Music and Mourning

Jane W. Davidson, Sandra Garrido, Jane W. Davidson, Sandra Garrido

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317092407
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Ethnomusicology

While grief is suffered in all cultures, it is expressed differently all over the world in accordance with local customs and beliefs. Music has been associated with the healing of grief for many centuries, with Homer prescribing music as an antidote to sorrow as early as the 7th Century BC. The changing role of music in expressions of grief and mourning throughout history and in different cultures reflects the changing attitudes of society towards life and death itself. This volume investigates the role of music in mourning rituals across time and culture, discussing the subject from the multiple perspectives of music history, music psychology, ethnomusicology and music therapy.

1 On Music and Mourning

Jane W. Davidson and Sandra Garrido

DOI: 10.4324/9781315596648-1

This book investigates the role of music in mourning rituals across time and culture. As an inter-disciplinary volume, cultural history, ethnomusicology, psychology and music therapy form the basis of the studies presented.

Regulation of emotion is clearly important, and music can provide a powerful tool for the ‘re-ritualization’ of grief and a re-discovery of personal expressions of grief. Rituals are an important part of the grieving process and these have been extensively documented by cultural anthropologists (Reeves & Boersma, 1989–1990). According to archaeologist Brian Hayden (1987), rituals have been performed by humans for over 100,000 years. Music often has an important role to play within such rituals of mourning (Schechter, 1994).

Music has been associated with the ‘healing’ of grief for many centuries, with Homer recommending music as an antidote to sorrow around the seventh or eighth century BC (Nelson and Weathers, 1998). Recent studies have also shown the benefits of music-therapy in dealing with grief (Dalton & Krout, 2005; Hilliard, 2001; McFerran, Roberts, & O’Grady, 2010). The anthropological literature reveals that in many cultures specialised music within the funeral ritual allows the externalisation of feelings and a social medium in which grief can be acceptably expressed (Castle & Philips, 2003; Goss & Klass, 1997).

Regionally, specific religious traditions have been strongly associated with rituals of mourning, particularly funerals. The music used in such rituals would, in the past, also have been based primarily on local religious customs. However, more recent decades have seen the secularisation of funerals and a stripping away of traditional religious practices in many parts of the world (Emke, 2002). Scholars note that grief rituals are not as available for use in American culture as they were prior to the twentieth century (Klass, Silverman & Nickman, 1996). Similarly, in Australia after the First World War a deep cultural shift occurred lasting until the 1980s in which thoughts and feelings about death were often avoided, rituals and expressions of grief were minimised and sorrow became a private matter (Jalland, 2006). This deterioration in the role of traditional rituals has often led to insufficient grieving and inadequate grief resolution (Romanoff & Terenzio, 1998).

A second major shift in cultural responses and attitudes to death and grief has occurred since then in many parts of the world (Jalland, 2006). This has been stimulated by globalisation as waves of migration have encouraged diversity in attitudes and approaches to grief. Psychologists have also contributed to the change, by encouraging the view that open emotional expressions of grief can be healing. Kubler-Ross (1969) for example, popularised theories about ‘stages’ of grieving and emphasised the individuality of people’s responses to grief.

Despite the increased secularisation of funerals, rituals are therefore progressively becoming a part of the grieving process once again. New rituals, often spontaneously created, have emerged that reflect modern perspectives on grief and mourning even when conducted in traditional contexts such as churches (Cook & Walter, 2005). This is illustrated by the widely broadcast funeral of Princess Diana at Westminster Abbey in 1997 in which tradition was accompanied by the spontaneous expression of grief by thousands of people around the world and by personal tributes from those who were close to her (Garces-Foley & Holcomb, 2005). These new and more personal manifestations of grief often focus on celebrating the life of the deceased even more than they do on loss and death.

Music has a large role to play in this re-ritualisation of mourning. Music played at contemporary funerals may be pieces of special significance to the deceased rather than traditional music for funeral services (Wouters, 2002). As Saynor (2001) puts it: ‘many are discovering new music, new words and new rituals that are helping them express their spirituality’ (p. 22). Even where music choices may seem bizarre or even irreverent to some attendees, these personalised expressions allow the bereaved to celebrate and memorialise the life of the deceased in a very individual way.

Thus, contemporary music choices for funerals have become life interpreting, reflecting important changes in cultural approaches to questions of life and death. Beyond the funeral, therapists are making use of music to help mourners create other forms of rituals for coping with their loss. Castle and Philips (2003) thus express the hope that these new rituals will enable many to ‘make room in their lives for a relationship with grief, to learn and grow from that relationship’ (p. 62). The function of music within modern-day grief rituals is thus an important area warranting further investigation in future research.

The chapters included in this volume look at such questions as how music is used to modify our thoughts and feelings about loss in various cultural settings, how this was done in the past, current trends, and future projections. The authors consider the use of music in a variety of ceremonial and formal contexts as well as more family-oriented and personal contexts that surround mourning. The discussions include historical investigations that explore the use and function of music for mourning across different periods and places. The volume also includes work drawing out the relevance of music to mourning in contemporary Western societies such as Australia and considers some experimental approaches based on psychology research paradigms.

