Music for weddings

[Mark]

No, I don't mean for the awful disco in the evening, I mean for walking down the aisle.

With my second wedding anniversary just under a week away (and having finally viewed our wedding day video after getting it - at last - from the friend who shot it), I look back now and feel we made the right choice of music: 'Constant Constance', from the 'Wilde' film soundtrack composed by Debbie Wiseman. It made for a beautiful and rather grandiose entrance of the bride - made all the more amusing because the venue in which we were wed was actually rather humble.

So how about you? If you're married, what music did you choose for that unique moment? If you're not, what would choose?



Anyone who says Pachelbel's Canon in D will be ejected from the forum.

[Kullervo]

I don't ever plan on getting married (which is not to say that I don't plan on having children), but if I did, I would probably use William Boyce's 6th symphony, first movement. It has the kind of grandeur and feel of a procession that seems appropriate for such an event.

[BachQ]

Grieg, Wedding Day at Troldhaugen

[Joe Barron]

I don't intend to get married again, and if I did, it would not be in a church. My first wedding was in a courthouse, so there was no music, but my first dance with my wife, at a party the next night, was to Frank Zappa's "Sofa."

That said, I always thought the finale of Nielsen's Third Symphony would work beautifully on organ. I think it would wind up any service very appropriately — that is, when you're walking up the aisle, not down.

[Solitary Wanderer]

My wedding music was:

Family & Friends arriving ~ Kay Gardener & Sunwomyn Ensemble - Garden of Ecstasy.

Processional ~ Bach - Gavotte en Rondeau from Lute Suite #4 performed by John Williams.

Signing ~ Bach - Wachet Auf! performed by John Williams.

Recessional [was intended to be...] ~ Bach Prelude from Lute Suite #4 performed by John Williams BUT, the friend in charge of the music [despite having written instructions from me ] must have hit disc exchange after the signing so we got Telemann's Tafelmusik instead which was meant for the mingling afterwards.

As a professional wedding photographer I'm always interested in peoples wedding music choices. You'd be surprised at how banal it can be. Really anything goes these days. I love hearing Wagner's Bridal March from Lohengrin.

I hate dislike immensely hearing that We go Together song from the Grease movie. Another couple recently had the KISS song I Was Made For Loving You. 

[marvinbrown]

I love hearing Wagner's Bridal March from Lohengrin.

  I could not agree more  0:) .

  marvin

[Mark]

My wife's grandfather was once an elder of a Christian free church, and also the organist. A couple requested from him, for the occasion of their wedding, ' ... that Bach Cello Suite No. 1'. To which he replied, 'What? All of it?' They meant, of course, just the Prelude.

[Joe Barron]

My wife's grandfather was once an elder of a Christian free church,

Do you mean a free church for Christians, or a church free of Christians? I'd join the latter ... 

[hornteacher]

In 14 years of marriage my adoring wife has only used the "Spouse Veto" twice.

The first was at our wedding when I wanted to use Cage's 4'33" during the ceremony music.  No dice.  We used "Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral" for the entrance and "Promenade" from "Pictures at an Exhibition" for the exit.  It worked great but I still think with all the music majors there the John Cage would have been clever.

The second veto came in naming our daughter whom I wanted to call Claire Annette (clarinet).  I kept trying to point out that she would never use her middle name and therefore only go by Claire but I wasn't convincing enough.

Oh well.  She's totally okay with the Hilary Hahn crush so I guess I can't complain.  

[Renfield]

The second veto came in naming our daughter whom I wanted to call Claire Annette (clarinet).  I kept trying to point out that she would never use her middle name and therefore only go by Claire but I wasn't convincing enough.

"Oh boy", she must have said upon hearing that suggestion. And with apologies for that most likely horrible attempt at a joke on the concept, may I ask what you did call your daughter, after all? Hopefully not Hilary?

On-topic, music for a wedding? Why, Mahler's 5th Bruckner's 4th err, can I have the Tchaikovsky 4th, at least? No? Awww.

(In other words, I'm not especially concerned about the subject, to be frank. Especially given the fact that I am unlikely to marry conventionally, if I can get away with it; or even not marry at all, even!)

[hornteacher]

"Oh boy", she must have said upon hearing that suggestion. And with apologies for that most likely horrible attempt at a joke on the concept, may I ask what you did call your daughter, after all? Hopefully not Hilary?

Lauren.  Pretty simple.  My wife's choice though.  In marriage that's what we call "compromise".

[Renfield]

Lauren.  Pretty simple.  My wife's choice though.  In marriage that's what we call "compromise".

Point acknowledged. And a nice name, too.

[Rabin_Fan]

In 14 years of marriage my adoring wife has only used the "Spouse Veto" twice.
The first was at our wedding when I wanted to use Cage's 4'33" during the ceremony music.  No dice.  We used "Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral" for the entrance and "Promenade" from "Pictures at an Exhibition" for the exit.  It worked great but I still think with all the music majors there the John Cage would have been clever.
The second veto came in naming our daughter whom I wanted to call Claire Annette (clarinet).  I kept trying to point out that she would never use her middle name and therefore only go by Claire but I wasn't convincing enough.
Oh well.  She's totally okay with the Hilary Hahn crush so I guess I can't complain.   

