Music has always played an important role in Funeral services. Browse our sheet music and scores, and let Stretta help you find the right music today.
Since the 13th century, clergymen have gathered in calendar brotherhoods on the calends, the first days of each month, to remember their deceased brothers. As at the funerals themselves, there was extensive singing. Later, choirs emerged from this ritual, to perform motets at funerals, in church or at the grave.
In addition to settings of Requiems, the Dutch composers of the 15th and 16th centuries wrote funeral motets to commemorate princes and rulers, which continued to spread across Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, with settings such as Handel’s Funeral Music for Queen Caroline, Musical Exequies by Heinrich Schütz and Purcells’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary. This began to expand into the secular world with works like Monteverdi’s Lamento d‘Arianna.
In France, the Sarabande was the most popular lament before the funeral march developed in the late 18th century. In the last century, new works such as dirges and epitaphs have entered the repertoire as expressions of mourning and grief.
Nowadays, pop or rock songs are often played at funerals. Here is a list of popular modern songs for funeral ceremonies:
op. 22/1
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Music score
Item no.: 733559
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Music score
Item no.: 744752
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Music score
Item no.: 744751
for: gemischter Chor und Orgel
Music score
Item no.: 753814
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Music score
Item no.: 730714
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Music score
Item no.: 753812
(Johannes Jourdan)
for: gemischter Chor und Melodie-Instrument ad lib.
Music score
Item no.: 733561
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Music score
Item no.: 733557
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Music score
Item no.: 730719
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Music score
Item no.: 753817
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Music score
Item no.: 730725
op. 64/4
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Music score
Item no.: 733562
(Johannes Jourdan)
for: gemischter Chor, Flöte und Tasteninstrument
Music score
Item no.: 730724
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Music score
Item no.: 730721
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Music score
Item no.: 730716
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Music score
Item no.: 730711