Free sheet music sites

[hannanos]

Can anyone help me to find websites that let you download free piano sheet music? A lot of websites don't have free piano sheet music and my parents don't have a credit card that I can use to buy them.

[lhommearme]

 IMSLP

[hannanos]

Thanx for the help, lhommearme!!!

[lhommearme]

that place has it all.everything a piano player could want.

[retrouvailles]

that place has it all.everything a piano player could want.

Well, that is only true if you only like playing public domain music, which is certainly not me.

[ahinton]

Well, that is only true if you only like playing public domain music, which is certainly not me.

Very true, of course, but it's still a most valuable resource.

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

of coruse

Agered

Halt

[ahinton]

Halt

You advise yourself well with this word, methinks!

Best,

Alistair

[john11inc]

Well, that is only true if you only like playing public domain music, which is certainly not me.

What?  D:

But all the pretty music is in public domain!  Who would want to play contemporary music?  It's ugly and sounds like poop.

[worov]

But all the pretty music is in public domain!  Who would want to play contemporary music?  It's ugly and sounds like poop.

Is Shostakovich's music ugly ?

[gep]

Is Shostakovich's music ugly ?

Have a look at the guy's Youtube site (the link is in his signoff). The word is "irony" (which isn't a place to have your ironing done...)

gep

[ahinton]

Have a look at the guy's Youtube site (the link is in his signoff). The word is "irony" (which isn't a place to have your ironing done...)

Though it might incite certain people to get up a head of steam (provided that one had a steam iron in the first place, of course)...

Best,

Alistair

[retrouvailles]

What?  D:

But all the pretty music is in public domain!  Who would want to play contemporary music?  It's ugly and sounds like poop.

Oh, how I have missed you so.

[abj]

Why hasn't anyone mentioned pianophilia yet?

pianophilia is for rare and hard to find publications (but not scores still in copyright). You need to register first though: https://www.pianophilia.com/phpBB3/index.php

[ropemi]

Try www.pianofiles.com and https://www.sheetmusictrade.com/, where you can trade sheet music, some people don't ask nothing in return, like me!

[n3wb13]

https://gangqinpu.com/

This site is good but it's in Chinese and when using the search function you have to use Internet Explorer. Registration is very easy through Google Translate. You can download free PDF file but to download OVE file, it's required to make a comment on the sheet.

Hope you'll find it useful

[point of grace]

i got a good one
here:

https://www.scorser.com/Default.aspx?l=en

[joe wallace]

[Removed]
https://henseltlibrary.wordpress.com/
https://vkgfx.com/scores/
https://www.bh2000.net/score/

Edit: Removed first link (see post below).

[ahinton]

[Removed]
https://henseltlibrary.wordpress.com/
https://vkgfx.com/scores/
https://www.bh2000.net/score/

Most of these sites offer public domain scores only so are OK to visit. The first one that you named here (before removing it as I now have from the above quote, in the spirit of returning the compliment, so to speak) offers anything that it feels like and includes a very considerable amount of material that is in copyright and for which distribution permission has not been sought. I happen to know of about 139 items on that site which its owners have obtained in the form of copies from people who have purchased them from us but without reference to us. I would therefore recommend that people steer clear of it, as it is well known that such activity is illegal; the clue is that it is a Russian based site whose URL ends ".ru"....

Best,

Alistair

[remy]

Walter Cosand's site is excellent, especially for rare scores:

https://waltercosand.com/CosandScores/


remy

[ahinton]

Walter Cosand's site is excellent, especially for rare scores:

https://waltercosand.com/CosandScores/

This one also includes copyright items for which upload/download permission has never been sought; indeed, one of these reveals itself to have come from a copy of a item originally purchased from us.

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

If you e mail Walter, I am sure he will remove them.

Damned decent chap.

Thal

[ahinton]

If you e mail Walter, I am sure he will remove them.

Damned decent chap.

