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Unbelievable! I had intended to write a semi-regular Blog post and thought perhaps I had let a half-dozen or more months go by between the first one and today - not three years! But perhaps that is fitting because I think I wanted to comment on the changes in how music is chosen and used in weddings now as opposed to earlier in our group's career or even a decade ago.

For many years people predominantly chose classical music for their weddings. Probably 90% of all music used was by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Vivaldi, and a few other famous composers. The music for processional, recessionals, and in the services probably was drawn from fewer than 25 or 30 reliable music (Trumpet Voluntary, Pachelbel's Canon, Wagner's Bridal March, Jesu, Joy by Bach, and a few more. This made for simple wedding planning and preparation. The music was traditional also in the sense that it could easy be ended or lengthened to match the length of the various processionals so that there would always be enough music, but not too much so that the bride and groom would not have to wait too long before an ending could be reached. Gradually pop music (which had always been used frequently for cocktail hours and receptions) began to be used for the ceremonies themselves and weddings tended to be a mix, or sometimes the prelude and processional pieces would be drawn from different genres.