What music would you play at a funeral? This is a question you have no doubt already considered. What do we hear in such situations? Is it ‘When I am laid in earth’ from Henry Purcell’s Dido en Aeneas? The ‘Lacrimosa’ from the Mozart Requiem?
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the end of life was seen quite differently. Today, funeral music seeks primarily to be an expression of the sadness of those left behind. Only very exceptionally do people set out in their will that a funeral should not be a sorrowful affair, making room for more uplifting material.
Medieval people saw things a bit differently. Death was omnipresent and inevitable. Moreover, Catholicism and later Lutheranism had a stronger hold on society, as a result of which, a funeral was seen simply as a transfer station towards the hereafter. Although in the rituals there was certainly room for grief, but the general tenor was much less mournful. The arts happily played on this view of life.
What music would you play at a funeral? This is a question you have no doubt already considered. What do we hear in such situations? Is it ‘When I am laid in earth’ from Henry Purcell’s Dido en Aeneas? The ‘Lacrimosa’ from the Mozart Requiem? Read the programme notes by Jasper Croonen.
conductor Reinhard Goebel curated a playlist: baroque compositions you must hear at least once in a lifetime - let's barock!
In the first week of November, after All Souls’ Day, when the weather is at its bleakest and our thoughts go to those we have lost, conductor Reinhard Goebel presents a programme full of comforting funeral music.