The Great 78 Project on Internet Archive

From Henshine to Hindemith!

A rich source of old recordings, you can listen to digitized old 78 rpm records to your heart's content here!  We found Scots legend Jimmy Shand, for a start!  Here's his Henshine set.

Or, by way of complete contrast, here's Hindemith's Kleine Kammermusik.

More about the project from the homepage http://great78.archive.org:-

"The Great 78 Project is a community project for the preservation, research and discovery of 78rpm records. From about 1898 to the 1950s, an estimated 3 million sides (~3 minute recordings) have been made on 78rpm discs. While the commercially viable recordings will have been restored or remastered onto LP’s or CD, there is still research value in the artifacts and usage evidence in the often rare 78rpm discs and recordings.

"Already, over 20 collections have been selected by the Internet Archive for physical and digital preservation and access. Started by many volunteer collectors, these new collections have been selected, digitized and preserved by the Internet Archive,  George Blood LP, and the Archive of Contemporary Music.

"We aim to bring to light the decisions by music collectors over the decades and a digital reference collection of underrepresented artists and genres. The digitization will make this less commonly available music accessible to researchers in a format where it can be manipulated and studied without harming the physical artifacts."

The LISTEN tab takes you to 78rpm collections digitized by George Blood, and you can use the search box to select tracks.

Do You Know the Score? We do, when it comes to Free Sheetmusic!

Free scores online

• You may already know about the Petrucci Music Library, otherwise known as IMSLP.  Watch out for copyright issues (different countries have different laws) but apart from that, it's a brilliant resource. http://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page 
• The Internet Archive is another useful place.  Not very visually attractive, but it's the content that counts.  Very handy for historic material.   https://archive.org/

And now, free to our registered staff and students ...

What we really want our performers to know about, are the new offerings from Alexander Street Press:- 

We subscribe to Alexander Street Press Classical Scores Library Collections 1 and 2.  That means our staff and students can download anything they find there.  There's classical music for everyone, whatever they sing or play.  Do take a look.  (If you're off-campus, you'll need to login.)

• Classical Scores Library Advanced Search (one search searches all)
• Classical Scores Library Homepage
•  Classical Scores Library 2 Homepage

.Last but not least, we also subscribe to LibraryMusicSource.com - not an Alexandra Street Press resource - which you can access on Conservatoire premises. Like the Petrucci Music Library, it's better for older music, but it's still a useful place to look for core repertoire.

We are the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland - here to help our performing arts community with their information needs! 

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/

Finding Digital Sheet ("sheet") Music

NEWS!  Staff and students of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland can freely download music from Library Music Source using any wi-fi enabled device on Conservatoire Premises.  There's so much there, you'll have to take a look to see for yourself!

Here's the link:- 

• Library Music Source
• http://www.librarymusicsource.com/index.php

NB This great resource is only accessible by subscription.  The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland subscription can only be accessed on Conservatoire premises.  The subscription does not allow Conservatoire users to access it elsewhere.

This seems a good opportunity to mention other resources available on the internet.  Some of these are free, others have to be paid for:-

• IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library - Free Public Domain Sheet Music; an online database with a lot of historic collections, free to download.
• Sheet Music Direct: Download and Print Sheet Music for Piano, Choir, Guitar Tabs and More   
• OnlineSheetMusic.com    
• CD Sheet Music Online   
• Sheet Music Plus - For Piano, Guitar And Choral Music
• National Library of Scotland - Digital Gallery (hundreds of early Scottish music scores, free to access and download.)
• The Internet Archive at Archive.org  offers old music and old recordings, besides the more expected old books  - well worth a look!

Joseph Ritson was a Cranky Old Curmudgeon

Joseph Ritson (1752-1803), Perfectionist Personified

A pernickity, fussy, argumentative old gentleman who eventually went mad and set light to his home, Joseph Ritson was not always the easiest person to get on with.

However, his Scotish Songs collection of 1794, in two volumes , was seminal and highly thought of, for several decades after its publication.  (It was by no means his only contribution to poetry and song-collecting, but it is the most useful for Scottish music students.)

We do have a copy in the Whittaker Library, but digital links are always worth having.  Here's an Internet Archive link to a 19th century reprint.  Save it to your favourites/ Diigo account!

Click here.

Early Books of Scottish Songs

Internet Archive and the NLS Digital Gallery
Whittaker mentioned these resources a year ago, but if a week is a long time in politics, then what is a year in a Higher Education institution?!

The National Library of Scotland's Glen Collection is an invaluable source of early Scottish song and other music.  It has been digitised on the Internet Archive. Here's the link. (If you forget it, then you can go to the Internet Archive homepage and search on nlsmusic).

Additionally, the NLS has started digitising its own scores for itself - there's a page for their Digital Gallery; scroll down to Early Books of Scottish songs, like this:-
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Early books of Scottish songs Three early books of Scottish (and some English) songs with melodies and illustrations. Includes songs with words by Allan Ramsay.