Search results

Various studies have shown that music plays an important role during contemporary funerals. Most music that sounds during funerals is played because it evokes memories of the deceased (Adamson & Holloway, 2012; Bruin-Mollenhorst, 2018). The music that had played an important role during the life of the deceased becomes an important part of the so-called ‘personalised funerals’ (Bruin-Mollenhorst, 2018). After the funeral, the music often has a ‘special place’ in the life of the next of kin. Referencing bereavement theory and paying special attention to the continuing bonds model (Klass & Steffen, 2018), this chapter explores the music and death nexus by studying the diverse ways in which personalised funeral music is experienced in the period after the funeral, ranging from unexpected and unpleasant confrontations with funeral music to daily experiences of consolation through this music.

Diversified trading networks have recently drawn a great deal of attention. In the process, the importance of diversity has perhaps been overemphasized. Using the trade in port wine from Portugal to Britain as an example, this essay attempts to show how a market once dominated by general, diversified traders was taken over by dedicated specialists whose success might almost be measured by the degree to which they rejected diversification to form a dedicated “commodity chain.” The essay suggests that this strategy was better able to handle matters of quality and the specialized knowledge that port wine required. The essay also highlights the question of power in such a chain. Endemic commodity-chain struggles are clearest in the vertical brand war that broke out in the nineteenth century, which, by concentrating power, marked the final stage in the transformation of the trade from network to vertical integration.