# Music to die with?



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I thought of Edward G. Robinson in _Soylent Green_ today when I read of the assisted death of scientist David Goodall, age 104, in Switzerland. The BBC tells us that "The lauded London-born ecologist and botanist, who was not terminally ill, said the decision had been driven by his deteriorating quality of life."

"Mr Goodall's last meal was his favourite - fish and chips and cheesecake - and in his final minutes he was played _Ode to Joy _from Beethoven's 9th symphony."

How about you? What do you want to hear when _you _pop that pill?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44069885


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I think the power of choice in my own death would drive me mad in the last minutes, so I would let chance determine it, either by listening to public radio, or random playlist on Spotify. I want my last acts to be a relinquishment of my existence, not a grasping motion to hold on. That said, I hope they're playing something Russian on the radio.  Even if it's something boring that I've heard 50 times, I'll be okay with that.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

Richard Wagner - Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Copa Cabana. Then I wouldn't mind dying.


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## BiscuityBoyle (Feb 5, 2018)




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## Razumovskymas (Sep 20, 2016)

Music is for the living, not for the dying. 

So with that in mind I would choose something atonal.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

'Wish you were here' by Pink Floyd


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## Beet131 (Mar 24, 2018)

Nice thread, KenOC. I had similar thoughts when reading about Goodall this morning. 

Considering that it might take a lot of preparation that day, I would start with Allegri's Miserere, followed by Bach's B minor Mass, followed by Mozart's Requiem, followed by Faure's Requiem, followed by Durufle's Requiem with the last movement "In Paradisum" playing as the pill was administered.


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## Tennessee Dave (Mar 30, 2018)

I'd settle for Nessum Dorma


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

The very end of Franz Schmidt's 4th symphony. He even said that it sounded like the last earthly thoughts as one passed into heaven.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

If memory serves, Edward G. Robinson departed this life while listening to the _Pastoral _and watching a film of deer wandering in a beautiful forest. But Mr Goodall had lived for many years in Australia, so his movie likely would have had a bunch of kangaroos hopping about. Somehow that doesn't seem quite the same...


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

At this moment, possibly it could be Death and Transfiguration (Strauss). A little obvious but quite effective.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

After saying goodbye to loved ones I will retreat myself in an empty, darkened concert hall where a live orchestra will perform the Poem of Ecstasy (as close as possible to the Salonen / 2010 BBC Proms performance) while pictures of the Hubble space telescope are being projected on a large screen. Too much to ask? :angel:


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## LezLee (Feb 21, 2014)

Philip Glass - Days and Nights in Rocinha


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## SuperTonic (Jun 3, 2010)

I'd choose Mahler's Second Symphony. Not only is it some of the most glorious music ever written, it would be appropriate for the situation as well.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Mahler: Symphony No. 8 / Bernstein · Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Just long enough .


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Der Abschied (Farewell), sixth movement of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)




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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

It is a question that may also be relevant in places where they still have capital punishment.

But I am not sure what I could choose that wouldn't make me want to listen to more music - and therefore regret dying.


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

Music to die with?

Mmm, don't know.

I am more interested in music to live with.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

MarkW said:


> Copa Cabana. Then I wouldn't mind dying.


Preceded by The Collected Works Of Neal Diamond


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Mahler's "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen":


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

There's a lot of stuff I want played at my funeral. I've given my wife a list and told her she had better book two slots at the crematorium so that it's all played. She smiled and said that she was sure to do that.:lol: I have the nagging feeling she may have been winding me up! Whatever, I'll never know!


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I think I'd like the Prokofiev Piano Concerto #3. After that exhilarating, whirlwind finale, it would be time to check out with a smile on my face.


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## Guest (May 11, 2018)

KenOC said:


> I thought of Edward G. Robinson in _Soylent Green_ today when I read of the assisted death of scientist David Goodall, age 104, in Switzerland. The BBC tells us that "The lauded London-born ecologist and botanist, who was not terminally ill, said the decision had been driven by his deteriorating quality of life."
> 
> "Mr Goodall's last meal was his favourite - fish and chips and cheesecake - and in his final minutes he was played _Ode to Joy _from Beethoven's 9th symphony."
> 
> ...


At 104 he's not 'terminally ill'? Now you're pulling my leg!!


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## Guest (May 11, 2018)

Triplets said:


> Preceded by The Collected Works Of Neal Diamond


It was just one road trip. Let it go.


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

If I could be absolutely _guaranteed_ not to die before I have listened to everything on it, I have an _awfully_ long playlist of music to die with...


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I'd like to go out with a tremendous flourish, so I pick Siegfried's Funeral March from Wagner's Gotterdamerung.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

For me, it would be Ravel's Le Jardin Feerique from _Ma Mere L'Oye_. There's quiet dignity in that melody, and the majesty of the last bars suggests to me that we'll all be exulted when we pass from this life into the next.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

I'd like to exhale my last breath quite dramatically, bathed in the purple scent of pathos, surrounded by lackeys, my claw drifting inevitably to the edge of the bed, my face pale but still intense, while listening to Soave, from Cosi...


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

_As Slow As Possible_, the Halberstadt performance. Since it is scheduled to end in 2640, that would give me a bit of extra time to enjoy wine, women, and (non-Cage) songs.


