Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads
The Bodleian Library has unparalleled holdings of over 30,000 ballads in several major collections. The original printed materials range from the 16th- to the 20th-Century. The Broadside Ballads project makes the digitised copies of the sheets and ballads available to the research community. |
ChoralWiki: The Choral Public Domain Library
Begun in December 1998, the Choral Public Domain Llibrary is one of the world's largest free sheet music sites. You can use CPDL to find scores, texts, translations, and information about composers.
The Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University holds a significant collection of 19th and early 20th century American sheet music. The Historic American Sheet Music Project provides access to digital images of 3042 pieces from the collection, published in the United States between 1850 and 1920.
The Petrucci Music Library has a goal to create a virtual library containing all public domain music scores, as well as scores from composers who are willing to share their music with the world without charge. The Petrucci Music Library also encourages the exchange of musical ideas, both in the form of musical works and in their analysis.
Inventions of Note Sheet Music Collection
The Inventions of Note Sheet Music Collection was established in 1997 by the Lewis Music Library at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This sheet music collection consists of popular songs and piano compositions that portray technologies (old and new alike) as revealed through song texts and/or cover art.
Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music consists of over 29,000 pieces of American popular music. The collection spans the years 1780 to 1980, but its strength is its throrough documentation of nineteenth-century America through popular music.
Library and Archives of Canada Collection
The Library and Archives Canada sheet music collection has grown to become the most comprehensive in the country, and includes over 20,000 patriotic and parlour songs, piano pieces, sacred music and novelty numbers, some dating back to the 1700s. Besides the expected Canadian imprints, it includes music by Canadians or about Canada published anywhere in the world. Many of the cover illustrations are of particular interest.
Library of Congress African-American Band Music And Recordings Collection
This collection consists of 1,305 pieces of African-American sheet music dating from 1850 through 1920. The sheet music and photographs listed are from the collections at Brown University.
Library of Congress American Sheet Music Collection
Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885 consists of over 47,000 pieces of sheet music registered for copyright during the years 1870 to 1885. Included are popular songs, piano music, sacred and secular choral music, solo instrumental music, method books and instructional materials, and music for band and orchestra.
The Mutopia Project offers sheet music editions of classical music for free download. These are based on editions in the public domain, and include works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Handel, Mozart, and many others.
The Sheet Music Consortium is a group of libraries working toward the goal of building an open collection of digitized sheet music using the Open Archives Initiative:Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI:PMH).
Templeton Digital Sheet Music Collection
The sheet music collection of almost 22,000 pieces includes popular tunes dating as far back as 1865. The special collections are devoted to ragtime, blues, movie tunes, foxtrots, popular music, show tunes, Irving Berlin, and war songs.