Lately I have found myself playing for a lot of funerals. Strangely, considering I'm not so very far away from my own, this is completely new territory for me as I never had to do it in any of my previous incarnations. I'm just wondering what sort of things you all play for voluntaries when you have a free choice, most particularly at the end. How funereal a tone is appropriate these days? I assume (and would hope) that the traditional Chopin and Handel warhorses are right out.

I ask because the other day I played the coffin out to Howells's Sarabande in modo elegiaco and it nearly had me in floods of tears, so God knows what it did to the bereaved!

Lately I have found myself playing for a lot of funerals. Strangely, considering I'm not so very far away from my own, this is completely new territory for me as I never had to do it in any of my previous incarnations. I'm just wondering what sort of things you all play for voluntaries when you have a free choice, most particularly at the end. How funereal a tone is appropriate these days? I assume (and would hope) that the traditional Chopin and Handel warhorses are right out.

I ask because the other day I played the coffin out to Howells's Sarabande in modo elegiaco and it nearly had me in floods of tears, so God knows what it did to the bereaved!

Hi

It depends on the tone of the service - if the deceased was a believer,then I often use a version of "I Know that my Redeemer Liveth" - or even the Karg-Elart "Nun Danket Alle Gott" (but that was exceptional). I try not to do "funereal" funerals - especially for Christians, for whom after all death is just the "end of part one".

Every Blessing

Tony

.....I'm not so very far away from my own...

Totally depends on the tone though for someone with a deep faith and strong connection to the church something rousing might well work - I was once asked for a "rousing and noisy piece of Bach", which translated to the St Ann fugue.

Interesting topic. Here's a few which I've churned out recently (sorry if duplicate any!):

Camilleri: Wine of Peace
Handel: Largo from Xerxes
Bach/Brahms: Schumucke Dich, O Liebe Seele
Peeters: Aria
Barie: Lamento (from Trois Pieces)
Guilmant: Chant Elegiaque

Does anyone have any views on the big Bach preludes such as the "great" C minor, B minor, E minor, etc? Too severe for the average, non-musical congregation?

Sweelinck "Mein Junges Leben" - especially poignient for someone who dies before their time.

I seem to recall that Princess Diana went out to the great Bach C minor.

Hmm ...it sounds more like a sad but light heartedsong/dance to me. Does anyone know how these words came to be associated with the variations? I vaguely remember some suggestion that Mein Junges Lieben (my young love..) might be the intended title.

I thought long and hard about playing "Nun Dankett alle Gott" by Karg-Elert at a recent funeral and I didn't play it in the end - I was a bit worried some people might mis-interpret it.

... When music (other than a hymn) is requested for the entrance of the coffin, he Dupre Cortege is just the right length, at least for the nave in my church (and arguably if an exuberant piece is required for the exit the Litanie could be played).

I can't remember all of the details, but it included such things as Handle's Lager, Mozart's Moonlight Sonata, a theme from a Sympathy (perhaps appropriate in the circumstances) and the printing errors went on and on and on. Perhaps it wasn't a bad thing; it certainly broke the tension.

When my father died there wasn't much to laugh about, but when we went to the funeral directors we couldn't help ourselves. Their expensively produced brochure cataloguing their services contained a very long and impressive list of the music in the crem organist's repertoire.

I can't remember all of the details, but it included such things as Handle's Lager, Mozart's Moonlight Sonata, a theme from a Sympathy (perhaps appropriate in the circumstances) and the printing errors went on and on and on. Perhaps it wasn't a bad thing; it certainly broke the tension.

Lately I have found myself playing for a lot of funerals. Strangely, considering I'm not so very far away from my own, this is completely new territory for me as I never had to do it in any of my previous incarnations. I'm just wondering what sort of things you all play for voluntaries when you have a free choice, most particularly at the end. How funereal a tone is appropriate these days? I assume (and would hope) that the traditional Chopin and Handel warhorses are right out.

I ask because the other day I played the coffin out to Howells's Sarabande in modo elegiaco and it nearly had me in floods of tears, so God knows what it did to the bereaved!

My mother left the same church twice to the Toccata from Widor's Fifth Sympathy - once for her wedding, the second time for her funeral.

Contrabombarde

I have to do the funeral of a close friend next week. I'm thinking of using Toccata in 7 by John Rutter at the end of the service. I have never seen any reference to the work in these pages so does anyone have any views?
JC

Much as you can criticise pieces like this, it is a very useful one. Short, snappy and cheerful, so makes a decent ending to a service without having to prepare a big postlude. [...]

If you're talking its relevance to the funeral, I think thats something you'd need to judge, depending on the overall mood of the proceedings.

It's actually a popular tune of the time. A lecturer in German once told me that it is actually a farewell to batchelorhood (the "young life" in the title referring to this state), but I can't comment on this. Maybe our Continental friends can elucidate.

