Funeral songs

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
I don't know why I've decided to post a morbid list (%^$#, the sun's shining, lectures are finished for the day, birds are chirping and I'm off to the beach in 5mins!).

I'm not going to hide the fact that this list is inspired by High Fidelity.

Top five songs never to be played at my funeral:

1) Wind beneath my wings - Bette Midler (in fact any thing by Bette for that matter)

2) Amazing Grace
3) The Rose (again, by Bette Midler....I think)
4) Auld lang syne (spelling???)
5) Nothing compares to you - Sinead O'Connor (maybe I'm being a bit hopeful that someone might want to play that one any way).

The only song I can think of that I do actually want played is Albinoni's Adaggio (not that I'm heavily into classical)
 
dies irae, dies illa solvet saeculum...

not within the genre which you mention, but worth a look certainly.

funereal -- an enormous body of work -- you can go the Mozart, Verdi, Berlioz route, the Brahms route ("How lovely is they dwelling place" -- one of the most beautiful choral pieces ever written.) If you have a libretto to any of the above, you can see which parts of the work are appropriate --

Kurt Mazur conducted the Brahms Requiem after 9/11 n New York and it was simulcast on WNYC and Channel 13. It was one of the most moving musical performances I have ever experienced.
 
Yeah Rodd has a point. Maybe I should have made the subject of the list "songs i never want to hear at a funeral i'm attending" (not that i've been to too many).

jh6you,
I've never heard of Jimmy Scott. What type of stuff does he do??

I remember hearing the Brahms requiem for 9/11 and quite enjoyed it. My father has a large collection of claasical LPs so i might have a look for it next time I'm home.
 
Well dice45, if you like that song I'm not going to try to convince you not to like it. I must admit I didn't mind it when I first heard it but now I've heard it too much ..... overkill.

For me, songs that take a while to get to like are the ones I'll keep coming back to. Other songs are 100% brilliant first time you hear them, 95% the 2nd and your enjoyment decays from there. (unfortunately, these are the songs that the pop stations thrash the hardest)

I think I prefer songs in which the message is subtle and implicit not explicit, rather than blatantly repeating "nothing compares to you"
 
Nick cave has some pretty black stuff so does Johhny Cash (anybody listened to his latest cd where he covers Nick Cave, U2, Neil Diamond etc???............... It's one of my current favourites)

Excuse my ignorance Bill, I've heard of Ding Dong the Witch is Dead (I think?)..... who's that by again???

My apologies because i think i'm using this thread as an outlet to rant about what i feel about some music. But I do value other peoples musings/opinions/perspectives - its often how you get put onto new music that you've never considered before and so you're the better for it.
 
I don't know.....

Maybe this is too serious for this thread, but if you want to hear a couple of great jazz dirges (and who the hell wouldn't??)... then I can recommend:

Alabama, John Coltrane. It was composed in response to the death of four children in a church bombing during the US civil rights movement of 1963.

Django , The Modern Jazz Quartet (That's Milt Jackson, Connie Kay, John Lewis, and Percy Heath)... incredible understated pros. For Django Reinhart, the great guitarist of early jazz years. The recording I know was done live in Goteborg Sweden.

Both of these tunes have great shifts from minor to major key and tempo from slow and dirge-like to up-tempo, celebratory feeling stuff.

Highly Recommended!
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.