of Coventry George William Reginald Victor Coventry, 10th Earl of Coventry (10 September 1900 - 27 May 1940) was the son of George William Coventry, Viscount Deerhurst, and Virginia Daniel. As his father predeceased his grandfather, 10th earl was his grandfather's heir to the earldom. George Coventry inherited both the earldom and the viscountcy on 13 March 1930. Coventry was a Lieutenant in the 7th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment, which was part of the original Expeditionary Force sent to France in September 1939. His regiment was subsequently evacuated during the retreat from Dunkirk; Coventry was killed in