Wedding music

From ArticleWorld

Wedding music plays during a bride’s walk down the aisle during the marriage ceremony. The type of music played varies by country and culture.

Traditional Western weddings

From the 16th-20th centuries in Europe and America, the bride typically walked alone down the aisle to slow music and returned up the aisle to more upbeat music.

The most popular and well-known choice for the processional was Wagner’s Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin. This is often called “Here Comes the Bride.” During the recessional, popular choices included Mendelssohn’s Wedding March from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Widor’s toccata from Symphony no 5. Often when the couple leaves, the church rings bells.

During the reception, the newlyweds often enter to music and choose a song with significant meaning for their first dance.

Civil wedding ceremonies typically do not include music.

Other wedding music traditions

Other religions and nations have a variety of wedding music traditions:

• During a Jewish wedding, a baruch habba is played during the bride’s entrance. The traditional dance after the ceremony is the hora, a circle dance where men circle the groom and women circle the bride.
• During Egyptian weddings there is a zaffa, a specific rhythm. A belly dancer, accompanied by musicians, often leads the bride to the Mosque.
• In the deep south of the United States, before slaves were freed, they couldn’t receive a Christian marriage. Rather, they jumped over a broomstick. This tradition is sometimes carried on today.

Popular wedding music

• Wedding marches in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” and Mendelssohn’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
• Bach’s “Wedding Cantata.”
• Smetana’s opera, “The Bartered Bride.”
• Goldmark’s “Rustic Wedding Symphony.”
• Tippett’s “The Midsummer Marriage.”
• Mairi’s Wedding, also known as the Lewis Bridal Song, written by Hugh S Robertson. It is popular in weddings with a Scottish theme.
• Come Write Me Down, the traditional English wedding song is also known as “The Second Answer is Better.”
• The Hawaiian Wedding Song was popularized in Elvis’ Presley’s 1961 movie “Blue Hawaii.” It was originally written in Hawaiian by Charles E. King in 1926