Music is all the time an necessary a part of any funeral service or memorial service.
The precise alternative of music pays tribute to the deceased’s tastes and supply consolation to the mourners left behind.
Have you ever ever questioned what music the nice composers had carried out at their funerals? At this time, we’re 4 fascinating composer funerals – and the music that was performed at every of them.
George Frederic Handel (1759)
Marble statue of Handel, 1738
In August 1751, sixty-six-year-old composer George Frederic Handel developed a cataract in a single eye. His imaginative and prescient started deteriorating, particularly after a process carried out by a quack surgeon.
By the next 12 months, he was completely blind and not capable of compose.
He died in 1759. Though he had been born in present-day Germany, he had turn into a star throughout his time in England. Accordingly, he was granted the privilege of a state funeral at Westminster Abbey.
He died on 14 April, and his funeral was held on 20 April. The Bishop of Rochester officiated, and over three thousand mourners attended.
Three choirs collaborated on a efficiency of Funeral Sentences by composer and organist William Croft.
These works have been carried out at many well-known British funerals since, together with Winston Churchhill’s, Princess Diana’s, and Queen Elizabeth II’s.
Croft & Purcell: ‘Funeral Sentences’ State Funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1791)
Historians disagree about the reason for Mozart’s loss of life and the size of his well being decline throughout the autumn of 1791.
Nonetheless, it’s recognized that by 20 November, he was bedridden, in ache, and vomiting.
He died on 5 December at his dwelling, somewhat after midnight. The Requiem he was engaged on was left unfinished.
Mozart’s funeral was deliberate by his good friend and patron Baron Gottfried van Swieten. It befell on 10 December on the parish of St. Michael in Vienna.
A portion of his unfinished Requiem was performed on the service. The one motion that Mozart had accomplished and that was prepared for efficiency was the opening “Requiem aeternam” from the Introitus part.
Mozart: Requiem – 1. Introitus – Requiem Aeternam – London Philharmonic Orchestra
Scores for just a few extra actions based mostly on sketches had been rapidly rounded out by Mozart’s pupil Franz Jacob Freystädtler, who accomplished the unfinished parts of the remaining actions, such because the Lacrymosa, Sanctus, and Benedictus.
Completion of the opposite actions was later tackled by one other Mozart pupil named Franz Xaver Süßmayr.
The musicians who carried out at Mozart’s funeral volunteered their providers to pay tribute to their useless colleague.
Study extra about Mozart’s funeral.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1827)
By the point of his loss of life in 1827, Beethoven’s well being had been deteriorating for years.
In fact, his deafness was his most well-known well being criticism, however he additionally struggled with liver failure, pneumonia, and alcohol habit.
He died within the early night of March 26.
The funeral was a large occasion. It’s estimated that between 10,000 and 30,000 mourners lined up on the encircling streets to pay tribute, or no less than catch a glimpse of him.
His pallbearers included composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel, piano pedagogue Carl Czerny, and composer Franz Schubert.
Beethoven had not left particular directions about what music he needed to have carried out at his funeral. Conductor and composer Ignaz von Seyfried took on the accountability of offering music for the occasion.
Seyfried picked out two of Beethoven’s Three Equals, works for trombone ensemble that had been commissioned for All Souls’ Day in 1812. Seyfried rearranged them to incorporate a males’s refrain.
Beethoven: Drei Equali carried out by Southeast Trombone Symposium college
Subsequent he organized the third motion of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 12, a funeral march, once more for trombone and males’s refrain.
Beethoven: Sonata No. 12 in A-flat Main, Op. 26 third Motion “Funeral March”
He additionally carried out a “Chorale of the Brethren of Charity” from incidental music for Wilhelm Inform by now-forgotten composer Bernhard Anselm Weber.
To wrap it up, Seyfried supplied his personal “Libera me”, which quoted Mozart’s Requiem.
The larger musical tribute got here just a few days later after the funeral correct at a commemorative efficiency. There your complete Mozart Requiem was carried out in full.
Study extra about Beethoven’s funeral.
Frédéric Chopin (1849)
Pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin had endured extreme continual sickness all through his grownup life.
Nonetheless, throughout the 1840s, it turned clear that his tuberculosis an infection was doubtless going to kill him.
In 1842, he wrote to a good friend that he was so sore and fatigued that he was mendacity in mattress for the day.
On 15 October 1849, it turned clear that the top was lastly close to. Musical guests got here and carried out for him to supply consolation. He lastly died on 17 October.
The funeral befell on 30 October. Chopin’s fame was such that tickets needed to be printed for the occasion. Hundreds of individuals got here from round Europe to pay tribute, however solely 4 thousand ticketed mourners had been allowed into the Church of the Madeleine.
The music had been fastidiously chosen by Chopin himself and included Mozart’s Requiem. The archbishop himself needed to problem particular dispensation to permit girls singers to sing in church, so long as they carried out behind a black curtain.
Mozart : Requiem in D Ok. 626
Different musical choices included organ preparations of his fourth and sixth piano preludes, in addition to the funeral march from his Piano Sonata No. 2.
Chopin: Prelude in E minor Op. 28 No. 4
Chopin: Prelude B minor, Op 28, No 6. carried out by Stephen Worth
Chopin – Funeral March – Arr for Organ -Sonata, Op. 35
Study extra about Chopin’s funeral.
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