Funeral organist....

Phoenix

My father didn't have a church funeral. We went straight to the grave and held our own service there, reading one if his own poems. As he was an 'old soldier' we had a friend play the Last Post as we lowered him in
It was veru moving.

Unfortunately Jack's funeral was somewhat hijacked by exdh and his then partner, who seemed to make most of the decisions, some of which I knew nothing about until the service started

The husband of a friend who argued with everyone died (he was a lovely guy) He loved musicals...............So as the coffin went out followed by wife and children the record player rang out with "The people all said "sit down, sit down you're rocking the boat"!! We all gulped and then smiled as he was someone who rocked every boat that was around.

My lovely mum died a year ago this week, aged nearly 92 and we had an excellent organist for her funeral at the church. My brother and I chose the hymns and my personal choice was the beautiful 'The day Thou gavest, Lord, has ended' which we had also had at my father's funeral 12 years earlier and which we knew he was fond of. At the crematorium for Mum we had recorded music with 'The Charleston' for the exit... a little uplift after the solemnity, but I know Mum would have loved this touch of fun. She had a great sense of humour and I remember her demonstrating the Charleston to me when I was little. So important to feel that we give special people in our lives an appropriate send-off.

We were lucky to have a good organist (when he played the right tune)

We also had recorded music including the lovely, 'In Remembrance' from the Eleanor Daley Requiem. So beautiful and so comforting.

I think the right music is such an important part of a funeral.

You can have recorded music at a church funeral, harrigran, or a trumpet, bagpipes, a string quartet, a steel band. Or no music at all. The organist isn't part of the service.

I don't think it is that unusual, every church funeral I have been to lately the organist has been poor. It is quite refreshing to go to a Humanist funeral and have recorded music. My friend's mother's funeral exited the crematorium to In the mood.

I'm a bit if a traditionalist (old fogey) when it comes to church music. I wish they would just leave the old tunes alone and stop writing jolly new ones. Must be my Presbyterian upbringing.

Take your point Jane re availability of musicians on weekdays, think clarinet might have been better today. Fortunately the intro and outro were recordings.

The organist at our wedding played Moonlight and Roses while we signed the register on a nasty little electric organ - you may rest assured we had not asked for this!

The quality of organists is very variable. I do hope that your duff one KateK did not charge a fortune!

It's very hard to find someone who can play the organ nowadays. DBH does it for our local church occasionally, but a church nearby uses a friend who plays the clarinet! Finding someone who can be free to play the organ during the week is even harder.

On a slightly more flippant, but relevant note, we were convinced that the organist at our wedding was Les Dawson, just that one bum note every now and then......raised a bit of a titter in the church.

Me too...

I only know two tunes.

I hate it when that sort of thing happens. I'd rather have piped music than a dreadful organist.

We chose O Jesus I Have Promised for one of the hymns at Mum's funeral. I hummed the two most well known tunes to the vicar as there are quite a few and said we didn't mind which one so long as it was one that everyone would recognise. As soon as I heard the first few bars my heart sank. Not only had none of us heard it before, it was impossible to follow. I caught the vicar's eye and he mouthed, 'I'm so sorry'. He was as angry as I was because he'd made a point of passing on my wishes to the organist.

At least the organist got the rest of it right but I was livid because it's such a well known hymn

Oh dear, it seems as if the quality of church organists is a bit hit and miss. I wouldn't have minded so much today if it had been an obscure piece, but it was 'All Things Bright & Beautiful'.

We went to an elderly neighbour's funeral last year and after much delay from the lady vicar it transpired that the organist hadn't turned up.
They tried phoning him, but no reply.
Luckily, the neighbour's friend is a piano teacher and after the dust covers were removed from the church piano, and a book of music obtained, it went ahead 30 minutes late.

That's so unfortunate as a last memory.
The last funeral we went to the organist played so sloooowly that the vicar galloped through the verbal bits trying to keep to time try singing Abide with Me as slow as you can and you'll be close to what it was like.....

That's a thought....I felt sorry for the family as they obviously wanted everything to go well. Perhaps they didn't notice as much as the rest of us.

I seem to find that if they are good enough, I dont tend to really notice them.
But an organist that struggles will be noticed.
The last funeral I went to, the organist played too fast. Everyone was struggling to keep up, which meant that some solemnity was lost.

The organist at yours sounds particularly bad. May be it was a stand in?

That's a shame. Maybe he was a last-minute stand-in, for some reason.