I've already done that, so let's hope that the scores concerned will disappear from that site pronto. There are quite a few others that shouldn;t be there for the same reason but that's not really up to me, of course. Decent or otherwise, I would have thought that he'd have realised that dozens of composers whose scores appear on his site have been dead for less than 70 years and that some may arguably still be alive.

Thanks, anyway!

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

Decent or otherwise, I would have thought that he'd have realised that dozens of composers whose scores appear on his site have been dead for less than 70 years and that some may arguably still be alive.

I expect he does realise, but not all publishers are as "interested" as you and some restrictive, so there is an argument that they only have themselves to blame.

Obviously this is not always the case, but i am glad that sites like Pianophilia have a more relaxed attitude to the 70 year rule, or there would many pieces one would simply not be able to see.

Thal

[ahinton]

I expect he does realise, but not all publishers are as "interested" as you and some restrictive, so there is an argument that they only have themselves to blame.

Obviously this is not always the case, but i am glad that sites like Pianophilia have a more relaxed attitude to the 70 year rule, or there would many pieces one would simply not be able to see.

My attitude, as I'm sure you realise, is the very opposite of restrictive in respect of the music for which I am personally responsible; I would otherwise not have gone to all the expense that I have in ensuring that all that material be made available and that it remain so, nor would I have encouraged the ongoing raft of new editions of any of it.

Mr Cosand has, incidentally, written to confirm removal from his site of the files concerned.

Thanks.

Best,

Alistair

[point of grace]

I've already done that, so let's hope that the scores concerned will disappear from that site pronto.

Alistair

hey! are you latin???

[argerichfan]

Interesting discussion.  Yes, I admit, I went to one of those 'forbidden' websites, and sure enough, there was an organ score I had long been curious to take a peak at.  (A composer not connected with Alistair, but under copyright.)  I can unequivocally state that if my intentions were to formally learn the piece, I would purchase from the publisher.  I will also honestly say that I have no intentions of sharing with anyone else.

I fail to understand where I have done anything criminal.  Maybe someday I will learn this piece, but I won't print it out from the pdf.   

Copyright laws exist for a reason; that doesn't need to be explained to me.  But here we have a composition which I have long loved, and was so delighted to finally see in score.   Mission accomplished, simple as that, nothing more. 

[lostinidlewonder]

There is nothing illegal about downloading copyright material and then printing it off for educational purpose. However, if you then decide to keep what you printed off then you are doing something illegal. When students sit their AMEB examinations it is completely ok for them to print off copyright material for the examiners to read because the examiners after they have finished with it will destroy it and not keep the copy (it is however forbidden for students to use photocopied material on the piano while they play). The problem with websites offering copyright material is that it is impossible to police whether or not everyone is deleting the files and/or burning the printed sheet music once they have viewed it.

[ahinton]

Interesting discussion.  Yes, I admit, I went to one of those 'forbidden' websites, and sure enough, there was an organ score I had long been curious to take a peak at.  (A composer not connected with Alistair, but under copyright.)  I can unequivocally state that if my intentions were to formally learn the piece, I would purchase from the publisher.  I will also honestly say that I have no intentions of sharing with anyone else.

I fail to understand where I have done anything criminal.  Maybe someday I will learn this piece, but I won't print it out from the pdf.   

Copyright laws exist for a reason; that doesn't need to be explained to me.  But here we have a composition which I have long loved, and was so delighted to finally see in score.   Mission accomplished, simple as that, nothing more.

I'm unaware that anyone has suggested that you have "done anything criminal"! The point at issue here is that, whenever anyone puts up a website and advertises and makes available copyright material, whether for free or at a charge, breaches of copyright are being made by that peson unless due written permission of the copyright holder has previously been sought and obtained. It's not rocket science, as the well-worn cliché has it; if the composer is alive or has been dead for less than 70 years, then in most cases his/her work is in copyright, so one has only to do a little research beforehand if unsure about the dates and it is now far easier than ever before to do this. Copyright is established in law, so breaches of copyright are breaches of the law. No one is suggesting, however, that anyone visiting a site and reading copyright material on it is breaking the same law!

