Arranging a funeral – and the rather morbid realisation that I have more years behind me than ahead – led me into thinking about the way we handle death in our society.
Only about 7% of us attend the Anglican Church with any frequency and only about 16% attend any Christian church.
In the UK, Church membership and attendance are declining relatively rapidly. Church membership figures for the UK show 6.7 million church members in 1990, 17.3% of the Christian population, with 4.4 million church attenders. In 1995, the number of church members had declined to 6.4 million (16.8% of the Christian population), with 4.0 million attenders. Projections for the year 2000 give 5.9 million members (15.6% of the Christian population) with 3.8 million attenders. (Source : World Churches Handbook / Christian Research)
More international data on church attendance here
Even so, as far as I can tell the majority of British funerals are religious in character. That may be hedging our bets - although it’s probably too late by then! - but I suspect it is more to do with our need for ritual at times of great emotion.
I’ve never been to a Jewish or Muslim funeral so I can’t speak for what happens there. British Christian funerals are however underpinned by a strong tradition of hymn singing. The effect of that is very different to the same hymns sung by the choir. The funeral I recently attended included one hymn – How great Thou art - with a wonderful tune (and for a believer powerful words) that even as a long-standing atheist still managed to raise the hair on the back of my neck. Add ‘Abide with Me’ and ‘The day Thou gavest’ and you have a strong – and shared - emotional experience.
For the atheist, there is no equivalent. There is obviously powerful and emotional music to draw on, but it will not be shared in the same way as the Christian hymn. Nor is there a shared equivalent to the St James Bible. As a consequence, since most people probably do not plan their funeral in advance, I suspect therefore that when the time comes the relatives settle for the comfort of a familiar ritual.
As you might expect I have my own ideas about music.
West End Blues – Louis Armstrong (if only for the tremendous opening solo)
For all we know - Billie Holiday (because I can’t imagine going anywhere without Billie)
Ode to Joy – from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (going out on a big finish!)
Others on the short list:
Vissi d’arte from Tosca (it passed the neck hair test even though when I first heard it I had no idea of the meaning or the context)
Three from Duke Ellington
Ducky Wucky – (it makes me laugh)
Warm Valley – (warm and sensuous - Duke at his best)
Caravan – (more classic Duke)
My question therefore is this – given a non-religious ceremony, what music and what words would you choose?
If there are enough responses I'll post some form of list.
