What music would you like played at your funeral?

[Michel]

Practical limitations aside, I would have Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, as it is fundamentally a positive piece of music.

I would want the first movement; I find the music so emancipatory. To me, more than any other piece of music I've ever heard, it rings of freedom, and of "release".

I certianly wouldn't want anything dark, the problem with dark music is that it is a bit self-aggrandizing at a funeral, I think. 

[david johnson]

amazing grace, sung a cappella by one of my students.  such an amazing and musical voice!

dj

[springrite]

Mahler 2, probably, or if I want to spare the mourners time, I'd go with Chopin Ballade #1.

[Mozart]

Why would you care what they play? How about a fugue of crying bastards? 

[Symphonien]

Something self-aggrandising.

Really I don't care though, because I'll be dead...

[Grazioso]

"Highway to Hell" by AC/DC because everyone needs a good laugh from time to time

[Kullervo]

First movement of Mozart's clarinet quintet.

[Mark]

Rachmaninov's All-night Vigil. In full, with a massive, self-aggrandising choir. Or at the very least, the 'Bless the Lord, O my soul'.

Alternatively, three English songs: Elgar's 'The Shower' to begin, then later, Pearsall's 'Lay A Garland', and to close, Stanford's beautiful 'The Blue Bird'. Divine.

[LaciDeeLeBlanc]

Eine Alpensinfonie by Richard Strauss or
Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi

[Solitary Wanderer]

Wagner ~ Lohengrin Prelude Act.1.

Note: We did this topic a few months ago

[paul]

A requiem, of course...by J.D. Zelenka.

Or should that be A Solo Requiem for Soprano and Two Pianos by Milton Babbitt?

[Larry Rinkel]

To adapt something I wrote at rmcr, when the question was instead: "A while back I asked which piece would you choose to hear if you had only 30 minutes to live," I think I would pick these three pieces as my program:
- the third movement of Beethoven's quartet, Op. 130
- the third movement of his quartet, Op. 135
- the bass aria Mache dich, mein Herze rein from Bach's St. Matthew Passion

If there were time, I would also schedule the slow movement from Beethoven's quartet, Op. 127, the Chopin 4th Ballade, and "Ich bin der Welt" and "Um Mitternacht" from the Ruckert Lieder. And hopefully I could end with the most peacefully beautiful piece of music ever written, the third Agnus Dei from the Missa L'Homme Armé Sexti Toni by Josquin des Prez.

[paul]

I would actually like Thomas Tallis's Spem in alium performed at my funeral or at least in memory of me. The sheer beauty of the sound of massive 40-voice imitative counterpoint tends to put me in a reflective state of mind and it seems befitting.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Across The Universe by the Beatles.

[PerfectWagnerite]

Eine Alpensinfonie by Richard Strauss

A bit over-the-top don't you think?

I would probably want Strauss' Metamorphosen for Strings or his Death and Transfiguration.

[PSmith08]

Wagner: Siegfried's funeral music from Götterdämmerung.
Verdi: Tuba mirum from the Requiem.

[Gurn Blanston]

Since Harry probably isn't going to come anyway, and my survivors have so many versions to choose from, I want the "Ode to Joy". It suits me to a "T".

[not edward]

The second Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen from this disc:

[Larry Rinkel]

A bit over-the-top don't you think?

It's his funeral.

[Heather Harrison]

When I'm dead, I probably won't care.

But if people wanted to remember me properly, they would play P.D.Q. Bach's Missa Hilarious.  Since I am a screwball, this choice would be appropriate.

Heather