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Music

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Free Digital Scores

Free Digital Scores in the Public Domain

 

Public domain refers to works that are free to use because they have either fallen out of copyright, were published before 1923, or have been made so by the copyright holder.

General

Piano

Choral

Vocal

Popular

Digital Collections of Composers' Works

Chopin

  • Chopin Early Editions
    Includes over 400 first and early printed editions of Chopin's works, maintained by University of Chicago Library's Special Collections Research Center.

Handel

  • Complete Works
    This German digital library provides access to Handel's complete works, searchable by title, date, and keyword. Using this website will be easier if your browser can translate the page to English.

Mendelssohn

  • Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's Works
    This German digital library provides access to Mendelssohn's complete works, searchable by title, date, and keyword. Using this website will be easier if your browser can translate the page to English.

Mozart

  • Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
    Mozart's musical compositions accessible to the public for personal study and for educational and classroom use. The digitized version offers the musical text and the critical commentaries of the entire Neue Mozart-Ausgabe, edited by the Internationale Stiftung Mozart in cooperation with the Mozart cities of Augsburg, Salzburg, and Vienna.

Schumann

  • Robert Schumann's Works
    This German digital library provides access to Schumann's complete works, searchable by title, date, and keyword. Using this website will be easier if your browser can translate the page to English.

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Search our Catalog for Scores

 

 Advanced Search

Search Tips for Finding Music

Do not include common grammatical conjunctions (and, or, in, of) in your search.

AND is assumed when searching a string of keywords together.

Use the truncation symbol * at the end of a term to search for all variant spellings. For example, pian* finds piano, pianist, pianism, etc. It is best to place the * as further to the end of a word as possible to retrieve narrower results.

Examples:

Variant spellings of a composer's last name 

rachmanino* 

(retrieves "rachmaninov" and "rachmaninoff")

Variant spellings of a title      

sonat* 

(retrieves "sonata", "sonatas", "sonate", "sonaten")

Combination search

Handel* opera*

(retrieves "Handel", "Handel's", "opera", "operas", "operatic")                      

 

Use quotation marks around keywords to retrieve results with the exact phrase. Searching 'piano sonata' without quotation marks will find items in the library that mention 'piano' and 'sonata' anywhere in the title or other part of the library record.

Find items with the exact phrase "piano sonata"

Search by subject:

On the Advanced Search page, select "subjects" from a search box's dropdown menu.

Use keywords in the plural when searching for specific music forms or genres; e.g. "sonatas", not "sonata"

Sonatas

Symphonies

Concertos

Music -- 19th century -- History and criticism

Search subject headings by medium of performance. To do that, enter the plural form of the music genre (e.g. sonatas) and the instrument(s) without parentheses in a "subjects" search box.

Sonatas (Piano)

Choruses, Sacred (Women's voices)

Band music

Songs (High voice) with piano

Mississippi State University Library uses the Library of Congress Classification Scheme (LC) to organize its materials. LC call numbers contain letters and numbers. The letters indicate the general topic while the numbers provide more specific information about the material.

M = Music or Scores

ML = Music Literature and/or Music History

MT = Music Theory and Pedagogy


Here is an outline of the LC classification scheme for music scores. It will help you narrow your search to a particular topic when either browsing the shelves or searching our online catalog by call number range.

M 1-5000   MUSIC SCORES

M 1.A5-3.3   Collections of Musical Sources, including Monuments

M 3-3.3        Collected works of individual composers

M 5-1480   INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

M 6-175.5       Solo instruments

M 177-990      Music for two or more solo instruments

M 180-298.5      Duets

M 300-386         Trios

M 400-486         Quartets

M 500-586         Quintets

M 600-686         Sextets

M 700-786         Septets

M 800-886         Octets

M 900-986         Nonets and larger combinations of purely chamber music

M 990               Chamber music for instruments of the 18th century and earlier

M 1000-1075            Orchestra

  M 1001                     Symphonies

  M 1004                     Overtures

  M 1010-1011        Piano concertos

M 1100-1160            String orchestra

M 1200-1269            Band

M 1366                     Jazz ensembles

M 1376-1420            Instrumental music for children

M 1473                     Electronic music

M 1497-5000   VOCAL MUSIC

M 1497-1998         Secular vocal music

M 1500-1527.8         Dramatic music (including operas and musicals)

  M 1500                     Full scores

  M 1503                     Vocal scores with piano accompaniment

M 1611-1624.8         Songs for one (1) voice

M 1627-1853            National music

M 1990-1998            Secular music for children (useful for music education)

M 1999-2199      Sacred vocal music

M 2000-2007         Oratorios

M 2010-2017.6       Masses

M 2020-2036          Cantatas, choruses, etc.

M 2101-2114.8      Songs for one (1) voice

M 2115-2146         Hymnals

See also the Full LC Classification Outline for Music

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