Brass quintet is an iconic sound closely associated with dignified events, especially weddings. The wedding circuit can be difficult to break into unless you get introduced to the main players in the field. So we had the crazy idea of getting started by playing for a wedding show.

It just took a little research to find that Roanoke had a bridal expo in February, and a little more to get connected to the organizer. From there, the Star City Brass Quintet was signed up to perform at the show. That show was today.

The bridal show was 4 hours long, which is a long time for brass players to play. We had to manage our playing and breaks carefully to make sure we didn’t burn out. We were able to play music you would typically hear at a wedding for all 4 hours of the show, with breaks here and there of course.

Wedding music can be broken up into several types: Prelude, Interlude, Processional, Recessional, and Postlude. It turns out there’s a lot to know about weddings, ceremonies and ceremonial music. Some of the music you hear tends to be pretty standard, but every couple also tends to pick some highly personal music that means something special to them.

Selecting the standard ceremonial music for our Bridal Expo performance was mostly fairly straight forward, but there was a lot of lee-way for selecting songs that represented a more personal flair. There’s no way we could play every tune ever played at a wedding, but we could select from representative styles.

If you are getting married, we can work with you to select the right music to create the right atmosphere for your event.

Below is a sample recording made on a cell phone of snippets taken from one of our rehearsals (not professional quality recording, and edited only for length). We’ve got some ceremonial music and some more contemporary music in this sample, just to show we can play a range of different styles. Our available repertoire includes hundreds of classical and modern tunes.

In order, the tunes are

• Rondeau by Mauret (Masterpiece Theater)
• Canon in D (Pachelbel)
• Sheep May Safely Graze (Bach)
• Die Bankelsangerlieder
• ABBA Medley
• Chattanooga Choo Choo
• Kansas City