final tune

[Robin Harrison]

..........my Dad loved sailing.........so Tennyson's Crossing the Bar with the lovely folky setting that is popular right now.

 

Robin

 

"And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark "

[Chris Drinkwater]

Four years ago, my father died just 3 weeks short of his 88th birthday, which would have been on May 2nd. We held a humanist service for him, which featured some readings and some music, both live and recorded. I had previously come across a lovely tune, called The Meadow in May, written by Paul McCann, a Crane(!) duet player and a regular attendee at the WCCP's annual Kilve concertina tuition weekend, held in March. I felt that this wonderful tune, was just the right tune to play on my EC at his service, imagining beforehand, what an English meadow would look like in May, shortly after my father had been born all those years ago, with new born lambs gamboling, etc, as the bright, warm sun shone down, from a deep blue cloudless sky. I played it through 3 times, midway through the service, tears streaming down my cheeks. Afterwards, several of the mourners came up to me and told me how much they had enjoyed the tune and my playing of it, and how moved they were by it. It is an occasion I shall never forget, and since then, I have always taken my concertina out on May 2nd, his birthday, and played the tune, while remembering my father as I knew him and loved him, for the good, generous and kind-hearted person he was, and always will be.

 

Chris

[cboody]

That's a beautiful story and a loving thing to do Chris. Thanks for sharing it.

 

Chuck Boody

[Jody Kruskal]

This is a great post and of course the right song or tune has much to do with the person who has passed and those left behind. At my Grandmother's (Lillian Oppenheimer) service many years ago I sang "Swimming to the Other Side" by Pat Humphries and had a hard time not breaking down into sobs while singing it. That seemed the right thing to do at the time, though getting through it was hard.

 

There are a number of older American Christian songs that might be the right thing depending... a few come to mind, Going to See the King, Angel Band, We'll Land on the Shore, Bright Morning Stars Are Rising. Of course Lillian being Jewish, those songs would not have done at all.

 

At the NECW a few years ago, just after Rich Morse of the Button Box died, I performed the tune "Auld Swarra Juppie" a Shetland lament for drowned fishermen in Rich's memory, that seemed right at the time. A tune like this, without words, might be the best for such situations so as to fit with all beliefs.

Edited May 5, 2012 by Jody Kruskal

[michael sam wild]

My youngest brother died in February and I sang Linden Lea , his favourite song as a child when I got them to sleep at bedtime. With generous help from fellow c.netters i got some source material and background on the song ( poem by William Barnes of Dorset, tune by Ralph Vaughan Williams) I practiced it with accompaniment on the C/G Anglo, with kind advice on chords from Rob Harbron at a workshop in Lewes), but,in theevent, my frame of mind and the fear of mistakes led me to sing it acapella and my family said that was the best way - in the chapel= acapella.

 

I may include the accompanied song in my repertoire but I don't think I'll be able to sing it out for quite a while yet.

[David Barnert]

Consider the tune "Da Slockit Light" by Tom Anderson. If you google it you will find notation and youtubes. For instance:

 

http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/1863 (click the "Sheetmusic" tab)

 

 

The title means "the light that has gone out" and Anderson wrote it shortly after his wife died. He was in a boat off Shetland in the evening, watching the lights of the town go dark one by one and it reminded him of the people who have, one by one, left us.

[Chris Drinkwater]

Consider the tune "Da Slockit Light" by Tom Anderson. If you google it you will find notation and youtubes. For instance:

 

http://www.thesessio...es/display/1863 (click the "Sheetmusic" tab)

 

 

The title means "the light that has gone out" and Anderson wrote it shortly after his wife died. He was in a boat off Shetland in the evening, watching the lights of the town go dark one by one and it reminded him of the people who have, one by one, left us.

 

 

It happens to be one of my favourite tunes, David, and I remember you playing it on the 'borrowed' cello, on your visit to The George Inn Session, joining in with you as soon as I recognised the tune. I have always understood that 'slockit' means 'extinguished', which of course means 'gone out'. It's a lament and a very appropriate tune to play in certain circumstances, such as at a funeral service.

 

Chris

[michael sam wild]

Beats Staying Alive by the BeeGees which I heard at one funeral!

[Robert Booth]

Kevin Toner asks, " Is this lament style really concertina territory?"

 

Boy, to my ear, there are few instruments that can give that high lonesome sound like ours.

 

RB