Soundtracking the Royal Wedding

Walking down the aisle to Wagner’s ‘Here Comes The Bride’ and departing to Mendelssohn’s ‘The Wedding March’ remains a popular choice at wedding ceremonies - a precedent established by the Princess Royal Victoria and Prince Frederick of Prussia, who married at St James’s Palace on 25th January, 1858.

Unfortunately for Mendelssohn, he’d been dead eleven years by the time his tune became a viral hit - but he treasured his patronage by Victoria and Albert, once describing Buckingham Palace as “the only really nice, comfortable house in England.”

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how ‘The Wedding March’ had its origins not in Church, but Paganism; reveal how Frederick and Victoria’s union influenced American troops in the Second World War; and, with grim inevitability, give yet another airing to Arion’s execrable Queen Victoria impression. Brace yourself…

Further Reading:

• ‘What Is the Story Behind Mendelssohn’s Wedding March?’ (History Hit, 2017): https://www.historyhit.com/1842-mendelssohns-wedding-march-written/

• ‘How 'Here Comes the Bride' Became a Wedding Music Tradition’ (Time, 2018): https://time.com/5115834/wedding-march-here-comes-the-bride/

• Felix Mendelssohn - Wedding March: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7_m1om82o4

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

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