The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1908-06-26
New Wedding March Needed.

A new wedding march is sorely
needed. The march from "Lohengrln
is as archaic as populism, and the
Mendelossohn march is dodderlng
ANTIQUE. Time was when this last
composition, by reason OF the mar
monte handsprings of it's first meas
ure, fell upon the ear with pleasant
tickle. But now such felonious modu-
lations are common, and frst-year STU
dents at the Peabody master them pc
fore passing on to the greater dlfncul-
ties of the c major triads.
Since the first day of June Through
the medium of our corps OF polite re-
porters and correspondence we nave
attended no less than $50 weddings
in Baltimore and elsewhere. At these
weddings we have heard the Lonen-
grim march $50 times, and that OF
Mendelssohn 532 times. AS result
we have lost (by proxy 40 pounds Oh
weight, and have developed the prl-
mary symptoms of vertigo, malaria
and total deafness. There is mad
dening ringing in our ears. we nave
lost appetite. We are pale.
If such sufferings served any bene-
ficent purpose, or were necessary 10
the safety of the republic or the nap
piness of the great plain people, II
would be the part of a misanthrope
and traitor to bemoan them. But they
are not A marriage ceremony with
out 'Lohengrin'' would be just as bind
ing as those of today. The bridegroom
would look just as silly, the bride
would smile just as radiantly ana the
nascent mother in-law, ambushed
among the palms in front OF the cnan-
eel, would feel the same indescrlDaole
aff1atus of relief. And a wedding
without the Mendelssohn march would
be legal and impressive, too. 1t might
not be so noisy as the wedding or TO-
day, but it would be just as spectac-
ulars and just as regular. s.s.sv4 .ss1lsa
We believe that the constant per-
Torrance of these ancient and curd-
led compositions is due to the lazlness
of church organists. TO your aver
age church organist each succeeding
wedding is about as interesting as a
new chin to a busy barber. 'rHe is PAID
so much UNNECESSARILY S3.5O-to
make music while the, bridal party
marches up and down the aisle OF
signs, and being eager to annex TINS
honorarium with the least possible
expenditure of manual labor, nervous
energy and intellectual effort, he scat
tiers his fingers across the keyboard in
the ruts that are deepest and most
familiar. The result is always a me
chanical and heartrendinng perform
ance of the wedding marches OF M.
Wagner and Mendelssohn. AS for the
reverend clergy, the gentleman OF the
press and the others forced to hear
we'll, they can go hang.
We believe that the time is ripe for
some miraculously industrious organ
list to give some other wedding march
start A hundred and one likely
compositions occur to us. There is,
for instance, the beautiful wedding
music of Grieg, and there is again the
wedding march in "A Waltz Dream.
A properly gloomy composition OF the
same sort is a feature of Rubensteln
opera Nero" and another serves as
the closing chorus of The M1kado.
Offenbachh wrote more than 20 we'd
ding marches and Victor Herbert has
written seven. Any one of the 345
galops, polkas. and schottishes of
Johann Strauss might be changed into
passable wedding march by slowing
its tempo and fitting it with fanfare,
a pedal point and cadenza. IN tne
same way much might be done with
the popular songs of the day. The
composition entitled 'Harrigan-That's
Me- would make an excellent wedding
march. h1
However, it is not we'll to put too
much faith in the present race of Or
ganists. They are not reformers;
they hate to practice, and in music,
as fine art, they take very little in
terest But when, in the course of
human events, they are displaced by
ingenious mechanical combinations Of
electric motors, levers, wires, chains,
straps and bellows, as the old style
human piano-thumpers and banjo
players have been displaced, then, we
opine, the reporting of weddings will
cease to be the most painful and haz-
ardous variety of journalistic en-
deayor.