When conversations start to peter out at AGO meetings and dinners or at the koinonia segment of the NPM meeting, one could always introduce a new subject of conversation-such as what one has planned for the music for one's funeral. Last week I cited some of the requests Cardinal O'Connor had listed to be included at his funeral. None were surprising. They were well within the repertory of any parish and its funeral choir.
Church musicians are somewhat more detailed.
In many religious communities, Sister or Brother or Father has the option to list whatever he or she would like to have included at the funeral liturgy. Ordinary folk also have similar lists. Already, I have been included in two peoples' wills with a program of favorites, which I am requested to perform at the appropriate time. I hope the palsy hasn't set into my hands too strongly so I can still play. But, its the musicians who have the most Olympian size funerals planned.