Wedding Prelude and March

Quincy Porter (February 7, 1897 – November 12, 1966) was an American composer and teacher of classical music.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he went to Yale University where his teachers included Horatio Parker and David Stanley Smith. Porter received two awards while studying music at Yale: the Osborne Prize for Fugue, and the Steinert Prize for orchestral composition. He performed the winning composition, a violin concerto, at graduation. Porter earned two degrees at Yale, an A.B. from Yale College and a Mus. B from the music school.

After graduation, he spent a year in Paris, studying at Schola Cantorum, then went to New York where he studied with Ernest Bloch and Vincent d'Indy. In 1923 Porter joined the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music where he was later appointed head of the Theory Department. He remained there until 1928 when he resigned to focus on composition. Returning to Paris on a Guggenheim Fellowship Porter began composing in earnest.

In 1931 Porter returned to the United States, first rejoining the faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music, then teaching at Vassar, where he was appointed a professor in 1932. In 1938 later Porter became dean (1938–42) and then director (1942–46) of the New England Conservatory of Music, and in 1946 returned to Yale, as professor, to teach until 1965. Porter also served, from 1958 until his death, as chairman of the board of directors of the American Music Center, which he had founded with Howard Hanson and Aaron Copland in 1939.

"Wedding Prelude and March" were published by H. W. Gray in 1962. The work is dedicated "To Helen and John". The style is very elegant and noble. It's sort of "English" in effect, but I would call this more "American Episcopalian" than Anglican.

It appears to be conceived as a continuous flow from "prelude" leading directly into the march. The harmonies are distinctive and the melodic lines pleasing.

The score is attached below, as well as a photo of Quincy Porter.