Online sources

[gandhi]

Hello,

I thought I would offer some online sources for scores just in case you weren't aware of them.

Some of these are torrent files and will require a bittorent client. (like uTorrent)

The complete Bach-Gesellschaft edition in PDF, a 1.3 GB torrent. This is scanned from the 1850 edition so it is public domain

http://www.demonoid.com/torrents/downlo ... id.torrent

The Bach Cantatas page has excellent scores, most with English translations. Not sure if they are public domain but you can contact them to find out.

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/IndexScores.htm

The Variations project has a huge number of scores online. THe only problem is that each page is a seperate gif file. It shouldn't be too hard for a technically inclined person to produce a script that will download complete works and stitch the together into PDF files. There are some great finds here, including Schubert's complete songs, Haydn and Beethoven's complete string quartets, dozens of full opera scores, etc.

http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/

Chopin complete piano music. This is produced by a company called CD sheet music, so I don't know if it from a public domain source. You might recognize the edition or you could contact them.

http://www.demonoid.com/torrents/downlo ... id.torrent

Schumann complete piano music. Haven't downloaded it so I'm not sure of the source

http://www.demonoid.com/torrents/downlo ... id.torrent

Complete piano works of Beethoven. Again haven't downloaded it so I'm not sure of the source

http://www.demonoid.com/torrents/downlo ... id.torrent

Good luck with your project!

Gandhi[/url]

[imslp]

The complete Bach-Gesellschaft edition in PDF, a 1.3 GB torrent. This is scanned from the 1850 edition so it is public domain

http://www.demonoid.com/torrents/downlo ... id.torrent

Hmm... currently there is an ongoing project on the Bach page which involves the sorting of that exact edition of the Bach-Gesellschaft (1851-1899). Except, the total size of the files I have is around 3 CDs (around 2GB). And if the files in the torrent are what I think they are, they are pretty much useless since they come in PDFs of complete books, and is not very practical for everyday use (unless you speak German and have a good knowledge of the Bach BWV catalogue). That's partly why there's this project on IMSLP

The Variations project has a huge number of scores online. THe only problem is that each page is a seperate gif file. It shouldn't be too hard for a technically inclined person to produce a script that will download complete works and stitch the together into PDF files. There are some great finds here, including Schubert's complete songs, Haydn and Beethoven's complete string quartets, dozens of full opera scores, etc.

I do have all of Schubert's songs in PDF (and the same edition as the Variations project too). The problem is how to release them: I've already released two song cycles of the first book, but is currently debating how best to release "loose" songs that are not part of a cycle, i.e. whether to release them together or a seperate page for each, though the second choice would involve a HUGE number of pages created since there are so many. As for the quartets and operas, it'd be very nice if IMSLP can have them, the only problem being I'm too busy atm to write a script to download them off the site.

Chopin complete piano music. This is produced by a company called CD sheet music, so I don't know if it from a public domain source. You might recognize the edition or you could contact them.

I'm 99.99% sure that they are all from public domain sources. The very reason being that I found no CD in their catalogue that has non-pd works, and also I highly doubt they have the money to pay off royalties.

However, at the moment I'm not going to allow any CD Sheet Music files in IMSLP because of two reasons. First, the operating model of IMSLP already directly conflicts with CD Sheet Music, and second, their files occupy a legal grey area. Even though they are scans of public domain works, they might claim to have copyright or license over it based on digitalization (derivative work). This is a grey area in the copyright law because the law states that a copyright cannot be placed on a public domain work unless there are significant changes. What exactly constitutes "significant" is not always clear, especially as digitalization is involved.

Of course, I may change my mind if I find evidence to the contrary.

Good luck with your project!

Thanks

[Sphemusator]

If I may add a few of my favourite stopping-places when looking for material:

( Needs Ghostscript and Ghostview to view the files )
http://ace.acadiau.ca/score/archive/ftp.htm

Much early music in PDF
http://sca.uwaterloo.ca/Hendricks/

Madrigals in PDF
http://www.oldmusicproject.com/madrigals.html

Classics engraved using the Lilypond freeware mostly in PDF
http://www.mutopiaproject.org/index.html

Choral Public Domain Library - similar in spirit to IMSLP - various formats
http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Werner Icking Music Archive - PDFs
http://icking-music-archive.org/index.html

Spanish early music in PDF
http://www.upv.es/coro/victoria/mas_par ... #dieciseis

[Guest]

Here's another that you may be interested in: http://www.artes.ufpr.br/material/banco_de_partituras/. I assume they are in the public domain if they are open to the public (not totally sure).

