I’ve recently been to a couple of funerals – one as an invited singer, one as a family friend.<\/p>\n
The former was my first visit to Bath crematorium and its chapel overlooking farmland south of the city. The family wanted the mourners to be given a lead in Crimond<\/i> (a hymn that is only ever sung at weddings and funerals in my experience). The other was a Roman Catholic Requiem Mass in a small and full church. The music was a mixture of plainchant Ordinary and Propers and the sort of hymns popular in evangelical churches in the 1980s or so – rather surprisingly, given the advanced age of the lady whose Requiem it was.<\/p>\n
The Requiem Mass had a singer from the church to lead the congregation (and teach them plainchant by moving her hand up and down). In both cases I had to set my dynamic level correctly – loud enough so that those nearby who were less confident could latch on to it, but not so loud as to predominate. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve recently been to a couple of funerals – one as an invited singer, one as a family friend. The former was my first visit to Bath crematorium and its chapel overlooking farmland south of the city. The family wanted … Continue reading