The chapters deal first with music used in formal contexts such as funerals and second with music used in dealing with grief in settings outside the funeral. In Chapters 2 and 3, the results of three empirical studies by Sandra Garrido and Jane Davidson are explored that investigate contemporary choices for funeral music and the motivations behind such choices. Results are discussed in the light of current trends in mourning practices in Western cultures. In Chapter 2, a brief review of the literature relating to historical and current funeral music choices in Western countries is provided. The chapter also reports the results of an explorative study in which five participants were interviewed about the music they would choose for their funeral and the motivations for such choices. Results indicate that music choices reflect a desire to express personal meaning and to celebrate life rather than to focus on loss, and that a tension may at times exist between the desire for personal expression and the need to adhere to religious standards.

In the third chapter, the results of two cross-sectional surveys tested funeral music choices in a student group and a broader sample from the general population. The findings of this study suggest that music choices are related to personality differences including coping style. It is argued that the contemplation and selection of music can therefore form a helpful part of the grieving process of the bereaved or of those contemplating a future death.

In the fourth and fifth chapters, deeper historical perspectives are offered, looking back to practices in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. In Chapter 4, Dolly McKinnon looks at the role of bells tolling in seventeenth-century Christian death rituals in England. Bells were in fact used to announce the cycles of life and death, regulate the seasons, and also, through sounds or silences, articulate the religious and political adherences of individual parish communities across the English countryside. In rural and urban settings all those who lived within earshot of church bell towers knew the particular sounds of their parish bells. McKinnon reflects on this practice as an example of an emotional community of practice. Through case studies, she demonstrates how bell sounds for the dead could both unite and divide parish communities as form part of their rituals of death, burial and mourning.

In the fifth chapter, Helen Dell deals with a very different kind of practice: the revenant ballads of the Medieval British Isles, which reveal to their singers and audiences the voices of the dead as imagined by the ballad writer. Sometimes the message seems simply to communicate that the loved one is dead, in a distant place; sometimes the mourner is encouraged to stop mourning and get on with life; sometimes the ghost comes back to pronounce judgement or exact revenge. These imagined voices of the dead speak with surprising authority, appearing to know more than the living and sometimes wish, or are compelled, to return and impart their knowledge. Through investigating the words the living place in the mouths of the dead in these songs, this chapter reflects on what these words tell us of ourselves and how we mourn. It adopts the theoretical lens of psychodynamics, a theoretical framework that developed from Freud’s work at the beginning of the twentieth century, to make meaning of these far-distant historical practices.

In Chapter 6, Sandra Garrido and Waldo Garrido engage with cultural contexts other than those of Western European origin, considering three examples of the use of music in funerals from three different continents: the jazz funeral of various regions in the United States, the lament in Georgia and the ‘cantos de ángeles’ of Chile. They argue that the acts of selecting and/or performing music in mourning rituals are ‘task-based’ coping activities that both facilitate the expression of grief and create a sense of enduring connection with the deceased. These psychological functions are discussed both in traditional contexts and in contemporary rituals of personalised mourning.

In Chapter 7, Sarah Walker discusses the longstanding tradition of Iranian ‘elegiac singing’ and its transformation during the recent turbulent history of Iran, as well as examining aspects of the emotional, spiritual and social lives of participants in this form of melodic mourning. Pursing this anthropological investigation, an eighth chapter by Sally Treloyn explores the complex experiences of Australian Aboriginal communities as they face some of the highest rates of death by preventable causes across generations in the world. Grief and loss are also felt in the wake of the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families in Australia from the 1880s to the 1960s, as well as high rates of attrition of linguistic and musical knowledges. The chapter seeks to better understand these experiences.

In Chapter 9, Katrina Skewes McFerran and Alexander Crooke present an example of how music therapy can play a supportive role in the mourning experiences of adolescents. It includes a review of existing literature regarding how music is used from a therapeutic perspective in contexts of mourning and follows with an illustrative example of a music therapy programme being used to assist secondary school students in dealing with experiences of loss and grief. Extracts of student interviews articulate the value of music in this process from their point of view.

The book closes with the tenth chapter by Jane Davidson who explores ‘predeath grief’, or ‘anticipatory grief’ – the feelings of loss associated with death before its occurrence, common among caregivers of the terminally ill or aged. She also engages with the ill or aged themselves who are living in expectation of their own future death and may experience ‘preparatory’ grief as they cope with the dying process. She explores the way that music can play a vital role in both coming to terms with impending death, and in celebrating life. Singing in particular can provide both joy and a sense of companionship for those dealing with grief prior to the loss of their own lives or that of a loved one. This chapter examines the impact of six community singing groups involving the elderly, patients with dementia, and their carers. Motivations for musical engagement and the effect of the groups on the health and wellbeing of participants are discussed. Results indicate that many participants benefit from the chance to embrace new experiences and meet new companions, as well as the spiritual comfort that singing affords in the face of their fast approaching deaths.

Having summarised the chapters, it is important to us as the writers and editors of this volume to explain to readers the very specific context for this work. It emerg...