Wedding Music Guidelines
The following recommendations are offered to aide you in preparing the musical portion of your wedding at the Cathedral:

THE MUSICAL STANDARD:
1. Appropriate for the occasion and place. Just as you would not expect to pronounce your wedding vows in street language, so you would not expect to hear “everyday” love songs within a ceremony celebrating the holy sacrament of Holy Matrimony.

2. Technically within the capabilities of the organist, singers, and other musicians. Is the music you have chosen technically, aesthetically and expressively good? Only consider those pieces that will be effective in a ceremony that celebrates the good, the perfect, and the beautiful. Even great music, poorly performed, will cheapen the occasion.

THE LITURGICAL STANDARD:
1. Generally, wedding music will be derived from the Church’s approved service pieces. In other words they ought to be in harmony with: proclamations, psalms, antiphons, litanies, hymns, and prayers.

2. The texts of any songs used should reflect a Christian world and life view. The songs should support the event, not distract from it. The text [the words] ought to reflect devotion to Christ as Lord. If it cannot, then it is out of place in a liturgical context.*

THE PASTORAL STANDARD:
1. Because a wedding celebration is a community event, any songs or hymns used should be included in the printed program. Make it easy for the congregation, when it is time, to sing together at this joyous occasion.

2. There will likely be non-Christians in your gathering; be sure to include songs that minister to those both inside and outside the faith. They can be included as congregational or solo songs. For example:

Love Divine, All Love’s Excelling
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
May the Grace of Christ
O Perfect Love
Amazing Grace
Psalm 23 –many settings
The Lord’s Prayer (Mallotte)
I Corinthians 13: musical settings

MUSICAL SELECTIONS TO BE USED
These selections have been pre-selected by the Cathedral and are fully within the capabilities of classically trained musicians.

A. Organ music for the pre-nuptial prelude+
1. Gymnopedie no. 3 (E. Satie)
2. Pastorale “To a Wild Rose” (E. MacDowell)
3. Pieds-en-l’Air (P. warlock)
4. Adagio in g minor (T. Albinoni)

B. Organ music for the seating of parents+
1. Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (J. S. Bach)
2. Sheep May Safely Graze (J. S. Bach)
3. Air from Suite in D (J. S. Bach)
4. Arioso (J. S. Bach)
5. Canon in D (J. Pachelbel)

C. Organ music for the processionals (wedding party or bride)+
1. The Prince of Denmark’s March (J. Clarke)
2. Trumpet Tune (H. Purcell)
3. Canon in D (J. Pachelbel)
4. Psalm 19 (B. Marcello)
5. JERUSALEM “Bring to the Lord a Glad New Song” (C. H. H. Parry)

D. Organ music for the recessional+
1. The Rejoicing (G. Handel)
2. Hornpipe (G. Handel)
3. Toccata (C. Widor)
4. Allegro maestoso (F. Mendelssohn)
5. Wedding March from “Midsummer Night’s Dream” (F. Mendelssohn)

E. Vocal music for the ceremony+
1. Be thou With Me (J. S. Bach)
2. The Lord’s Prayer (Mallotte)
3. O Perfect Love (hymn sung as a solo)
4. The Gift of Love (Hopson)
5. When Love Is Found (Brian Wren)

+ The Cathedral recognizes there are instrumental and vocal selections that may be added to this list. Please submit your proposed selections to the Cathedral Wedding Coordinator. Bear in mind that it should follow the guidelines above.

* “While it is clearly possible that musical selections designed for purposes other than liturgical worship (such as popular show tunes, love songs and secular ballads) may also express some dimension of Christian faith and may, in some cases, help people pray, the practical fact remains that, in the vast majority of cases, compositions which are the most successful in fulfilling the purpose for which they were created will usually be only minimally successful when they are re-directed toward a much different end.” (Quoted from the Diocese of San Diego)