Peter Lawson

Wedding Rhapsody - Hodsock Priory

A rhapsody for solo piano around Grade 7-8 standard.
This was written for my niece, Charlotte Tobin, for her wedding to Liam Ward. It was composed to capture and embrace the wonder of love and marriage and also to reflect the long and illustrious history of the wedding venue, Hodsock Priory.
The Rhapsody begins with a theme depicting the Priory, with its noble grandeur and endearing past. After two minutes or so, a dramatic key change ushers in a second, interrelated theme for the bride and groom. A decorated variant of this love theme broadens out to a nobilmente depiction of the Tudor gatehouse and grand vista of the main building before concluding quietly with the return of the Hodsock theme. Just like the Priory itself, so does marriage mellow and endure. Peter Lawson

Duration 7 minutes
The audio here is a computer-generated performance. An actual (much better!) performance played by Peter Lawson is available to stream or download from Amazon Music, Apple Music, iTunes, Spotify and many other platforms.(Available August 2021)

Hodsock Priory, situated in north Nottinghamshire, near the border with South Yorkshire, is set in 800 acres of beautiful grounds. People were living at Hodsock over two thousand years ago. As a building, it was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. It has been much added to over the years, notably the grand gatehouse in Tudor times, celebrating the visit of Henry VIII in 1541. It was handed down from generation to generation until 1765, when it was sold to William Mellish who also owned the nearby Blyth Hall. Major alterations and improvements were carried out by subsequent generations, notably from 1854, by William Leigh Mellish's widow, Margaret. She was the wealthy Canadian daughter of Sir William Cunard of ocean liner fame and was responsible for substantial remodelling of the Priory, which has remained essentially the same until the present day. It is currently owned by Sir Andrew and Lady Belinda Buchanan, who, in 2006, invited George and Katharine Buchanan to open up Hodsock Priory as an esteemed and spectacular venue for weddings and corporate events.