Final Considerations

Abstract

Abstract The book’s conclusion summarizes some of the most important academic gains provided by a study of the music in medieval Europe’s deathbed rituals. The chapter also considers a striking commonality in the rituals’ use of music: song is consistently prescribed to accompany the final breath of life. The reception of the Eucharist, viaticum, formed the central focus of deathbed rituals prior to the Carolingian era. Yet in the liturgical tradition investigated in this book, singing the chant complex Subvenite–Suscipiat most often marked the decisive moment. The chapter considers possible reasons underlying this practice of singing: the Neoplatonic understandings of the Middle Ages and the pragmatic motivations that might have prompted a privileged position for song at the final breath.