Weird Wedding Requests

[J.c. Sherman]

Howdy,

Our brass quintet is playing a wedding where the bride has requested "the theme from Harry Potter, and something by Billy Joel."

Anyone know of any published arrangements fitting these descriptions?

J.c.S.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

Sounds like a good thread...I've been in a similar position more than once. It will be interesting to see the responses to this one.

Each time, I've (as politely as possible) told the parties involved that our brass quintet does not currently play the music of (insert pop artist here), nor the themes from popular movies. Here is our playlist, and a recording of some of our most frequently performed pieces for such an occasion.

For an extra $200 or so, I'll be happy to "whip up" a brass quintet arrangement of whatever they'd like, however.

[jeopardymaster]

"Something" isn't by Billy Joel - it's a Beatles tune. Nyuk nyuk.

Upon request, our first trumpeter worked up an arrangement of that famous duet fom the Pearl Fishers. Ho hum - until you consider that in the opera it's a duet between the tenor and the baritone, singing how they'd rather die than compromise their relationship for some sleazy princess who wants them to fight over her.

This was for a straight wedding, too. Well, between a guy and a girl, anyhow.

[Jobey Wilson]

Fortunately, we have two very experienced arrangers & copyists in Triton...they've had to whip up a number of last-minute arrangements for numerous Triton gigs. Definitely a pain when it happens, but it also makes the group more accessible. I am sorry, but I do not know of any quintet Harry Potter arrangements...if you can not find one, contact Wes at http://www.tritonbrass.org" target="_blank" target="_blank and perhaps you can hire him to arrange what you need.

One of the funniest requests I recall was for a wedding at the Taft School in Waterbury, CT a couple years ago...HUGE estate. We were asked to play the Muppets (bought the Jack Gale version) for the recessional while the newlyweds tore-up must of the lawn in an old, probably 1930's-40's buggy...hilarious!

Another funny one was a wedding in Boston a few years back...the groom's family was from Kentucky, so obviously, they wanted to hear "My Old Kentucky Home." (thanks again, Skip Gray, for the arrangement!) We played it during the prelude, the Kentucky crowd went crazy, and asked us to play another two or three random times throughout the ceremony. jobey

[GC]

Sorry, problems with post duplication. My DSL's acting up, and I multi-submitted. Kill this one, please.

[GC]

Playing with the 11-piece big-band style combo I've been with for 35 years, we get the occasional wedding weirdo. Once we had a request for "Whole Lotta Love." We don't have a guitarist, we have saxes, trumpets, trombone, and rhythm section, and our vocalist at the time was a female jazz singer. Another time someone asked for "The 12 Days of Christmas" and "Twas The Night Before Christmas" done as a rap (we're all tux-wearing white guys in our 40's to 80's except for the singer, and she's in her late 50's; you'd think some things would be obvious).

Once the maid of honor asked for us to do a medley: "You're No Good", "Help Me Make It Through The Night", "D-I-V-O-R-C-E", and "Shop Around."

Occasionally we get someone yelling from the back to do "Strangers In The Night" in 5/4 time. Of course it's always a fellow musician who knows the joke.

[tubatooter1940]

Nowadays, I-Tunes has most common pop tunes for a buck.
We had to do "Across the Universe" and "All You Need is Love" ( She wanted the yat ta da da da part on trumpet) for a beach wedding. I-Tunes supplied both tunes and all I had to do was copy lyrics and skull out the chords. I spent about an hour getting both tunes. John spent less than that memorizing lyrics.
It's pretty simple for guitar, 2 vocals and tuba - playing by ear.
The wedding was December 30th out on the beach in 45 degree weather. Strapless gowns and goosebumps were the order of the day. As usual the bridesmaids looked frumpy but the young bride looked smokin' hot - barefeet and all.

[GC]

Sorry, duplicate post. My DSL's acting up.

Please kill this one, too.

[Rick F]

A perfect Bill Joel song for a wedding would be (I Love You) "Just the Way You Are".

This was played at my sister-in-law's wedding many years ago. I think it was the first dance at the reception -- not in the ceremony.



Don't know if there is a brass quintet arr. of this however. Just about everyone remembers this with keyboard and sax (and voice of course).

[rocksanddirt]

For the Harry Potter....I bet there is an arragnement out there for small brass ensemble of some sort. Might be a simplified arragement?

for the billy joel, get a song book or a fake book with his stuff in it and whip something out.

While it's a pain, the ability to thrown down something requested in advance is a big customer service.

added:
a step towards one? http://www.musicnotes.com/harrypotter/instrumental.asp" target="_blank

[iiipopes]

Two items come to mind:

When I was in high school, I was asked to play with another person for a wedding: electric guitar and piano. The groom was disabled, so there was to be no "march." So we played a self-arranged version of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," with the piano playing the chords and I playing the chorale triplet 8th note sequences on a mellow electric guitar through a slight bit of phase shifter.

Second, in community band this season we just played "Serenade for Wind Band" by Derek Bourgois. Our director told us he composed it for his own wedding along the same principle: no "march." So it bounces between various odd/8 time signatures, including 11/8, 13/8 & 7/8.

Oh, yeah -- "Just the Way You Are" is pretty much a standard for more secular-styled weddings, and is actually a pretty good piece for such, whether at the actual ceremony, or the bride & groom dance at the reception later.

[Doug@GT]

"something by Billy Joel."

You could play "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant."

Doug "not if you want to get any more wedding gigs"

[Brassworks 4]

Strangest wedding request our quartet received was Theme from The Odd Couple. It was great!!

Another fun one that works really well for a recessional is "When I'm 64"

[gary]

Once we played Sweet Georgia Brown for a recessional and once the groom asked us to play taps when he entered. We talked him out of that. Also, for a processional we played the grooms arrangement of Pachelbel Canon that quickly turned into the Rite of Spring.

[jhedrick]

I can tell you from experience that it's not a good idea to do Only the good die young and dedicate it to the bridesmaids

[Tom Mason]

In a jazz quintet at a wedding of two air force officers:

Just Friends
The Lady Is A Tramp
Let's Call The Whole Thing Off
Here's That Rainy Day



Tom Mason

[ken k]

Had a bride ask for the Taco bell canon...not kidding...

Another wanted "Somebody's Getting Married" and "He'll Make Me happy" from the Muppet Movie. i actually arranged those two and we have used them more than a couple of times, especially "He'll make Me happy", which is actually a very pretty tune (just not when Miss Piggy sings it)

also have written out "Everything I Do, I do for you" from that Robin hood (?) movie and "All I ask of you" from Phantom (not that unusual actually). If it a request for something that I think we will be able to use in the future i usually do not charge them for the arrangment. The Muppet Movie tunes I charged for.

ken k

[Todd S. Malicoate]

If it a request for something that I think we will be able to use in the future i usually do not charge them for the arrangment.

Ding ding ding! Winner!

[J.c. Sherman]

Our brass quintet is playing a wedding where the bride has requested "the theme from Harry Potter...

http://davecushmanmusic.com/pdfs/BrassQ ... otterT.zip" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank
I don't know if this arrangement is authorized. Or even if Dave Cushman knows it is available on his web server (not linked from the HTML pages).

Hear nor see no evil... This might do it

Thanks!