Funeral Music: The Songs Which Leave All Others In Their Wake ["Jealous of the Angels"- Jenn Bostic]

Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | April 04, 2013 | Thomas H Green

[Steelfish]

Funeral Music: The Songs Which Leave All Others In Their Wake

By Thomas H Green 04 Apr 2013 It was not so long ago that music played at a funeral would be sedate, reflective and sombre, perhaps a hymn or two and a soothing piece of classical music. Times have changed. Nowadays, rather than pews full of lowered heads as Debussy’s Clair de lune raises the odd tear, it’s quite possible the send-off for the departed may involve Eric Idle advising us to Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, from Monty Python’s thoroughly irreligious Life of Brian.

Such changes are reflected in one of the more curious music charts in existence, the Co-operative Funeralcare’s Top 30 of music played at funerals. It consists largely of emotive, often uplifting ballads such as Bette Midler singing Wind Beneath My Wings; Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli’s Time To Say Goodbye; and Robbie Williams’s Angels. As Wayne Hector, the successful songwriter behind hits for everyone from JLS to Susan Boyle, explains of his own Top 30 entry, Westlife’s Flying Without Wings, “At a funeral you want a certain amount of joy, a song about hope rather than a sad song. As much as you’re lamenting someone’s passing, you’re celebrating their life. Songs such as this talk to the aspects that connect all humans.”

The list is only produced every two or three years so it takes a while for new songs to make an appearance. Right now, however, there’s one song that’s shooting up the chart, Jenn Bostic’s Jealous of the Angels.

“It’s comfortably the most requested new song at funerals,” says Co-operative operations director David Collingwood. “It’s massively up-and-coming in our chart.”

[berdie]

I’m pretty predictable, at least for one song..Amazing Grace.

But I would like these to be played at the end...with the later to escort people away..

Old Friends/LA Freeway..Guy Clark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS6VixNGgqg

[Intolerant in NJ]

Four Last Songs - R. Strauss
Section Four - The Bells - Rachmaninov
In Paradisium - Faure......

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[Steelfish]

Thanks very much.

I liked this rendition of Faure “In Paradisium”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPca88LPARI

[mkleesma]

When I go, I want them to play Luther’s ‘A Mighty Fortress is our God’.
Only because it was the theme song of my favorite show, many years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g__kHJ2r0nw

[Dusty Road]

I have chosen this to be played at my funeral, Taps will be played at my grave site.

Brooks and Dunn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJhYDIQPh3w

[Intolerant in NJ]

Very good (still one of my favorites even though I always manage to spell it with an extra “i” - seem to get it mixed up with paramecium).....