Free Mandolin Orchestra/Ensemble music by John Goodin, updates

[John Goodin]

Back in 2008 I created a page at my Mandotopia website that lists the numerous pieces that I have composed for mandolin orchestra and ensembles since the late 1980s. There are 29 pieces listed there today. The majority of these pieces are linked to freely available pdfs of the score and parts, with some exceptions.

Four of the pieces are published by the good people at Haus der Musik Trekel in Hamburg and are only available from them, at a modest cost. Seven of the pieces listed on my page are still waiting for me to take the time to create a page with links to the sheet music. (This takes more time than you might think.)

The "news" that leads me to create this post is that I have recently made two more of my pieces completely free. I previously had linked to the scores of these pieces while keeping the parts behind a primitive pay wall. This was an interesting experiment for me but I've now decided it's easier to be consistent in my approach and so I am now offering free access to the parts of these pieces as well. They are 2010's Off to Minnesota and 2015's Western Home Polka.

You can find the link to the music for these and read a little about them at my Mandolin Orchestra and Ensemble Compositions webpage.

My plan is to finally create pages and links for the remaining 7 pieces on my list and, possibly, to add a few more pieces as I go along. I'll post notices about that work in this thread over time.

I hope that I'm not violating forum guidelines by posting this announcement. While it's true that I mention the possibility of donating money in support of this work, everything on the page (with the exception of the 4 pieces published by Trekel) is actually free to download today.

My hope is that mandolin orchestra and ensemble members will find some of my music interesting and fun to play. I am extremely honored and grateful that so many groups have chosen to do just that over the last 30+ years.

I also hope that other composers, and would-be composers, might find some value in checking out these scores. I have certainly learned a lot from studying the scores that Victor Kioulaphides (http://www.paperclipdesign.com/vk/) has so generously shared with us over the years in this forum. I believe that it's never too early, or too late, to try your hand at writing music for mandolin.

[jelhai]

I can attest that John’s mandolin orchestra music is wonderful to listen to and to play.

[Jim Imhoff]

As nice as it is to read through and play classical string music (Mozart, Schubert, etc.) there is something special about John's Music written specifically for the plucked orchestra. His presence at CMSA events and his ease of communication keeps him in touch with our needs and wants as players. We should all support such work whether by purchasing or by playing it in our concerts.
Thanks John!

[violmando]

SMITTEN is one of my all time favorites, but there are so many great tunes...Thank you, John!!!

[John Goodin]

When I started this thread back in February I fully intended to make some more mandolin orchestra pieces available in the near future. Well, the near future turned out to be a little different from what I imagined.

A few weeks ago, while I was finishing up a commission for a new mandolin orchestra piece, I was reminded of an older tune of mine that I had arranged for another purpose. I realized that I would enjoy adapting that arrangement into a proper mandolin orchestra piece and I finally got that loaded up on my website today.

So, here's an a new look at an old piece that's called Halfway Home. You can find the score and parts at the link above, along with a rough computer realization to give you an idea of what it might sound like. See what you think.

(Of course I realize that very few mandolin orchestras are actually performing, or even rehearsing in person, these days but that won't last forever.)