Trumpet voluntary

Trumpet Voluntary is the name given to some English keyboard pieces from the Baroque era. A trumpet voluntary is most commonly played on the organ using the trumpet stop, hence the name. Trumpet voluntaries usually consist of a slow introduction followed by a faster section with the right hand playing fanfare-like figures over a simple accompaniment in the left hand. In some instances, the Trumpet is replaced by the Cornet stop, or even a Flute stop. Echo effects are also used sometimes.

The most celebrated trumpet voluntary is the Prince of Denmark's March, a composition by Jeremiah Clarke written circa. 1700. It is properly a rondo for keyboard and was not originally called a trumpet voluntary. It is very popular as wedding music and was played at the 1981 wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer. This piece, particularly in a well-known arrangement for trumpet, string orchestra and organ by Sir Henry Wood, was incorrectly attributed for years to Henry Purcell. It is now known to have been the work of Clarke.

Wedding music

Wedding music applies to music played at wedding celebrations, including the ceremony and any festivities before or after the event. The music can be performed live by instrumentalists and/or vocalists or may use pre-recorded songs, depending on the format of the event, traditions associated with the prevailing culture and the wishes of the couple being married.

Entry and ceremony

There are many different styles of music that can be played during the entrance and ceremony. During the service there may be a few hymns, especially in liturgical settings.

Music can be used to announce the arrival of the participants of the wedding (such as a bride's processional), and in many western cultures, this takes the form of a wedding march. For more than a century, the Bridal Chorus from Wagner's Lohengrin (1850), often called "Here Comes The Bride", is the most popular processional, and has been traditionally played on a pipe organ or by a string quartet.

Some couples may consider traditional wedding marches clichéd and choose a more modern piece of music or an alternative such as Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel. Since the televised wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, there has been an upsurge in popularity of Jeremiah Clarke's "Prince of Denmark's March" for use as processional music; the piece was formerly (and incorrectly) attributed to Henry Purcell as Trumpet Voluntary.

Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer, musician, and television presenter.

His stage and subsequent film and television careers spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films and several award-winning television specials and issued numerous recordings. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of Old Hollywood by the American Film Institute. As a dancer, he is best remembered for his sense of rhythm, his legendary perfectionism, and as the dancing partner and on-screen romantic interest of Ginger Rogers, with whom he co-starred in a series of ten Hollywood musicals which transformed the genre.

Gene Kelly, another major innovator in filmed dance, said that "the history of dance on film begins with Astaire." Beyond film and television, many noted dancers and choreographers, including Rudolf Nureyev, Sammy Davis, Jr., Michael Jackson, Gregory Hines, Mikhail Baryshnikov, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Madhuri Dixit, also acknowledged his importance and influence. Astaire ranks as the fifth greatest male star of Classic Hollywood cinema in AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars.

Prince Hamlet

Prince Hamlet is the title character and protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. He is the Prince of Denmark, nephew to the usurping Claudius, and son of King Hamlet, the previous King of Denmark. At the beginning of the play, he struggles with whether, and how, to avenge the murder of his father, and struggles with his own sanity along the way. By the end of the tragedy, Hamlet has caused the deaths of Polonius, Laertes, Claudius, and two acquaintances of his from the University of Wittenberg Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He is also indirectly involved in the deaths of his love Ophelia (drowning) and of his mother Gertrude (poisoned by Claudius by mistake).

Role in the play

The play opens with Hamlet deeply depressed over the recent death of his father, King Hamlet, and his uncle Claudius' ascension to the throne and hasty marriage to Hamlet's mother Gertrude. One night, his father's ghost appears to him and tells him that Claudius murdered him in order to usurp the throne, and commands his son to avenge his death.

Burton Lane

Burton Lane (February 2, 1912 – January 5, 1997) was an American composer and lyricist. His most popular and successful works include Finian's Rainbow and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.

Biography

Lane was born Morris Hyman Kushner in New York City and studied classical piano as a child. At age 14 the theatrical producers the Shuberts commissioned him to write songs for a revue, Greenwich Village Follies. At some later time he became known as Burton Levy, and still later as Burton Lane.

He was known for his Broadway musicals, Finian's Rainbow (1947) and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965). He also wrote the music for the less remembered Broadway shows, Hold On to Your Hats (1940), Laffing Room Only (1944), and Carmelina (1979), the latter with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, who had also written lyrics to Lane's music for On a Clear Day and the film Royal Wedding (1951). Lane mainly wrote music for films, such as Dancing Lady, Babes on Broadway, writing for more than 30 movies.