Princeton String Quartet

When choosing music for your wedding, consider the mood you wish to create. Most brides select a triumphal processional such as the Trumpet Tune while others prefer to float in to Pachelbel's Canon or the Air from a Bach suite.

Processional music falls into three categories: very familiar, such as Wagner's Here Comes the Bride, the Trumpet Voluntary, or Pachelbel's Canon; the somewhat familiar including selections from Handel's Water Music, or Bach's Concerto for Two Violins; or appropriate sleepers such as La Majesté by Telemann.

We play whatever is requested, and this list is only a guide. We can play most classical music, and if a popular piece is not in the standard repertoire, we can work from a piano score.

Because guests arrive early at weddings, as a quartet, trio, or duet, we usually start playing upbeat classical music 20-30 minutes before the ceremony and continue until someone signals us to begin the selected ceremony music. Weddings often start a little late, and it is vital that there be no awkward breaks before the processional.

Processional Music

Pachelbel (Canon in D)
Wagner (Bridal Chorus)
Clarke (Trumpet Voluntary)
Purcell (Trumpet Tune)
Bach (Air on G String)
Bach (Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor)
Handel (Selections from Water Music)
Handel (Selections from Royal Fireworks Music)
Telemann (La Majeste)
Tartini (Andante from Trio in D Major)
Charpentier (Te Deum)
Vivaldi (Selection from Four Seasons)
Handel (Entrance of the Queen of Sheba)
Friedman (L'Chi Lach)
Bach (Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring)

Recessional Music

Mendelssohn (Wedding March)
Handel (La Rejouissance)
Beethoven (Ode to Joy)
Bach (Brandenburg Concerto No. 3)
Marcello (The Heavens Declare Thy Glory)
Bach (Concerto for Two Violins)
Mouret (Theme from Masterpiece Theater)

Musical Interludes During Ceremony

Schubert (Ave Maria)
Bach-Gounod (Ave Maria)
Bach (Arioso or Air)
Handel (Passacaile)
Bach (Sleeepers, Awake)
Bach (Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring)
Traditional (Simple Gifts)
Traditional (Amazing Grace)
Bernstein (One Hand, One Heart)

Reception Music

We usually play a mixture of classical and lighter music for the cocktail hour and reception, unless we are asked to play classical only.

Music from the classical literature for trio or quartet includes cheerful music by Vivaldi, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Vivaldi, Borodin, Corelli, and others.

Lighter music includes Strauss waltzes, Scott Joplin Rags, Gershwin songs, Cole Porter, tangos, fiddle tunes, show tunes, ethnic music or special music which you select. If you want heavy metal, we're the wrong group!