Today in 1981, Lady Diana Spencer and HRH Prince Charles, Prince of Wales were married in St. Paul's Cathedral, London.
Included in the proceedings was a new musical setting of Psalm 67 by Welsh composer William Matthias, "Let the People Praise Thee, O God".
And don't forget to watch part 2 of this series where Diana calls Prince Charles (first name Charles) "Philip Charles Arthur George".
Labels: Matthias, St Paul's (London), weddings
I cannot commend enough the Episcopal Diocese of New York Liturgical Commission's document "Concerning Marriage".
It is a great source of clear thinking on the marriage liturgy.
One of the highlights for me was this explanation on why the Wagner and Mendelssohn aren't really appropriate for weddings.
Inevitably, this brings us to the matter of the wedding march from A Midsummer Night's Dream by Mendelssohn or the "Bridal Chorus" from Wagner's Lohengrin. The weight of secular custom behind these two pieces of music is so immense that we are aware our disapproving note may not be well-received. Clergy should consider, however, that neither of these pieces is, properly considered, sacred music. They are drawn from operatic contexts which are neither appropriate nor encouraging. The Mendelssohn piece occurs at the "wedding" of an ox to an ass, and the Wagner piece precedes the tragic death of the bride who has been unfaithful to her husband. If clergy decide to discourage their use, and we hope they will, it may be necessary to implement such a policy over a long time and in the face of considerable popular opposition.
Is it really wedding season again? Well, not exactly.
Wait -- hold the phone, "wedding season"? Is there a particular season for weddings?
There's hunting season, and there's the holiday season that we just (barely) made it out of. If a fruit or vegetable is readily available at a particularly high quality we would say that it is "in season". In all of these cases the "season" is when the getting (game, gifts, gourds) is good.
So it's a kind of "wedding season" in the sense that couples are trying to get good "venues" for their weddings. And where should these weddings be? Why, how about a church? The couples haven't been to one lately, or ever, but they figure, hey, it's pretty and our parents might like it.
I regularly encounter these couples at the church where I work. According to our wedding policy, many of them are not eligible for a wedding in our church, now matter how pretty it is or how much money they have.
If you want to get married somewhere, great! Try the Motel 6, or the Hilton down the street.
If you want to get married in the context of a worship service, how about the church?
Unlike your blond bimbo bride, the church is not just another pretty face. Nay, it's rather more than that. And expressions of extravagant consumerism really have no place here.
A past rector was once asked what he would like to be paid for officiating at the wedding. His answer? The same as what the bride paid for her dress.
Now, don't get me wrong, there are "faithful" weddings, and not all faithful weddings happen in liturgical churches, or churches at all for that matter.
But the wedding-industrial complex is out of control. Too many churches, it seems, are in the "venue" business. They're happy to profit from a default deistic tendency of the populace, and are poor stewards of the gifts and heritage of the church. Rather than attempt counsel, educate or edify (let alone attempt to construct any kind of meaningful God-centered worship around the hackneyed couple-centered wedding liturgy) with their human resources, these churches simply whore their buildings out to the masses.
Speaking of whoring yourself out to the masses, how about Canon in D?
I'm happy to report that my "Moratorium on Pachelbel's Canon at Weddings" group on Facebook is doing well. Here are some recent highlights from the wall.
Mariah Mlynarek from Michigan writes:
everyone frickin bride says "I really want something different, you know, not traditional........do you know canon in d?" and then I tell them that it is cursed and they will get a divorce if they have it played at their wedding..........it seems to do the trick
Jackie Lo from Australia relates the hate from down under:
when I hear "I've been dreaming about walking down the aisle to this song all my life.. but I can't remember what it is" or "'we need some music to kill some time" I know its coming....... Pachelbel's canon. So frigging lame!!!!! It's the worst song EVER
Kathryn Cooper, from Minnesota State, balked at the Canon she heard at her wedding rehearsal:
I stopped them immediately! I told them that if they want to get payed, they would stop... they all reacted "Thank God!" ha ha
Sarah Field's experience at a beginner flute concert:
The tempo was so slow that it took about 10 minutes to perform, no lie. By that time I was looking for razors.
