Requiem Masses & Funeral Services
Moderators: Dom Perignon, Casimir
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festivaltrumpet
- Posts: 105
- Joined: Mon Sep 29, 2008 6:47 pm
Re: Requiem Masses & Funeral Services
How disappointing (but yet how predictable) to see that this very damaging document is endorsed by the archbishop. It is to be hoped his successor will intruct that it is not be be used.
Re: Requiem Masses & Funeral Services
Or, better still, that he commissions a new and better one.
musicus - moderator, Liturgy Matters
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Nick Baty
- Posts: 2195
- Joined: Sat Jul 22, 2006 11:27 am
- Parish / Diocese: Formerly Our Lady Immaculate, Everton, Liverpool
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Re: Requiem Masses & Funeral Services
I'll have little say in the music for my Funeral Mass as our archbishop has requested – not insisted, I stress – that funerals should use the readings of the day. And as I don't know which day I'll be going, there's not much planning I can do in advance. Although I would love to think the assembly will bellow forth Ernie Sands's May the Choirs of Angels as I'm carried out. We sang that as my dad's coffin left the church. And once the trumpets came in (from a high gallery) there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
I have to say that I've noticed a change in the requested "favourites" for funerals in recent years. When I was first in North Liverpool everyone wanted I Watch the Sunrise. These days it's far more likely that the family will request Farrell's Unless A Grain of Wheat or Sibelius's Be Still My Soul. Perhaps that's because they didn't know these pieces before.
Increasingly I'm getting phonecalls from the families of regular church-goers simply asking "Please do what you do on Sundays" or "We'd love what you did for Mary's funeral". Last year one poor family had three funerals in as many months so the second and third phonecalls were "It's us again..."
My own setting of Psalm 83(84) How Lovely is Your Dwelling Place is, in all humilty, the biggest pile of bilge and poo you can imagine. But, for reasons I don't understand, it has become something of a funeral favourite in the district – perhaps because, around here, everyone goes to everyone else's funerals so items catch on pretty quickly. The piece itself might be crap, but it's become a cultic or ritual song by the way it is used. Perhaps that's what we need: Music which establishes itself for a particular occasion.
Because of the way this is growing, I've given every freelance organist who plays in our churches, copies of the most commonly requested pieces, as well as a selection of the acclamations best known in each parish. Also, I've provided two of the local undertakers with texts, and, where appropriate, melody lines for each of these pieces so they can be included in service sheets. Last time I checked, Calamus did not charge for funerals – although, of course, all correct credits should be given.
I have to say that I've noticed a change in the requested "favourites" for funerals in recent years. When I was first in North Liverpool everyone wanted I Watch the Sunrise. These days it's far more likely that the family will request Farrell's Unless A Grain of Wheat or Sibelius's Be Still My Soul. Perhaps that's because they didn't know these pieces before.
Increasingly I'm getting phonecalls from the families of regular church-goers simply asking "Please do what you do on Sundays" or "We'd love what you did for Mary's funeral". Last year one poor family had three funerals in as many months so the second and third phonecalls were "It's us again..."
My own setting of Psalm 83(84) How Lovely is Your Dwelling Place is, in all humilty, the biggest pile of bilge and poo you can imagine. But, for reasons I don't understand, it has become something of a funeral favourite in the district – perhaps because, around here, everyone goes to everyone else's funerals so items catch on pretty quickly. The piece itself might be crap, but it's become a cultic or ritual song by the way it is used. Perhaps that's what we need: Music which establishes itself for a particular occasion.
Because of the way this is growing, I've given every freelance organist who plays in our churches, copies of the most commonly requested pieces, as well as a selection of the acclamations best known in each parish. Also, I've provided two of the local undertakers with texts, and, where appropriate, melody lines for each of these pieces so they can be included in service sheets. Last time I checked, Calamus did not charge for funerals – although, of course, all correct credits should be given.