Gisteren September 21
So, I feel like I should recap my European vacation, but it is kind of a lot to go over, so I think that I will focus on getting ready and playing Darren and Emilie’s wedding service. I might have some recordings of the pieces that I played in a week or so, so keep your eye out for that.
I have played a lot of concerts in my time as a musician. Between a hundred or so with my last band, a couple hundred in my church, and various other engagements here and there, I have a lot of experience playing live. I am at the point where I feel completely comfortable on stage, and usually can’t wait to start performing.
That said, I got pretty nervous before the wedding started. I was fine until I put my suit on. Something about that suit signaled that this was going to be a different kind of performance. For me, I get nervous when I don’t know what to expect. I know what to expect while playing a rock concert, and this is more important, I know what can go wrong and how to react to it. Really, I have had lots of things go wrong while playing a concert, broken equipment, forgetting the music, mics that shock you, etc. I realized that I have no idea what to expect at a wedding in a small church in the Flemish speaking region of Belgium
Another concern was that when I first put the suit on, I realized that I have never played in a suit before. I then started to wonder if I could actually play in a suit. This may seem like a stupid concern, but when you are used to playing in T-Shirts and Jeans, the more constricting nature of a suit was a concern. I also pictured my tie getting draped over the stings. So I immediately began practicing in my suit, just to make sure that I could do it.
I should point out that I was staying in the house/castle with the bride, groom, family of the bride and groom, wedding party, miscellaneous hangers on, and the like. So while I am practicing, about an hour before the service, it is complete chaos in the house. People are getting ready, ironing, fighting for the showers, etc. We managed to break two power converters while people were drying, or curling, their hair, leaving the lovely aroma of burning plastic drifting throughout parts of the house. Also, the reception was at the house, so add the people setting up tables and the bar, the caterers running around to the mix. So all of this nervous energy was just pulsating throughout the house, and I definitely caught a healthy dose of it.
The other problem was that there was no rehearsal. So I had never been to the church, or knew where I would be playing. Also, no one had really planned on how I was going to get from the house to the church. The wedding party was going to be driven to the church in 1920s Rolls Royces, and at one point Darren suggested that one of the Rolls could give me a ride 20 minutes before the service. It might seem insane, but I turned him down. I was still worried about playing in a suit, if I arrived in a Rolls Royce it would have put me over the edge. Also, the town and church choir were already skeptical of the American who was usurping some sections of the service. They would have hated me if I had shown up in a Rolls Royce. So I got a friend to drive me over in a nice honest Volkswagen instead.
I arrived at the church, met the choir, and figured out where I was going to sit. The choir and the music director were very nice, although I did get the sense that they were sizing me up, particularly because I had stolen some of the spots in the program where they were going to perform. Also, the choir, choir director, and priest didn’t really speak English all that well. The only message that got conveyed to me was, I was not to sit in a certain part of the church because there was a fear that part of the ceiling could fall on me.
After setting up and sound checking, I just waited for the wedding party to arrive. The church was only about a 3 minute drive from the house, so the wedding party was going to drive up and walk right in the church. This was all well and good, except that I was supposed to play some guitar preludes and etudes while the wedding party was walking in. Because there was not a rehearsal, I didn’t know when they were coming. So I just kinda paced and looked down the street. This did not help my nerves at all.
Eventually I started, and in about 5 minutes the wedding party started walking in. I should point out that a Belgian wedding party is different from an American wedding party. The wedding party is called the suite, and they are friends and family that precede the bride and groom into the church. There were not ushers, groomsmen, or bridesmaids. There was a best man and maid of honor, but according to Belgian traditions, they were the witnesses who were suppose to supervise the signing of the wedding papers at the end of the service.
So I am playing my preludes and etudes while the suite enters, trying to catch when the bride is going to enter. I was supposed to play Pachelbel’s “Canon in D” while the Bride was processing, and I was having a hard time figuring out when to start. At one point I stood up and finger picked a C chord in what I felt like was a very “classical” manner, while attempting see what was going on. Then the choir director gives me a head nod, and I start the Canon.
Here is the thing about Pachelbel’s “Canon in D.” It is really only 4 bars of music “| D . A . | Bm . F#m . | G . D . | G . A . |.” The piece gets its beauty from the parts that are added and overlaid, but basically it is those four bars repeated over and over again. I had worked on an arraignment to try to capture some of the beauty of the piece. Well, Emilie made it from the back of the church to the altar in about 20 seconds, or about 4 times through the progression. I’ll be damned if she wasn’t in a hurry to get the ceremony started.
The ceremony went well. The choir sang “Yesterday” by the Beatles in Flemish. I am hoping that they changed the lyrics. They didn’t have a music stand for me, so I did “Fandango (Dans Espagnole) (op. 73, no. 2) by Ferdinando Carulli by memory. This is the piece that really had me nervous. It is pretty much that hardest piece that I know that I am willing to attempt in front of other people. When it came time to play it, I just shut my eyes and started. I have been playing this piece for years, and know it by heart, but I like to have the music in front of me. It just makes me feel more comfortable. Anyway, I played the piece well enough. One of my gifts as a musician is the ability make mistakes in key, which makes them harder for the listener to catch. I had a few, but nothing too bad.
Honestly, my greatest contribution to the service might have been during the homily. About halfway through, the priests microphone went out. I was sitting near the pulpit, and when the sound went out, the choir director started gesturing to me, and pointing behind me. I turned and saw a cable coming from the pulpit. I got up, and picked up the chord to get some confirmation form the choir director that this was the chord I should be looking at, and all of sudden the sound comes back on. The choir director gave me a smile and the thumbs up, and I sat back down again.
So in summation, I am pretty sure that I didn’t ruin Darren and Emilie’s wedding. It was really a lovely service, and I was honored to be a part of it.