Free Music
The following music is offered free of charge as pdf files. You can download these by clicking on the button to the right of 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 notify me: (contact me here) 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 arr. Neil Buckland – English Dance
– trio for SAT recorders or 3 flutes (3’30)
An arrangement, with added slow introduction, of an anonymous 13th century English estampie.
Anon. Medieval (arr. Buckland) – Lamento di Tristano and Rotta
– 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) – Download Free PDF Score
J. S. Bach (arr. Buckland) – ‘Little’ Fugue in G minor, BWV578
– (3’30), two arrangements
for wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon) – Download Free PDF Score
for recorder quintet (SAATB) – Download Free PDF Score
Neil Buckland – Trumpet Descant for the Christmas carol ‘Ding Dong Merrily On High’
Written for the well-known Charles Wood harmonization, from the Cambridge Carol-Book (may also work with other harmonizations of the carol but has not been tried with them as yet). (The Charles Wood harmonization is available free at : http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns and carols/ding_dong_merrily_on_high.htm and at:
http://imslp.org/wiki/Ding_Dong_Merrily_on_High_(Wood,_Charles) )
Debussy (arr. Buckland) – Girl with the Flaxen Hair
for alto (treble) recorder, flute, oboe or clarinet with string quartet (2’15) – Download Free PDF Score
Lennon & McCartney arr. Buckland – When I’m Sixty-Four
for recorder quintet (AATTB doubling SnoSnoSSA) (3’15) – Download 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 arr. Buckland – Octopus’s Garden
for recorder quartet (SAAT (or SAAA)) (3’00) – Download Free PDF Score
Arrangement of the Beatles song. Difficulty approx. 4 out of 9.
William Pierce – Two Carols
for SATB choir and organ (ed. N. Buckland) (4’45) :
1. Peace on Earth
2. This Endris Night
William Pierce was an English organist and choirmaster and my predecessor as conductor of the Launceston Philharmonic Society (Tasmania). At his death in 1997 I was invited to look through the music he left behind, and discovered handwritten manuscripts of these superb carols. This edition is faithful to the manuscripts, adding only a suggestion that one short section be repeated.
Shostakovich arr. Buckland – O Virtus Sapientiae (O Power of Wisdom)
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.)