ARRANGEMENTS by Neil Buckland
The following music is offered free of charge as pdf files. You can download these by tapping or clicking on ‘free pdf score’ next to the title. Although this music is free, copyright laws still apply and if you record it or perform it in public you must still acknowledge its authorship (composer and arranger). If you do publicly perform or record any of this music, please CONTACT me, and if possible send me a recording of the performance. If on the other hand you download this music purely for personal use or to play with friends, enjoy it!
Anon. Medieval – English Dance
trio for SAT recorders or 3 flutes (3’30) free pdf score
An arrangement, with added slow introduction, of an anonymous 13th century English estampie.
Anon. Medieval – Lamento di Tristano and Rotta
for four instruments: (i) alto (treble) (or soprano (descant)) recorder, or flute, (ii) violin, viola, viol, medieval fiddle, lute or harp, (iii) viola, cello, violin or (lower pitched) viol/fiddle, and (iv) three differently pitched drums (6’30) free pdf score
An arrangement of a medieval lament and afterdance, with an elaborate heterophonic part for recorder or flute (based on the Ulsamer-Collegium performance).
Bach – ‘Little’ Fugue in G minor, BWV578
(3’30), two arrangements:
– for wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon)
– for recorder quintet (SAATB) free pdf score
Debussy – Girl with the Flaxen Hair
for alto (treble) recorder, flute, oboe or clarinet with string quartet (2’15) free pdf score
Lennon & McCartney – When I’m Sixty-Four
for recorder quintet (AATTB doubling SnoSnoSSA) (3’15) free pdf score
This arrangement is enjoyable both to play and to listen to but requires moderately accomplished and reasonably agile players, as all must swap to other instruments and back during the course of the piece. Difficulty: approx. 5 out of 9.
Starkey – Octopus’s Garden
for recorder quartet (SAAT (or SAAA)) (3’00) free pdf score
Arrangement of the Beatles song. Difficulty approx. 4 out of 9.
Shostakovich – O Virtus Sapientiae
for SATB choir a cappella or with organ accompaniment (Latin text: Hildegard of Bingen) (8’45)
An arrangement for choir of a fugue for piano by Shostakovich (op.87, no.16). This fugue has an extraordinary meditative quality, suggestive of the wisdom and maturity that may sometimes be attained after great suffering. The resemblance of the music to early Renaissance polyphony by composers such as Josquin suggested the idea of arranging it as a choral piece. The words of Hildegard of Bingen’s poem in praise of wisdom fit both the character of the music and many of its details perfectly (note that, in deference to Shostakovich’s well-known atheism, this is not an explicitly religious text).
This arrangement has, I believe, the potential to become a choral classic, in the way that Barber’s arrangement of his Adagio for strings as an Agnus Dei has. (Unlike the Barber, this arrangement does not require the altos to sing above their range, but it requires an accomplished choir and includes some low passages for basses (to Eb) and a brief high soprano solo.)
In 2008 I applied to Shostakovich’s publishers, Boosey and Hawkes, for permission to make this arrangement and was told the request would be passed on to the composer’s estate. I have received no further communication from either. I am therefore offering the score here free as a concept piece. If you wish to publicly perform or record this arrangement, copyright issues should be followed up with Boosey and Hawkes. (Private performances and performances in educational settings should not, however, be affected by copyright.)
(Full lyrics for this work (with translation) can be found here: Lyrics of Songs and Choral Music.)