Was This Secular Music:

[dulcinea]

the wedding march of A MIDSUMMER'S NIGHT DREAM, the idem of LOHENGRIN, and the FUNERAL MARCH of that Chopin sonata deliberately intended to be used as sacred music?

[John F]

No.

[diegobueno]

As Ira Gershwin once wrote:

It's never too late to Mendelssohn
Two hearts are at journey's endelssohn.
Whate'er their future, they must share it.
I trust they Lohengrin and bear it.

(Lyric from Kurt Weill's Lady in the Dark)

[jbuck919]

No.

Correct, but the funeral march (in some kind of arrangement, I assume, was used at Chopin's own funeral). Churches have largely gotten away from the Lohengrin and Mendelssohn, and some even forbid their use at weddings.The Mendelssohn can at least be played in toto as the recessional_+ postlude, but no one wants to wait for the organist to reach what she considers an artistic stopping point once the bride ends her procession.There aren't that many church weddings in the US anymore anyway. Therefore gets mauled in various ways. Except for the RC church (and maybe the orthodox) who do not allow it, most weddings take take place in the location of the reception. I've only played for one wedding in the 16 years I've lived in north country, while in Maryland it was more like five a year.

[John F]

Seems like wedding music nowadays is whatever the bride wants. I've heard of a number of random classical selections (like the Pachelbel canon, now perhaps passé), rock songs if any can be found with appropriate lyrics, whatever.

[barney]

Seems like wedding music nowadays is whatever the bride wants. I've heard of a number of random classical selections (like the Pachelbel canon, now perhaps passé), rock songs if any can be found with appropriate lyrics, whatever.

O tempora, o mores!

[karlhenning]

Seems like wedding music nowadays is whatever the bride wants. I've heard of a number of random classical selections (like the Pachelbel canon, now perhaps passé), rock songs if any can be found with appropriate lyrics, whatever.

As long as there are weddings in the US, there will Pachelbel be played.

Cheers,
~k.

Separately:

[jbuck919]

Seems like wedding music nowadays is whatever the bride wants. I've heard of a number of random classical selections (like the Pachelbel canon, now perhaps passé), rock songs if any can be found with appropriate lyrics, whatever.

As long as there are weddings in the US, there will Pachelbel be played.

Cheers,
~k.

Separately:

Another example of a piece that is too long to be used for a processional, which is how it is always used. Ditto Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring. Almost everybody getting married only knows a tiny handful of classical pieces, and thing they're being sophisticated by asking for one of them. Yes, that sounds condescending, but people should be better educated in classical music than they are.

Interesting, when the Crown Prince of Denmark the march named after one of his predecessor was not used. Instead they made the inscrutable choice of "Zadok the Priest."

[John F]

I don't believe it has to do with sophistication, pretended or otherwise. Partly it's custom, doing as others do, so that the ceremony feels like a proper wedding with all the trimmings. And partly it may be that because a traditional wedding ceremony is a special occasion, with the bride in a white gown she will never wear again etc., it calls for special music. Since there is no liturgical music for a wedding, not as far as I know, appropriate secular music is used. Which brings us back to dulcinea's topic.

[Beckmesser]

When my wife and I got married in Dwight Chapel at Yale (oh so many years ago) an organist friend of mine in the School of Music supplied the music as his gift to us. Before the ceremony he played Bach's Toccata and Fugue in F Major (which sounded marvelous on the chapel's baroque-style organ). For the recessional he played the Toccata movement from the Widor Symphony No. 5. It was a lovely gift.

[jbuck919]

When my wife and I got married in Dwight Chapel at Yale (oh so many years ago) an organist friend of mine in the School of Music supplied the music as his gift to us. Before the ceremony he played Bach's Toccata and Fugue in F Major (which sounded marvelous on the chapel's baroque-style organ). For the recessional he played the Toccata movement from the Widor Symphony No. 5. It was a lovely gift.

Now that's a program. Bach is almost always appropriate, even in his non-liturgical works. In higher-end churches, the Widor Toccata is a common and excellent selection. Marcel Dupré played it for the wedding of the Duke of Windsor and Mrs. Simpson. You didn't say, though, whether there was a processional. That's harder to do successfully with Bach because he is definitely a composer you don't want to cut short.