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It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for - you and your bridal party making a grand entrance and walking down the aisle. But what will you choose for your wedding ceremony music? Wedding music songs have the power to set a mood, evoke emotion, and give a moment of cohesiveness. Are you a traditional Wagner’s "Here Comes the Bride", Pachelbel’s "Canon in D" or Mendelssohn’s "Wedding March" type of couple? Here is a list of classic wedding ceremony music. Many of the songs can be used for processionals and recessionals, and/or serve as prelude music (when your guests are finding seats and waiting for the ceremony to begin) or postlude music (when your guests are exiting, and/or waiting in the receiving line).
To save a free wedding music song to your computer, just right click on the bold song title and choose "save link as".
The Bridal Chorus or Here Comes the Bride (Wagner)
The "Bridal Chorus" from the opera Lohengrin, by German composer Richard Wagner, is the standard march played for the bride’s entrance at many formal weddings throughout the Western world. In English-speaking countries it is generally known as "Here Comes the Bride" or "Wedding March" (though actually "wedding march" refers to any piece in march tempo accompanying the entrance or exit of the bride, notably Felix Mendelssohn’s "Wedding March").
The Wedding March (Mendelssohn)
Felix Mendelssohn’s "Wedding March" is one of the best known of the pieces that he wrote as incidental music for Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1842. This wedding music march is one of the most frequently used, generally being played on a church pipe organ.
Rigaudon (Campra)
André Campra was a French composer and conductor. This piece is a brilliant and elegant wedding processional designed to be performed during the procession of the bride.
Trumpet Tune (Stanley)
Charles John Stanley was an English composer and organist. This arrangement of Stanley’s Voluntary No.5 is suitable for concert use or on festive or celebratoty occasions such as weddings.
Trumpet Tune (Purcell)
At ten years of age Henry Purcell served as a chorister at the Chapel Royal. After studying with John Blow, Purcell became composer to the King (1677); two years later Purcell succeeded his teacher, Blow, as organist at Westminster Abby. Purcell composed incidental music for plays, several operas (including "Dido and Aeneas" in 1690), numerous anthems, odes, and three complete settings of the sacred service.
Trumpet Tune (Charpentier)
Gustave Charpentier was a French composer, best known for his opera Louise. The premiere of Louise on February 2, 1900 under the baton of André Messager made it the first new opera to be produced at the Opéra-Comique in the twentieth century. It was an immediate success, soon being performed all over the world and bringing Charpentier wide acclaim.
Trumpet Voluntary (Clarke)
English composer Jeremiah Clarke wrote music for the church and theatre. The work that has best stood the test of time, however, is his “Trumpet Voluntary,” originally titled “The Prince of Denmark’s March.” Composed for harpsichord, it achieved its best-known form around the beginning of the 20th century, when it was arranged for trumpet and organ.
Le Rondeau (Mouret)
Jean-Joseph Mouret was a French composer whose dramatic works made him one of the leading exponents of Baroque music in his country. Even though most of his works are no longer performed, Mouret’s name survives today thanks to the popularity of the Fanfare-Rondeau from his first Suite de Symphonies, which has been adopted as the signature tune of the PBS program Masterpiece Theatre.
Rondo in G (Bull)
The lively piece, "Rondo in G," was written by the famous 16th-17th century organist and contrapuntal composer, John Bull. This dance-like composition make a playful journey, soaring to full organ at the end. While it is a great crowd-pleaser, it has been attributed to Bull but probably composed by Richard Ellsasser.
Spring from Four Seasons (Vivaldi)
The Four Seasons is a set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Composed in 1723, The Four Seasons is Vivaldi’s best-known work, and is among the most popular pieces of Baroque music. The texture of each concerto is varied, each resembling its respective season with Spring representated in this piece.
Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring (Bach)
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, this piece is often performed at wedding ceremonies slowly and reverently, in defiance of the effect suggested by Bach in his original scoring, for voices with trumpet, oboes, strings, and continuo. Written during his first year in Leipzig, Germany, this chorale movement is one of Bach’s most enduring works.
Canon in D (Pachelbel)
Pachelbel’s Canon, also known as Canon in D major, is one of the most famous pieces of music by Johann Pachelbel. It was written in or around 1680, during the Baroque period, as a piece of chamber music for three violins and basso continuo, but has since been arranged for a wide variety of ensembles.
Meditation from Thais (Massenet)
Jules Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, his style went out of fashion, and many of his operas fell into almost total oblivion. Apart from Manon and Werther, his works were rarely performed. However, since the mid-1970s, many of his operas have undergone periodic revivals.
Clair De Lune (Debussy)
Achille-Claude Debussy was a French composer. He is considered one of the most prominent figures working within the field of Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions. Debussy is not only among the most important of all French composers; he was also a central figure in European music at the turn of the twentieth century.
Sheep May Safely Graze (Bach)
Johann Sebastian Bach was a prolific German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra and solo instruments drew together the strands of the baroque genre and brought it to its ultimate maturity. Although he introduced no new forms, he enriched the prevailing German style with a robust contrapuntal technique. Many people consider him to be the greatest Baroque composer, and one of the greatest composers of all time.
Moonlight Sonata (Beethoven)
The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, by Ludwig van Beethoven, is popularly known as the "Moonlight" Sonata. The work was completed in 1801 and rumored to be dedicated to his pupil, 17-year-old Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, with whom Beethoven was, or had been, in love. The work is by far the most well-known of all Beethoven’s piano sonatas, and is widely performed and recorded.
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