Review

Charles Gounod
Wedding March: for 1–3 trombones and organ

Halberstadt, , Germany
Publisher: Musikverlag Bruno Uetz
Date of Publication: 2008

Score and parts.

Primary Genre: Chamber Music

Wedding March  was composed ‘at the express desire of her Majesty Queen Victoria’ for the wedding of HRH the Duke of Albany and HRH the Princess Helen of Waldeck. Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, was Queen Victoria’s youngest son. He married Princess Helen at St George’s Chapel, Windsor in 1882. Their daughter, Princess Alice, died in 1981. She was Queen Victoria’s last surviving grandchild.

After a short maestoso introduction, the organ plays a slightly outré theme in C major, a cousin of the C major fugue in Book 1 of Bach’s Well-Tempered Klavier, which is then treated canonically. It is joined by alto, tenor and bass trombones in unison, which play ‘God Save the Queen’, first in F, then in C, accompanied by some development of the initial subject. This curious piece is of more historic than musical interest. It appears that it was played by organ alone at the wedding, and may never have been performed in its original form.

-Keith Davies Jones
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada