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
William Coventry, 5th Earl of Coventry Earl of Coventry and entered the House of Lords. In 1720 he was admitted to the Privy Council and appointed Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire, a post he retained until his death. In 1724 he was successfully sued by Anne Coventry, the widow of Gilbert Coventry who was the previous earl, for her inheritance. Lord Coventry married Elizabeth, daughter of John Allen. She died in 1738. Coventry survived her by thirteen years and died in March 1751. His eldest son Thomas Henry Coventry, Viscount Deerhurst, predeceased him so he was succeeded by his second son George. William Coventry, 5th Earl of