Heavenly music - Telegraph Sir John Tavener was able to find God in music and music in contemplating God. He had regained both capacities on recovering from a serious illness, he told Andrew Marr on Monday's Start the Week. And now he is dead - an end, or a new beginning, upon which he had long meditated. He is, after all, best known for the work performed at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, the Song for Athene, which incorporates words from Hamlet and from the Orthodox funeral liturgy. As a seeker for God, Sir John saw a sort of perennial teaching in different religious traditions - the premiere of The Beautiful Names, a work sung in Arabic on the 99 names of Allah, was given at Westminster Cathedral. He brought to public music the serious, the beautiful and the holy. And he brought them at a time when they were much needed.