Funeral music. (Music).(Brief Article)

LISTENING TO MUSIC during a funeral service, religious or pagan, is arguably a lot more pleasing than heating yet another long-winded, amateurishly delivered eulogy for the dear departed. Music tells far fewer untruths than does the average graveside panegyric. Moreover, if the order of service lists the actual music, you will have a fair idea about how long you will have to look solemn.

But that raises an important aspect about the music itself. It must have been chosen by the guest of honour in the coffin. And it had best been efficiently prepared by pre-transferring it from CDs or other sources onto a cassette which can be readily played, and switched on and off.

George Bernard Shaw displayed an element of common sense when he wrote about the German Requiem by Brahms that this music "can be borne patiently only by the corpse". Choice of suitable music is imperative. Therefore it must be chosen by the dear departed, which avoids several obvious traps; in particular, the avoidance of inappropriate music which, had you been alive to hear it, you would either have borne impatiently or avoided like the plague. Selecting the music for your funeral is an act of amazing grace.

Indeed, it is much less ghoulish to do the job yourself, while you are still relatively living, than to delegate the task, so to speak, posthumously. True, there have been posthumous masterpieces like Henry Purcell's Funeral Music for Queen Mary in 1695, or the Trauermusik hastily written by Paul Hindemith for the funeral of King George V in 1936. One might even mention John Tavener's Song of Athene, composed for the death of a young friend in a cycling accident but purloined for the funeral service of Princess Diana in Westminster Abbey.

There are of course innumerable sources from which to pick your own funeral music. To do so, and record it on a cassette, is cheaper for your next-of-kin, and saves them the trouble of trying to pick something suitable during a time of emotional upheaval. It gives them more time to argue about your last will and testament. Gianni Schicchi would agree.

Obviously you are the sole judge of the most suitable music. It will be your last opportunity to act as chief functionary, giving you the ...