As we enter September the summer wedding season is drawing to a close, and the relentless pace of weekend, after weekend of ceremonies and receptions for my string quartet is finally settling into a more relaxed tempo. Time now to draw breath and take stock of the past four months. Of course, one can conclude that despite the recession and reported decreases in nuptials, the wedding business is still alive and well. But it’s the musical choices made by prospective brides and grooms that are of greater interest here.

First of all, what counts for 'classical' these days seems fairly limited. The number of brides who request to walk down the aisle to Pachelbel’s Canon amounts to probably half to two thirds of our clients. Not that I’m complaining – the harmonic structure of the canon means that it’s possible to stop the piece on a nice tonic chord every two bars, so whether the bride has 20 bridesmaids and an elaborate and lengthy entrance, or races to the alter in 20 seconds, the music works just as well.

It will come as no surprise that other frequently requested works at various points throughout the ceremony include Bach’s 'Air on the G String', Handel’s Water Music and 'Arrival of the Queen of Sheba', 'Spring' from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik.

More interesting is that in the years I have been playing at weddings, there has been a marked increase in requests for pop music arranged for string quartet during the ceremony. This is nothing new to the reception, of course, where it’s expected that a broadly classical ceremony will give way to a more relaxed popular and jazz vibe.

Still, this season alone we have had two requests for Aerosmith’s 'I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing' for the bride’s entrance (more effective than one would ever imagine having listened to Steven Tyler’s warbling vocal performance) and two for Des’ree’s 'Kissing You' (made popular by Baz Luhrmann’s film Romeo and Juliet). So far so normal – after all, both songs are associated with popular movie love affairs. In this category, too, have been requests for Bryan Adams’s '(Everything I Do) I Do it for You', Beyoncé’s 'Halo', Sting’s 'Fields of Gold' and Elton John’s 'Your Song'. A little more off the beaten track, however, was a request for John Williams’s Star Wars theme (a shadow of its full power when stripped of the brass section) and the main (very minor and minimal) theme from the recent and torturously sober Batman Begins film by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. 

Given that most of the pop tunes above are now over 20 years old, I suppose they do at least count as ‘classic’ if not ‘classical’. But I still wonder, when receiving these requests, why on earth the bride and groom have decided on a classical string quartet when what they really need is either a band or a recording of the tune in question.

Still, for weddings tradition is key, and in the 21st century, if the soundtrack has changed, the look remains staunchly old school. So the bride continues to wear white to the registry office and the quartet scraping away in the corner promote an image of 19th century drawing rooms – as the strains of Aerosmith waft over the hats and fascinators.

Five popular choices for wedding ceremony music:

Pachelbel Canon
Handel Water Music
Handel 'Arrival of the Queen of Sheba' from Solomon
Bach 'Air on the G String'
Delibes 'Flower Song’ from Lakmé

Five of the more quirky choices:

Aerosmith 'I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing'
Star Wars Main Title
Leonard Cohen 'Hallelujah'
Journey 'Don't Stop Believin'
Barber Adagio for Strings (possibly better for a funeral…)