Felix Mendelssohn Wedding March - Organ Tutorial (Viscount Organs) HD

The final piece in this tutorial series is Felix Mendelssohn’s Wedding March from his incidental music to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, written in 1842, shortly before his death. The Wedding March opens with a big fanfare, which can be played on a solo trumpet or tuba if one is available, but equally on chorus reeds if not. The first couple of pages then call for a fairly full registration as the procession moves down the aisle, and there are repeats to be played if the bride and groom haven’t quite reached the door before the opening section completes. Following the big opening, Mendelssohn incorporates a number of quieter episodes that have the nature of contrasts or variations on aspects of the main theme, modulating into dominant or sub-dominant keys. As one nears the end of the piece there’s a gradual build-up towards the final statement of the principal theme. This needs some careful stop or piston management to arrive at something like the opening registration again by the time the main theme recurs, and the coda section can benefit from some swapping of manuals in the two hands in order to deliver contrasts in tone, as Jonathan Kingston ably demonstrates. For more about this piece and others in this series see our blog: https://viscountorgans.net/organ-music-for-wedding-and-memorials/ https://viscountorgans.net/organ-tutorial-mendelssohn-wedding-march/