The "Bridal Chorus" "Treulich geführt", from the 1850 opera Lohengrin, by German composer Richard Wagner, is a march played for the bride's entrance at many formal weddings throughout the Western world. In English-speaking countries it is generally known as "Here Comes the Bride" or "Wedding March" (though actually "wedding march" refers to any piece in march tempo accompanying the entrance or exit of the bride, notably Felix Mendelssohn's "Wedding March").

The use of the march at the beginning of a wedding ceremony is not highly appropriate, given its place in the structure of the opera. The chorus is sung in Lohengrin by the women of the wedding party after the ceremony, as they accompany the heroine Elsa to the bridal chamber. Furthermore, the marriage between Elsa and Lohengrin is an almost immediate failure.

The "Bridal Chorus" is opposed by many pastors of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod because of pre-First World War Lutheran opposition to the theater and to the pagan elements of Wagner's operas.^[1] The Roman Catholic Church generally does not use the "Bridal Chorus"; one diocese's guidelines regarding the piece states that the chorus is a secular piece of music, that it is not a processional to the altar in the opera, and especially that its frequent use in film and television associate it with sentimentality rather than worship.^[2]

Text [edit]

Although at most weddings the chorus is usually played without vocal singing (usually on an organ, if there is any), in Lohengrin the wedding party sings these words at the beginning of Act Three:

Eight women then sing a blessing to a separate melody.

Eventually, the chorus returns with these words, gradually proceeding offstage:

Media [edit]

	Bridal march
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• DGG Richard Wagner, Lohengrin, Act 3 – "Treulich geführt ziehet dahin"

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Richard Wagner – Operas – Libretti and leitmotifs for some Wagner operas.
• Audio of "Bridal Chorus" performed on a virtual organ