Music for a Wedding?

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SoldierOfTheRock

Puritan Board Freshman
Howdy all,

So I am needing to find music for my wedding, preferably for piano - all we got. But anyway, I am looking for a few songs, outside the traditional wedding march thing. Some stuff to be played while people arrive and whatnot.

So, thinking about all this, I could think of only one place where people discuss classical music - right here on the PB! I would prefer music that has some kind of meaning, not just "neat", though I will give neat things a listen.

My pianist said she will try to take even some more complex classical music and beat the melody out of it.

So let me know what you think, or even some of the things you used.

Thanks again,
Joshua
 
We chose a score based on tune "Lauda Anima" for the processional and the Jeremiah Clarke trumpet tune (popularized by the Royal wedding of 1981) as a recessional.

We were encouraged to throw out the "Bridal Chorus" (Wagner) and "Wedding March" (Mendelsohn) based on the original context of those works, and that was very agreeable to us.

:2cents:
 
I will have to go check those out, and as for the original context of the norm... well, I will have to take a look at that too!

Thanks Jay,
Joshua
 
I've been playing piano for weddings for a long time. Here are a few of my old standbys:

To a Wild Rose --Edward MacDowell
Traumerei -- Robert Schumann
Wachet Auf -- J. S. Bach
Sheep May Safely Graze -- J.S. Bach
Poem -- Zdenko Fibich
Romanza -- Beethoven

Some other popular (and almost run into the ground in my area)
Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring -- J. S. Bach
Canon in D -- Johann Pachelbel
Trumpet Voluntary -- J. Clarke

A good recessional march (and very easy for a pianist) is "March" by Handel. It originally came from the oratorio Judas Maccabaeus.
"Chorus" from Judas Maccabaeus is also quite nice for weddings.

The Bach pieces all come from lovely chorales which have wonderful texts to them.

The Lord's Prayer -- Albert Hay Malotte (quite lovely and is has been arranged for either vocal solo or piano)

Hope this is of some use to you.
 
Take a look through an old hymnbook, or just listen to the piano parts during worship some time.

I found a large number of them worked pretty well, and we ended up just playing the instrumental versions of our favorite hymns for both seating time and her entrance.

In my humble opinion, The Church's One Foundation is excellent as a piano solo.

Good luck.*












*You know what I mean. :lol:
 
Take a look through an old hymnbook, or just listen to the piano parts during worship some time.

I found a large number of them worked pretty well, and we ended up just playing the instrumental versions of our favorite hymns for both seating time and her entrance.

In my humble opinion, The Church's One Foundation is excellent as a piano solo.

I like that one.

Another good one is "All Creatures of Our God and King"
 
I use a lot of Brahms and Rachmaninoff. In particular, Brahms, opus 118, 117, the Waltz Op 39 #15, and Rachmaninoff's Prelude in D Major. A wonderful tune (if you can track it down) is [video=youtube;VddChBHcF1k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDAvSmg89sA&feature=related"]Highland Cathedral[/url], though that works far better on organ than piano. I really like [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VddChBHcF1k&feature=related[/video], a song by Schumann, transcribed for piano by Franz Liszt. That is one that everyone likes who hears it. I know that there is a somewhat simplified version of this for sale somewhere.
 
Hey Greenbaggins, thanks for posting "Highland Cathedral". Never heard that one before. Gorgeous piece!
 
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