LibGuides: .Music Subject Guide: Scores & Notated Music

Printed scores in Hamersly and other libraries

Use Primo to find scores held in Hamersly Library and its regional partners (Summit). On your search results screen, use the Resource Type: Scores filter.

Search tips:

Use quotation marks around a standard number to search it as a phrase: "hwv 1", "K. 620", "RV 549". Do the same with an opus number but add the composer's name to the search: hindemith "op. 8".
Lots of false hits? Use the Author/Creator filter to select the composer.

To search in libraries beyond Summit, use WorldCat with the Format: Musical Score filter. The same search tips apply as with Primo.

In Anthologies, Series, and Editions

Collected Editions, Historical Series and Sets, and Monuments of Music by George R. Hill; Norris L. Stephens
Call Number: Reference: ML113 .H55 1997
ISBN: 0914913220
Publication Date: 1997
Historical Sets, Collected Editions, and Monuments of Music by Anna H. Heyer
Call Number: Reference: ML113 .H52 1980
Publication Date: 1980

Digital Scores Collections

Classical Scores Library This link opens in a new window
More than 53,000 classical scores from both in-copyright and public domain editions. Works from the Western classical canon starting in the Middle Ages and extending to lesser-known works of the 21st century. Detailed metadata provides searching by specific genre/form, instrumentation, original language of text, etc. Includes full scores, part scores, manuscripts, piano scores, and more. Interactive platform allows for creating collections ("playlists"), custom clipping from and annotation of scores, zoom view, digital sharing, and downloading to PDF. The database also includes direct links to audio tracks for works that are available in the associated Classical Music Library database. From Alexander Street Press, access is restricted to current WOU students, faculty and staff. Includes Limited Public Performance Rights.

Eastman School of Music: Musical Scores digital collection
Includes full-text for nearly 15,000 scores and books in the public domain from the collections of the Sibley Music Library at the University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music. Many of these are unique to the Sibley Music Library collection. Download in PDF format.
Music Treasures Consortium
Provides online access to some of the world's most valued music manuscripts and print materials found in the collections of respected archives around the world, including the Library of Congress, the Julliard School, the British Library, and Harvard University. Researchers can search or browse materials, access reliable factual data about each item, and view digital images.
New York Philharmonic | Digital Archive: Scores
Provides digitized images of scores from the Archives of the New York Philharmonic, complete with conductors' markings.
Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (The Complete Works of Mozart) - Digital Version - Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum
Includes full scores for all of Mozart's works, as well as commentaries and links to selected recordings. Search by KV number to quickly locate a specific work. Content equivalent to the Bärenreiter print edition.
Early Music Online
A pilot 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.
Digital Scores and Libretti
An extensive list of digitalized historic scores and libretti maintained by librarians at the Loeb Music Library, Harvard University.

Online sheet music and performance editions

IMSLP - Petrucci Music Library
This project seeks to create a virtual library containing all public domain music, as well as music from composers who are willing to share their work with the world without charge.
Mutopia
The Mutopia Project offers sheet music editions of classical music for free download. Volunteers produce the digital editions based on print editions in the public domain. Works by most major classical composers are available. The project also includes a growing number of modern editions, arrangements and new music. The respective editors, arrangers and composers have chosen to make these works freely available.
Choral Public Domain Library
Begun in December 1998, CPDL is one of the world's largest free sheet music sites. You can use CPDL to find scores, texts, translations, and information about composers.
Sheet Music Consortium home page
A consolidated index of sheet music collections at the Library of Congress, Duke University, Indiana University, Maine Music Box, Johns Hopkins University, National Library of Australia, and the UCLA Music Library. Includes records for both digitized and print sheet music, and permits searches to be limited to digitized items only. Most digitized materials are older compositions now in the public domain.
Edward MacDowell piano music online
This online collection reproduces the sheet music for the majority of American composer Edward MacDowell's character pieces for piano, most of which are not available in print anthologies of his piano music. All these works are in the public domain. Produced by Wellesley College.

Online retailers & Publishers

Sheet Music Plus
An online retailer offering an extensive collection of sheet music in all genres from most major publishers. Useful for determining which editions of a work are available for purchase and obtaining information such as unique identifying numbers that can help with searching the library catalog and/or Summit.
Musicnotes.com
An online retailer offering an extensive catalog of sheet music and guitar tab downloads, including nearly 110,000 songs and more than 260,000 music books. Supports preview of songs and scores prior to purchase, so this is a good source to help differentiate between songs with similar titles and get an overview of available editions.
FreeHand Music
An online retailer offering an extensive selection of legal digital sheet music and guitar tab downloads. Catalog includes more than 125,000 titles from leading artists, composers, and publishers.
United We Tab
An online retailer offering downloads of guitar tabs with videos for popular songs. Prices start at 99 cents. Tabs are prepared by professional musicians and verified for accuracy. Fully legal and licensed, so songwriters receive compensation. Catalog includes more than 14,000 songs, including those controlled by Hal Leonard.
Boosey & Hawkes: The Classical Music Specialists
The largest specialist classical music publishing company in the world. Owns an unrivalled catalogue of music copyrights featuring many prominent 20th and 21st century composers.
Hal Leonard Online
Especially useful for locating sheet music for popular and musical theatre songs. With more than 200,000 available titles, Hal Leonard represents some of the world's best known and most respected artists.
G. Schirmer, Inc.
The oldest continuously active North American music publisher. The G. Schirmer/AMP catalog includes one of the largest rosters of living American composers, and the company also holds distribution rights for the music of prominent composers who self-publish.
Schott Music
A major European publisher of music scores. Core business is the publication of works by internationally renowned 20th and 21st century composers. Also manages performance rights and rentals.
Dover Publications
Offers authoritative editions of classic books and scores — piano, orchestral, opera, chamber music, miniature scores — at reasonable prices. Suitable for performers, music students, teachers, and scholars.
Radnofsky Couper Editions
Seeks to provide members of the saxophone community (both classical and jazz), with high quality music and recordings, and enriching pedagogical materials.

Other catalogues

RISM
Contains around 700,000 references to music manuscripts representing the works of 25,000 composers. Useful for identifying libraries or archives that own original manuscripts or rare editions. Includes some links to digital copies.

.Music Subject Guide

Age matters

Song indexes