Section One: Music and Mourning

The first section of this volume considers various ways in which the experience of death is a process of mourning for those who remain amongst the living and how music plays a vital role in grieving and remembrance. The first two accounts examine the function music plays during the contemporary funeral practices and rituals in the Netherlands and Poland, respectively, while the final essay is a performative urban quest around Vienna fuelled by the memories of a late uncle, who was a former musician and conductor in the city.

These three essays provide interconnecting accounts of the ways in which music recalls and/or evokes memories of the deceased, and how it enables people to mourn and grieve with practices and rituals that are individual to them.