Back in 1858, a couple got married. Well. I’m sure a lot of couples got married that year. But the one I am thinking of is Princess Victoria of England, to the Crown Prince of Prussia, Frederick.
Princess Victoria was born right there at Buckingham Palace, London, in 1840. I wonder if they have a little hospital in the palace, for such things as childbirth and falling off horses. Anyway, little Victoria was the first child of Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert.
No spoiler alert here. They wanted a boy. So, when Victoria was born, the doctor sadly said he was sorry — like he had anything to do with it. But the Queen shot back, “Never mind, next time it will be a prince.”
It seems that Victoria and Queen Victoria had a distant relationship from that point on. But her father, Prince Albert, grew to absolutely love and adore their first daughter because of her keen intellect. Yes, little Vicky was a smarty.
We can jump ahead, through all of her growing up in the Royal Palace, to her eleventh year. That is when the “Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations” was being held in Hyde Park, London. It was the first of the World’s Fairs. So, people from all around the world flocked to London to visit that industrial party, including Prince William of Germany (Prussia), with his wife and two kids. One of those kids was Prince Frederick. He met young Victoria — mind you, she was only eleven — and not long thereafter, they began fervently corresponding with one another.
Princess Victoria wasn’t a knockout beauty, by the day’s standards. And she was very short, only 4’11”. Regardless, Frederick was crazy for her, because, as I mentioned earlier, she was highly intelligent. He wanted to marry her by the time she was fifteen but was told he would have to wait for two years. He was nine years older than his bride-to-be.
Long before any of this happened, back in Germany, a young man named Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was writing music. We know him more commonly as Felix Mendelssohn. A composer and pianist of extraordinary measures. And, during his short lifetime, he produced a lot of good music. I say, short because he was born in 1809 and died 38 years later of a stroke.
One of those pieces he wrote was The Wedding March. And the first time it was played, at a wedding, was when Princess Victoria and Prince Frederick said their “I Do’s” on this date, January 25, 1858.
There is a conflicting story that claims otherwise. It says the first time the piece was used at a wedding was when Dorothy Carew wed Tom Daniel. This happened at St. Peter’s Church, Tiverton, England, on June 2, 1847, when it was performed by organist Samuel Reay.
The claim says that the “march” did not become popular at weddings until it was selected by Victoria for her marriage to Prince Frederick. Apparently, young Victoria loved Mendelssohn’s music, as he often came and played at Buckingham Palace while on his visits to Britain.
A beautiful song for the ages, one that will lift the spirits in a sense of joy, over every new union in marriage. Not to be confused, however, with “Here Comes the Bride” or “Wedding March” — that composition by Richard Wagner.
And then, of course, there is The Chicken Dance.
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“The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing – and then marry him.”
― Cher
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“Love, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage.”
― Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary
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“Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then.”
― Katharine Hepburn
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The music of the marriage, way back when.
