ABSTRACT
The past two hundred years have seen substantial changes in attitudes towards death in Western Christian cultures. Funeral music likely had its origins in ancient chants designed to frighten away spirits. However, with the rise of cremation and secular funerals in the twentieth century, music choices began to change. The variety of choices that are often available for funeral music in both secular and religious settings today, most music chosen at funerals in Western cultures in modern times is likely to reflect personal values, whether such values include religious beliefs or not. This chapter presents a series of studies in which investigates the extent to which tradition is still important to individuals in making choices for funeral music as opposed to music that is personally meaningful in that it relates to personal memories, values or beliefs. It illustrates how the music played at funerals, to some extent, mirrors changing attitudes to death in society at large.
