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What your funeral music says about you
Here's an interesting article about the Brits, many of whom prefer "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," the Monty Python song, for their funerals. My probably unrealistic (and not morally binding) vision of my funeral is to forbid any tributes or even spoken words but make everyone sit through Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem (Kempe or Klemperer versions, about 79 minutes long) and then simply close the event and send everybody home.
Whether this is an aesthetic preference, or whether I don't want to let them talk themselves out of weeping over my death, I am not sure.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on June 2, 2008 at 03:20 PM in Music | Permalink
Comments
I don't really care much about the music that's played at the funeral. I did, however, put a rather large sum into my will for parties. I want people to remember me for "hosting" the best party of their lives.
Posted by: King Rat at Jun 2, 2008 3:30:36 PM
Instead of speculating about your funeral music and demise, you might want to consider following your colleague Robin Hanson and sign up for cryonics:
http://www.depressedmetabolism.com/what-is-cryonics/
Posted by: megapolisomancy at Jun 2, 2008 3:32:52 PM
I would like to have my funeral close with Bach's Sleepers Awake.
Posted by: Fred at Jun 2, 2008 3:44:14 PM
I told my wife I'd like my ashes fired from a cannon onto the funeral attendees as a last practical joke. Music: 1812 Overture, of course.
Posted by: Alex J. at Jun 2, 2008 3:50:20 PM
Lawrence Welk's version of the Pennsylvania Polka.
Posted by: Jonathan Hohensee at Jun 2, 2008 4:05:14 PM
Tyler, I know you're not Irish, but for goodness sake there should at least be some good food - maybe Indian buffet....
Posted by: chug at Jun 2, 2008 4:08:21 PM
If I would have my funeral Tyler's way I would choose the Agnus Die of
the Missa Solemnis.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pvAM3mR4DGQ&feature=related
Posted by: Abe at Jun 2, 2008 4:17:59 PM
I prefer the John Eliot Gardiner version. So I guess I won't be attending.
Posted by: Jonathan at Jun 2, 2008 4:20:15 PM
Tyler,
I would like to report two strange coincidences. Firstly, that I had a similar conversation with a friend recently. Secondly that I ended up requesting the same piece at my own hypothetical funeral. Brahms's Requiem is one of the greatest achievements of his legendary career and certainly of the Requiem form. It would already have been normatively jolting for simply adopting Lutheran text but by intentionally adopting a decidedly universalist humanist interpretation of death and suffering, I believe it becomes revolutionary. The Requiem serves as a watershed moment in the history of Western music and more generally European culture.
Fantastic choice, though I have to ask... what is your favorite movement?
Posted by: Scott at Jun 2, 2008 4:31:36 PM
Verdi’s Requiem Mass with Amazing Grace worked in somewhere.
Posted by: Steve Bainbridge at Jun 2, 2008 4:33:38 PM
I plan to insist upon a reading from the King James version of the Bible. I'm told it's inaccurate as a translation (especially from the Hebrew), but it's English at its best.
Posted by: Alan Gunn at Jun 2, 2008 4:53:49 PM
Surely the Nunc Dimittis from Rachmaninov's All Night Vigil (Vespers) has to be in there somewhere - it's what the composer had himself at his funeral. It has a lovely tenor solo and ends with the 2nd Basses on a scale down to a bottom B flat.
But the Brahms is a good choice too.
Posted by: Andrew at Jun 2, 2008 4:54:33 PM
I've always thought James McMurtry's "Stancliff's Lament" would be spine-tingling for a funeral.
Posted by: ideogenetic at Jun 2, 2008 5:19:47 PM
Verdi's Requiem mass? Are you trying to scare people?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pW1Uc-grcMs
Posted by: abe at Jun 2, 2008 5:31:18 PM
Chug, I am Irish (mostly)...
Posted by: Tyler Cowen at Jun 2, 2008 5:34:02 PM
Prof Cowen - provide a libretto and they can leave satisfied. The religious will get that you've been sent off right. The irreligious-but-musical will like the music. The irregligious but unmusical will have burned up 79 minutes of Purgatory.
Set up a trust fund to provide a live version and you'll do even better.
Posted by: Michael Tinkler at Jun 2, 2008 6:09:16 PM
My selection:
Mahler Symphony No. 2... the Resurrection.
Posted by: Alex at Jun 2, 2008 8:18:28 PM
Mozart's Requiem Mass, of course.
And maybe throw in the last two pieces from the Solemn Vespers for good measure.
Posted by: Dennis Delay at Jun 2, 2008 9:13:48 PM
The lyrics of John Prine are even better with the tune, but here they are
anyway:
Woke up this morning
Put on my slippers
Walked in the kitchen and died
And oh what a feeling!
When my soul
Went thru the ceiling
And on up into heaven I did ride
When I got there they did say
John, it happened this way
You slipped upon the floor
And hit your head
And all the angels say
Just before you passed away
These were the very last words
That you said:
Chorus:
Please don't bury me
Down in that cold cold ground
No, I'd druther have "em" cut me up
And pass me all around
Throw my brain in a hurricane
And the blind can have my eyes
And the deaf can take both of my ears
If they don't mind the size
Give my stomach to Milwaukee
If they run out of beer
Put my socks in a cedar box
Just get "em" out of here
Venus de Milo can have my arms
Look out! I've got your nose
Sell my heart to the junkman
And give my love to Rose
Repeat Chorus
Give my feet to the footloose
Careless, fancy free
Give my knees to the needy
Don't pull that stuff on me
Hand me down my walking cane
It's a sin to tell a lie
Send my mouth way down south
And kiss my ass goodbye
Posted by: indiana jim at Jun 2, 2008 11:29:53 PM
Happy Mondays, "Loose Fit". In the spirit of après moi le deluge.
Posted by: at Jun 2, 2008 11:58:00 PM
For all the Requiems that are being bandied about, I'm surprised no one has insisted on Fauré's. A masterpiece!
Posted by: Scott at Jun 3, 2008 12:54:52 AM
The Lacrimosa from Mozart's Requiem. I want them to bawl, bawl, BAWL until they feel they'll split open. One final bit of selfish indulgence.
Posted by: Charles Tillinghast at Jun 3, 2008 1:32:14 AM
A friend of mine insists that, should he meet an untimely end, his funeral music will be "My Boyfriend's Back" by The Angels.
Posted by: Ari at Jun 3, 2008 4:10:01 AM
I can't decide whether I want Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" played at my funeral, or to have "Amazing Grace" played on bagpipes, preferably by James Doohan (yes, yes, I know...)
Posted by: monboddo at Jun 3, 2008 8:46:07 AM
I actually discovered the song I want played at my funeral last week: "'Tis the Last Rose of Summer," performed on the trumpet as heard of Wynton Marsalis' Classic Wynton.
Posted by: Ted Craig at Jun 3, 2008 8:51:39 AM
