Open & Public Domain Music & Sounds
Sound Databases and Collections
Online databases and collections of music and audio sound files in various sound formats.
Additional Resources & Links
From Bach Archiv Leipzig et al: Digitized manuscripts of J.S. Bach and family.
History of Classical Music
Alex Johnston's series of articles outlining the history of classical music - with accompanying Spotify playlist.
Beethoven-Haus Digital Archives
Beethoven-Haus Bonn
Unit: Masterpieces old and new
Archive of 17th-century Italian Madrigals and Arias
Critical editions of 17th-century Italian madrigals and arias, together with introductions to the editions in Italian, German and English, and translations of the texts into English and German
Interlude
The one website for those who love classical music to go to every day. Highly recommended.
Collection: Classical Music - Kennedy Center
Music Online: Classical Music Library
Online Resources for Music Scholars: Links to Digital Scores Repositories
Favorite Classical Composers
This site has everything you want to know about the greatest composers and their beautiful creations!
Instrumental Resources
This is a free, online textbook from WikiBooks. the science that studies sound, in particular its production, transmission, and effects.
Center for the History of Music Theory and Literature
Established in 1998, CHMTL brings together various activities, publications (both electronic and conventional), and projects centered at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.
Textbook for undergraduate brass methods course focusing on brass instrument techniques and pedagogy.
Vocal Techniques for the Instrumentalist - 2nd edition
Beyond Slonimsky: Melodic Patterns for Guitar |
Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns has been cited by creative musicians as different as Arnold Schoenberg, John Coltrane, Frank Zappa and Buckethead as a source of advanced material for the construction of melodic lines and dizzying solo patterns.
Established in 1985 as an archive and research center devoted to the study of American popular music from the pre-revolutionary era to the present.
Provided by the University of North Carolina, students can find sheet music for viewing in the browser, download, or printing.
From Brown University: Sheet music, mostly vocal music of American imprint and primarily from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection - John Hopkins University
Students can find over 30,000 pieces of American popular sheet music dating back to 1780
International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
A collection of sheet music in the public domain, with accompanying biographical and historical information.
The Music Theory Materials website was created to provide materials – musical examples, videos, and handouts – that could be useful in music theory classes.
Archive of Popular American Sheet Music
From UCLA: Popular American sheet music from 1790 to the present
From Duke University: Digitized images of sheet music published in the United States between 1850 and 1920.
Hathi Trust Women Composers Collection
The Hathi Trust Women Composers Collection consists of digitized sheet music for approximately 3,000 musical works by more than 700 women composers. Most date from the 19th- and early 20th-centuries, with a few pieces from the 18th century.
the largest library of musical scores available online.
Begun in December 1998, CPDL is one of the world's largest free sheet music sites.
Archive of Popular American Music
Digitized sheet music and recordings for popular songs in the public domain.
Over 17,000 digitized pieces of sheet music from Baylor University's Frances G. Spencer Collection.
Digital images of over 3,000 pieces of music published in the United States between 1850 and 1920.
348 popular and jazz songs with lead sheets, plus modern and traditional harmonizations
Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, ca. 1870 to 1885
"Consists of over 47,000 pieces of sheet music registered for copyright during the years 1870 to 1885
A guide to the history of music printing, from Rosendo Reyna, a music theory and performance instructor who also works as an independent music engraver.
MusOpen - Sheet Music and Recordings
Find copyright free recordings and sheet music on this site. Students can search by composer, performer, instrument, time period, or musical form.
Library of Congress: National Jukebox
The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives.
New York Public Library Digital Library
The NYPL's digital collections contain both notated music and musical recordings, many of which are in the public domain. The permissions for use vary according to the individual item.
This searchable database provides bibliographic information on approximately 34,000 ethnographic sound recordings. Most were recorded between 1933 and 1950.
This site provides a searchable database to thousands of recordings of American folk music.
Indexed by topic and subject, this website provides extensive bibliographic and discographic information on music of the Americas.
British Library: Classical music Archival Sound Recordings
Historical classical recordings from the British Library Sound Archive
Classical music composers of all periods and countries, with biographies and work lists.
Presents over 400 composers and classical types of music- Librarian's Index to the Internet
Classical Net
A site that offers information and news about classical music.
Classical Music Archives
The Classical Archives is the largest classical music site on the web
Classical Connect - the free classical music site
Classical Connect is your virtual concert hall, and the biggest searchable collection of classical music on the Internet.
Digital Scores and Libretti (Harvard)
Rare or unique manuscripts, first editions, and early editions from the 17th to the early 20th century.
Over 3000 digitized scores by women composers, mostly from the 19th and early 20th century.
This website provides full scores and parts to thousands of works for band, focusing on public domain music from the 1880s through 1924.
A project in which 300 of the world’s earliest surviving volumes of printed music, held in the British Library, have been digitized and made freely available online.