Distance Learning : Music

The free public domain sheet music library. Includes printable scores and discussion areas.

A good source for high-quality transcriptions of scores, created using Sibelius. A particularly good source for Brahms, Schubert, and Schumann lieder. Requires downloading and installing the Sibelius Scorch plug-in.

Site under development to accompany sound recordings in the VARIATIONS collection.

The Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe (English: "Bach Society Edition") of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach was published in a series of 46 volumes from 1851-1899, by the Bach-Gesellschaft and Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig. A single supplemental volume was issued in 1926. The last surviving editor of the series died in 1928, and these volumes are public domain worldwide.
The edition varied in quality, depending upon the individual editor in question. The BGA volumes edited by Wilhelm Rust (1822–1892) were generally quite good and often differ little from their modern counterparts found in the Neue Bach Ausgabe, although other editors were less meticulous. In subsequent years lost manuscripts and other source material have been rediscovered, resulting in significant changes. On the other hand, several manuscripts have been lost over the same period, so the BGA remains an important source.

Digital Mozart Edition: A Project of the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum and The Packard Humanities Institute. Includes both the music and critical commentary volumes of the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe.

The Sheet Music Consortium provides tools and services that promote access to and use of online sheet music collections by scholars, students, and the general public.

The scores and libretti in this Virtual Collection include first and early editions and manuscript copies of music from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by J.S. Bach and Bach family members, Mozart, Schubert and other composers, as well as multiple versions of nineteenth century opera scores, seminal works of musical modernism, and music of the Second Viennese School. Many, such as variant editions of nineteenth century operas and related libretti, fall into intellectually related sets that are meant to be seen and used together. As a group, they give scholars a window into the study of historical performance practice.

22,000+ pieces. Mostly popular music, much of it in the public domain and downloadble.

Nearly 50,000 pieces of sheet music from the Library of Congress, including popular songs, sacred and secular choral music, method books, music for bands,etc.

Approximately 25 collections of recorded sound, including some spoken word.

8,000+ cylinder recordings held by the Department of Special Collections at the Univ. of California-Santa Barbara

Online access to approximately 1400 cylinder recordings, with more to be added.

13,000+ audio files from a mix of private and institutional collections.

More than two hundred thousand free digital recordings including major performer concerts, radio shows, original music uploaded by users, and more. Many are available for free download.

A library of high-quality, legal audio downloads of contemporary music in many genres. Provided by WFMU-FM.

"Open Music Archive is a collaborative project, initiated by artists Eileen Simpson and Ben White, to source, digitise and distribute out-of-copyright sound recordings. The archive distributes these recordings freely, forms a site of exchange, and is a vehicle for future collaborations and distributed projects."