Saturday, 31 October 2009

Hello Emmylou, Goodbye Dear Departed

Listening to Emmylou Harris last night, my mind wandered back to the subject of secular funeral music. If you must have secular, this seems to me to fit the bill beautifully. Ostensibly it's about a dog (must have been some dog!), but it's a beautiful, universal song of loss and grief. As is her other classic, Boulder to Birmingham. Equally fitting for a funeral would be her lovely version of Beyond the Great Divide (on All I Intended to Be). There - three secular options, none of which would set the teeth on edge.
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11 comments:

  1. dearieme31 October 2009 at 11:54

    It sets my teeth on edge, as does all singing in pop/rock/country whine. Truly horrible.

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  2. malty31 October 2009 at 12:19

    Dear me, dearieme, whilst not a fan of country music, all tends to merge after listening to two songs, it has to be said that EMH is light years beyond that, for inauguration into the true faith may I recommend the following, session 1 track 1, session 4 track 1 and session 6 track 1 are of major artistic importance, ignore the rest.
    If this does not elevate you onto a far higher plane then you are, I am afraid, beyond redemption

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  3. Mark31 October 2009 at 12:42

    I suppose one can say in favour of church music that it has been tried and tested over hundreds of years to achieve the right balance of consolation (not grief), dignity and awe (awe at life, at death) whatever one's spiritual beliefs. I'm sure there are some modern composers and songsmiths who are up for that, but I'd guess there are darn few of them.

    I've tried to like Emmylou and All I Intended to Be, which I've now purchased, is a fine album. Just doesn't do it for me quite enough, though. All that grievin' and cryin', is what I think. Why can't they put away their hankies and just get on with it? Give me Miles Davis or, anyway, something with an astringent streak. We're all different, which is why musical tastes are so very hard to pass on.

    Which also means, Malty, that I am beyond redemption. But the other lot have the best tunes, non?

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  4. dearieme31 October 2009 at 16:20

    Sorry, malty, but the whine, the tremelo, the endless fake emotion: not for me.

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  5. Susan31 October 2009 at 16:46

    Mark, I agree with you totally. Music is a matter of personal taste and church music is somehow fitting. I'm think live performances by musical friends (of the deceased) can work really well if they are not too upset to contribute in this way. Shame that Nick Drake Link text is no longer with us. I'm pants at html, this may or may not link to 'When the Day is Done'.

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  6. Susan31 October 2009 at 16:57

    Okay, now I've got the hang of this link business, how about another from Michael Franti I've dozens more ... but better stop there. Does funeral music have to be solemn?

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  7. malty31 October 2009 at 18:50

    As you rightly say Mark, music is in the mind of the beholder, one persons meat is another's Harriet Harman. Why I find Transatlantic sessions so beguiling is not just the music, or at least some of it, but also because it was played in intimate surroundings and more importantly, without an audience. As in the world of the quanta, the observer has an effect on the event. I first realized this during Mozart's Bi-Centennial year when accidentaly I stumbled into Sarlat cathedral where Lyon Opera were rehearsing the Requiem, just me, the technicians, a few priests and The Requiem. I can thoroughly recommend this method of participation, the music becomes personal, real. There is also the terrific Kissin documentary where we saw him rehearsing Schubert, sans audience, with Cedric Tiberghien for the Gstaad Festival.

    The voice, Emmylou's vocal chord's are up there with the finest...Ludwig, Flagstad, Seefried, Bonney, Von Otter, Carpenter and of course, Dusty.
    Of course all of this could be said merely to be the ramblings of a sixty something for who Emmylou may well just be an object of desire, there could be some truth in this, help me out here, Nige.

    Or there again, a lot of truth, if Emmylou played her cards right.....

    As for religious music, Emmylou, the McGarrigle sisters, Rufus Wainwright and Mary Black singing that old Victorian chestnut Hard Times is as mind blowing as Haydn's seven last words.

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  8. Dave Lull31 October 2009 at 18:52

    Authentic New Orleans Jazz Funeral

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  9. Gadjo Dilo1 November 2009 at 05:26

    I can't actually hear it but Emmylou still looks fantastic, like some Dixieland Debbie Harry. For secular funeral music The Doors' "The End" is kind of a showstopper.

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  10. 22021 November 2009 at 07:22

    Try 'Fancy Funeral' By Lucinda Williams on her West cd, she may have come from a C&W background but is miles from that old style genre and definitely not a whine in sight.
    And then there is Eilen Jewell's 'Rain Comes In' from her See of Tears cd, you can also take a tip by listening to 'Codeine Arms' as to how to do it.

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  11. mahlerman1 November 2009 at 08:50

    Had an opportunity to road test secularity a few years ago when one of my sons died unexpectedly. Cremation, in a rather dull little chapel in West London seemed oddly apposite and I set aside what, in my dreamy state leading up to this dreadful day would have been my first choice, but the wrong one - the plaintive viola ode by Vaughn Williams, Flos Campi - in favour of, among a few others, You Are My Sunshine by (and this was important) the great Chattanoogan Norman Blake. To quote the hideous Cowell, it had the X Factor

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