Top 200 Most Performed College Band Works, 2008-2014

April 24, 2017

Our friends at J.W. Pepper publish a list of all pieces performed by College Band Directors National Association member bands from 2008-2014. This provides an excellent snapshot of what was popular during those years, but when sorted by "Times Played" the data is difficult to navigate. Below is a simple table showing all pieces performed more than 10 times over the span, sorted by Times Played.

I cleaned up some inconsistencies including multiple arrangements that were being counted as separate compositions (Stars and Stripes Forever, Candide, West Side Story, Children's March).

A few interesting things:

Percy Grainger wins for both number of performances (360) for number of pieces in the list (14).
Frank Ticheli places second for performances (248) and number of pieces (12).
John Mackey places third for performances (139), just ahead of Vaughan Williams (136), Sousa (132) and Eric Whitacre (131).
The most popular traditional Sousa march (after The Stars and Stripes Forever) was "Black Horse Troop".
In this author's opinion, Toccata Marziale is way too high up the list.
I discovered that the query parameters on the J.W. Pepper page are wide open, so it is possible to see all data rows on one page (about 9300 rows). Searching the full page gives you better total performances (Grainger-459, Ticheli-346, Sousa-313, Mackey-209).

You can also download an Excel spreadsheet of the data below.

Played	Title	Composer
69	Lincolnshire Posy	Grainger
52	Irish Tune	Grainger
51	March from Symphonic Metamorphosis	Hindemith
51	October	Whitacre
49	Second Suite in F	Holst
49	English Folk Song Suite	Vaughan Williams
49	O Magnum Mysterium	Lauridsen
44	Chester	Schumann
44	Children's March	Grainger
38	Ecstatic Fanfare	Bryant
38	Overture to "Candide"	Bernstein
38	The Stars and Stripes Forever	Sousa
37	Give Us This Day	Maslanka
37	Colonial Song	Grainger
37	Festive Overture	Shostakovich
36	Variations on a Korean Folk Song	Chance
36	Toccata Marziale	Vaughan Williams
36	First Suite in E-flat	Holst
35	Commando March	Barber
34	La Fiesta Mexicana	Reed
34	Suite Francaise	Milhaud
33	George Washington Bridge	Schumann
32	Rocky Point Holiday	Nelson
32	Elegy for a Young American	Lo Presti
32	Symphony in B-flat (Hindemith)	Hindemith
32	Mother Earth, A Fanfare	Maslanka
31	Angels in the Architecture	Ticheli
31	Hymn to a Blue Hour	Mackey
30	Folk Dances	Shostakovich
29	Variations on America	Ives
29	American Overture for Band	Jenkins
29	Chorale and Alleluia	Hanson
29	Pageant	Persichetti
29	Cathedrals	Salfelder
28	Vientos y Tangos	Gandolfi
28	Divertimento for Band	Persichetti
28	Blue Shades	Ticheli
28	Strange Humors	Mackey
28	Symphonic Dance No. 3	Williams
27	Canzona	Mennin
26	Scenes from The Louvre	Dello Joio
26	America The Beautiful	Ward/Dragon
26	West Side Story	Bernstein
25	Serenade for Winds in E-flat Major	Strauss
25	Dusk	Bryant
25	Hold this Boy and Listen	Pann
25	Symphony #2	Ticheli
24	Molly on the Shore	Grainger
23	Sketches on a Tudor Psalm	Tull
23	Third Suite	Jager
23	Courtly Airs and Dances	Nelson
23	Symphony for Band No. 6	Persichetti
23	Prelude, Siciliano and Rondo	Arnold
23	Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral	Wagner
22	Prelude pour precede "La Peri"	Dukas
22	Slava	Bernstein
22	William Byrd Suite	Jacob
22	Sleep	Whitacre
22	Russian Christmas Music	Reed
21	An American Elegy	Ticheli
21	Amparito Roca	Texidor
21	Four Scottish Dances	Arnold
21	Black Horse Troop	Sousa
21	Paris Sketches	Ellerby
20	Wild Nights!	Ticheli
20	American Salute	Gould
20	Chorale and Shaker Dance	Zdechlik
20	Sea Songs	Vaughan Williams
20	Undertow	Mackey
20	Lux Arumque	Whitacre
20	Shenandoah	Ticheli
20	Rest	Ticheli
20	Salvation is Created	Tschesnokoff
20	Petite Symphonie	Gounod
19	March, Op. 99	Prokofiev
19	Symphony No. 4	Maslanka
19	Procession of the Nobles	Rimsky-Korsakov
19	The Gum Suckers March	Grainger
19	Handel in the Strand	Grainger
