Scores

[vers la flamme]

Do you collect scores for the sake of reading along while you listen from time to time? I'm not a conductor nor a classically trained musician of any kind, but I love reading along with scores, especially orchestral scores. I have the Dover editions of a lot of them. This is what I've got:

Beethoven's Complete Symphonies, Complete Piano Sonatas, Late String Quartets, and (just picked up today) Piano Trios opp. 1, 70 & 97
Brahms's Complete Symphonies, and Complete Duos (ie. the Violin, Cello and Clarinet Sonatas, just picked up today)
Schumann's Complete Symphonies
Mahler's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th & Das Lied von der Erde
Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire & Verklärte Nacht
Bach's St. Matthew Passion & 11 Cantatas
Schubert's 8th & 9th (it's a tiny book though, and hard to read)

Open to recommendations for more interesting scores to study! I would love to get my hands on scores of more contemporary music, but these of course are still copyright protected and thus much more expensive.

[atardecer]

No, but eventually I want to get some scores and do this. I like music videos with scrolling scores. I like playing through works at the keyboard. I don't think one has to be a pro or have exceptional musical skills to enjoy doing it, to learn a lot about music from it, and really get 'inside' the music in a fulfilling way.

I think some concern themselves too much with technical perfection in music. As though professional players have some kind of monopoly on making music. "Music is an idea, not a sound", this is a concept that goes back to Plato.

[KevinP]

All the time.

[Mapman]

I follow along in scores as much as I can. I own very few, though, and mostly use IMSLP. I also find archives.nyphil.org to be a very valuable resource, both for 20th century music and for seeing how Bernstein marked his scores. I also appreciate the publishers who make perusal scores available on their websites.

I play clarinet, and I also enjoy playing along to orchestral recordings. Yesterday, I (attempted to) play Tchaikovsky's 5th symphony.

[relm1]

Do you collect scores for the sake of reading along while you listen from time to time? I'm not a conductor nor a classically trained musician of any kind, but I love reading along with scores, especially orchestral scores. I have the Dover editions of a lot of them. This is what I've got:

Beethoven's Complete Symphonies, Complete Piano Sonatas, Late String Quartets, and (just picked up today) Piano Trios opp. 1, 70 & 97
Brahms's Complete Symphonies, and Complete Duos (ie. the Violin, Cello and Clarinet Sonatas, just picked up today)
Schumann's Complete Symphonies
Mahler's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th & Das Lied von der Erde
Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire & Verklärte Nacht
Bach's St. Matthew Passion & 11 Cantatas
Schubert's 8th & 9th (it's a tiny book though, and hard to read)

Open to recommendations for more interesting scores to study! I would love to get my hands on scores of more contemporary music, but these of course are still copyright protected and thus much more expensive.

Yes, all the time.  For contemporary music, there are lots of options through music publishers...many of the scores are available for perusal so you can view them, just can't download/print/perform them.

[W.A. Mozart]

Open to recommendations for more interesting scores to study! I would love to get my hands on scores of more contemporary music, but these of course are still copyright protected and thus much more expensive.

You can find many scores in the followings youtube channels:

https://www.youtube.com/@bartjebartmans/videos

https://www.youtube.com/@symphony-7526/videos

https://www.youtube.com/@SPscorevideos/videos


For the people who prefer the emotional side of music, my yotuube channel offers a lot of classical music with pictures of beautiful landscapes. The pictures can enhance the emotional experience of the listening.

https://www.youtube.com/@ClassicalMusicAndSoundtracks/videos

[Mandryka]

I collect graphic scores.

[Luke]

I love scores to the point of obsession and addiction (the Mystery Scores thread is probably enough witness to that). These days most of my scores are digital - IMSLP in particular has transformed my world. I must have tens of thousands of them saved to various drives, numerically dwarfing my paper copies. But the 'real thing' more than retains its magic - in fact, these (often old) books are infinitely more precious to me, each with its own story, its own memories, each one pored over with much more detailed, rapt attention than the easy-come easy-go digital ones. This is my chamber/orchestral score collection,* crammed into a single bit of furniture for the sake necessity. I more or less stopped building it up about 15-20 years ago, when it became so much easier and cheaper to go digital, although I will top it up e.g. if I see something I don't have in a charity shop. My piano scores take up a lot more room than these ones, however.

* there are some not on the shelves! I notice Shostakovich 5/6 missing!

[VonStupp]

I have scores of most everything I have performed, and thus purchased. Oftentimes, full scores aren't very practical for performing, unless leading of course. I have a number of full scores from the Dover years I have kept, however.

Otherwise for listening with full scores, I use IMSLP and NYPO Archive too, but also CPDL, SCRIBD, ISSUU, Universal Edition, Boosey & Hawkes, and Wise Music online scores, depending what is available. 

If it is hard to source online, I will do a month or so of Nkoda to find the more obscure or copyright protected scores. Otherwise it is an order to the University Library if I am really curious.

VS

[brewski]

My collection of scores is relatively modest (c. 20-30), but I do enjoy following a score now and then.