Sets of variations on popular tunes were particularly favoured by the English virginal composers and it could have been emigrants like John Bull and Peter Philips who introduced the form to the Netherlands (though other nations were at it as well). As with those of the English virginalists, Sweelinck's variations on popular songs were most probably written with a plucked keyboard instument in mind, though players of the time would no doubt have played them on whatever instruments they wished, including organs.

Lately I have found myself playing for a lot of funerals. Strangely, considering I'm not so very far away from my own, this is completely new territory for me as I never had to do it in any of my previous incarnations. I'm just wondering what sort of things you all play for voluntaries when you have a free choice, most particularly at the end. How funereal a tone is appropriate these days? I assume (and would hope) that the traditional Chopin and Handel warhorses are right out.

I ask because the other day I played the coffin out to Howells's Sarabande in modo elegiaco and it nearly had me in floods of tears, so God knows what it did to the bereaved!

I have to do the funeral of a close friend next week. I'm thinking of using Toccata in 7 by John Rutter at the end of the service. I have never seen any reference to the work in these pages so does anyone have any views?
JC

I have to do the funeral of a close friend next week. I'm thinking of using Toccata in 7 by John Rutter at the end of the service. I have never seen any reference to the work in these pages so does anyone have any views?
JC

At my church, I am pleasantly surprised by the number of families who ask for “something cheerful”; I have played the March from the Occasional Oratorio sometimes.

No list from me that[indent][/indent] would be of any interest to forum members except for one piece, that is, I am sure, no longer in print - “Air in C” by Arthur Somervell. It was published in an arrangement which put it up a tone into C major and is effectively a take off of the so-called Air on the G string of Bach. It was originally written for violin and piano in B flat and I have made my own arrangement for organ in the original key, which I think sounds better and follows more closely Somervell’s original text. I would be glad to make a pdf of it for anyone interested. I have used it for weddings, funerals and just as a simple pre service voluntary. It begins quietly and is marked to end “ff” but it is just as effective to end quietly. Adrian Lucas included it, in the C Major version, on his Priory disc at Hull City Hall some years back.

Somervell’s music is, I feel, sadly neglected; his setting of the 23rd psalm using H.W. Baker’s paraphrase is a little masterpiece; his G major service deserves to be better known and his “Thalassa” Symphony in D minor also very well worth hearing - the marvellous second movement being, in the period between the Wars, as popular as Nimrod for “elegiac” occasions. I have an arrangement of this for piano by the composer and would be glad to send it together with the Air, if requested.

Perhaps I shouldn't be flippant in the current context; we have all heard crem stories of "Smoke gets in your eyes" and "Keep the home fires burning" but a friend of mine told me once that, many years ago, she was convinced that she heard "Roll out the barrel" being played in Norwich Cathedral at the end of a funeral service. No, it wasn't him.

If the two Somervell pieces are of interest, send me a PM and I will see what I can do.

David Harrison

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The usual request here is to "play something nice", which is a fairly broad description!

I recently heard the Elegy by George Thalben Ball played, and wondered whether that might be appropriate. It is certainly very memorable. However, seeing it is listed in the new AB syllabus at G7 I also wondered whether it might be a bit tricky?

I am told that the Elegy is an improvision on a hymn tune, and that GTB first played it when the BBC church service he was playing for ended earlier than expected. Does anyone know what the hymn tune is?

PD

Grade 7 seems a bit extreme for GTB's Elegy.

It is not based on a hymn tune. As I remember the story, Sir Henry Walford Davies was in charge of the BBC morning services and GTB was his organist. One day HWD asked GTB to "play something tuneful" at the end of the service. So GTB improvised the Elegy and subsequently wrote it down.

That is interesting as I have always maintained that the GTB Elegy reflects the mood of Walford Davies' Solemn Melody - so I wonder if GTB was influenced by it?

Peter

On a more serious note, many years ago I used to play a piece by John Ireland which I found extremely suitable at military style funerals and Remembrance Day. I lost my copy and have been unable to replace it and cannot rely on my memory. I think that it was called "Elegy" and in the same vein as GTB`s "Elegy" and Elgar`s "Nimrod", and possibly an arrangement from a string quartet. Although I don`t know the "Elegaic Romance", I fairly certain that it is not what I`m lookong for.

The version of that story I heard was that GTB was deliberately parodying Solemn Melody

On a more serious note, many years ago I used to play a piece by John Ireland which I found extremely suitable at military style funerals and Remembrance Day. I lost my copy and have been unable to replace it and cannot rely on my memory. I think that it was called "Elegy" and in the same vein as GTB`s "Elegy" and Elgar`s "Nimrod", and possibly an arrangement from a string quartet. Although I don`t know the "Elegaic Romance", I fairly certain that it is not what I`m lookong for.

Grade 7 seems a bit extreme for GTB's Elegy. It really isn't difficult. (I am judging from having sight-read it a few times; I really must get a copy!) I don't know what others think, but I would be inclined to put it at grade 5 (perhaps at the trickier end?).