Time to Say Goodbye?:A Study on Music, Ritual and Death in the Netherlands

Publiekssamenvatting In Time to Say Goodbye? A Study on Music, Ritual and Death in the Netherlands, Janieke Bruin-Mollenhorst explores attitudes towards death in the Netherlands through the lens of music during contemporary funeral rituals. In this work she studies the interplay between music facilities, musical repertoires and funeral rituals from 1914 to present; the functions of music during contemporary funeral rituals; and the use of religious expressions in funeral music. She shows that continuing bonds play an important role in the ways people in the Netherlands nowadays deal with death. In this innovative study, the lens of funeral music sheds new light on the socio-cultural context of death-related practices and ideas, and raises challenging questions about the concept of ‘death mentalities’. It demonstrates the relevance of music, both in the academic fields of death studies and ritual studies, and in funerary practices. The study ends by raising questions about (among others) the role of funeral music in the shorter and longer period after the funeral and the order of contemporary funeral rituals. It suggests to explore the possibility to first pass by the coffin and after that perform the funeral ritual with its comforting songs and words with which next of kin express continuing words. In terms of music: to start with Time to Say Goodbye and conclude with Afscheid nemen bestaat niet (Saying Goodbye Does Not Exist)

Musical media in Dutch crematoria, 1914–present

This article examines music during funeral rituals in the Netherlands in the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. Throughout this period not only music, but also socio-cultural attitudes towards death have changed. Using the concept of mediatization, this article explores interrelated changes between musical media in crematoria and changes in cremation rituals. In the first half of the article the history of music during cremation rituals is explored through literature study and diachronic research of newspapers, revealing how, at the beginning of the 20th century, the musical repertoire reflected the strong influence of social groups on funeral rituals in the Netherlands. Although the advent of recorded (mechanical) music in the second half of the 20th century could have easily broadened the musical repertoire, the opposite happened: the repertoire became fixed in standard combinations of three musical pieces. This reflects how, related to the process of professionalization, funerals became standardized within the context of the socio-cultural avoidance of death. The second half of the article, using the results of a survey and interviews, shows how from the end of the 20th century music has become an increasingly important element of the ‘personal funeral’, as music during funerals has become one of the most common vehicles for the expression of personal meaning. Zooming in on the contemporary highly advanced audio-visual systems in Dutch crematoria the article concludes with the thesis that funerals in the Netherlands are not only facilitated by but also increasingly shaped through musical media

The Musical Eulogy and other functions of funeral music

This article examines the function of music during contemporary funerals in the Netherlands. Using a performance-based approach, this article shows that music adds to the ritual dimension of contemporary funerals, by relating the music to the funeral itself, the deceased person’s identity, and to emotions. Zooming in on the music that in contemporary personalized funerals is selected because it is—one way or another—related to the deceased, it will be shown that the lyrical content of this music is less important than social and emotional aspects. Theoretically, the concept of the musical eulogy is introduced as a hermeneutic tool to examine music in ritualized contexts

Time to Say Goodbye? A Study on Music, Ritual and Death in the Netherlands

Summary of the dissertation "Time to Say Goodbye? A Study on Music, Ritual and Death in the Netherlands"

Con Spirito, geen liturgie zonder muziek!

Binnen de liturgie heeft muziek niet alleen de functie van 'achtergrondmuziek' of is vooral belangrijk vanwege de tekst die het draagt, muziek heeft méér te bieden. Muziek is een van de bouwstenen van liturgie en kan ook gezien worden als een toevluchtsoord, waar ruimte is voor rust en focus

Time to Say Goodbye?: A Study on Music, Ritual and Death in the Netherlands

Publiekssamenvatting In Time to Say Goodbye? A Study on Music, Ritual and Death in the Netherlands, Janieke Bruin-Mollenhorst explores attitudes towards death in the Netherlands through the lens of music during contemporary funeral rituals. In this work she studies the interplay between music facilities, musical repertoires and funeral rituals from 1914 to present; the functions of music during contemporary funeral rituals; and the use of religious expressions in funeral music. She shows that continuing bonds play an important role in the ways people in the Netherlands nowadays deal with death. In this innovative study, the lens of funeral music sheds new light on the socio-cultural context of death-related practices and ideas, and raises challenging questions about the concept of ‘death mentalities’. It demonstrates the relevance of music, both in the academic fields of death studies and ritual studies, and in funerary practices. The study ends by raising questions about (among others) the role of funeral music in the shorter and longer period after the funeral and the order of contemporary funeral rituals. It suggests to explore the possibility to first pass by the coffin and after that perform the funeral ritual with its comforting songs and words with which next of kin express continuing words. In terms of music: to start with Time to Say Goodbye and conclude with Afscheid nemen bestaat niet (Saying Goodbye Does Not Exist)