Music - Guide to Research

Library Music Source  

A collection of digital sheet music, covering many classical composers. It includes a range of vocal solos, opera scores, and orchestral parts. Scores can be printed or saved as PDFs.

• Art Song Central
Free, printable sheet music for singers and voice teachers. An emphasis is placed on standard classical and traditional repertoire.

• The Choral Public Domain Library
Searchable database of close to nine thousand choral music scores available for free download. Updated daily. Also includes texts and translations.

• IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library
The free public domain sheet music library. 385,000 scores available for pdf download.

• Mutopia Project
2070 pieces of music – free to download, modify, print, copy, distribute, perform, and record – all in the Public Domain or under Creative Commons licenses.

• Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (NMA)
An ongoing project to digitize the complete works of Mozart and make them available. Users must agree to "fair use" principles of copyright law.

• Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Digital Archives  
  Beethoven manuscripts, first editions, letters and pictures
• Chopin Early Editions  
  First and early printed editions of musical compositions by Frédéric Chopin at the University of Chicago
• Jean-Baptiste Lully Collection  
  Early prints and manuscripts of works by Lully, primarily opera
• Neue Mozart-Ausgabe: Digitized Version  
  Musical text and the critical commentaries of the entire Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
• Ignaz Pleyel Early Editions  
  Pleyel scores, primarily "keyboard and chamber music, including arrangements of large orchestral works, published within the composer's lifetime"

• Digital Scores Collection (Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library, Harvard University)
• IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library, the public domain music score library
• IN Harmony: Sheet Music from Indiana
• Indiana University VARIATIONS Prototype: Online Musical Scores
• Juilliard Manuscript Collection
• Music Library Association Sheet Music Collections
• Musical Scores (Sibley Library, Eastman School of Music)
• Performing Arts in America 1875 -1923
• Sheet Music Consortium

Many libraries have begun digitizing their primary source materials. Once you know which library owns a specific manuscript or edition, check the library's website to see if a digital image is available.

• Library of Congress: Gateway to Library Catalogs  
• Library of Congress (U.S.): Performing Arts Division  
• Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music  
  Oxford
• The European Library  
  Gateway site to European national libraries
• French National Library  
• German National Library  
  Berlin
• Malvine  
  Gateway site to post-medieval manuscripts in European libraries.
• National Library of Spain: Music Collections