Wedding Music - Recommendations for Program

I second the Bishop's suggestions (as husband of a minister, I've been to a lot of weddings myself), both as to what to have and what not. The Handel Entrance of the Queen of Sheeba is a great recessional piece, although I don't know if there's a version for strings without woodwinds. It is a good idea to speak with the leaders of your quartet, they will have plenty of ideas.

Hey It Could Happen !!!!!! HEE HEE

I used to tease my wife that I wanted "Black Dog" by the mighty Zeppelin played at our reception.

At the wedding ceremony for my second marriage about 10 years ago, we used a variety of baroque string quartet and small orchestra pieces. Among my favorites were Corelli's 12 concerti grossi (there is an excellent recording of these by Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra on Harmonia Mundi); the late violin concerti by Telemann; Haydn's 6 string quartets, Opus 76 (called the Erdody quartets), as well as the string quartets in Opus 20 (Sun quartets) and Opus 33 (the Russian quartets); and Mozart's string quartets #14-19. And you shouldn't leave out Bach: his sonatas for solo cello (BWV 1007-1012) are sublime, as are the orchestral suites #1-4 (BWV 1066-1069) which may be adaptable to string quartet.

Thanks. I'll have to dig through my collection. I love Bach's solo cello sonatas but don't know how they'd work arranged. I concur on the contemporary music drivel; I think the choice of music can really make the wedding the more memorable...

Don't think Led Zeppelin will make the cut, though.