Sally Hanton speaks on the musical literacy and levelheaded reasoning of wedding couples when she writes:
. . . I was asked to play as a solo cello at a wedding - of course, they wanted Pachelbel! Apparently the concept of "Canon" had escaped them...thankfully the aisle was short enough that I had only got to bar 8 by the time the bride arrived at the front!
Labels: weddings
Except for the sentence following this one, Sinden.org won't be updated for the rest of the month.
Right now I'm
Labels: weddings
At evensong tonight for the Feast of St. Luke we sang Psalm 67.
I'm not sure why we sang 67, but that doesn't metter much to this story. Actually, it makes this story much less effective. It's just that 67 isn't listed in my prayer book, so I'm just not sure where it came from. It is associated with evensong in the 1928 prayer book in as far as it is an alternate to the Nunc after the second lesson.
Anyway, Psalm 67 is also being sung at my wedding, so for me it was a Lukan Psalm convergence at my last evensong as an unmarried man tonight.
May God be merciful to us and bless us, *
how us the light of his countenance and come to us.
Let your ways be known upon earth, *
your saving health among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, *
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide all the nations upon earth.
Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.
The earth has brought forth her increase; *
may God, our own God, give us his blessing.
May God give us his blessing, *
and may all the ends of the earth stand in awe of him.
p.s. It's windy outside. It'll be 78º on Sunday.
I got caught in a very small isolated storm system this evening. I was impressed both by its power and by its small size when I scoped it out on the radar at home.
Sunday's forecast seems unchanged.
I've always thought that my own wedding will be one of the easiest weddings I ever do. And this is true of the service (I think), but not of the preparation.
And so begins the storm before the calm.
Looks like a strong storm system will pass through our part of the Midwest on Thursday, but forecast highs for Sunday are up to 78º and sunny. I've even seen one forecast with the high up to 81.
Gee golly.
The projected high is up to 74º the low, 54º.
What was previously a 60% of rain has diminished to 20%.
There seems to be a superstition that precipitation, particularly rain, upon one's wedding day is bad luck. But if you think about how seldom it rains compared to when it does not, it is actually more rare to have rain during one's wedding. Even more so during the wedding liturgy itself (while this understandably could be less than desireable if a couple has elected to hold their wedding outdoors).
Here's hoping.
Thanks to the folks at a major weather website and their 10-day forecast, I'm able to get my first look at the weather for my wedding.
High of 70º, low of 45º, 60% chance of showers.
Sounds like a typical fall day here in the midwest.
Additional data:
- Sunrise: 8:02 a.m.
- Average high: 65º
- Record high: 87º (set in 1908)
- Average low: 42º
- Record low: 25º (set in 1917)
- Sunset: on bachelorhood.
Labels: weddings
On YouTube you can watch bridal processionals from recent decades. It's interesting to note the variety in the processional music.
1999 - Edward and Sophie - Herbert Brewer's "March Heroique"
1986 - Andrew and Sarah - Elgar's "Imperial March"
1981 - Charles and Diana - Clarke's "Trumpet Voluntary"
So why, then, do modern, non-Royal American brides feel that they have but only one option? (At least in my experience. I have never been asked to play anything other than the Clarke.)
Among their myriad tasks, organists unwittingly carry on Diana's memory everytime a Jane Schmoe walks down the aisle in a white dress.
A number of churches choose to publish their wedding customary online:
- All Saints' (Fort Worth, TX) [PDF] - see page 11 for organ music details, including the "nuptial recital" the best name I've seen for the extended organ prelude to wedding.
- All Saints' (Lakeland, FL) - not actually the customary, but a place to request that the customary be snail-mailed to you. Weird. I suggest we all start requesting their customaries multiple times a day. Then, perhaps, they will just put it online like everyone else.
- Advent (Boston, MA) - stricly liturgical.
- Christ Church Cathedral (Houston, TX) [PDF]
- Diocese of New York - Contains a "Simple Wedding Ceremonial" and some common sense thinking about weddings. The reccomendation of "Ave Maria" as choral music is not explained.
- Emmanuel (Athens, GA)
- Palmer Memorial (Houston, TX) [PDF]
- Redeemer (Bryn Mawr, PA) [PDF] St. Andrew's (Canton, NC) - Organist paid only $100 for wedding and rehearsal. Ouch.
- St. George's (York Harbor, ME)
©MMVIII Sinden.org: a site for fun and prophet
