What 5 songs do you want to be played at your funeral?

mariokbee

New member
I know this is a little morbid but it would be interesting to find out what are your opinions. If there is a similar thread i could not find it.

So here's my list. I am a happy person and when I die (hope not soon :)) I would like everyone to cry... very, very much. :grin:

-Ludwig van Beethoven - Moonlight sonata
-Tomaso Albinoni - Adagio in G minor
-James Horner - Braveheart soundtrack
-Mozart - Lacrimosa, Requiem
-Dream Theater - Vacant
 

Mat

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Indeed, an unusal thread. But since we're all gonna die someday...

Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings
Fryderyk Chopin - Funeral March from his B flat minor piano sonata
Karol Szymanowski - Etude in B flat minor, orchestrated by Grzegorz Fitelberg
Ennio Moricone - Gabriel's Oboe
Felix Mendelssohn - Hebrides overture

The list is not final yet and might be changed:rolleyes:


P.S. Also, you might want to consider changing the word "songs" in the title of this thread as it implies a vocal piece...
 
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jhnbrbr

New member
To make this morbid thread even sadder I once heard a true story of a man who committed suicide and chose for his funeral "He was despised and rejected of men". As for me, possibly

Bach: Erbarme dich meine Gott (from St Matthew Passion)
Bach transcr. Busoni: Chacconne (played by Helene Grimaud)
Mendelssohn: "Nocturne" from Midsummer Night's Dream
Franck: 3rd movement violin sonata (or 3rd movement quartet)
Vierne: "Choral" from 2nd organ symphony
 

methodistgirl

New member
Oh man! Right now I don't really want to talk about it. Here usually
people ask for songs like Amazing Grace,It is well with my soul, and
the newest, I can Only Imagine. I don't really know what I would want.
Looks like I'm stuck here until the Lord calls me. Most songs I like have
an upbeat to them. I would have to think hard and let you know later.
judy tooley
 

Soubasse

New member
Only five??? I decided a long time ago that I'd need at least two memorial events to cover the amount of music I'd want played for mine.:)

Off the top of my head, I guess the "Top Five" would have to include:

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia On A Theme Of Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis: Spem in Alium
Sigur Ros: Gitardjamm
Porcupine Tree: Collapse The Light Into Earth
Hector Berlioz: Judex Crederis (from the Te Deum)

There are quite a few others as well ...
 

marval

New member
I am not sure, I will have to think about this one.

I suppose "I will survive" by Gloria Gaynor is out.


Margaret
 

wljmrbill

Member
here are a few.. that mean alot top me...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1JvpILK9Fk - Gloria Eterna
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb-XW9chDNO - Ave Maria - Mascagni
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4-_DiaF-RA&feature=related - How Lovely are Thy Dwelling Place
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSKnkqAOhpA&feature=related - pie Jesu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByRkggPFiMM&feature=related - Widor Toccata

Should be a grand affair////LOL...make my friends suffer alittle as most do not like classical music......pay back can be Hell they always say !!!!
 

Krummhorn

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Actually, the main bulk of any funeral service for me will be comprised of whatever organ pieces people want to play in my honor. I do have a couple requests on my list, however:

Choral works:

  • Requiem, John Rutter,
  • My Eternal King, Jane Marshall
Organ works to be included:

  • The Entertainer, Scott Joplin
  • Sonata I, Felix Mendelssohn
And finally, the icing on the cake for me:

  • Goin' Home, from the New World Symphony - Dvorak
I performed an abridged version of this piece at an organ concert in April at my church ... there wasn't a dry eye in the house at its conclusion - mine included.
 

tittualex

New member
mmmmm........ a difficult question..... but no doubt about Hymn....

Abide with me- eventide

the rest i will post later.... after a lot of retrospection.....

Alex.
 

Mat

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  • The Entertainer, Scott Joplin
I see that it ain't gonnna be a sad event :grin:


  • Goin' Home, from the New World Symphony - Dvorak
Right, can you tell me why everyone call the second movement Goin' Home? I often hear this theme in different kinds of jazz arrangements and the name is always Goin' Home.
 

rovikered

New member
I see that it ain't gonnna be a sad event :grin:


Right, can you tell me why everyone call the second movement Goin' Home? I often hear this theme in different kinds of jazz arrangements and the name is always Goin' Home.
Probably because the melody has been adapted as a hymn-tune and set to a hymn which begins "Goin' Home". Many people who know the tune do not know that it is by Dvorak and from his 'New World' Symphony. Many, believe it or not, have never heard of Dvorak !
 

Krummhorn

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I see that it ain't gonnna be a sad event :grin:

Yup ... either they will be happy for the upbeat music or just plain happy to see me finally go ... :lol:

Mat said:
Right, can you tell me why everyone call the second movement Goin' Home? I often hear this theme in different kinds of jazz arrangements and the name is always Goin' Home.

Certainly ... here are my program notes from my last recital on this very piece.

Goin' Home, from the Largo of the New World Symphony by Anton Dvorak (1841-1904) - Lyrics by William Arms Fisher, a pupil of Dvorak.

Fisher's comments about Dvorak and the Largo:
"The Largo, with its haunting English horn solo, is the outporing of Dvorak's own home-longing, with something of the loneliness of far-off prairie horizons, the faintmemory of the red man's bygone days, and a sense of the tragedy of the black man as it sings in his "spirituals." Deeper still, it is a moving expression of that nostalgia of the soul all human beings feel. That the lyric opening theme of the Largo should spontanously suggest the words, "goin' home, hoin' home," is natural enough, and that the lines that follow the melody should take the form of a negro spiritual, accords with the genesis of the symphony." (William Fisher, Boston, July 21, 1922)

The words, by Fisher:

Goin' home, goin' home, I'm a goin' home;
Quiet like, some still day, I'm jes' goin' home.
It's not far, jes' close by, Through an open door;
Work all done, care laid by, gwine to fear no more.

Mother's there 'spectin' me, Father's waitin' too;
Lots o'folk gather'd there, All the friends I knew,
All the friends I knew.

Home, home, I'm goin' home!

Nothin' lost, all's gain, No more fret nor pain,
No more stumblin' on the way, No more longin' for the day,
Gwine to roam no more!

Mornin' star lights the way, Res'less dream all done;
Sahdows gone, break o'day, Real life jes' begun.

Dere's no break, ain't no end, Jes' a livin' on;
Wide awake, with a smile goin' on and on.

Goin' home, goin' home, I'm jest goin' home;
It's not far, jes' close by through and open door.

I'm jes' goin home .... ... ... Goin' home.
 
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Krummhorn

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:tiphat: You're welcome, Mat

I hadn't known all that either until researching info for my program notes.
 

greatcyber

New member
I don't care to have a funeral after I am gone. However, for my mum's funeral, I intend to have Mozart's Requiem as played in Amadeus as well as a few tear jerker operatic songs, Oh Mia Bambina Cara and a few others that I will have to search through my catalogue as I am not familiar with the names, but they are pieces that everyone has heard at one point in their life and they just move me to tears.

We won't be having any open casket, only pictures showing her life and it will be a memorial service rather than a funeral. The former is her request, the latter is mine and I WILL win out as CT64 noted above, "she won't be there" to complain.

It's really more than I can bear to even think about it. Maybe I'll go first and it will never become an issue for me.

Since funerals are for the living anyway, I don't really care what is done when I am gone. Whatever makes people feel good about a life that is gone.
 
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