Wedding Music

Happily many couples like to include a trumpet at their wedding. It creates a sense of occasion and there is a wealth of great and well known voluntaries to choose from. As soloists we all play at weddings and as a group the quartet played at a lovely wedding in a castle at Kent in the summer.

Last weekend we went up to Warrington to the wedding of one of our friends Katie Hodges. Katie is one of our regular deps who covers for us when one of us is unable to be at a concert. Her partner Steve Burke plays percussion with our ensemble from time to time and he will be playing some Purcell and Max with us at the Deal Festival.

Of course the music for their wedding was always going to be spectacular. Clare, Heidi Sutcliffe and Tommy Foster played a fanfare on natural trumpets and kettledrums. I was a bridesmaid so was preoccupied with not treading on Katie’s gown and walking gracefully in new shoes but everyone agreed it was a fantastic start to the ceremony. Later on they had a brass quintet and organ for the hymns and finally finished off with Hallelujah Chorus from Handels Messiah.

With so many trumpet playing friends at your disposal it’s easy to go a bit wild and I have often contemplated having a section of Janaceks Sinfonietta which features 9 offstage trumpets in C, 3 trumpets in F, 2 bass trumpets and a whole load of percussion. Hmm pretty noisy in your average church. Watch this clip and let me know if you think that’s a good idea or completely tasteless.

So Congratulations to Katie and Steve and hopefully they will get to play on one of our gigs together at some point!