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
County of the City of Coventry County of the City of Coventry The County of the City of Coventry was a former county corporate of England which existed between 1451 and 1842. The county corporate covered an area of Warwickshire of around and contained the city of Coventry and the surrounding villages of Ansty, Asthull, Biggin, Binley, Caludon, Exhall, Foleshill, Harnell, Horwell, Radford, Stoke, Styvechale, Walsgrave, Wood End and Wyken. During the medieval period Coventry, a town in Warwickshire, became an important city. King Henry VI granted Coventry the status of county corporate, largely to reward the city for the support it had given him. This