Although music is an important part of cremation rituals, there is hardly any research regarding music and cremations. This lack of research has inspired the authors to conduct a long-range research project, focusing on musical and linguistic aspects of music played during cremations. This article presents the analysis of a playlist consisting of 25 sets of music, each consisting of three tracks, used in a crematorium in the south of the Netherlands from 1986 onwards. The main objective is to identify the differences and similarities of the 25 sets of musical tracks regarding content and musical characteristics. Consequently, we aim to provide insight in the history of (music played during) cremation rituals in the Netherlands. To analyze the musical characteristics of the sets, the authors use both a qualitative approach (close reading and musical analysis) and a computational analysis approach. The article demonstrates that a combination of a close reading and musical analysis and a computational analysis are necessary to explain the differences in properties of the sets. The presented multi-method approach may allow for comparisons against musical preferences in the context of current cremations, which makes it possible to trace the development of music and cremation rituals.

中文翻译：

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荷兰的音乐和火葬仪式：火葬场播放列表的细粒度分析

尽管音乐是火葬仪式的重要组成部分，但几乎没有关于音乐和火葬的研究。缺乏研究促使作者进行了一项长期研究项目，重点研究火葬期间播放音乐的音乐和语言方面。本文介绍了从1986年开始在荷兰南部的一个火葬场使用的包含25组音乐的播放列表的分析，每种音乐包含3首曲目。主要目的是确定25组音乐曲目在内容和音乐特征方面的差异和相似性。因此，我们旨在提供有关荷兰火葬仪式（期间演奏音乐）历史的见解。要分析布景的音乐特征，作者使用定性方法（近距离阅读和音乐分析）和计算分析方法。这篇文章证明了近距离阅读和音乐分析以及计算分析的结合对于解释布景属性的差异是必要的。提出的多方法方法可以允许在当前火葬的情况下与音乐喜好进行比较，这使得可以追踪音乐和火葬仪式的发展。