Funeral Hymns

The ten most chosen

If you have ten minutes and need to decide, decide from this list. Each of these is familiar to most American congregations, singable without rehearsal, and appropriate at almost any service.

Traditional Protestant hymns

These are the hymns most Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian and nondenominational congregations can sing without practice. All twelve are in the public domain, so the words can be printed in the program at no cost and with no permission.

If the service is Protestant and you want the readings to match, the Christian funeral program guide pairs each of these with the scripture usually read alongside it.

Catholic funeral hymns

At a funeral Mass the music is not a free choice. The parish will have a list, the music director will have opinions, and some pieces are fixed by where they fall in the Mass. Bring three or four preferences rather than a full program, and let the parish place them.

The responsorial psalm is separate from these, and Psalm 23 is the one families ask for most often. It is normally sung by a cantor with the congregation answering, so the program prints the response line only. There is more on that in the 23rd Psalm for a funeral, and the full shape of the Mass is in the Catholic funeral Mass program guide.

Homegoing and gospel

A homegoing service usually has more music than a traditional funeral, not less, and it is placed differently: a selection before the reflections, another after the eulogy, and something with lift on the way out. Solos matter more than congregational singing here.

Precious Lord, Take My Hand belongs in this list too; it is in the ten above because it travels far beyond the tradition it came from. For how the music sits alongside the resolutions, reflections and acknowledgements, see the homegoing service program guide.

Modern songs

These are recordings more often than performances, played during the slideshow, at the start, or as people leave. Three of the four are still under copyright, so the program prints the title and the artist rather than the words. Danny Boy is the exception.

Two more worth knowing. I’ll Fly Away is the standard closing number wherever there is a guitar and a family that sings, and Amazing Grace on solo bagpipes is the one piece that will make a room of two hundred people go quiet without being asked. If the service is not religious at all, the celebration of life program guide has more on building the music around the person rather than around a tradition.

How many, and where they go

Two or three hymns is the usual number, and they land in predictable places. This is the pattern almost every Protestant service follows, and a Catholic Mass is close to it with the addition of Communion music.

1. 1

   The opening hymn

   Sung as people are seated, or as the casket is brought in. Choose something everyone knows, because this is the moment the congregation is least ready to sing. Holy, Holy, Holy and Amazing Grace both do this job.

2. 2

   The middle hymn

   Between the reading and the eulogy, or immediately after the eulogy. This is where a solo belongs if you are having one, and where a piece with real feeling in it can be placed without derailing the service.

3. 3

   The closing hymn

   Sung at the end, often as the casket leaves. Pick something that moves rather than sinks. God Be with You Till We Meet Again and Soon and Very Soon are both written for exactly this moment.

A graveside or committal service is different. It is short, it is outdoors, and there is no organ. One verse of one hymn sung unaccompanied is the whole of the music, and it is enough. The full sequence of a service, minute by minute, is in the funeral order of service guide.

Choosing when you are stuck

Start with what the person sang, not with what is appropriate. A hymn they hummed in the car, the one from their wedding, the one their mother sang. If nobody remembers, ask the person who sat next to them in church.

If that turns up nothing, pick by what the room needs. A service for a ninety-year-old with fifty grandchildren can carry a hymn that lifts. A service after a sudden death usually cannot, and something quiet and familiar will do more good.

You are allowed to do less than you think. One hymn is a complete musical program for a funeral. So is a single recording played while people find their seats, and so is silence. Nobody attending will count them, and nobody will remember afterward how many there were.

Printing the words in the program

There are two rules, and they are simple once you know which side of the line a hymn falls on.

Old hymns are free. Everything in the traditional list above was written well over a century ago and is in the public domain, so you can print every verse without permission, payment or a credit line.

Newer hymns are licensed. Anything written in the last several decades, including On Eagle’s Wings, Here I Am Lord, Soon and Very Soon, Total Praise and most contemporary worship music, is still under copyright, and reprinting the words in a program requires a license. Churches commonly hold one through CCLI or OneLicense, and if the funeral is at the church, that license normally covers the program. Ask the church office two things: whether the license covers it, and what notice has to appear on the page. They answer this question every week.

If it is not covered, print the hymn title, the composer and the hymnal number instead, and let the pew books do the rest. A line that reads Hymn 512, sung by the congregation is standard, correct and costs nothing.

How much room a hymn takes

A verse is usually four lines of type, and four lines take roughly the same vertical space as a short paragraph. Three verses of one hymn will eat about a third of a bi-fold panel. If you are printing two hymns in full plus the order of service, you have moved past a bi-fold and into a booklet. The funeral program format guide shows what fits on each panel, and funeral poems covers the readings that often sit opposite the music.

Giving the list to the church

Whoever is printing the program needs the music settled before anything else can be finalized, because the hymn titles sit inside the order of service and every other line moves around them. Send the church or funeral home one message with four things: the hymn titles in order, who is singing each one, whether you want the words printed, and the hymnal you are working from.

Then ask them to confirm it back to you in writing. Music is the detail that most often changes quietly between the planning meeting and the service, and a program printed on Thursday cannot be corrected on Saturday.