If nothing else, it's a good reminder of the gap between what is written down on paper, and what actually happens when musicians turn that paper into sound. Sometimes I look at a phrase the composer wrote and go, "Oh, that's how they did it."

All of the resources mentioned above are excellent. Now and then I like the YouTube videos that sync the score with the music, such as this version of Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony. After hearing a live performance a few weeks ago, I was curious about how some of the effects were notated. (I also had not heard Sinopoli and Staatskapelle Dresden do the piece, and they're marvelous—score or not.)

-Bruce

[brewski]

Also, some scores I've enjoyed looking at just for their own sake:

* Riley: In C
* Ligeti: Atmosphères
* Andriessen: Workers Union
* pretty much anything by Xenakis

-Bruce

[(poco) Sforzando]

I have a huge (and I mean huge) personal library of scores that I've accumulated over 60 years of collecting, and attached is a partial image of what I own. I follow them at times when listening, but I also use them to study the endlessly fascinating topic of orchestration. Or just to have around and admire.

Recently I updated my inventory and in the Buy-Sell forum I listed a few dozen duplicates I'd be happy to give away and charge only for the shipping and handling. No one so far has spoken up, but if anyone wants one or all, just let me know. All of them listed are still available.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Here's a detail of just a portion of the small-score shelves. (Fear not, Mahler 2, 3, and 9 are all safely stored in larger formats.)

[(poco) Sforzando]

I love scores to the point of obsession and addiction (the Mystery Scores thread is probably enough witness to that). These days most of my scores are digital - IMSLP in particular has transformed my world. I must have tens of thousands of them saved to various drives, numerically dwarfing my paper copies. But the 'real thing' more than retains its magic - in fact, these (often old) books are infinitely more precious to me, each with its own story, its own memories, each one pored over with much more detailed, rapt attention than the easy-come easy-go digital ones. This is my chamber/orchestral score collection,* crammed into a single bit of furniture for the sake necessity. I more or less stopped building it up about 15-20 years ago, when it became so much easier and cheaper to go digital, although I will top it up e.g. if I see something I don't have in a charity shop. My piano scores take up a lot more room than these ones, however.

* there are some not on the shelves! I notice Shostakovich 5/6 missing!

I have all the symphonies, quartets, and concertos of Shostakovich. But back in the day, Dover the big reprint house that published all kinds of stuff in public domain, put out full scores of S's symphonies 1, 5, 9, and 10 which I have that are no longer available due to copyright restrictions. I remember going to the now-defunct Patelson Music House near Carnegie Hall, which was the best printed music store in NYC, and seeing a sign saying "buy all your Russian scores now, they're going back into copyright!" I unfortunately didn't buy too much then when they were super-cheap, and now I had to pay a lot for Sikorski copies. Of course YouTube now has the last laugh as you can get videos with all the scores for free!

[Luke]

My Shostakovich 5/6 is part of the old hardback fabric-bound Russian/Soviet complete DSCH edition. I haven't lost it, it's at school, where I was using it whilst making a piano transcription of the 5th for personal use. The only scores I have ever lost are the two Smetana String Quartets, last seen in my third year university lodgings (June 1997). Also the score of the Bruch 1st Violin Concerto, lent to a friend and not returned (spring, 1993). I remember these things precisely, which I don't with almost anything else!

[Luke]

I have a huge (and I mean huge) personal library of scores that I've accumulated over 60 years of collecting, and attached is a partial image of what I own. I follow them at times when listening, but I also use them to study the endlessly fascinating topic of orchestration. Or just to have around and admire.

Recently I updated my inventory and in the Buy-Sell forum I listed a few dozen duplicates I'd be happy to give away and charge only for the shipping and handling. No one so far has spoken up, but if anyone wants one or all, just let me know. All of them listed are still available.

BTW the first of those pictures, Larry.... I'm salivating. What a beautiful sight.

[(poco) Sforzando]

These free scores are still available. Speak up now if interested; otherwise they either get donated or trashed. You pay only packaging and shipping.


Mini-study scores
-------------------
Beethoven, Piano Concerto 3, fair
Beethoven, Late Quartets, fair
Berlioz, King Lear Overture, excellent
Mozart, Violin Concerto #3 in G 216, fair
Mozart, Concerto for 2 Pianos 365, good
Nielsen, Helios Overture, good
Schoenberg, Quartet 3, excellent
Schubert, Quartet in A minor, fair
Schubert, Unfinished Symphony, good
Stravinsky, Three Pieces for String Quartet, good
Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto 2, good
Tippett, Fantasia on a theme by Corelli, excellent
Weber, Jubel Overture, fair
Webern, Concerto op. 24, fair

Large scores
---------------
Beethoven, Wellington's Victory, excellent
Beethoven-Mendelssohn-Tchaikovsky violin concertos, excellent
Brahms, German Requiem, excellent
Chopin, Ballades, excellent
Chopin, Nocturnes, excellent
Franck, Symphony, excellent
Mendelssohn, Three Etudes and Scherzo, fair
Strauss, Till Eulenspiegel, excellent
Torke, Bright Blue Music, excellent