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
Thomas Coventry, 2nd Earl of Coventry by whom he had one son, Thomas Coventry, 3rd Earl of Coventry. Thomas Coventry, 2nd Earl of Coventry Thomas Coventry, 2nd Earl of Coventry (died August 1710) was an English peer and member of the House of Lords, styled Hon. Thomas Coventry from 1685 to 1697 and Viscount Deerhurst until 1699. From 1690 to 1696, he was a deputy lieutenant of Worcestershire. He inherited the earldom from Thomas Coventry, 1st Earl of Coventry in 1699, and was shortly thereafter appointed Custos Rotulorum of Worcestershire, an office he held until his death in 1710. He was also Recorder of Coventry. Coventry