Perfect Music for a Gay Wedding

Never have you wanted anything to run as smoothly as this. Your perfect gay wedding ceremony is not only momentous for you and your partner, it's a huge occasion for your guests too.

In many cases, this could be the first same sex wedding that most of them have ever attended. That practically guarantees that it will be the one remembered for the rest of their lives, no matter how many more gay unions follow. This was the ceremony that was novel and new, carrying with it a sense of history happening right here and now.

It's a beautiful binding of two people in love, which might not have even been possible a month, year or decade before. As campaigns lead to legal changes - equal rights in marriage rites - unions between gay couples will become the norm.

But right now, your gay marriage commitment is amongst the vanguard. Pioneers in marriage lines, which set the standard for all that follow. No pressure then, to get it right!

Most of all, your wedding day has to be perfect for you. Guests, history and trend-setting aside, the moment of your commitment in love to each other will forge an indelible memory. One that will be hopefully cherished for the rest of your lives.

And the trigger for that (for all concerned) is likely to be the music.

These are the tracks that will lock in all that describes what it was to be there.  Like a mental time capsule, hermetically sealed - containing the visions, aroma, atmosphere, feelings, everything touched and heard, the little looks and the grand gestures - there to be experienced again whenever you hear a particular tune. So what music will it be, picked to hold such memories for those who were there? The ideal soundtrack to a gay marriage.

Get that right, and all else will fall into place.

The tag-line here is The Best Beautiful Music to Celebrate your Gay Wedding. That seems to fit the bill for Gwedding, at least as regards the 'beautiful music for weddings' part.

The Pianissimo Brothers have chosen tracks very much associated with weddings anywhere. They include Ave Maria and Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, for those from a Christian background; move through the classics in the form of tunes like Air on a G String and Ode to Joy.

However, Gwedding isn't all high brow music. Also performed are romantic melodies from popular culture, for example The Way You Look Tonight, From This Moment On and a very fitting version of the Peter, Paul and Mary hit, The Wedding Song (There is Love).

Songs from the shows and movies aren't unrepresented either. There's Strangers in the Night and Unforgettable.

Each of these tunes are gently played as instrumentals. Arranged for piano, but bringing in woodwind accompaniment where appropriate. Inoffensive and fitting as background music; while uplifting and sublime if a track is turned up to underscore a focal point during the ceremony, or provide the music for the happy couple's first dance.

If string instruments are more your thing, then you could do a lot worse than Vitamin String Quartet's The Gay Wedding Collection. This would be my choice, as I do love this sound.

The Quartet have been going since 1999. Forget Beethoven and Bach, this group turn their instruments solely onto pop, rock and indie tunes. They've featured on MTV Unplugged - providing orchestral backing to 30 Seconds to Mars - as well as contributing to the score to Disney's The Nightmare Before Christmas.

This might provide a hint to what's on their Gay Wedding Collection. The track-listing is filled with songs traditionally associated with nightclubs and discos, but given a classical music twist.

It includes tunes by gay icons, such as Madonna, Shirley Bassey and Emmylou Harris; as well as openly gay musicians, like Elton John and Queen (Freddie Mercury). Also featured are string renderings of disco hits. There's Sylvester's You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), to which the veterans amongst you especially probably have long, fond memories of dancing like loons. (Unless the point is that you can't recall past vague blurs, such were the good times being had.)

Choose The Gay Wedding Collection by Vitamin String Quartet for a classy rendering of popular tunes for your same sex wedding. It will be appropriately sedate, while also being fun.

Gay Marriage: Classics for your Perfect Gay Wedding brings together full orchestral arrangements of the most traditional wedding music. For same sex couples? Not really. These are classics for any wedding ceremony, regardless of the genders involved.

There's The Wedding March by Mendelsson - probably THE most famous music for marriage ceremonies - and The Bridal Chorus from Wagner's opera Lohengrin, which has become thoroughly engrained in Western culture, as the tune which signals the arrival of said bride.

On this album, these two songs are played by the Royal Wedding Orchestra. If they're good enough for Prince William and Kate Middleton, they might make the grade for your wedding too.

The marital biggies out of the way, various orchestras then perform a collection of well-known romantic pieces from the world of classical music. These include ballet suites from Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake; seriously old-time dance tunes, like The Beautiful Blue Danube and The Waltz of the Snowflakes from The Nutcracker; triumphal serenades, such as the Allegro from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik; and quieter, more intimate tracks, touching upon Debussy's Clair de Lune or the achingly beautiful arrangement of Ave Maria.

Even if you think you don't know any classical music, I guarantee that you'll be familiar with most (if not all) of these. They appear regularly in the soundtracks of movies or as background music in commercials.

While undoubtedly traditional - and downright classy musical arrangements for your wedding ceremony - I am struggling to work out what makes it all particularly gay marriage music.

The performances are by world-class orchestras and choirs: Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra; Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg;  Sofia Boy's Choir; Strauss Orchestra Vienna etc. These are professionals in their field. Some of them represent the best in their country, or the world's primary players of an individual composer's music. No doubt there will be gay people amongst them, but not taking center-stage.

Amongst the featured composers, there are those who are known to have been homosexual - Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saens among them. There's a question mark over Debussy's sexuality too. But that doesn't account for the presence Mozart, Wagner and Bach to name just three. 

It seems that appropriate tracks were chosen for the music, not the sexual orientation of their composers.

In short, there's nothing gay about this album, except for its title and cover artwork. Cobra Entertainment LLC have merely packaged an admittedly great collection of classical music, in a way that appeals to the new market in same sex wedding planning.

Which doesn't mean that it's not a top choice for your gay wedding music, but only if you weren't looking for wedding music that is gay, in some way, shape or form.