Music That Defines Us

After hearing a wonderful pianist play Chopin's Nocturne Op. Posthumous in C# minor on Friday night, I decided that I want it played at my funeral, so I got out my Funeral Arrangements file and revised it. I also couldn't find a recording of the piece anywhere in my collection so I went out tonight and bought a big double-CD set of Chopin by Daniel Barenboim. At least four of the pieces had what looked to be the right title, and I love Chopin anyway, so I figured I had a winner.

I got home and flipped from one likely candidate to another, finding to my great huge disappointment that none of the pieces were the right one. Does someone have this in their music collection? Please don't make me go back to Barnes & Noble or spend more fruitless minutes on i-Tunes!

I don't think it's overly morbid, by the way, to keep updating my funeral arrangements. My father died very suddenly when he was young, and it was a horrid thing to try to decide what music (and everything else!) he would have wanted at his memorial service. My uncles left the decisions about music up to me and I think I did well even though I was living in a half-drowned fog of shock at the bottom of the ocean at the time and could barely communicate with earthlings (except on stage, where I morphed into someone else and did just fine). The last song played was "Clair de Lune" by Debussy and it couldn't have been a more perfect musical depiction of my dad's stormy existence.

What I really want, actually, is to play "And She Was" by the Talking Heads as they carry my casket out of the church. Seriously. But that's not terribly realistic, so I think a gospel choir singing "I'll Fly Away" will work really well. Or just one guitarist twanging away.

Other songs might include "My Life Flows On In Endless Song" and "How I Got Over" and "Though I May Speak With Bravest Fire." But I won't be there, so it might be corny nursing home recordings of"Abide With Me" and "Nearer My God, To Thee." That would be fine, too.

How about you? What would you want ringing in your ears as you get called home?

If you're wondering what brought this on, it's probably being called to two two funerals within one week. Also it's cold and rainy and I am wearing a fleece pullover in JUNE. Gets a gal ruminating on last things, I'll tell ya.