LOS ANGELES (AP) — A composer has created a 12-minute musical "prequiem," a pre-death trumpet fanfare, he hopes will escort Timothy McVeigh's soul to heaven when the Oklahoma City bomber is executed May 16.

David Woodard said he has been in contact with McVeigh and is trying to coordinate a performance of the piece, called "Onward Valiant Soldier," to be broadcast on an Indiana radio station just before Wednesday's scheduled execution.

Critics, including one survivor of the blast, called the gesture insensitive.

"That's not my understanding of the way you get to heaven," said Kathy Wilburn, whose two grandchildren were among the 168 people killed in the April 19, 1995 bombing.

"I'm sure this person is sincere, but it is terribly insensitive to the reality of pain and grief caused by this delusional, suicidal coward," said Paul A. Heath, one of the bombing survivors.

McVeigh has never expressed remorse for bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, the worst terrorist act on American soil.

Woodard, 33, said he does not support McVeigh's anti-government cause, but is "awed by who (he) is and his circumstances."

Woodard originally composed the piece for Jack Kevorkian, the Michigan doctor who has assisted in numerous suicides. It was first titled "Farewell to a Saint."

The name has since been changed to "Ave Atque Vale," which in Latin can also be translated to mean "Hail and Farewell."