Funeral Blues and piano in a collection of settings of Auden poems under the title "Cabaret Songs". "Funeral Blues" is copyrighted by the Estate of W. H. Auden. According to The W. H. Auden Society, only Random House, Faber & Faber, and Curtis Brown Ltd. can give permission to reprint the text. It is the English contribution to the statue commemorating the Heysel Stadium disaster, where a retaining wall collapsed, resulting in 39 deaths on 29 May 1985, when Liverpool F.C. played Juventus FC in the European Cup final. The poem is read in its entirety in the 1994 British romantic comedy
The Ascent of F6 dedicated to Auden's geologist brother John Bicknell Auden who had taken part in an expedition near the Himalayan mountain K2. Auden personally invited Benjamin Britten to write the incidental music for the play. Britten composed the music in February 1937, the month of the play's first production, including a choral setting of "Stop all the clocks" (titled "Funeral Blues"). The play was first produced at the Mercury Theatre, London on 26 February 1937, with incidental music by Benjamin Britten conducted from the piano by Brian Easdale. Directed by Rupert Doone, the cast included William Devlin as Michael Ransom, Dorothy Holmes-Gore