Free Scores for RCS Music Students!

Okay, everyone knows about IMSLP, otherwise known as the Petrucci Music Library.  It's free.  (Check that you're not breaching copyright in the country where you live).

http://imslp.org/

If you're a university or conservatoire music student, your library may well subscribe to additional, premium, services offering you more "free" music.  (The library pays, so patrons don't have to.)

FREE SCORES FOR RCS MUSIC STUDENTS!

Get music free online through Alexander Street Press Classical Scores Library - if you’re off-campus, you’ll need to login first.  

Classical Scores Library, Volume I* (part of the MOP collection)

Classical Scores Library, Volume II* (part of the MOP collection)

Alternatively, if you search the whole Alexander Street Press music database, you’ll find videos, recordings AND these scores.  Start here, selecting the music drop-down before you search:-

 http://search.alexanderstreet.com/ 

Look down the side to single out videos, audio or scores.

MORE FREE SCORES TO DOWNLOAD ON-CAMPUS

Download sheet music from LibraryMusicSource (on-campus only):  

http://www.librarymusicsource.com/  

ESSAY TO WRITE?  COPY EXCERPTS FROM THESE SCORES!

Use your computer’s “snipping tool” to copy little excerpts for musical examples to back up your arguments or illustrate what you're describing.

Finding Old Scores - go digital at Archive.org (and more)

Most people have heard of the Petrucci Music Library, otherwise known as IMSLP.  But have you come across the Internet Archive, at https://archive.org/?

They're really useful. Don't assume they're only for printed texts, either.  Today we were looking for a vocal score of the opera, L'Inganno Felice, by Gioacchino Rossini.  We found an old edition in the Petrucci Music Library.  (See here.)


We checked Archive.org, and there was a solo piano rendition in all its early 19th century splendour.  (It's dated 1812, to be precise.)

So you see, these sites are useful, you really should favourite them!  Save to your Diigo account and you'll be able to access them from any of your digital devices.

Staff and students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland also have access to Library Music Source via our database page.  It's only accessible on-site, but it's another valuable source of performance materials.  

• Library Music Source 
• Whittaker Library Databases
• Petrucci Music Library, aka IMSLP
• Internet Archive, at https://archive.org/

Sourcing old Scottish Songs - Petrucci Music Library

Beethoven and Haydn both arranged large quantities of Scottish songs for the publisher George Thomson.  Maybe you're looking for classical settings for solo, duet or even vocal trio for an encore in a recital - these could be suitable choices.

How to find old editions online, though?  Unless you want to buy a very expensive rare edition, IMSLP (The Petrucci Music Library) may be your best port of call. 

 IMSLP and Petrucci are the same website.  They describe themselves this way:- "IMSLP stands for International Music Score Library Project. The logo is a capital letter A, taken from the very first press-printed book of polyphonic music, the Harmonice Musices Odhecaton, published in 1501. Its printer, Ottaviano Petrucci, is this library's namesake."

Here are a few examples of what you'll find:-

• Beethoven - Some of these havemore than one singer
• Beethoven – three singers
Tchaikovsky – Scottish ballad

• Try Soprano Baritone Scottish

(Just another helpful blogpost from your friends at the Whittaker Library, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland!)

Free Bagpipe Music

If you're a piper, you really should take a look at the Petrucci Music Library.  Old printed music sources, digitised and freely available to download - here's the list:-

http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:For_bagpipe
 
Anyone playing Northumberland smallpipes might like this 1805 collection by Francis Peacock:-

A Favourite Collection of Tunes with Variations

Longman and Broderip's Selection of Music for the Pedal Harp

The Petrucci Music Library (IMSLP) has so much interesting material!  Here's a very early pedal harp collection - Longman and Broderip were founded in the eighteenth century.  Material like this is out of copyright, and there just for the playing!  Go on - enjoy!



• Longman and Broderip - Selection of Music for the Pedal Harp
• Petrucci page for harp music