Music has always played an important role in Funeral services. Browse our sheet music and scores, and let Stretta help you find the right music today.
Since the 13th century, clergymen have gathered in calendar brotherhoods on the calends, the first days of each month, to remember their deceased brothers. As at the funerals themselves, there was extensive singing. Later, choirs emerged from this ritual, to perform motets at funerals, in church or at the grave.
In addition to settings of Requiems, the Dutch composers of the 15th and 16th centuries wrote funeral motets to commemorate princes and rulers, which continued to spread across Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, with settings such as Handel’s Funeral Music for Queen Caroline, Musical Exequies by Heinrich Schütz and Purcells’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary. This began to expand into the secular world with works like Monteverdi’s Lamento d‘Arianna.
In France, the Sarabande was the most popular lament before the funeral march developed in the late 18th century. In the last century, new works such as dirges and epitaphs have entered the repertoire as expressions of mourning and grief.
Nowadays, pop or rock songs are often played at funerals. Here is a list of popular modern songs for funeral ceremonies:
20 neue Lieder zu Trauerfeiern
for: Voice
Songbook
Item no.: 1657498
Abschiedsklang - Mein letzter Gruß
Flexible Besetzung
for: Flexible wind ensemble (5 voices)
Score, Set of parts
Item no.: 1678381
BÄRENREITER URTEXT
for: Soloists, mixed choir, orchestra
Choir score (Urtext edition)
Item no.: 1615932
Bearbeitung der Matthäus-Passion von Johann Sebastian Bach
for: Soloists, mixed choir, orchestra
Score (Urtext edition)
Item no.: 1615909