Suggested Music

This page is being revised by adding embedded music recordings. Until that work is complete, please excuse any formatting errors.

This list of appropriate and common choices for music at a wedding liturgy is provided for your convenience. If you have requests that differ from these suggestions, please discuss your ideas with the Liturgical Music Director, Mark Bauman. In general, almost any song from the parish’s Glory & Praise hymnal would be suitable.

Instead of songs, if you would prefer to have one or more of the proper antiphons from the Nuptial Mass chanted in either English or Latin, the music director can provide that too.

Many pieces may be played on either the organ or the piano, whichever you prefer. Some pieces might also be played on a synthesizer keyboard that replicates the sound of acoustic instruments; some embedded recordings provide different instrumentation options for you to listen to when choosing how a piece of music could be played. Also keep in mind that in many cases the musicians at your wedding will adjust the music's performance length so that it doesn't last much longer than the procession or the liturgical moment that it has been chosen to accompany.

Some music suggestions below have embedded recordings that you can listen to. Those are personal recordings I have made at the church to give you a sense of what it would really sound like at your wedding, or to provide you with a basis for comparing organ versus piano, or piano solo versus piano and strings, for example. For vocal music, the embedded tracks provide you with samples of the songs actually being sung at a parish wedding by one of our soloists. If there isn't an embedded recording yet, click on the title of a piece of music to listen to a sample recording on YouTube made by the music publisher, composer, or someone else.

PRELUDE MUSIC

Starting fifteen minutes before the wedding liturgy, while guests are being seated, prelude music may consist of contemporary or traditional Christian songs sung by the vocalist or soft instrumental background music. If you have requests for prelude music, please mention them; otherwise, these pieces will be selected by the accompanist. Strictly secular songs that have no Christian meaning are not permitted. Please bring up your requests when planning the music with the music director.

In the absence of requests by you, the prelude songs and instrumentals below would likely be chosen from to be sung or played, excluding any titles that have been chosen to be part of the wedding liturgy's music.

Prelude Songs

Prelude Instrumentals

The Prayer (Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion)

PROCESSIONAL MUSIC

Instrumental Procession of the Wedding Party

Air (Bach)

"Gabriel's Oboe" would be played on synthesizer with string ensemble and oboe sounds. The embedded track above provides a sample of what it would sound like for the wedding party's entrance followed by the entrance of the bride, if this music were chosen for both processions. The bride's entrance would begin where the timpani (orchestral drum) sounds and the music crescendos. If this were chosen only for the wedding party's entrance, it would be played as in the first half of the recording, without the timpani or the crescendo.

Instrumental Procession of the Bride (instrumentals above can also be used)

Gabriel's Oboe (Ennio Morricone) -- This would be played on synthesizer with string ensemble and oboe sounds. Listen to embedded track above. If this music is not also chosen for the wedding party's entrance, then it would sound like the first half of the embedded recording above.

Some instrumental recessionals may be used as processional pieces. (See "Instrumental Recessional" suggestions at the end.) A liturgical congregational song may be sung instead of or following the instrumentals for the processions.

INTRODUCTORY RITES

(for weddings during Mass)

Glory to God

The first two options are well known by many Catholics in the United States. If you have a different request for a Mass setting or for Mass parts music, please mention it. Chanted Latin or English Mass parts are an option, if desired.

LITURGY OF THE WORD

Responsorial Psalm (after the First Reading)

You choose the psalm text from the list of wedding psalms; the cantor will sing a musical setting of that text from the parish music library while the organist/pianist plays accompaniment. If you have a particular musical setting of a psalm in mind, please mention it.

Gospel Acclamation/Alleluia (outside of Lent; during Lent a different acclamation will be used)