Thursday, 16 April 2009

Funeral Music

Good news from Scotland?! Can such things be? I wonder if the return to hymns might be happening all over the UK - it would, I think, be a healthy development. Secular music has to be of rather higher quality that Angels or Eva Cassidy's ritual slaughter of Somewhere Over The Rainbow, if it's to rise to the fact and the mystery of death. Even the secular classical canon mostly falls short. Speaking for myself, I already have my funeral music chosen. The mourners will shuffle in to Et Misericordia from Bach's Magnificat; at midpoint they'll be further undone by Bryn Terfel's rendition of Schubert's Litany for the Feast of All Souls; and at the end, those of them still capable of moving unaided will leave to the Cavatina from Beethoven's B Flat Quartet, while teams of cleaners move in to mop up the lake of tears. This is, of course, that paradoxical thing, the funeral I would have if I was alive to enjoy it. The funeral I have when I'm dead will be entirely up to the living I leave behind, and stipulating the music would be sheer self-indulgence. So yes, Wind Beneath My Wings will be fine by me...
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9 comments:

  1. malty16 April 2009 at 11:04

    Robbie Broon, the local undertaker / joiner / double glazing installer /prop forward assures me that, among his punters, Nutbush City is still the default choice and no self respecting mourner would wish to sit through thirty minutes of that awful religious stuff.
    My cousin Jimmie, who was for many years a funeral director, made it his life's work convincing the punters that Tony Bennett was a much more reverential choice than Sinatra, San Francisco filled the number one slot for many years.

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  2. Brit16 April 2009 at 11:14

    I note that My Way is the number one. My Way is, of course, the most unutterable tosh ever written.

    The fact that Sinatra made it sound good proves his immortal greatness.

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  3. dearieme16 April 2009 at 11:45

    I rather fancy Beiderbecke's version of "I'm Coming, Virginia".

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  4. Mark16 April 2009 at 12:17

    Perfect Day, Lou Reed

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  5. Nige16 April 2009 at 13:02

    Apparently Highway to Hell is increasingly popular.

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  6. will16 April 2009 at 14:41

    Im having Disco Inferno played at my cremation.

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  7. malty16 April 2009 at 18:38

    When they scatter mine from the Walker Spur I hope queen will be singing Another one bites the dust.

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  8. Brit16 April 2009 at 19:42

    My Grandad's had Elvis singing gospel (How great thou art etc) which was powerful stuff.

    But the ones that really make you choke up at funerals are the happy ones. Went to one very recently with What a Wonderful World. Took me several pints to recover from that bugger.

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  9. Anonymous16 April 2009 at 21:47

    Nick Cave, 'Mercy Seat' for me.

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