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

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.

Using a multidisciplinary approach, the author stud-ies the interplay between music facilities, musical repertoires and funeral rituals from 1914 to present; the functions of contemporary funeral music; and the use of religious expressions in contemporary funeral music. She shows that continuing bonds play an important role in the ways people in contemporary Dutch society 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. It demonstrates the relevance of music, both in funerary practices and in the academic fields of death studies and ritual studies.

ISBN printed version: 9789464168099

Cover picture by Janieke Bruin-Mollenhorst

Publisher: University of Groningen Press,
Broerstraat 4, 9712 CP Groningen

This book can still be ordered in print via NSRL