I’m an independent composer, writing music that respects and learns from past traditions without being bound to any particular school or style. I’ve been influenced, of course, by the music I most enjoy listening to – baroque and medieval music, folk and world music, some 19^th/20^th century composers (Sibelius, Vaughan Williams) – but my approach to composition is largely intuitive. Musical ideas – melodies, rhythms, timbres, textures – emerge spontaneously from my unconscious (often when I’m thinking about other matters) and I then process them consciously, working out details and practicalities, formal structures etc. Even in this conscious working out process, however, most decisions about what is ‘right’ – what goes with what, what follows what, what progressions or transitions work best – are made intuitively.

I began composing, in a very basic sense, in childhood – as a boy I used to make up new tunes in my head while taking my dog for a walk. In my high school years, after desultory piano and clarinet lessons, I began writing a few things down, then went on to briefly study music at Sydney University (where Winsome Evans, and the joy she took in creating and recreating early music, was an inspiration). Life intervened, and it was not until some years later that I gained an honours degree in musicology from the University of New England and diploma in performance from Trinity College London. I’ve not had formal training in composition, but obviously I’ve learnt a great deal from the music I’ve listened to, played, sung and studied over the years.

A further influence on my approach to composition has been my experience as conductor of community choirs. Many of the singers in the choirs I worked with had little or no musical training, and some could not read music (they learnt their often quite complex parts by ear). The spirit, joy and energy all the people in those choirs brought to their singing, and the positive effect good music had both on them and on our audiences has left me with a strong belief that new ‘classical’ music should be accessible to and communicate with anyone who takes the trouble to listen to it, whether or not they have musical training or knowledge.

Melody and a sense of beauty have important roles in my music. On the topic of beauty and its reality and meaning, I say more in this blog: beauty. On the topic of melody, I quote Mozart: ‘melody is the essence of music’. Like most composers in most eras and cultures, I believe that it’s melody more than anything else that gives music its sense of meaning and continuity (more on this: melody). Having said that, I also enjoy catchy rhythms, interesting harmonic progressions and textures, vibrant instrumental colours and combinations, and have a fondness for asymmetric metres (for more on rhythms and metres, read and listen to 7 beats).

I was born in Sydney and live in the Dandenong Ranges on the outskirts of Melbourne, near the forests of the national park, where I do my composing. I’ve written orchestral, choral, chamber, solo vocal and solo instrumental music. Some can be heard here: Listen; more is available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Deezer, QQ Music, Wangyiyun and elsewhere. For a full list, please go to the Compositions page on this site, where 30 second sound samples of all my compositions and arrangements can be heard (from the Compositions menu above, select a genre (Orchestral Music, Choral Music, etc.) and tap or click the play buttons next to the composition titles).

To contact me with enquiries, comments or commissions, or to order music or CDs (see below): Contact me. For news and updates, follow Neil Buckland Music on Facebook and/or subscribe to my YouTube channel @neilbucklandmusic.

My music is also available on the following professionally manufactured CD albums:

• O Breath, O Fire : a selection of music in different genres
• Fame, Gold & Shadow : Music for Beowulf and other chamber and solo music
• Fuzzy Logic, Lucid Dreaming, Clarinet Concerto, Bassoon Concerto : 3 concertos for wind instruments
• Concerto for Harpsichord or Piano and Orchestra : the complete concerto on harpsichord plus lengthy excerpts on piano
• Music, the Mosaic of the Air : songs and choral music

(details of all CDs, with tracklists and timings)