Today marks the first day of my wedding season and for the majority of Saturdays between now and the end of the summer I shall be playing the organ for marriage services. Most of these will be at a picturesque 12th Century church a few miles from Heathrow Airport. The entrance and exit music is generally "traditional" (ie Wagner's Bridal Chorus and Mendelssohn's "Wedding March) although today was a little more ambitious with the Widor Toccata. The choir generally sing an anthem at the signing of the register, although it is becoming more frequent to have a CD played (we have Phil Collins singing "A Groovy Kind Of Love" in July!).
One thing that is noticeable people's lack of hymn knowledge. The choice seems to be almost always perm three from "Lord of the Dance", "All Things Bright And Beautiful", "Amazing Grace", "Morning Has Broken" and "Sing Hosanna". Obviously Joe Public probably doesn't go to church and almost certainly - private school excepted - will not have come across many hymns at school. I see part of my job as a music teacher at a private school to keep the traditional hymns alive. This is something that seems to work very well lower down the school, although higher up the most noise made by pupils is the slamming of books down at the end.
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