This question is really quite ambiguous. Does it mean the wedding ceremony or the reception? Whatever it means, I have a song for both. If I ever find the Leia (or indeed sexy Chewie) to my Han, I’d go out of my way to make the wedding the biggest and craziest party I’ve ever held. But first things first, the whole business of actually getting hitched. I discovered this rendition of a great piece of music a few weeks ago and it struck me that it would be the perfect song to tie the knot to, and I know that if my spouse-to-be agreed with me then it was meant to be.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to get married in Han Solo pants. It’s probably the only way anyone could convince me to get married, anyway. The thing about this track is that, if you didn’t know it was from Star Wars, it could easily pass as a nice piece of classical music, especially when it’s played by a string quartet. That’s the brilliance of John Williams: he made movie music big and orchestral. The only reason he sounds like “movie music” now is because everybody’s copied him and classical-style scores are so inextricably linked with movies.
However, John Williams started it all, quietly and sinisterly at first with Jaws and then catapulted his style into the public imagination with Star Wars. The scores of John Williams have become the classical music for an entire generation (maybe two). I know I’d much rather listen to the Star Wars soundtrack than most of Bach’s works, and I know that I’d rather get married with a John Williams piece playing than some run-of-the-mill overused classical piece, because I have something to connect John Williams’ music to. I have Star Wars and Indiana Jones and Superman to refer back to. John Williams’ music is backed up in my head by a million cultural referents and so has a much richer meaning to me than a standalone piece of classical music from three hundred years ago.
I don’t mean to trash classical music at all. I love most classical music. Beethoven, Mozart, Vivaldi, all the greats; I appreciate them and I enjoy them, but they’re just music. There’s nothing in the modern world to tie them back to. All the songs I’ve listed here so far have some implication in the real world, whereas most classical music (beautiful though it may be) has lost much of its cultural and semiotic value. That’s why I think movie scores are the modern classical music, because just as most “proper” classical music was written to be played in church (thus giving it its cultural context), today’s classical music is written to be played in its own cultural context, in the modern church: the movie theatre.
But that’s enough of that, now. On to part two of today’s post: the wedding reception. As I said before the essay on classical music, if I were to get married I’d make sure it would be a hell of a party, and what Irish wedding reception is complete without a bad covers band (with myself included of course) playing a little bit of Rory Gallagher?
I didn’t get the chance to talk about Rory at all during this thing, because I couldn’t find a place to fit him in. He’s got no real specific connection with my life; he doesn’t remind me of any time or person or place in particular, or anything like that. I just really enjoy his music. He’s floated in and out of my record player for years now and I’ve never really given him a second thought, never put much energy into analysing his music or anything like that, because I didn’t feel the need. He makes great blues rock, I like great blues rock, therefore we’ll get along, I think, Rory.
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