The Inclusion of Organ Within the Concert Band Instrumentation with an Annotated Listing of Original Works for Concert Band and Organ

There is a very limited amount of information regarding musical works available for concert band and organ. When used in conjunction with the concert band, the organ can serve different roles such as soloist with concert band accompaniment, a complimentary texture within the concert band sound, or the means for creating a majestic impact point or grand finale with full forces of organ and concert band combined. Although there are only a small number of works that fall into this category, composers continue to write works for concert band that include organ in the instrumentation. This document is an attempt at an exhaustive list of original publications for concert band that include organ within the work’s instrumentation. A request was sent to all publishers of print music within the Music Publishers Association of the Unites States (MPA) to find works that fit into this seemingly obscure category. Of the 331 requests sent, 127 responses resulted in 25 publishers with works of this nature. The resulting 68 pieces for concert band that include organ are listed with title, composer, publisher, publication year, duration, ensemble difficulty level and type, and organ difficulty level and type. In addition, a selection of composers whose works met these criteria were surveyed as to what role they found the organ fulfilling when used within the instrumentation, whether substitution or omission was preferred, and if omission of this instrument changed the intent of the work