Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Processing the processional (music), Part III: Here comes the bride

Previously:
Part I
Part II: Getting traditional

A long lecture could be delivered to explain why you'll almost never hear the traditional "Here Comes the Bride" wedding march at a Jewish wedding. It would cover the intellectual history of nineteenth and twentieth century Germany, the Nazi propaganda machine, and probably a gossipy little side story on professional jealousy in the arts. The short version is that Jews of my grandparents' generation associate Wagner, who wrote the bridal march as part of Lohengrin, with Hitler and the Holocaust, and so most Jewish people won't play it at their weddings. Now you know!

(source)

But that's not why I won't be walking down the aisle to "Here Comes the Bride." Just from an aesthetic perspective, I really don't care much for the music—it's not my taste and it doesn't "speak" to me in any way. But I found something that definitely does!

Bride's processional: All I Want Is You
This is one of my favorite songs in the history of Ever. It's a great love song. But even though the lyrics are simple, they are apparently ambiguous—people say the song is about obsession and lust, or about God, about pure love... I don't want anyone to find themselves trying to interpret it as I'm walking down the aisle! So they'll be listening to this cover instead, which I'm posting because I can't embed the full studio version of the song without that incredibly strange video...


I think the Vitamin String Quartet can be pretty hit or miss with their pop covers. I like to think of this one as pretty much a hit, and I can't wait to hear this when I walk down the aisle.

What will you walk down the aisle to? How did you decide?

3 comments:

  1. first - (and I know this is late) congrats on being a Bee! Spaniels are my favorite type of dog!
    Second - I can honestly say I'm not a huge fan of U2 - but the string version of this song is AWESOME! Congrats on a great find, it will be so beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I *LOVE* it! I am all about taking an orchestral or string quartet version of a modern pop/rock song and incorporating it. Our processional will be to the Royal Philharmonic's cover of Phil Collin's "Groovy Kind of Love" but I will actually be wallking down the aisle to a different song - "The Day Before You" by Rascal Flatts :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love it too. Good choice. I've picked At last by Etta James - going for a bit of old school glam!

    ReplyDelete

Comment moderation policy: I delete spam and comments in languages that I do not read.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Widget for Blogs by LinkWithin