Search - Bliss, Spicer, Finzi Singers :: Bliss: Choral Works: Shield of Faith

You might be surprised to learn that the incredibly robust cantata Shield of Faith, here in its recorded premiere, is the work of an 84-year-old composer in the last year of his life (1975). But when you hear some of his earlier works, you realize that Bliss always wrote like this--totally engaged in life's rhythms and sounds. As Master of the Queen's Music, Bliss also wrote many works for state occasions, three of which appear here, along with The world is charged with the grandeur of God, commissioned in 1969 by legendary tenor Sir Peter Pears. --David Vernier