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Music - Guide to Research

The purpose of this guide is to organize the most relevant USD Library resources for students, staff and faculty within the discipline of Music.

Free Scores Online

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.

Selected Online Full-Text Scores - by Composer

  • 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 Collections from National Libraries

    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.

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