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Wedding Music Glossary

Posted on 7/1/2010 at 8:08:56 PM

I will be adding to this periodically; thought I’d start somewhere.  I might put it in alphabetical order eventually…

Ensemble - a group of musicians

Processional - the entrance of family/honored guests and the bridal party at the beginning of the wedding ceremony, accompanied by music. The processional may be one piece of music for everyone entering, or it may be divided into distinct groups, each with their own piece of music.

Recessional - the exit of the bridal party upon completion of the ceremony, also accompanied by music.

Song - a piece of music that was originally composed/written with vocal lyrics (whether it gets played as an instrumental or with a singer singing the words).

Piece - a piece of music that does not have words.

Style - the way a piece of music is treated in performance. For example, many early jazz songs can be played in the style of a slow ballad, or in the style of a mid-tempo swing.

Genre - the overarching category to which a song/piece belongs. Those early jazz songs, regardless of whether we play them as ballads or as mid-tempo swing, all belong to the jazz genre. Sometimes the words “style” and “genre” are used interchangeably.

Classical - the genre of European art music, which encompasses several sub-genres. These sub-genres are defined by the time period in which the music was written.

· Baroque (1600–1760)

Example pieces: Canon in D, Air on the G String, Spring from the 4 Seasons. Example composers: Bach, Handel, Vivaldi

· Classical (1730–1820)

Example pieces: Eine Kleine Nachtmusic, the Elvira Madigan Theme. Example composers: Mozart, Haydn

· Romantic (1815–1910)

Example pieces: Ave Maria, Wedding March, Bridal Chorus. Example composers: Schubert, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Saint-Saens, Puccini

Jazz - the genre of American popular music from roughly the 1890’s through today which enjoyed mainstream popularity from the 1920’s through the 1960’s. There are a few important sub-genres of jazz:

· Swing (1920’s - 1930’s) - fantastic at weddings. Recognizable songs, good up-tempo rhythms, whether vocal or instrumental. Audiences love it - and it’s very danceable!

· Bebop (1940’s) much harsher, not danceable, and we never play this type of jazz at weddings.

· Cool Jazz (1950’s) - think Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” - great stuff, but a bit too mellow for a party.

· Bossa Nova/Latin Jazz (1960’s) - We do occasionally play this at weddings - audiences really like the energy and grooviness. Almost always instrumental.

· Smooth Jazz (1980’s) - think Kenny G. We don’t play in this style for weddings (except for a specific song request).

Contemporary Music - this is really a difficult thing to define, because it means different things to different people. I generally think of “contemporary” as meaning “in the same time period that is now”, so that would define contemporary music as whatever is being written and performed this year. Or, in the last few years. But, contemporary also seems to be a relative term; i.e., the Beatles are more contemporary than, say, swing jazz.

That said, every time the term “contemporary music” comes up, I feel a need to get a clear sense of what that means. Most of our wedding repertoire doesn’t fall under that loose category, mostly because of two reasons:

1. Contemporary music (and the somewhat related term “popular music”) usually hasn’t stood enough of a test of time to guarantee an appeal to a broad and sometimes unpredictable audience.

2. In musical training, formal education exists in the broad genres of classical and jazz. But the ways in which contemporary and popular music styles are learned and performed are much less predictable, so there is no standard for performance practice. This can make it difficult to ensure quality performances.

This doesn’t mean we can’t or won’t play contemporary music; it just means that it’ll require a bit of extra time on our part to figure out how to play it.  Usually this means we have to write it down somehow, in a way we can read, and then probably rehearse it.  Often the writing-down part can take a few hours (per song), especially if we have to do it by ear; hence the fee we charge for special requests.