19	Gavorkna Fanfare	Stamp
19	Easter Monday on the White House Lawn	Sousa
19	Flourish for Wind Band	Vaughan Williams
18	Ave Maria	Biebl
18	Overture for Winds	Carter
18	Vesuvius	Ticheli
18	Fantasia in G minor	Bach
18	Kingfishers Catch Fire	Mackey
18	Incantation and Dance	Chance
18	An Outdoor Overture	Copland
18	Suite Dreams	Bryant
17	Variants on a Mediaeval Tune	Dello Joio
17	Old Wine in New Bottles	Jacob
17	Lincoln Portrait	Copland
17	Trauersinfonie	Wagner
17	Masque	Hesketh
17	The Thunderer	Sousa
17	Symphony No. 3 "Slavyanskaya"	Kozhevnikov
17	Sleigh Ride	Anderson
17	Festival Prelude	Reed
17	Kirkpatrick Fanfare	Boysen
17	Cajun Folk Songs	Ticheli
16	The Engulfed Cathedral	Debussy
16	Esprit de Corps	Jager
16	Amazing Grace	Ticheli
16	Contre Qui, Rose	Lauridsen
16	Suite of Old American Dances	Bennett
16	Spoon River	Grainger
16	Hammersmith	Holst
16	The Solitary Dancer	Benson
16	Tunbridge Fair	Piston
16	Southern Harmony	Grantham
16	Santuary	Ticheli
16	Postcard	Ticheli
16	Shortcut Home	Wilson
16	Americans We	Fillmore
16	Music for Prague 1968	Husa
16	Dance of the Jesters	Tchaikovsky
16	Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon	Grainger
16	Aurora Awakes	Mackey
15	Nobles of the Mystic Shrine	Sousa
15	Risting in the Peace of His Hands	Gibson
15	Danza Final "Malambo" from Estancia	Ginastera
15	Fanfare and Allegro	Williams
15	Concertino for Four Percussion	Gillingham
15	Fanfare for the Common Man	Copland
15	Who Puts His Trust in God Most Just	Bach
15	On a Hymnsong of Philip Bliss	Holsinger
15	Awayday	Gorb
15	Rhapsody in Blue	Gershwin
15	Themes from Green Bushes	Grainger
15	Old Home Days Suite	Ives
14	The British Eighth	Elliott
14	Barnum and Bailey's Favorite	King
14	The Shadow of Sirius	Puckett
14	Wedding Dance	Press
14	Of Sailors and Whales	McBeth
14	Festivo	Gregson
14	Inglesina	Delle Cese
14	Asphalt Cocktail	Mackey
14	Country Gardens	Grainger
14	Ghost Train	Whitacre
14	Celebration Overture	Creston
14	Blessed Are They	Brahms
14	Profanation from Symphony No. 1	Bernstein
14	Satiric Dances	Dello Joio
13	Adagio for Wind Orchestra	Rodrigo
13	Niagara Falls	Daugherty
13	Mars from The Planets	Holst
13	West Point Symphony	Gould
13	Armenian Dances, Part 1	Reed
13	Early Light	Bremer
13	Australian Up Country Tune	Grainger
13	His Honor	Fillmore
13	Raise The Roof	Daugherty
12	Fugue a la Gigue	Bach
12	Carmina Burana	Orff
12	Elegy	Chance
12	Gran Partita K. 361	Mozart
12	Galop	Shostakovich
12	Country Band March	Ives
12	Cloudburst	Whitacre
12	Moon by Night	Newman
12	An Original Suite	Jacob
12	Ballad for Band	Gould
12	Foundry	Mackey
12	Theme and Variations, Op. 43a	Schoenberg
12	and the mountains rising nowhere	Schwantner
12	Serenade in D minor, Op. 44	Dvorak
12	Symphony on Themes of Sousa	Hearshen
12	March of the Belgian Paratroopers	Leemans
12	Suite from Mass	Bernstein
12	Prelude in E-flat minor, Op. 34 No. 14	Shostakovich
12	The Seal Lullaby	Whitacre
12	Rhosymedre	Vaughan Williams
12	Fandango	Turrin
12	Fantasia in G Major	Mahr
12	Morning Alleluias for the Winter Solstice	Nelson
12	Armenian Dances, Part 2	Reed
11	The Alcotts	Ives
11	J'ai ete au bal	Grantham
11	Shadow Rituals	Markowski
11	Star Wars Trilogy	Williams
11	Light Cavalry Overture	von Suppe
11	Song for Lyndsay	Boysen
11	Suite from Pineapple Poll	Sullivan
11	Symphony No. 3	Giannini
11	Ride	Hazo
11	Hill Song No. 2	Grainger
11	Millenium Canons	Puts
11	La Procession du Rocio	Turina
11	Bayou Breakdown	Karrick
11	American Riversongs	LaPlante
11	Lauds, Praise High Day	Nelson
11	Semper Fidelis	Sousa
11	My Jesus, Oh What Anguish	Bach
11	Rolling Thunder	Fillmore
11	Hymn for the Lost and the Living	Ewazen
11	Armed Forces Salute	arr. Lowden
11	Manhattan Beach March	Sousa
11	Zion	Welcher
11	Pas Redouble	Saint Saens
11	National Emblem March	Bagley
11	Kaddish	McBeth
11	Psalm for Band	Persichetti
11	Shepherd's Hey	Grainger
11	Alligator Alley	Daugherty

Author: David Lovrien

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