Coventry Blitz the 1950s, designed by the architect Basil Spence. Spence (later knighted for this work) insisted that instead of re-building the old cathedral it should be kept in ruins as a garden of remembrance and that the new cathedral should be built alongside, the two buildings together effectively forming one church. The use of Hollington sandstone for the new Coventry Cathedral provides an element of unity between the buildings. The foundation stone of the new cathedral was laid by the Queen on 23 March 1956. It was consecrated on 25 May 1962, and Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem", composed for the occasion,
Music of Remembrance and reconstructed in the USA in 1942. Music specially commissioned by the company includes "Camp Songs" (2002) by Paul Schoenfield, five songs set to poems by who was interned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. This piece was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003 and was also on their first recording. Music of Remembrance also commissioned three pieces by Jake Heggie: "For a Look or A Touch" (2007, for baritone and actor), about the persecution of gay men during the Holocaust; "Another Sunrise" (2012, soprano), based on the life and work of Polish resistance member and