Funeral Masses

[Nick Baty]

One of our choir ladies recently lost her dad and the funeral is on Friday morning. We'll all be there, of course, to support her. And we'll be singing Walker's Celtic Liturgy, Psalm 83 (How lovely is your Dwelling Place), the Fraction Song from Inwood's Millennium Mass and Ernie Sands's Song of Farewell – won't tell you the other musicial choices in case I spoil your evening meal.

We do this sort of thing six or eight times a year. But, talking to Graeme, our PP, today I discovered that, by the time he's waded through next week's funerals, he'll have taken 120 over the last 12 months. And we've had some high profile ones with police outside the church and helicopters swarming overheard. If I was him I'd be heading for my own by now! And that figure doesn't include the Funeral liturgies celebrated by our deacon. The vast majority are for families with the most tenuous links with the Church or with our parish.

I know Graeme leads responsorial acclamations and sings Song of Farewell, solo if necessary, at all of them. The reality is that the majority of funerals in our area are celebrated with little music.

What do other parishes do?

[Southern Comfort]

Does anyone have a Resurrection Choir? It's a group of often elderly parishioners who are frequently part of the Ministry of Consolation ─ i.e. these are the people who attend daily Mass, who may be part of the parish bereavement group, who therefore go and spend time with the relatives and friends of deceased people in their home, and who then are most naturally part of the music resource at funerals which enfold those same relatives and friends in the loving care of the community. In order to be the music resource, the parish music director will have spent a little time with them, familiarising them with such things as Ernie Sands' May the choirs of angels. Can't recommend this sort of thing highly enough.

[Nick Baty]

In practical terms, yes, that's what we have in one of our churches. Less so in the other two.

[mcb]

I went to a sad funeral this morning - the baby daughter of a family in the parish (my home parish), who had been ill from birth but had been expected to live a little longer than the thirteen months her family delighted in her. There was a big turn-out and people sang willingly. The musical fare was hymns plus the refrain from Ernie Sands's Song of Farewell.

The organist, one of the parish regulars I think, wasn't up to the job, sad to say - seemingly incapable of counting higher than two, so any longer notes or rests between phrases got truncated or jettisoned. Since three of the hymns were Do not be afraid, Here I am Lord and I watch the sunrise, all punctuated with long notes and with phrases beginning on the off-beat, there was no escaping the lack of competence. It puzzled me how anyone with the ability to play at least some of the right notes could be so oblivious of how long they were supposed to be.

An appealing homily though - baby Lydia's life was the Last Supper narrative (took bread - gave you thanks - broke the bread - gave it to his disciples) in reverse: God gave her to her family, she was broken by illness, she blessed the lives of everyone who knew her, and then God took her home. The life of Christ, the priest said, is written in the Eucharist, and sometimes we can see it too in the lives of people around us.

[Psalm Project]

Regarding the accompaniments with the 'long notes'...
The three compositions mentioned are famous for skipping the guitar chord riffs and cutting straight to the chase in terms of melody!
And, even better - with a BIG grin on my face - at least one 'soloist' I am aware of sings 'I watch the sunrise' in 3/4 time!!!!!! Yes, there is a point where there arrives a great flippin' hiatus in the rhythm... at least you were not served that version. If you are the unlucky organist, that little 'missing heartbeat' in the rhythmic flow hits you like a strong laxative! The sphincter usually compensates on the second and subsequent verses!

[Nick Baty]

Also, it's always very difficult to guide people over choice of music for funerals. In the case of the child's funeral which MCB mentions, I wouldn't even try: I'd give them anything they want. Often with our older parishioners, the requests are for the sort of music which we sing Sunday by Sunday; they're even requesting specific settings for the responsorial psalm which is great. But we do get some stomach-churning requests and I usually find myself almost bargaining or meeting them halfway. One chap was carried in to Hail Queen of Heaven and out to Faith of our Fathers. However, the family left us to get on with the sort of responsorial psalm, acclamations and communion song we would use on a Sunday. And they all sang well too. Perhaps I'm being too sensitive and should take a deep breath when speaking with the bereaved. What do others do?

[johnquinn39]

In my parish, Hail, Queen of Heaven is nearly always sung at the procession at the end of the funeral. Sweet sacrament divine, As I kneel before you, How great thou art, and Do not be afraid are often used.

Very occasionally, the psalm is sung, usually Joncas' Eagles wings, or Gelineau's The Lord is my shepherd.

The other parts of the Mass are (nearly) always recited.

Sands' May the choirs of angels is sometimes played as a voluntary.

[johnquinn39]

http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cach ... l=en&gl=uk

To me, the above is outstanding.

Surely words and music of this calibre should be known to RC's.

[Nick Baty]

At our place, if it's a Funeral Mass then, if nothing else the Gospel Greeting and Eucharistic Acclamations are sung – parish policy, well, to be honest it's Church policy – and the PP will sing May the Choirs of Angels unaccompanied if necessary. It's rather different when our deacon celebrates funerals as he's not really one for leading singing so, unless there's a decent number of regular parishioners there which, to be honest, there usually is – it can fall a tad flat.

Can't quite get my head around Hail Queen of Heaven as part of the commendation and farewell but, as I said earlier, it's a tricky time. And I'm always relieved me when the bereaved phone me rather than asking me to pop round – in these parts, the deceased is often at home and on display!

[FrGareth]

When I celebrate a Funeral Mass, the family usually already have the ideas for the hymn sandwich part, or they choose using the appropriate index in the hymnbook.

If The Lord's My Shepherd is part of the mix, as it usually is, I steer that to the Responsorial Psalm slot. If not, I suggest that (or The King of Love) for the same purpose.

Since I assume most of the congregation are from other parishes or not regular Massgoers, I rely on echo-and-response. I'll rarely have a cantor at a funeral so I have to do my own canting (and have been known to chant another psalm if another psalm is specifically requested or Lord's My Shepherd is emphatically requested for another slot):

I chant tropes for the Penitential followed by the Taize Kyrie, if the body is already in the church.
Simple plainchant alleluia for the Gospel.
Philip Gaisford EP II takes care of Sanctus, Acclamation and Amen. Normally I sing the whole EP - which means I have to omit the embolism for the dead (does anyone know if there's a version of this with the embolism words set?).
Said "Lamb of God"
I Know That My Redeemer Lives (from the funeral rites) to 2 verses of Rockingham while I incense the body.

If it's a non-Mass funeral (I know that's OT here!), 2 hymns of family's choice, solution to psalm and alleluia as above, and same Song of Farewell.

When there's no organist (rare, but occurs at evening reception of a body, or if the main funeral service is in the family home) I may chant a processional psalm as I lead the coffin in.

I only resort to the antiphonal spoken form of the Song of Farewell if there's no musician and no way of putting the words of "I Know..." in front of people (it's not in our parish's hymn book or the little pamphlet at the Crematorium). And I haven't yet memorised the words of either form well enough do so while swinging the thurible.

For funerals of known parishioners where I expect a big proportion of the weekend congregation to come, other familiar Mass parts from Sunday liturgies will come into the mix.

FrGareth