Another strange piece of work in tune with the Ghost Box aesthetics of being half-remembered/half-there is by the “The Guild of Funerary Violinists“. The guild founded in 1586 has protected these obscure classical solo violin pieces dating back from the late 17th to the early 20th century. Pieces from violinists such as the respected Wilhelm Kleinbach, Stanley Eaton, Orlando Addleston, Herbert Stanley Littlejohn and Charles Sudbury are saved as well as the “tradition once placed at the very heart of our notions of mortality, but now sadly neglected, if not forgotten altogether.”

Wax cylinders of records crackling with solemn violin work are saved by the president of the guild and author Rohan Kriwaczek who has already written and published a book through Duckworth, about this strange tradition of “composing music to accompany the laying to rest of a tragically departed soul.” When it quickly became refuted by violin dealers and stringed instrument publications, saying that there was no tradition like this, ever. Looking up the names of the artists won’t get you anywhere as well, even the postgraduate courses given by the Funerary Violinists at the University of Bexhill-on-Sea, or the MA at the University of East Sussex won’t help you, since apparently everything is fiction, folks.

This is a tale of extreme creativity of the 38 year old musician, who was interested in playing fiddle at funerals, yet no one booked him, so he created a parallel universe story that, in Kriwaczek’s own words, “expands the notion of musical composition to encompass the creation of an entire artistic genre, with its necessary accompanying history, mythology, philosophy, social function, etc.”

The Art of Funerary Violin ladies and gentleman, prepare to be amazed!

Herbert Stanley Littlejohn - Michel Meunier From Pompes Funebres No. 2
Wilhelm Kleinbach - The Fleeting Panic of Death
Wilhelm Kleinbach - Funerary suite No.4 by Charles Sudbury