Once, I was booked for a wedding that led to love at a crossroads. Back then, I lived in an easy-to-get-to Seattle neighborhood. I had a home studio that I used for teaching harp lessons at the back of my house, and I also had wedding couples visit me there for in-person consultations, which was a popular perk that people took me up on.
The week of the wedding arrived. Customarily, I do a check-in with my client 1-2 days before the event to confirm the details I cannot err on: arrival time, play time, and song details to name a few. I spoke with the bride, and everything was good to go!
My first wedding gig on the harp lead me to learn two of the most traditionally popular pieces of wedding music of all time. Lapiz lazuli was the color of the sky of the stained glass window next to me in the church. When I was 17 years old, I had been playing the harp for three years, and I had a decade of piano experience. Also, I had been playing pipe organ for mass since the 7th grade, so I had a pretty good understanding of how ceremony worked.
Get ready for a Pink Floyd reference; we’re going to the harp side of the moon. Harp Escape vol. 12 is “A Saucerful of Secrets” by Pink Floyd. I started Harp Escape videos in 2019, before the pandemic hit our world, because even then, I thought we need the space to heal ourselves. Times have definitely gotten more complex and stressful, so I continue to make therapeutic harp music on YouTube.
Specifically, Harp Escape is relaxing music that provides an aural getaway. Harp Escape is created just for you to: get ready for bed, practice yoga, meditate, nap, read, and add quiet to your daily personal rituals.
Calming music of this nature has been scientifically proven to increase deep breathing, which in turn increases blood flow, decreases stress, and promotes deeper sleep. I prepared this song in the style and manner as I would play it at the therapeutic bedside, so this song is at a particularly slow tempo, and intended for deep relaxing. By finding inner peace, we get to outer peace.
Because my brain was at half-mast today with this cold, I tried unsuccessfully to write this blog several times. The funny thing about my version of the Pink Floyd song, I started to second guess myself that it was the correct song title.
I saved the video as “A Saucerful of Secrets” – a song by the same name from their 1968 album. My video has been up on YouTube since 2021 and is one of my least popular videos. I thought it might just be too obscure and atonal, both fair assumptions. Then I listened again to their song “Echos” on the album Meddle. They two songs sounded so similar. Had I put up the video with the wrong title? Did I have a cold back in 2021 too when I did all this work?
I’m really second-guessing myself in this foggy cold brain of mine. After re-listening to both songs, I do the know the correct answer, but if you want to chime up, let me know – is this song “Echos” from Pink Floyd’s album Meddle, or “A Saucerful of Secrets?”
Either way, I hope this volume of Harp Escape brings some intentional results of peace of mind and relaxation. If you want to know more about these videos, please subscribe to the Harp Escape YouTube channel.
I was listening to Ada Limon, our nation’s former poet laureate, being interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air. My ear caught a phrase she said, “sing back into the places you love.” By chance, I have been reading her book, You Are Here,which is a culmination of a larger project, a collection of poems on picnic tables around the America’s treasured national parks. Limon said that she thinks these times we are living in could define humanity forever. She collected some 50 poet’s responses to that idea in, You Are Here, inviting readers to take a closer look at the present moment.
I love this phrase! Singing into the things that bring us most joy, that we find most beautiful, will get us through these turbulent times. When the DMV, passport office, SNAP benefit, and air traffic control are not working as they once reliably did, remembering to hold space in the day for what we love can get us through. The word “back,” singing back to, is not backwards. But rather, I think of remembering back to who we truly are, remembering what we love to do with our lives. I have been working hard at this, especially this year. It is a challenge borne not out of nostalgia, but one out of remembering.
The great Sufi poet, Rumi wrote: all beings stream at night / or during the day / into some absorptive work / into the loving nowhere.
I have long been a fan of this verse because it’s the original streaming platform! What he is saying is that we can connect to the Divine flow anytime we sleep, love, or work on the things we lose ourselves into with joy. (Getting into this streaming zone is a brain wave pattern.) When we get there, time does not exist. It becomes expansive. After this experience, we feel happier and renewed. And the most beautiful thing of it all – is free! And its right inside of us!
This season, I sing back into the places I love by walking in the forest, listening to one of my children read to me, and improvising / playing music. I feel both renewed and relaxed (or as my son pronounced it when he was 4 years old, rah-wax), which makes me think of waxing like the moon, ebbing and flowing. Either way, so at peace, it hardly matters to speak.
