Time to Say Goodbye? A Study on Music, Ritual and Death in the Netherlands

Publiekssamenvatting

In Time to Say Goodbye? A Study on Music, Ritual and Death in the Netherlands, Janieke Bruin-Mollenhorst explores attitudes towards death in the Netherlands through the lens of music during contemporary funeral rituals. In this work she studies the interplay between music facilities, musical repertoires and funeral rituals from 1914 to present; the functions of music during contemporary funeral rituals; and the use of religious expressions in funeral music. She shows that continuing bonds play an important role in the ways people in the Netherlands nowadays deal with death.
In this innovative study, the lens of funeral music sheds new light on the socio-cultural context of death-related practices and ideas, and raises challenging questions about the concept of ‘death mentalities’. It demonstrates the relevance of music, both in the academic fields of death studies and ritual studies, and in funerary practices. The study ends by raising questions about (among others) the role of funeral music in the shorter and longer period after the funeral and the order of contemporary funeral rituals. It suggests to explore the possibility to first pass by the coffin and after that perform the funeral ritual with its comforting songs and words with which next of kin express continuing words. In terms of music: to start with Time to Say Goodbye and conclude with Afscheid nemen bestaat niet (Saying Goodbye Does Not Exist).