Finding Public Domain Scores Online
Below is a list of selected websites where you will find digitized scores that are in the public domain. Be aware that some sites provide better editions and quality images than others.
General Pages
The International Music Score Library Project- Repository with tens of thousands of musical scores that are in the public domain... in Canada
- All scores are in .pdf format
- Content for Indiana University courses on Opera Literature, Song Literature, Orchestral and Choral Literature, Chamber Music Literature and Piano Literature
- "Designed primarily for online display, not for printing"
- Pages of scores scanned as individual .gifs
- Orchestra Works, Chamber Music, Piano Works, Organ Works and Sacred Music from major composers
- Chamber Music section contains scores and parts for Mozart quartets and quintets
- All scores are in .pdf format
- Choral sheet music
- Most scores re-type set
- Most scores available in .pdf
- "KernScores hosts musical data encoded in the Humdrum file format. The data is a text-based description for musical scores, and its primary purpose is for computational musical analysis using the Humdrum Toolkit."
- Large number of scores available as .pdf
- Re-type set
- scores available as .pdf
- Random collection
- Many scores are unique to the Sibley Music Library collection
- All scores are in .pdf format
- Fairly random collection
- "...comprised of scores held in the Music Library's general and special collections."
- "New works, typically selected out of preservation concern, historical interest or uniqueness, are added on an ongoing basis."
- Each page is an individual file (image or .pdf)
- For online display, not for printing
- scanned as picture for preservation
- small collection
- not very user friendly
- Mostly public domain editions re-type set
- Some original arrangements
- Available as .zip, .pdf and other (letter and A4 size pages)
- "Military Band" music from the late 19th and early 20th centuries
- Mostly individual instrument parts but some scores
- All .pdf
- Over 10,800 Australian printed music items online from the 19th and early-20th centuries
- color .pdf
- The collection features rare and unusual string quartets not available in modern editions, and for which, in some cases, Duke's Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library holds the only copy in North America.
Composer Specific Pages
Digital Chopin Project (National Digital Library - Poland)Chopin Early Editions – University of Chicago Library
- all Chopin, all the time
- Scanned as pictures
- Designed for display not printing
- Designed for display not printing
- Not every volume – mostly the operas
- Downloads in .zip as individual pages
- Limited # of downloads per day
- "Carl-Alexander-Ausgabe" in 34 volumes
- Designed for display not printing
- Designed for display not printing
- Full Scores
- Viewable as .gif or you can generate .pdf
- Piano Sonatas
- Downloads as .zip
- Re-typeset editions
Sheet Music
Charles H. Templeton, Sr. Music Museum :: The Sheet Music Collection
Indiana University Sheet Music
Popular Sheet Music Collection -- UW-Madison
Wisconsin Sheet Music Database
Kansas City Sheet Music Collection
The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music - - Johns Hopkins University
Manuscripts
Juilliard Manuscript Collection
Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music- collections of medieval polyphonic music manuscripts
- requires free registration?
Listings of other resources
American Memory from the Library of Congress -- Performing Arts, Music
IMSLP: Other music score websites
WIMA: Werner Icking Music Archive: Other free sheet music archives