It is generally accepted that funerals are for the living, but the living often like to have aspects of the service reflect the tastes of the deceased, or at least to remind them of that person.
With that in mind, what music would you like played at your funeral (or whatever service you plan upon your passing)?
How would you like it played? (Assume you can have anything from a full orchestra to a wind-up monkey clanking to cymbals together.)
There are many opportunities for music in a stereotypical funeral: Music often plays as mourners gather; Music might be played at various breaks during the service; And of course there is the final song, the music playing as people leave.
Cover as many or as few as you like. Take this as seriously or as irreverently as you see fit.
On the irreverent side, I might choose Willkommen, with a long vamp at the beginning and the full stage antics when things are about to start and with the corpse as a character.
My kids know that I want “Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead” from The Wizard of Oz. I would like an instrumental version with a slow tempo, so that the recognition breaks slowly upon the assembled masses.
I want people to remember that I had a sense of humor (well, some people thought I was funny at least). The kids may also remember that when they were little, I had them believing I was a witch.
My mother’s memorial service (not a funeral - she and my dad have donated their bodies to medical school for dissection) is going to be a songfest. She has a list of about twenty hymns she wants sung in the front of her hymnal. It includes songs no longer in the ELW, like “Hail to the Brightness of Zion’s Glad Morning”. Not a problem - after fifty years, I still know it by heart, as do my siblings.
I have always assumed that “Funeral for a Friend” would be played at my memorial.
My wife, fortunately, also knows this… well because my assumptions might not be that of others.
I’m a member of the Episcopal Church, but I was raised in the Lutheran Church. So the final hymn will be this most Lutheran of hymns. But I’ll have a more contemporary translation. The one I grew up on was very close to a literal translation, and the final verse would say “And take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife/The body they may kill The verse as it will be sung is “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also/The body they may kill”
I’m a non-believing, recently-married, classic rock enthusiast (with a penchant for hyphenated words.)
A few months ago I was listening to the ole iPod at work while I coded away, and “Time” by The Alan Parsons Project came around on the shuffle. For some reason, that day I paid attention to the lyrics and it got me to thinking about my recent bride and my death and funeral. To this day I can’t listen to the song without getting drippy around the eyelids.
The lines that always get me are “Good-bye my love, maybe for forever” and “Who knows when we will meet again … if ever.”
So I told her that has to play at my funeral so everyone can get sappy.
I’m doing my best to keep anyone from making a fuss when I go, mainly by acting like a total bastard to everyone while I’m alive so that they won’t miss me (I’m only partly joking), and also by making sure I leave some freaking written instructions.
However, if someone insists on a musical number, I want them to keep it short and sweet.
Then everyone can go home. Nothing more to see here. Seriously, get out of here and get on with your lives. Get back to whatever you were doing.
If there’s a choir available, the first two are pretty standard. As for the rest, well, there’s not much chance of having a non-professional choir prepared to sing them, but I like them. And yes, #3-7 are Christmas pieces.
Semisonic, “Closing Time”. I know who I want to take me home, take me hoooome.
And taking advantage of ballad meter, “Amazing Grace” with successive verses sung to the tunes of (a) “It Came Upon The Midnight Clear,” (b) “Pop Goes the Weasel”, (c) “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, (d) the “Leave It To Beaver” theme music, and (e) “Stairway to Heaven.”
