Wedding Music

The pews are full of family members. A select few are wearing buttonholes . At the front of the pews the Best Man fumbles for the umpteenth time to check he has remembered the ring. At his side the groom glances nervously at his watch.

At the appointed hour the groom looks along the aisle and sees the bride advancing towards him. At this point the enormity of the occasion strikes home and he realises he has made a ghastly mistake.

He should have chosen some music!

Traditional Church Wedding

At one time every wedding seemed to announce the entry of the bride to the tune known colloquially as “Here comes the Bride”. After the service the traditional exit music was the Wedding March. Now if those are your choices all well and good. I'm sure most organists would be able to play them.

For reference, the “Here comes the Bride” is actually a chorus from the Opera “Lohengrin” by Wagner. The opera plot needn’t concern us here, but the marriage in the opera doesn’t last very long after the bride’s unreasonable demands on her husband – she asks him his name even though he asked her not to. However he does tell her, but leaves her shortly afterwards to live with a group of like minded individuals.

Another German, Mendelssohn provided the incidental music to Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and the famous Wedding March is found here.

I believe that it was a Royal Wedding sometime in the 1960’s which, through its being televised, brought the Widor Toccata to a wider audience. This is one of those pieces which divides the Church organists’ fraternity; those who can play the piece and those who would like to.
There is a tradition of French composers writing symphonies for organ and frequently these works end with a flourish of organ pyrotechnics. Probably the most famous example is the above mentioned Widor Toccata, but another piece worthy of consideration is the Finale from the Organ Symphony by Louis Vierne.

Civil Marriages

So, what music, and when?

1. Assembly of the guests
2. Arrival of the Bride
3. Signing the Register
4. Exit Music

Assembly of the guests
The music at this point is likely to be ignored by everyone, since the time will usually be spent by prople chatting. If you accept this, it would seem that the best course of action is to allow them to do so. Don't go for something loud to drown out the conversation. The only exception to this might be if the groom is a military man and you want to play his regimental march for his arrival.If you choose to have a church organist, then it might be an idea to tell him any music that would not be suitable and let him devise his own programme.
What is ideal is a collection of peaceful pieces. Having a full CD at your disposal means that should the bride be late (as if...) then there is plenty of music to pass the time. I went to one Church Wedding where the bride was considerably late and the organist was filling in by working through his repertoire. (The reason for the delay was the late arrival of the flowers - but I don't think the organist knew this otherwise he might not have played Edelweiss from The Sound of Music).

Arrival of the Bride
I would advise against going for something vocal, unless it is something performed live. There is always the danger that although the title my be perfect, the words may not be.

Signing the Register
Again, something which may well be talked over by the guests. However, there is always the possibility that the guests may sit up and take notice.

Exit Music - also known as the Recessional
If I could cite one cliche to describe this moment, it would have to be "Let the good times roll" and the music should reflect this. Both the Mendelssohn Wedding March and the Widor Toccata are suitable music at this point, but suffer from being over familiar.
Although the CDs mentioned in this article supply suggestions, might I be permitted to supply a few of my own?

My own suggestions for Wedding Music

Maybe you feel that the bride should enter to the sound of a fanfare, in which case there is a recent CD from Naxos full of fanfares. Imperial Fanfares (8555879) has a wide range including some from the 17th Century (Imperial fanfares, Processional and Occasional Music at the Imperial Court, Fanfares for Court Church Ceremonies, Trumpet Fanfares from Prague and even the Signature Tune of the Old Town of Bratislava. There are also some contemporary fanfares in this collection.

Sir William Walton wrote some stirring marches for orchestra and there have been transcriptions for organ of some of these. A personal favourite is which has been arranged by Robert Gower and recorded a couple of times. You could almost think it was written for organ in the first place. There is a fine selection of Robert Gower transcriptions of Walton's music played on the organ of Hereford Cathedral available on Priory PRCD 591, a collection which also includes the Coronation March: Crown Imperial. One of the other pieces on this collection would make a fine choice, even in spite of the name! It is the Prologue from A Wartime Sketchbook.This music draws on some of Walton's film scores for WW2 films. There is a CD available of the Orchestral versions on the Chandos label.

Some time ago I suggested that it was only a matter of time before some company put the last movement of the Telemann Trumpet Concerto in D on to a Wedding Music collection. It hasn't happened yet, but it is still a little known piece suitable for a wedding recessional.

Another piece which occurs on the Priory Music for your Wedding collection is the Finale to Louis Vierne's Organ Symphony No 1. My recommended recording for this one would be the performance on the Decca CD The World of the organ. This is performed by Simon Preston on the Organ of Westminster Abbey. It lasts for just over six minutes and scores highly in the tingle factor stakes.

Another suggestion for a recessional would be the March in D by T.W. Hanforth (4 minutes 20 seconds) There is a recording of this on Priory PRCD674, played by John Scott Whiteley on the organ of Sheffield City Hall.

The TV actor Jeremy Nicholas - although to refer to him simply as a TV actor is doing him a great disservice - wrote a piece called Toccata Giubiloso for his wedding in 1986. This piece can be found on a collection on Forum FRC 8103.

Remember that if you choose a piece as a Church recessional, that the congregation will need time to leave the church as well.

Perhaps this is the place to mention that you may choose not to have the church organ played at your wedding, and instead opt to have the pieces played on a piano. If this is the case then before anything is agreed, insist that the piano is tuned before the wedding. I have been in churches and chapels where the piano has been so badly out of tune and in such a state of disrepair it has been embarrassing.

There is one final point regarding having CDs played in a Church. Please make sure that the CD player and amplification equipment are up to it. Just because your ghettoblaster fills your room at home, doesn't mean that it will be able to fill a large church.

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