Wedding Ambiance

[OC Richard]

I know I have seen albums with titles like Celtic Wedding, but I don't remember by which band(s). Possibly the Chieftans.

Yes the Chieftans!

It's funny, years ago I was hired to play at an Irish-themed wedding and they had picked some of the music from that Chieftans "Celtic Wedding" album, not realising that it was an album of French music, not Irish music!

Anyhow I just came from playing uilleann pipes at a wedding, playing along with a small orchestra consisting of two violins, one viola, one cello, one French Horn one Boehm flute, one clarinet, and one keyboard doing piano sounds.

They played Jesu the Joy of Mans Desiring, Canon in D, a few Bach things (a thing from one of the Brandenburg Concertos and a thing from one of his Orchestral Suites plus other stuff I don't remember), and some interesting "classical" stuff I'd not heard before.

They had me play Highland Cathedral on the uilleann pipes! Odd but OK. And I played on a Bach gavotte which functioned as the recessional.

I've been playing at weddings for over 30 years and I always prefer it when people tell me the feeling or effect they want out of each piece and let me choose the actual tunes. The reason is that most people, when they hire a piper, are entering an entire genre they've never listened to. They usually know two songs, Amazing Grace and "that other one".

There was an interesting interview with John Williams, the famous movie soundtrack composer, and he said that the most important thing for each scene was to get the tempo right. When I'm playing for a wedding I'm the soundtrack, and the most important thing is to get the tempo right. It really doesn't matter much what the specific tune is, as long as it sets the right feeling.

When people do request specific tunes, it usually goes like this: I've been playing for an hour, then I decide it's time to play that special request. Often I have to research the song, find the "normal" music, and come up with a bagpipe arrangement. Anyhow as soon as I'm finished playing it somebody from the family comes up and asks me to play their special song! "I was just playing it now as you came up" I'll say. "Oh really? I didn't hear it" is always the response. Bottom line is the people doing the requesting never hear it anyway. And they often request such inappropriate stuff, for which they rarely know the actual name of.

When playing uilleann pipes for the preservice music of an Irish wedding I'll cycle through the three main genres of Irish song:

1) the "tin pan alley" stuff composed in New York like Irish Eyes Are Smiling. Many of these New York songs are little known in Ireland itself.

2) the 1960s Irish folk songs like Fields of Athenry. These are often beloved in Ireland and are the equivalent to our Peter Paul and Mary stuff.

3) the genuine Irish songs, from the sean nos tradition like Roisin Dubh. These are usually unknown to Americans but are known and loved especially by older people raised in Ireland, especially the Irish speakers.

To which I'll often add a fourth

4) compositions by Turlough Carolan, the 17th century Irish harper/composer, such as Sidh Beag Agus Sidh Mor. Some of these are quite lovely though they have odd-sounding names like Planxty Fanny Power and Carolans Quarrell With The Landlady.