If we were to all practice that which we most love, I think the world would feel more renewal than heartbreak. If we all could just tap into that which sings our heart awake just a little bit more, then I think we as a collective would be more untouchable by that which does not awaken us. And let’s be honest: there’s a lot of activity in the outer world of what can harm us.
By singing into the places we love, there isn’t anyone or anything that can take that experience away from us. Its non-material. It doesn’t require a transaction. It is something that each individual and only each of us can create ourselves. It is not given. It is within.
Being given the idea to sing into a place you love unlocks the human spirit more than a news headline, more than what government legislature says it is or is not accomplishing. Or, in the words of William Carols Williams:
it is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there
As for me, one of the things that lights me up is poetry. What places would you like to sing into?
I like learning new songs. Many brides request special wedding ceremony songs for their day and I’m always happy to accommodate. Thankfully, the sheet music to the song is often available online. I’ll usually purchase the sheet music intended for piano, because piano translates so well to harp.
Help Selecting Wedding Ceremony Songs
That said, I have a pretty large repertoire already, with songs that are tested and true. You can read my most popularly played wedding songs here: Music Songlist. Its a good place to start from if you’re not sure what kind of music you’d like to have at your wedding.
In general, I would say that a wedding ceremony songs fall into approximately three kinds of programs, in addition to prelude and postlude music. Here are some variations:
…and for the very simple event: #3 – Processional – Recessional
How Special Request Songs Work Best
If a couple has special requests for wedding ceremony songs, I do my best to make that happen. Here’s an example of some songs I’ve learned for particular situations, like themed weddings and holiday parties:
Some Specially Requested Wedding Ceremony Songs
Dreams, The Cranberries – Dedicated to the passing of the lead singer of the Cranberries—Dolores Mary Eileen O’Riordan.
Falling Slowly, from the movie, Once (Glen Hansard). I also recommend the film which is such an authentic and beautiful love story.
Flower Duet, Leo Delibes – Yes, I can transcribe an opera song to harp, but it is not easy.
Hotel California, The Eagles – There have been many versions, here is the original.
In My Life, The Beatles – You will notice this version is a little different. It was take 1 in the recording studio.
Lovesong, The Cure – I enjoying transcribing 80s music for harp, the music that I grew up on.
No Surprises, Radiohead – The guitar arpeggios in Radiohead’s compositions are perfect for harp.
Skinny Love – Bon Iver – Having grown up in Wisconsin, Bon Iver’s early music holds a special place in my heart.
Sweet Child O’Mine – Guns N’Roses – I even play heavy metal band’s softer songs.
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), Annie Lennox – Songs that were originally created on synthesizers can even be transcribed to harp.
Take On Me, Aha – More synthesizers of the 80s that I have transcribed to harp.
When You Wish Upon A Star, Leigh Harline and Ned Washington – This Disney song is over 100 years old!
I Can Also Provide Wedding Music in Duet and Trio Formats
At this time of writing this, I have been performing professionally for 30 years. In that time, especially from my years as a Seattle harpist, I have met a lot of amazing musicians. I have developed great friendships because of playing songs together with these talented musicians. Performing together often started in clubs with larger ensembles when I was in my 20s, and turned into long term friendships.
Janet Utterbach, violinist, and I play weddings when asked for wedding music Duets. She has performing experience playing in the Yakima Symphony, Bellevue Symphony, Northwest Symphony, and Tacoma Symphony (2nd violin and 1st violin.) Janet has been teaching violin with the Community Music Department at the University of Puget Sound since 1991.
Nate Omdal, bassist, was in my band, the Daphnes, and now we occasionally play weddings together. Bassist, Composer, Producer, Nate Omdal is one of the Northwest’s most dependable producers and his work can be heard all over the city of Seattle. Nate has provided arrangements or worked as musical director for The Seattle International Film Festival, million dollar fundraisers, as well as the Seattle Art Museum, and Bumbershoot.
Josh Rawlings, pianist, has been my favorite musician to play weddings with because of his ability to play anything. He is a GRAMMY-Nominated and Platinum Album Award winning composer, studio musician and performer. He is the pianist featured on Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ multi-GRAMMY winning album ‘The Heist’. Josh’s signature sound can be heard on ‘Same Love’ and ‘Downtown’ along with many other major albums.
Other musicians I play weddings with are violinist Julie Baldridge, and cellist Maria Scherer Wilson. With such a depth of resources, your special requested wedding ceremony songs can take on a whole new life when a trio or duo play them.
