Music, songs and hymns for funerals and end-of-life celebrations.
Music is powerfully evocative on most occasions but never more so than when used at the passing of a loved one. It is such an important rite of passage, and as the final act of saying goodbye to that person in their physical form, the choice of music is particularly poignant. It may be a piece of music that they loved or that you shared together. It may be a hymn that they remembered from long-forgotten schooldays or it may be a song that reminds you of them in happier times.
The modern day choice for funerals increasingly seems to be cremation and many crematoria have a wide selection of recorded music to choose from in addition to the services of an organist. However, whilst the organist will be able to play a variety of music including hymns, they often won’t know the songs that are likely to be requested, and they wouldn’t sound right played on an organ anyway.
Over the years, I have conducted many funerals and worked closely with families to choose music that was meaningful for them and their loved one. Sometimes the music was chosen by the deceased before their death and this is always very moving.
There is too much to list here but below are links to the relevant pages on my YouTube channel. Here you will find a selection of the most popular and those that have been used at funerals conducted by me since 2006. I hope they may be helpful to you at a difficult time.