Abstract
The past two hundred years have seen substantial changes in attitudes towards death in Western Christian cultures. Choices of music for use in funerals can potentially provide an interesting reflection of these changes. Funeral music likely had its origins in ancient chants designed to frighten away spirits (Meyers, Golden & Peterson, 2009). Mention is made of the use of dirges in several funeral scenes in ancient Greek dramas (Whitwell, n.d.). The Romans apparently hired professional mourners to sing songs of praise to the deceased, known as the Nenia (Whitwell, n.d.).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Music and mourning |
| Editors | Jane W. Davidson, Sandra Garrido |
| Place of Publication | U.K. |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| Pages | 9-17 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781315596648 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781472458797 |
| Publication status | Published - 2016 |
Keywords
- bereavement
- funerals
- music