first post... organ music

Hi guys/girls,

I've been reading the forums for about 6 months and finally registered. I'm not much of an accomplished composer (compared to some of the peices I've seen on here) but I do enjoy writing and making music.

There are lots of great opinions on here and so much musical knowledge. As a first post I was hoping I could pose a non composition question and get some help.

I'm getting married and I wanted to get some opinions on organ music for the wedding ceremony that is unique but still within the traditional wedding style. Any thoughts?

Erm, an organ transcription of "Air on the G String"?

Yeah, I'm not huge on organ music. Maybe Messaien's got something.

And congratulations, by the way.

how about an organ transcription of Ligeti's "Atmosphère"?

or maybe a transcription of some movement from Rite of Spring?

if you want "off the beaten trail for wedding music", well...


but seriously.. the person to speak to is the organist who will be playing.

Organ transcription of Ava Maria before the service is nice and I think Widor's Toccata is a good piece too ^.^

btw congrats!

Originally Posted by SCwriter

Hi guys/girls,

I've been reading the forums for about 6 months and finally registered. I'm not much of an accomplished composer (compared to some of the peices I've seen on here) but I do enjoy writing and making music.

There are lots of great opinions on here and so much musical knowledge. As a first post I was hoping I could pose a non composition question and get some help.

I'm getting married and I wanted to get some opinions on organ music for the wedding ceremony that is unique but still within the traditional wedding style. Any thoughts?

You should commission someone here to write an organ piece for you.

Thanks everyone for the replies. Great idea about commissioning a piece but unfortunately no time for that. Here's what we are going with next Saturday, ended up being pretty traditional, oh well:

Processional:
YouTube - Aria from Water Music Suite-Handel

Bride:
Berenice - Minuet From The Overture

Unity Candle:
YouTube - Bach's JESU JOY OF MAN'S DESIRING at the organ by Dudlei

Recessional:
YouTube - Widor 5th Organ Symphony Opus 42 No1 -Toccata

Widor's Toccata rocks! I'm gonna have that at my wedding

Congratulations on getting married, and with Widor's blessing, it is sure to be a happy endeavor!

Thanks for all the advice guys, the ceremony went great and Widor at the end was awesome. Very surprising to the guests that have never heard it before.

And not so surprising for those that have...

To me, the Widor toccata is the wedding organ thing. With the exception of the Lohengrin thing, I can't really think of anything more typical.

On the other hand, like so many things I know about the world I learned this one through pop-cultural osmosis. I really don't know if people in the real world do it a lot.

edit: oh, you're done. Congratulations.

You should try some other Widor stuff. Like his 7th symphony and other parts of the 5th are very cool. The Toccata gets too much play and IMO, itsn't that musically interesting.