Many of the online collections below contain digitized images of scores in manuscript (MS) format. Please view the Manuscript Scores tab in the menu above for more information about finding items in this specific format.
General Score Collections
Choral Public Domain Library
A wiki providing access to more than 12,000 choral works in the public domain. Allows browsing by genre, voicing, language, and composer nationality. Be aware that the scores here have been re-set using music notation software, often with no attribution to the original source.
Provides digital copies of about 300 16th-century anthologies of printed music. The volumes contain approximately 10,000 musical compositions, consisting mainly of partbooks of vocal polyphony, but also including some early printed tablatures for keyboard or plucked string instruments. Includes music printed in Italy, Germany, France and England.
International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
A virtual library created, based on the wiki principle, to gather public domain music scores as well as music scores of contemporary composers who wish to grant free access to their works. IMSLP provides access to a large array of public domain music scores. Over 6,500 composers are represented, and multiple editions, arrangements, and parts are available for some works.
Provides digitized images of this collection’s 138 autograph manuscripts, sketches, engravers proofs, and first editions. Includes works by Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Copland, Liszt, Mozart, Schumann, Stravinsky, and others.
Provides digitized images of manuscripts from this library. Includes works by Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Debussy, Faure, Mahler, Mozart, Schumann, and others.
Open Music LibraryOpen Music Library brings together music scores from the world’s digital collections as well as peer-reviewed journal articles and books.
Score ExchangeScore Exchange offers thousands of sheet music scores for download for every instrumentation imaginable - from solo pieces to works for full orchestra, from classical to pop. Preview and purchase downloads of sheet music on a variety of systems and devices
A collaborative partnership of major research institutions and libraries worldwide. It is a shared digital repository of library books and journals converted from print owned by research institutions. Materials in these collections span over several centuries and cover hundreds of languages.
The HathiTrust Digital Library started with the collection of the University of Michigan Library, which was digitized by the Google Books Project. Since then the Digital Library has grown to include collections digitized from other partner libraries and research institutions as well as collections from other digital projects like the Internet Archive.
Full-text access and downloading is available for those items in the public domain, including:
US federal government documents
The following are in the public domain, giving full access:
*Works published in the U.S. prior to 1926
*Works Published outside the U.S. before 1876 (for non-U.S. users, before 1873)
*U.S. federal government documents
*Works still protected by copyright, but made available to HathiTrust with the permission of the copyright holder
The number of works in the HathiTrust Digital Library is large and ever-increasing.
Guest users can download public domain works in their entirety that do not have download restrictions (e.g., works digitized by Internet Archive and certain other organizations, or works that have been opened with a Creative Commons license). Guest users can only download works one page a time if they do have download restrictions (e.g. a work that was digitized by Google). Download format options include PDF; EPUB; Text (.txt); Text (.zip); Image (jpg).
There is significant overlap of volumes in HathiTrust and Google Book Search, and if a work is "full view" in HathiTrust, it is possible that the work can be downloaded from Google Book Search. If you are unable to download a full-view book from HathiTrust, you can select the “Find in Google Books” link to check their website for download options. Google Books has their own copyright policies, so we cannot guarantee that the book will be available for download on their website.
Search scores available from library catalogs across across the world. On the search screen, limit your format to Music Scores and search by keyword
*WorldCat lets you search the collections of libraries near your community and thousands more around the world. You can search for popular books, music CDs and videos—all of the physical items you're used to getting from libraries. You can also discover many kinds of digital content.
*This edition of WorldCat, provided through OCLC FirstSearch, enables users to search multiple terms in specific fields (title, author, subject, etc.) and limit by characteristics such as format, date, or audience level.
A free version is available at http://www.worldcat.org/
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