Requiem
In the 20th century many composers continued to write Requiems. The most famous one is Britten’s War Requiem (1961). Secular Anglican non Roman The message of this work is that war is cruel and pointless. Britten uses the Latin words of the Requiem Mass, but also some English poems by Wilfred Owen who was killed in the First World War. The baritone and tenor soloists who sing these English words represent the German and the English soldiers. The work was written for Coventry Cathedral which had been rebuilt after the old cathedral had been totally destroyed in World War II.