I thought you weren't married and wanted Hilary hahn to marry you.

[hornteacher]

I thought you weren't married and wanted Hilary hahn to marry you.

It's called make-believe.   

My wife is the sweetest person on the planet.  She'd have to be to put up with me all these years.  She thinks my crush on Hahn is cute but it's not anymore serious than her crush on George Clooney.  We're just celebrity daydreaming.

[Cato]

I composed my own Wedding March, but with the restrictions of a small-town organist in mind.  She played it passably in the event, but later I hired a better organist to record a larger version of it as an anniversary present.

Recently my brother's sister-in-law was married, and wanted Joachim Raff's March from the Symphony #5 (Leonore) as her wedding march for going down the aisle!

As the erstwhile composer of the family I was called upon to A. Find this work, which I remembered hazily from Bernard Herrmann's 70's recording, B. Find the score (?), and C. Adapt it for the organist at the only Episcopalian Church in Florence, Italy!

B. was solved by visiting the University of Michigan Music Library in Ann Arbor (90 miles round trip).

There were 2 small problems: the score contained what had to be an error at one point, where the lines ended up with 3 semitones giving out a Charles Ivesian Bronx Cheer.  This was easily fixed.  The other problem was that in the work, the March fades away into the distance, as the "plot" involves the Hero being taken away by impressment as the troops march out of town.  So I had to compose 8 bars of a razzle dazzle TA-DA ending as the bride hit the altar.

So I turned Raff into Richard Strauss/Mahler/Bruckner for the ending.

Irony: at the wedding, which I did not attend, being an impoverished Catholic school teacher, the bride was so nervous that she zipped down the aisle during the first 30 seconds of the march (which lasts about 2 and half minutes)!  The Florentine organist saw what was happening and simply hit a major chord to end everything!

My brother however did hire an organist back in California to record the entire March.  If I ever discover how you do it, I will place it here under the new Joachim Raff topic.

[Mark]

I composed my own Wedding March, but with the restrictions of a small-town organist in mind.  She played it passably in the event, but later I hired a better organist to record a larger version of it as an anniversary present.

Recently my brother's sister-in-law was married, and wanted Joachim Raff's March from the Symphony #5 (Leonore) as her wedding march for going down the aisle!

As the erstwhile composer of the family I was called upon to A. Find this work, which I remembered hazily from Bernard Herrmann's 70's recording, B. Find the score (?), and C. Adapt it for the organist at the only Episcopalian Church in Florence, Italy!

B. was solved by visiting the University of Michigan Music Library in Ann Arbor (90 miles round trip).

There were 2 small problems: the score contained what had to be an error at one point, where the lines ended up with 3 semitones giving out a Charles Ivesian Bronx Cheer.  This was easily fixed.  The other problem was that in the work, the March fades away into the distance, as the "plot" involves the Hero being taken away by impressment as the troops march out of town.  So I had to compose 8 bars of a razzle dazzle TA-DA ending as the bride hit the altar.

So I turned Raff into Richard Strauss/Mahler/Bruckner for the ending.

Irony: at the wedding, which I did not attend, being an impoverished Catholic school teacher, the bride was so nervous that she zipped down the aisle during the first 30 seconds of the march (which lasts about 2 and half minutes)!  The Florentine organist saw what was happening and simply hit a major chord to end everything!

My brother however did hire an organist back in California to record the entire March.  If I ever discover how you do it, I will place it here under the new Joachim Raff topic.

Great story!

The piece we chose was just over two minutes in length. The walk down the aisle was about one minute. So, my wife-to-be and father-in-law-to-be waited patiently outside the doors until about a minute in, when the music's central theme is repeated with a little more gusto, before beginning their walk. The registrar said (once the music stopped), 'Wow! That's how you make an entrance!'

[Cato]

Yes, that was how I had planned the Raff March: there is a little "Trio" section after about 90 seconds and after that the Bride was supposed to enter, when the March is repeated with all the stops pulled out.

Oh well!   

[Rabin_Fan]

I have helped friends at weddings before and we have used all sorts of music for processional & recessional.

P - 1) Charpentier Te Deum, Mouret - Rondeau, Nigel Hess - Ladies in Lavender   
         Main Theme, etc
R - 2) Liszt-Mendelssohn Wedding March (as played by Volodos), Korngold - Main   
         Title (King's Row), etc

[Rabin_Fan]

Oh! The Berlin PO & Karajan played at my wedding too. The hymn Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee was sung to the spliced BPO, Karajan 1977 CD of Beethoven's 9th Symphony as well.

[Novi]

I'm also another of the 'not-marrying-kind' .

But when my sister asked for suggestions for walking down the aisle, I gave her Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra. She wasn't particularly happy about that , made a face, and put the Strauss CD into a Haydn String Quartet cover. LOL, just as well I saw her do that - imagine putting on the disk expecting the Mosiaques's op. 20 only to get the BPO brass .