Nice project! It's nice to find scores, but there don't seem to be too many parts. If we were to typeset some parts would you be open to adding them? I know quality is a goal and scans are preferred. So maybe another question would be where would I find parts that would be legal to scan?

Thanks again!

-----Horndude77

[imslp]

Parts are very tricky... that's part of why you see lots of scores but very few parts. Mainly because there is no such thing as Dover parts :/

Of course, if you created the parts yourself out of the score that'd be public domain if you so wished it to be, but that's a LOT of work...

[horndude77]

Yeah, it would be a lot of work, but to have a collection of free parts out there would be quite valuable. It would save costs for many orchestras (and every penny for some orchestras counts). Anyways, I'm sure there are collections of public domain pieces out there. Maybe in university libraries. It would just be a matter of tracking them down. That said, having the pieces re-typset does have some extra value also in that it is more easily changed (for example: mistakes, conductor's extra marks, annoying page turns, transpositions, etc...). I have a few parts that I have typeset in the past, perhaps I'll submit them here.

Anyways, thanks for the site again.

-----Horndude77

[horndude77]

Oh yeah, I forgot. Has anybody else checked out that site I posted (http://www.artes.ufpr.br/material/banco_de_partituras/). There are quite a few scores there which aren't here. How would we check if they are public domain? Or could we add them and then removed them if someone finds a problem? Ok, thanks for the info!

[kongming819]

The Variations project has a huge number of scores online. THe only problem is that each page is a seperate gif file. It shouldn't be too hard for a technically inclined person to produce a script that will download complete works and stitch the together into PDF files. There are some great finds here, including Schubert's complete songs, Haydn and Beethoven's complete string quartets, dozens of full opera scores, etc.

http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/

This is the way I do it:

This requires a lot of patience and preferably digital cable connection:

I download all the pages onto my hard drive...
Print them all collectively using Microsoft's picture and fax printing wizard...to the pdf creator, of course...(I use CutePDF pdf printer).

...then I delete all the pictures...

[kongming819]

Parts are very tricky... that's part of why you see lots of scores but very few parts. Mainly because there is no such thing as Dover parts :/

Of course, if you created the parts yourself out of the score that'd be public domain if you so wished it to be, but that's a LOT of work...

That is unless you retypeset (argh!) using Finale, Sibelius, or something and you...

In Finale: ...extract parts, which will become "use the dynamic parts" once Finale 2007 enters the market, or...
In Sibelius: ...use the dynamic parts

It would still be a lot of work, but at least it's all automated, without tiring out your writing hand, and you also get to have a very modern typeset of the score, and you also get to listen to the score (recommended only if you have any Finale software or you have the full version of Sibelius 4 where you get Garritan Personal Orchestra (also with Finale 2006, and soon 2007).

[kongming819]

Oh yeah, I forgot. Has anybody else checked out that site I posted (http://www.artes.ufpr.br/material/banco_de_partituras/). There are quite a few scores there which aren't here. How would we check if they are public domain? Or could we add them and then removed them if someone finds a problem? Ok, thanks for the info!

Yes...where are the scores? I see a whole list and I can't click on anything!

[horndude77]

Yeah, the site has changed and is no longer usable at all. Oh well.

[kongming819]

pity...there was a lot of potential...

[horndude77]

I came across this site the today: http://mus.lib.ru/ I'm not sure about the legality of all the scores though. I don't really know how to go about assesing that either. Anyways it looks like it has a few good scores.

[Guest]

OH MY GOODNESS...I HIT THE JACKPOT!
I FOUND THE ORCHESTRATION OF THE PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION!!
Thanks for the site you provided!
http://mus.lib.ru/download_eng/scores/m ... y_kart.htm

[Guest]

crap...i forgot to log in again...that was me...

-kongming819