Before we get too worked up about Diana's funeral music, perhaps it would
be helpful to step back from "what I want" or "what they want" or "what I
know Diana would have wanted" to a less emotional outpost. To presume
that Elton John could not or would not sing something appropriately woven
into the fabric of the funeral service is not fair. Nothing has happened
yet.
 
Someone wrote about "high Anglican funeral" services or words to that
effect. Yet, I know many people who regard the music of Howells and Parry
as inferior and unimportant, despite the emotional and sentimental
attachment Anglophiles have to it. Certainly it must be obvious that a
funeral displaying the height of Victorian pomposity is not what is going
to happen. This is not a state funeral for a king or queen.
 
For all we know, the service itself will be structured from the
Alternative Services book, not the 1661 Book of Common Prayer. Why not?
If we argue that only the liturgical texts and music of the past have
merit, we prevent ourselves from developing great music in our own time.
Within its stylistic boundaries, there may be great music in the popular
vein. That it cannot be included among the treasures of the church is
unlikely. I think that the musicians would do well to become part of the
solution to the problem of what to do with contemporary music, not the
Philistines who forever oppose it.
 
Thomas Spacht