Planning music for a funeral service in Australia

Music does a lot of the work at a funeral. It covers the moments when nobody is speaking, it gives people permission to feel something, and it is often what they remember. Choosing it is one of the more personal jobs in the week, and one of the easier ones to get wrong on the technical side. This guide covers both.

How many pieces you need

Most services in Australia, whether in a church, a crematorium chapel, a funeral home or a hall, use three or four pieces of music:

• Entrance. Played as people arrive and are seated, or as the coffin is brought in. Often one or two quieter pieces, since guests arrive over several minutes.
• Reflection. Played in the middle of the service, usually with the photo tribute on screen, or during a quiet pause.
• Committal or farewell. At a cremation service, this is the moment the curtain closes or the coffin is lowered. At a burial, it may be played at the graveside.
• Exit. Played as the family and guests leave.

Some services combine the committal and exit. Religious services may add hymns or sung responses. Your funeral director or celebrant will tell you how many slots there are and how long each one is.

Choosing the music

Start with the person, not with a list of popular funeral songs. Ask:

• What did they play in the car, the kitchen or the shed?
• What did they sing, hum or whistle?
• What was played at their wedding?
• What did they turn up, and what did they turn off?
• Was there a team song, a band they followed, a musical they saw five times?

Then match the pieces to the moments:

• The entrance suits something calm and unhurried. Instrumental music works well here because people are greeting each other.
• The reflection piece is the one people listen to most closely. Choose the song that is most plainly theirs.
• The committal is the hardest moment. Many families choose something gentle and short.
• The exit can lift. It is common, and welcome, to send people out to something warm or even cheerful.

It is fine to choose music that is not traditionally solemn. Do listen to the whole song first, all the way through, with the words in front of you. A verse you had forgotten can be badly out of place, and a radio edit may differ from the album version.

Check the length

Timing causes more trouble than taste. Crematorium chapels in particular are often booked in fixed sessions, and a service that runs over affects the family waiting outside.

• Write down the exact length of every track.
• Check whether a song has a long introduction or a slow fade, and whether it can be started later or faded early.
• If music accompanies a photo tribute, the film and the song need to be the same length. A general rule is five to seven seconds a photograph. See choosing photos for a memorial film.
• Tell whoever is running the sound exactly where each piece starts and stops. “Fade after the second chorus, about 2:40” is the kind of instruction they need.

Recorded music

Most services use recorded music played through the venue’s system.

• Ask how the venue plays music. Some use their own music service and only need a list of titles and artists. Some want files on a USB stick. Some will play from a phone or laptop.
• Ask what file format they accept. MP3 is the most widely supported. If you are told a particular format, use it.
• Name the files in order. For example “1 Entrance”, “2 Reflection”, “3 Exit”, with the song title after.
• Give the exact version. State the artist and the recording, since many songs have live versions, covers and remasters.
• Do not rely on streaming on the day. Chapel wifi and mobile reception can be poor, and advertisements or the next song starting automatically are the last things you want.
• Bring a backup. A second USB stick, and the same files downloaded to a phone, in someone else’s pocket.

Live music

A singer, organist, pianist, guitarist, piper or bugler changes the feel of a service. If someone in the family plays, it can mean a great deal.

Things to sort out early:

• Whether the venue has an organ or piano, and whether it is in tune
• Whether there is a microphone and somewhere to plug in
• When the player can get into the room to set up and check the sound
• Whether the player knows the piece or needs sheet music and time to learn it
• What happens if a family member who planned to sing finds on the day that they cannot

For that last point, have a recording ready as a fallback. Nobody will think less of a grandchild who could not get through it.

Hymns and religious music

In a church service, speak to the minister, priest or parish organist before you settle on anything. Some churches welcome any music the family chooses, and some keep the service itself to sacred music and suggest that other songs are played before, after, or at the wake.

If hymns are to be sung by the congregation:

• Choose well known ones, with a tune most people can manage.
• Two verses sung with confidence are better than five sung thinly.
• Print the words in the order of service, and ask the funeral director about this, since reproducing the words of some hymns and songs in print needs permission.
• Ask whether there will be an organist or a recorded backing with a clear lead voice.

In a non-religious service there is no need for hymns at all. Some families include one anyway because the person loved it, or because the older guests will want to sing. Either choice is fine.

Services with RSL or other honours

If the person served in the defence forces, the family can ask for an RSL tribute within the service. This usually has its own music and its own order, such as the Last Post, a period of silence and the Rouse or Reveille. Tell your funeral director early so the local RSL sub-branch can be contacted, and allow for it in the timing.

Music licensing in plain terms

You do not need to become an expert in copyright, but it helps to know where the lines are.

• Playing music at the service. Music played in a venue during a service is usually covered by the venue’s or the funeral director’s music licence. In Australia, public performance licensing is handled through OneMusic Australia.
• Recording or live-streaming the service. Putting a service that includes commercial music on the internet, or recording it for sharing, can need separate permission. Some funeral directors and venues have arrangements for this and some do not.
• Music under a memorial film. Playing the film in the chapel is one thing. Sharing the same film online with a commercial song underneath it is another, and can need permission that the venue’s licence does not give.

The simple rule is to ask your funeral director or the venue what their licence covers, particularly if the service will be streamed or the film will be shared afterwards. They deal with this every week.

Music written for the person, or music the family has made, avoids most of these questions.

A short checklist

1. Confirm the number of music slots and the length of each.
2. Choose each piece and listen to all of it.
3. Write down title, artist, version and exact length.
4. Ask the venue how they play music and in what format.
5. Send the list to the funeral director by the date they ask.
6. Prepare a backup copy and give it to a second person.
7. Ask about licensing if the service is being streamed or recorded.
8. If you can, hear it played in the room before the service.

If none of the songs on the shortlist feel quite right, some families have a song written from the person’s own story. Tribute Studios’ song studio lets you draft one in your own words.