Product Description
Written in 1842 by Felix
Mendelssohn, the incidental music for William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's
Dream, Op. 61 was written
16 years after he wrote a concert overture of the same name in 1826 (Op. 21). The
incidental music was a commission from King Frederick William IV of Prussia and
consists of 14 numbers split into 5 acts. In between acts 4 and 5 is the famous
Wedding
March, which is
probably the single most popular piece of music composed by Mendelssohn (and is
one of the most ubiquitous pieces of music ever written having been used at
weddings services for nearly two centuries, as well as in films and television).
The first known instance
of the Wedding
March being
used is a wedding at St Peter's Church, Tiverton, England, on 2 June 1847. It
did not become popular, however, at weddings until it was selected by Victoria,
The Princess Royal, for her marriage to Prince Frederick William of Prussia on
25 January 1858. The bride was the daughter of Queen Victoria, who loved
Mendelssohn's music and for whom Mendelssohn often played while on his visits
to Britain.
The Wedding March was voted the 4th
favourite piece of wedding music in a Classic FM audience vote, with A Midsummer Night's
Dream voted the
167th favourite work in the Ultimate Classic FM Hall of Fame in 2020.
In fact, the music has not been outside of the top 300 since at least 2017,
with its highest position reached in 2021 at 107th.
Commonly used as the
recessional, it is normally played (in a stripped back version) on a church
organ. This arrangement, however, is of the complete number and, therefore, is
great for both weddings and concert alike.
Also, it includes alternative parts for tenor horn, treble-clef trombone/euphonium
and tuba. A recording of the music from the original soundtrack can be found on
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7_m1om82o4.
Other searchable terms: Wedding, Wedding Day, Felix
Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Dorothy Carew, Tom Daniel, Samuel Reay, Franz Liszt,
Vladimir Horowitz, Marche nuptial, la musique de scene, Le Songe dune
nuit dété, Hochzeitsmarsch, Ein Sommernachtstraum, The Big Bang Theory
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.