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## Capeditiea (Feb 23, 2018)

:3 for my funeral procession. i would request they start with my "My Immortality Begins" then my most recent finished work... Then a long list of various music i have loved while walking, because folk should know what i always listened to while i would go to the grocery store to drown out the evil anxiety madness... then after all those... end it all with the unfinished work.  

just because music is my life. i am truely married to music... (i spend about 85% of my waking hours listening to music... or thinking about music.) 

 so the family and friends would see how i lived. (it would be about 10 days of music...)  but naw, at some point i will make something that would be specifically played (or performed) at my funeral. :3


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## Janspe (Nov 10, 2012)

The 3rd part of Hans Abrahamsen's song cycle _let me tell you_, with the final song, _I Will Go Out Now_ drawing to a close as I close my eyes for the last time...


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Janspe said:


> The 3rd part of Hans Abrahamsen's song cycle _let me tell you_, with the final song, _I Will Go Out Now_ drawing to a close as I close my eyes for the last time...


This reminds me of some famous final words: "I am just going outside and may be some time." Ring a bell?


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

dogen said:


> It was just one road trip. Let it go.


O.K, I just realized that you are my wife and are the same person...I'll stop wasting time on this site and cut the grass real soon honey, I promise...


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

KenOC said:


> _As Slow As Possible_, the Halberstadt performance. Since it is scheduled to end in 2640, that would give me a bit of extra time to enjoy wine, women, and (non-Cage) songs.


Reminds me of the guy who is about to be executed, but as last request he's allowed to first sing his favorite song. He begins: "Ten million billion trillion green bottles, hanging on the wall..."


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

brianvds said:


> Reminds me of the guy who is about to be executed, but as last request he's allowed to first sing his favorite song. He begins: "Ten million billion trillion green bottles, hanging on the wall..."


Another strategy to extend life has to do with the invention in the gold rush days of Hangtown fry: "At the county jail in Hangtown (now Placerville, CA) a condemned man was asked what he would like to eat for his last meal. He thought quickly and ordered an oyster omelet, knowing that the oysters would have to be brought from the water, over a hundred miles away by steamship and then over rough roads, delaying his execution."

It's still a very popular dish in that area.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

KenOC said:


> This reminds me of some famous final words: "I am just going outside and may be some time." Ring a bell?


Time for some _Sinfonia Antartica_......


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Strange Magic said:


> Time for some _Sinfonia Antartica_......


And a sad southern tale it was, indeed.


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## Gallus (Feb 8, 2018)

Mozart's K.339 Laudate Dominum.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)




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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

KenOC said:


> Another strategy to extend life has to do with the invention in the gold rush days of Hangtown fry: "At the county jail in Hangtown (now Placerville, CA) a condemned man was asked what he would like to eat for his last meal. He thought quickly and ordered an oyster omelet, knowing that the oysters would have to be brought from the water, over a hundred miles away by steamship and then over rough roads, delaying his execution."
> 
> It's still a very popular dish in that area.


And then there was the guy about to be executed by firing squad. They asked him if he had any last request. "Why, yes," he said. "A bullet-proof vest would do."


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## German Shepherd (May 13, 2018)

I don't understand why one would want to 'die with music' in a literal sense. To me it is rather an insult to the music. The notion, does evoke certain existencialist questions, as a part-time musicologist.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

I suppose if a large harp fell on me playing "Oh No" by Zappa, I could think of worse ways to go


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

German Shepherd said:


> I don't understand why one would want to 'die with music' in a literal sense. To me it is rather an insult to the music. The notion, does evoke certain existencialist questions, as a part-time musicologist.


Stay on this site and all will be revealed.


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## Norman Gunston (Apr 21, 2018)

Hmmm Norman is intrigued


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## Guest (May 14, 2018)

Rogerx said:


> Stay on this site and all will be revealed.


So bitter and twisted for a newbie!


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

My wife died recently, two months ago, and her last moment was accompained by one of his favorites pieces of music: Mahler's Adagietto from the 5th.
It was Karajan's version. Exactly when the music was end the doctor said: she's gone. It was weird, but still beautiful.
I missed her so much. She was the best partner for the last 6 years.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Heliogabo said:


> My wife died recently, two months ago, and her last moment was accompained by one of his favorites pieces of music: Mahler's Adagietto from the 5th.
> It was Karajan's version. Exactly when the music was end the doctor said: she's gone. It was weird, but still beautiful.
> I missed her so much. She was the best partner for the last 6 years.


Sorry for your loss, seems you both had a great marriage and a shared love of music. I hope in some way music still provides some solace, but it can never really provide sufficient. It's beautiful that she passed away just as the adagietto finished...


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

dogen said:


> So bitter and twisted for a newbie!


We need to test this Probee


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## Capeditiea (Feb 23, 2018)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> I suppose if a large harp fell on me playing "Oh No" by Zappa, I could think of worse ways to go


...yeah, that would be one of the top stories in Strange and Bizaar Stories...


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## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

Chopin's Nocturne in C minor Op. 48, or Beethoven's String Quartet No. 16, 3rd Movement on a loop. For the Damaged Coda would also be a consideration, too.


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