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

There is nothing illegal about downloading copyright material and then printing it off for educational purpose. However, if you then decide to keep what you printed off then you are doing something illegal. When students sit their AMEB examinations it is completely ok for them to print off copyright material for the examiners to read because the examiners after they have finished with it will destroy it and not keep the copy (it is however forbidden for students to use photocopied material on the piano while they play). The problem with websites offering copyright material is that it is impossible to police whether or not everyone is deleting the files and/or burning the printed sheet music once they have viewed it.

This last statement is indeed all too true and illustrates well the kinds of problem to which the very presence of copyright material in cyberspace gives rise; as I mentioned above, if anyone wishing to offer musical or literary material on a website is uncertain about its copyright status, it is in most cases very easy to ascertain this beforehand. It is, however, surprising how many people of good intent seem not to realise this before proceeding; not everyone who does this or allows it to be done has an avowed intent to break the law and hope to get away with it. As to the educational situation that you mention, it remains something of a grey and potentially dangerous area, as anyone who has visited a public or university/conservatoire library and requested permission to photocopy copyright material for exclusively educational purposes knows well.

All that said, the many sites that offer only public domain material provide an excellent and most valuable service to us all and they are to be congratulated for going to the trouble of doing so; IMSLP is perhaps one of the best and most widely known and respected examples.

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

For the record, we have pleasure in reporting that the organisation that appears to be in charge of the rogue Russian site mentioned earlier has written to us as follows:


Hello!

This site is now blocked. Thank you for the message.

--
Sincerely yours, Lyuda
Yandex Support


Let's hope that this means what it says!

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

It or something similar will be up again in 24 hours.

Thal

[ahinton]

It or something similar will be up again in 24 hours.

Very possibly - so we'll have to keep our eyes open for it, then; I have to admit that it is somewhat unusual to receive an actual response from any of these site owners/organisers. It's a pity to have to be bothered to do this kind of thing, but there would appear to be no practical alternative.

Best,

Alistair

[argerichfan]

I was looking at the H composers earlier this morning.  The Handel scores went on for pages and pages.  Unbelievable!  Did he really write that much music?  (Yeah, and they say a fair amount of it is lost.     ) 

So if this 'rogue' site got rid of the copyrighted stuff, it could be a very valuable resource. 

[ahinton]

I was looking at the H composers earlier this morning.  The Handel scores went on for pages and pages.  Unbelievable!  Did he really write that much music?  (Yeah, and they say a fair amount of it is lost.     ) 

So if this 'rogue' site got rid of the copyrighted stuff, it could be a very valuable resource. 

It could indeed - or it could have been had the entire site not been taken down, as appears now to be the case (I can no longer open it). I did not ask that this be done, incidentally, my only concern being the prompt removal of copyright material from it. As I wrote earlier, these kind of resource are indeed of immense value provided that they issue only public domain material and provided also that, when they do so, they are not infringing publishers' rights.

Best,

Alistair

[allthumbs]

Just to add my 2 cents to the copyright quagmire, not all countries have the 70-year rule. 

Here in Canada for example, copyright is in effect for 50 years after the death of the composer.

Other countries may even have a different time line for this rule.

[ahinton]

Just to add my 2 cents to the copyright quagmire, not all countries have the 70-year rule. 

Here in Canada for example, copyright is in effect for 50 years after the death of the composer.

Other countries may even have a different time line for this rule.

Yes, I know - there are indeed several anomalies in that not every country has adopted the 70-year rule, although far more have recently done so than was once the case when the said anomalies were far greater and more widespread and confusing. I didn't want to bring those exceptions into the arena of this discussion, especially as their consideration would take up a disproportionate amount of time and space and they have in any case been aired here and on other boards previously. The fact remains, however, that most countries recognise copyright and its ownership in one way or another and for broadly similar reasons, so the fact that they should each be accorded due respect and recognition is not really undermined by those anomalies.

Best,

Alistair