From: mwj@beta.lanl.gov (William Johnson)
Subject: Re: Wedding music suggestions?
Summary: Wedding != concert, in case it isn't obvious ... 
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 19:44:48 GMT

In article <7131@lib.tmc.edu> garretso@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu (Leon T. Garretson) writes:

(Amidst all the flamage, an actual suggestion ... thanks!)

>	OK here's a suggestion. Widor: Toccata from Symphony #5 (?) for
>	organ. Pretty tough to play but on the occasions I've heard it
                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                      (watch carefully...)
>	at weddings the bride and groom had to wait on the steps of the
>	church for the guests to leave as they all sat there entranced,
>	listening to the music. A REAL BIG BLOW as some would say.

Which evokes certain painful memories from my own wedding.

My Bach-loving wife tried to arrange for an all-Baroque prelude and postlude at
our wedding and picked out the music accordingly (with well-intended but
misdirected help from yours truly).  Problem is, the organist was a friend of 
the family, and NOT a professional musician.  She had been pressed into service
through a combination of familial pressures and financial need, and no way was
she up to the level of proficiency required for the music that she was asked
(and agreed) to play.  The result was considerably less than satisfying.  I
remember standing at the altar watching my bride come down the aisle, wincing
inwardly at what I heard the organ producing, and hoping that the wince was
all internal so that nobody would think it was *Emily* making me wince ...

Meanwhile, the vocal music *during* the wedding proceeded.  I married into a
family of singers, and my wife's brother and sister gave us a wedding present
of the standard love duet from _Magic Flute_ (can't remember its name), with
watered-down (and ultimately satisfactory) accompaniment from the same
organist.  It was *very* proficiently performed ... and it's what people
remember from the wedding, rather than the two of us getting hitched.

So here we have a two-ended bomb-out: one set of poor music resulting from an
attempt to get a non-virtuoso to perform virtuosic music, and a performance by
people who *were* virtuosi that detracted from the central theme of the wedding
itself.  I learned from this the lesson that a wedding isn't a concert and
(IMHO) shouldn't be constructed in such a way as to imitate one.  Sure, the
Lohengrin and MSND music are trite beyond imagining, drawn from possibly
inappropriate contexts, and less rewarding for performer and possibly listeners
as well.  They are also, however, things that EVERY organist can play, and has
probably played zillions of times.  (You too may be expected to ask favors of
family friends at wedding time ...)  Furthermore, they don't overwhelm the
wedding ceremony itself.

Make no mistake: I am not endorsing these pieces for use in the original 
poster's wedding, or any other.  I am merely attempting to point out that 
concert-quality music at a wedding is not necessarily a desirable thing, even
if you happen to be able to find performers to bring it off.

-- 
Bill Johnson				| "This is a bit complicated, so let
Los Alamos National Laboratory		| me explain it backwards."  (first
Los Alamos, New Mexico USA		| line of a memo from a fellow Los
!cmcl2!lanl!mwj (mwj@lanl.gov)		| Alamos physicist who will go unnamed)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical