Topic: Downloadable scores

[Maciek]

I think a sticky like this would be helpful.

Please note that my intention is for this to be a sort of "directory thread", listing all the resources we know (I want to prevent this thread from growing too long and thus unusable). If you have a question to ask (like "where do I find the score to Tchaikovsky's Fatum?") or if you want to mention the fact that one of the sites has been updated go to the Where to download specific scores thread. If, however, you know of a free on-line score resource that is not listed here - post away!


INTERNATIONAL MUSIC SCORE LIBRARY PROJECT

• http://www.imslp.org/
  
  The above website has many free scores and sheet music.

  
  IMSLP is probably the biggest resource on the web for free music, and growing constantly. We're keeping an eye on it over here.
  

VARIATIONS

• Also invaluable, though the choice of items to include is sometimes as puzzling as the choice of items to exclude:
  
  http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/

  
  

BMIC

• The other site I return to often is the BMIC's collection, which has an enormous number of free PDFs of contemporary British music.

  
  I think the site Luke must have meant is this:
  http://www.bmic.co.uk/collection/
  

Alkan site(s)

• And of course there are great sites dedicated to individual composers - one that springs to mind is a site with almost all of Alkan's music (all carefully checked re legality!)....

  Is this it?
  http://piano.francais.free.fr/alkan/04_partitions_en.html

  The link I have is:
  
  http://alkan.assos.free.fr/alkan/04_partitions_en.html

The DIGITAL MOZART EDITION

• The Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum in cooperation with the Packard Humanities Institute has now completed the Digital Mozart Edition, an online database with (apparently) every composition Mozart wrote.
  
  http://nma.redhost24-001.com/mambo/index.php
  

The Free Sheetmusic Library

• http://www.bh2000.net/score/ - the "Free Sheetmusic Library". Various bits and pieces
  

The Jean-Baptiste Lully Collection
at the University of North Texas Music Library

• http://www.library.unt.edu/music/lully/default.htm
  

Mutopia

• http://www.mutopiaproject.org/browse.html#byComposer
  
  The Mutopia Project - a mixed-bag, containing practically all of the essentials (like Bach's WTC etc.)
  

Gutenberg:The Sheet Music Project

• http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:The_Sheet_Music_Project
  

- this link doesn't work for me right now - will update

• for choral music:
  http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

And also valuable: a site with lots of links to free sheet music:

http://plato.acadiau.ca/courses/musi/callon/2273/scores.htm


And The Lied and Art Song Texts Page:

Here is a resource I use to find the texts for songs....

http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/

MUSICwww

- free classical sheet music for piano.


Regards,
Maciek

[karlhenning]

Maciek, you are the man!

[Maciek]

Thank you, Karl.

[greg]

add this one, too:

http://notes.tarakanov.net/composers/p.htm


this site is nearly as good as the IMSLP in some ways. It has good scores of Prokofiev, Schnittke (lots of him), Stravinsky, etc.

[Black Knight]

www.sheetmusicfox.com

and

www.sheetmusicarchive.net (you can only download two files a day, but that's not something a quick cookie delete can't fix)

[KevinP]

Sometimes doing a google search for, for example, "palestrina missa pdf" reveals stuff not on those websites. You'll have to sort through some other stuuff, especially concert programs, but it works sometimes. Just throw that 'pdf' in the search field.

[greg]

pianosociety.com

i found this one by reading the update on IMSLP, they're "joining forces". What's special about this site is that it has recordings along with the scores, some i'm really excited to listen to!

[mikkeljs]

Very nice site! 

[karlhenning]

http://imslp.wikidot.com/

Update: It has been confirmed that IMSLP will be online again on July 1st, 2008 at 12AM EST. In the meanwhile, much work remains to be done, and I will be setting up branch projects before then. I will update this page with any news.

[greg]

http://imslp.wikidot.com/

I can't wait!!!!!

[Guido]

This is great news

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Excellent news!  I had only just discovered this great resource, when it had to be closed. 

[greg]

NOw that it's 2009, they have several composers' scores in public domain- including Vaughan Williams!

[Symphonien]

NOw that it's 2009, they have several composers' scores in public domain- including Vaughan Williams!

They should have these composers in the public domain but the site has been slow to review many files for copyright. It looks like most works published after 1923 even by composers that died more than 50 years ago are still blocked. For example, Sibelius' 6th and 7th Symphonies are still blocked even though he died more than 50 years ago which makes him PD in Canada where the site is hosted. And to name an absurd example I came across, some of Berg's works are still blocked even though he died more than 70 years ago!

I think they followed US Copyright law and to be safe haven't yet allowed anything published after 1923. But I hope they remedy this situation soon.

[greg]

I think they followed US Copyright law and to be safe haven't yet allowed anything published after 1923. But I hope they remedy this situation soon.

I'm all for that, as long as we team up first and assassinate the Universal Edition guys.

[greg]

Something I've noticed: it looks like IMSLP has the complete catalogue of Scriabin works- complete meaning the whole opus list, plus a bunch of works without opus number. Maybe that isn't exactly complete, though?


http://imslp.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Alexander_Scriabin

[Joe_Campbell]

Something I've noticed: it looks like IMSLP has the complete catalogue of Scriabin works- complete meaning the whole opus list, plus a bunch of works without opus number. Maybe that isn't exactly complete, though?


http://imslp.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Alexander_Scriabin

Op.50 - Opus Not Used by Scriabin
Op.55 - Opus Not Used by Scriabin

Some wierd superstition?

[greg]

no idea...

[music4ever]

it seems he didn't use those 2 numbers. Maybe he composed something and threw it away but already had published some higher opus numbers? Don't know. But on http://www.klassika.info/Komponisten/Scriabin/wv_opus_2.html you can see, that those numbers don't exist. And on http://inter-note.com/nvd/composer.jsp?composer=SKRIABIN&sort=opus&start=6&pp=15 also no 50 and 55! By the way, the have a nice preview function where you can flip through the score and listen to the music

[Muzition]

I'm not sure if this website is entirely legal, and I hope I won't get kicked off the forum for it, but here's a website I recently found:
http://www.sheetsearch.com/
You can download PDFs of lots of music, not just classical, but also popular music.  It does have a whole lot of classical music, including scores by modern and living composers.  It has some more recent music that can't be found on IMSLP.
There are a few weird things about the site - for example, music by Beethoven is found both under B for Beethoven and L for Ludwig van Beethoven.  The site does have a search function if you're looking for a particular composer and you're not sure whether to look him up under his first name or last name.
But yeah, I think it's worth a look.