The IMSLP

[Sathrandur]

It has become apparent that over the time I have been a member on this forum that there have been a reasonable number of requests asking where a copy of a certain organ work may be found. Both I and certain other members have provided links to the IMSLP website (International Music Score Library Project). It seems however that there are those out there, including members, who seem unaware of the existence of this website.

So I am taking the opportunity to make visitors and members of this site aware. The website has tens of thousands of musical scores. All the works hosted on the site are public domain or have been released with appropriate permission. Anyone may join the website and submit copies of scores. You can search by composer, genre, instrumentation and more. This being said, not every work is always catalogued into their relevant categories and as such it is better to find the composer's page and then find the relevant work if listed.

Typically for a work to be public domain it will have to have been published before 1923, and if not the composer must have been deceased for 50 or 70 years depending on the copyright laws of your country.

This is a fantastic resourse all musicians should be familiar with.

Furthermore, I suggest that it be an unwritten rule of this forum that requests for finding particular scores only be made after having checked the IMSLP first.

[JonathanP]

Furthermore, I suggest that it be an unwritten rule of this forum that requests for finding particular scores only be made after having checked the IMSLP first.

While we do say it's better to search Google before posting a question, as is general practice on all sites, I don't think that would be a good idea. Asking questions about sheet music leads to discussions about arrangements and the piece itself. It also suggests new pieces for the rest of us to learn. I also enjoy seeing what others are playing.

This is an organ forum, so questions about music are good!

[rmdostie]

This is a fantastic resourse all musicians should be familiar with.

I use it a lot, and have discovered many obscure but fine German and French Romantic works that way. Of course, some of the downloadable pdf files are pretty dim, either because of a poor original or poor reproduction. Also, sometimes the print is either so small as to be unreadable (by me at least), or so large and spread out that the work occupies too many pages. In either case, I re-score it in Finale, and sometimes I do this even for a readable score. It's a good way to familiarize myself with the piece. Anybody not having Finale or some similar program who wants this done can contact me privately.

Rick Dostie
Resurrection Lutheran Church
Waterville, ME USA

[myorgan]

In either case, I re-score it in Finale, and sometimes I do this even for a readable score. It's a good way to familiarize myself with the piece. Anybody not having Finale or some similar program who wants this done can contact me privately.

Rick,

I agree completely. Other than you and I, I'm not aware of anyone who re-scores a piece to become familiar with it. It must be a Maine thing! It's a fantastic way to analyze the piece before playing it, and also familiarizes me with the repetitions, sequences, chordal structure, key differences, etc.

Sathrandur,

While I agree IMSLP is a good source of scores and information, there are scores posted that have mistakes, have been transcribed incorrectly, and/or are gratuitously promoting one's own works. I leave the promotion of one's own works to sites like MuseScore, SibeliusMusic, and others. Granted, the usable scores on IMSLP far outnumber those I just mentioned by probably 99% to 1%, as opposed to 30% to 70% on the self-publishing sites. The self-publishing sites also tend to focus on arrangements rather than source materials. I've actually found a couple of brass/organ arrangements this way.

While it seems like we religiously keep directing people to IMSLP, I know I have become familiar with other pieces I can use simply from a request on this Forum. Had the request not been made, I might have never discovered the piece. You must agree that the IMSLP site's search features and navigation are a bit of a shallow learning curve. A new user may not be able to navigate it as easy as one of us.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Michael

[nullogik]

IMSLP is great. I agree that some of the scans are poor and when you print them out the notes are tiny but often if the piece is well known there will be several editions, one of which will be useable.

Some of the best versions I've found are done by Editions Outremontaises (Pierre Gouin). I've printed out several of his Bach scores and they are laid/spaced out very nicely - unlike some of the more famous German editions which I find too bunched up. This can be quite off putting as it makes the piece appear more complicated than it really is.

http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Gouin,_Pierre

I use Choral Public Domain for choir scores. Very useful for parishes with limited music budgets not beyond a bit of photocopying:

http://www.cpdl.org/

Plenty of organ stuff here:

https://urresearch.rochester.edu/vie...ollectionId=63

and some here if you select the "limit to digitized sheetmusic only" option:

http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/sheetmusic/

[andyg]

..Other than you and I, I'm not aware of anyone who re-scores a piece to become familiar with it. It must be a Maine thing! ...

No, I do it too and last time I looked, I wasn't in Maine! :)