Wedding music

For the song played at weddings frequently, see Bridal Chorus.

Wedding music applies music played at wedding celebrations, including the ceremony and any festivities before or after the event. The music can be performed live by musicians and/or vocalists or use pre-recorded songs, depending on the format of the event, traditions associated with the prevailing culture and the wishes of the couple being married.

Entry and ceremony

Music can be used to announce the arrival of the participants of the wedding (such as a bride's processional), and in many western cultures, this takes the form of a wedding march. For over 100 years^{[citation needed]} the most popular processional has been Wagner's Bridal Chorus

from Lohengrin (1850), often called "Here Comes The Bride", traditionally played on a church organ.

Some couples may consider the traditional wedding marches clichéd and choose a more modern piece of music or an alternate such as Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel. Since the televised wedding of Lady Diana to Prince Charles, there has been an upsurge in popularity of Jeremiah Clarke's "Prince of Denmark's March" for use as processional music, a piece that was formerly (and incorrectly) attributed to Henry Purcell as "Trumpet Voluntary".

Weddings in other cultures vary to this, for example in Egypt there is a specific rhythm called the zaffa. Traditionally a belly dancer will lead the bride to the Wedding Hall, accompanied by musicians playing the elzaff, on drums and trumpets, sometimes the flaming torches. This is of unknown antiquity, and may even be from the pre-Islamic era.

At Jewish weddings, the entrance of the Groom is accompanied by a tune called baruch haba. Siman Tov ("Good Tidings") is an all-purpose Jewish celebration song.

During the service there may be a few hymns, especially in liturgical settings.

At the end of the service, in Western services, the bride and groom march down the aisle to a lively recessional tune, the most popular^{[citation needed]} tune being Mendelssohn's Wedding March from A Midsummer Night's Dream (1826). Another popular choice is Widor's Toccata from Symphony for Organ No. 5 (1880).

Post ceremony

After the ceremony, there is often a celebratory dance, or reception, where there may be a live band or DJ to play songs for the couple and guests.

Some culture have specific post-ceremony dance cultures, such as the traditional Scottish ceilidh with traditional music (such as popular song Mairi's Wedding) and formation dancing.

At traditional Scottish weddings there is often a dance, after the ceremony, called a ceilidh. This ceilidh involves traditional Scottish music and has dances such as a "Strip the Willow", "Dashing White Sergeant", and "The Gay Gordons". "Mairi's Wedding" (aka "Marie's Wedding", the "Lewis Bridal Song", or "Mairi Bhan") is popular in weddings with a Scottish theme. It was written by Johnny Bannerman using a traditional Scots tune in 1934 and translated from Gaelic into English a year later. It has since been recorded by Kenneth McKellar, The Clancy Brothers, The Chieftains with Van Morrison, The King's Singers and others, with The Rankin Family taking it to number one in Canada.