The purpose of this study was: (1) to survey conductors of non-auditioned, small college bands to determine the literature that was being performed during the academic years of 1997-2000, (2) to evaluate the level of quality of this literature, (3) to evaluate the level of difficulty of this literature and, (4) to examine the criteria that guide these conductors in the selection of this literature.
A written survey was administered to 45 conductors of non-auditioned, small college bands in order to discover the resources and criteria utilized when selecting literature for concert band. Respondents were also asked to return programs from concerts performed during the academic years 1997-2000. The Repertoire Evaluation Inventory (REI), developed by Craig Young, was used to determine the quality of the repertoires. Technical difficulty was determined by use of various publications and experts in the field. Results were derived via the use of descriptive statistics, chi-squares, and t-tests.
A majority (61.18%) of the compositions performed by the respondents were regarded as quality compositions. The mean quality score for all compositions was 1.15 (on a scale of 0-3), with a mean difficulty score of 4.22 (on a scale of I-VI). The ten most-performed compositions had an average difficulty score of 4.3, with an average quality score of 2.4, indicating that quality pieces were being performed at moderate degrees of difficulty.
When respondents were grouped by the quality of their repertoires, it was discovered that those in the high quality group strive to expose their students to music and composers of quality. Respondents in the low quality group are more concerned with audience/student approval than the need to expose students to quality composers or compositions. In addition, respondents in the low quality group value student input above a contest/festival list as a resource for locating music for performance. This demonstrates an obvious disregard for an important resource for quality literature.
Ranking of criteria by the overall sample suggests more concern for performance-related criteria than for quality of music. Publisher materials did not rate highly as a resource overall.