Databases List By Format: Music Scores

The American Memory project of the Library of Congress National Digital Library Program digitizes distinctive, historical Americana holdings at the Library of Congress, including photographs, full-text manuscripts and rare books, maps, recorded sound and moving pictures. To achieve its goal, this unique public-private program, also works in cooperation with members of the Digital Library Federation and other libraries and archives throughout the United States. For example, digital collections from the LC/Ameritech Digital Library Competition are included.

The Petrucci Music Library was begun in 2006 by IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project) in order to gathering all public domain music scores and the music scores of any contemporary composers who wish to release them to the public free of charge. IMSLP is governed primarily by Canadian copyright law and, therefore, some works may not be public domain in other countries.

The Jean-Baptiste Lully Collection is a digital collection of rare 17th and 18th-century scores of operas, ballets, and other works by Jean-Baptiste Lully and his sons, from the holdings of the University of North Texas Music Library. The collection also includes some manuscript copies, as well as libretti prints and collections of stage works by Lully's collaborators.

The Maine Music Box, a project of the University of Maine's Raymond H. Fogler Library provides access to approximately 22,600 digitized works (manuscript scores and sheet music) held at the Bagaduce Music Lending Library and the Bangor Public Library. The Maine Music Box includes items such as vocal and popular sheet music, music for two pianos, and music by Maine composers or about Maine.

The complete works of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, originally published in the late 1800s by Breitkopf & Hartel and digitized by the Munich Digitization Center of the Bavarian State Library.

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdys Werke is the late 19th-century edition of Mendelssohn's complete works, originally published by Breitkopf Hartel and digitized by the International Music Score Library Project. Some listings include other digitized public domain scores, digitized and audio files (MIDI or recorded performances).

The Moldenhauer Archives: The Rosaleen Moldenhauer Memorial presents a selection of digitized items from the full Moldenhauer Archives, which document the history of Western music from the medieval period through the modern era. The online collection includes scores and manuscripts as well as an electronic version of the guidebook for the archive.

NMA Online is the digitized version of the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe, the complete works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart originally published by Barenreiter-Verlag and digitized in a cooperative effort of the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg and the Packard Humanities Institute. The site includes both music and critical commentaries.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts Werke is the 1877-1910 edition of Mozart's complete works, originally published by Breitkopf Hartel and digitized by the International Music Score Library Project. Some listings include other digitized public domain scores, digitized and audio files (MIDI or recorded performances). Note: this page is updated manually; if a score is not listed, try browsing or searching for it using the left sidebar.

The Munich Digitization Center (MDZ) digitizes the special collections of the Bavarian State Library and other German institutions, including fine arts and music, and currently comprises over 900,000 titles.

Music and Performing Arts consists of multiple music and performing arts databases, including American Song, Classical Music Library, Classical Scores Library, Dance in Video, Jazz Music Library, Popular Music Library, Contemporary World Music, and Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries.

Music for the Nation, by the Library of Congress, contains thousands of pieces of historical sheet music registered for copyright from 1820-1860. The collection includes popular songs, operatic arias, choral music, solo instrumental music, and orchestral and band music.

Music for the Nation, by the Library of Congress, contains thousands of pieces of historical sheet music registered for copyright from 1870-1885. The collection includes popular songs, operatic arias, choral music, solo instrumental music, and orchestral and band music.

Contains 400,000+ pages of the most important classical scores and manuscripts, allowing for the study and analysis of more than 8,000 scores. The collection includes works spanning time periods from the Renaissance to the 21st century. Coverage of score types is comprehensive, with full scores, study scores, piano and vocal scores, and piano reductions. The database has been indexed to enable users to search on musically relevant fields, such as composer, work/opus number, key, genre, instrument, time period; as well as score-specific fields, such as score type, duration, editor, arranger, publisher. These scores are also indexed in the library catalog.

The Library of Congress's Music Treasures Consortium provides access to highly valued music manuscripts and print materials held in some of the world's most renowned music archives, including the British Library, Harvard University, and the Morgan Library & Museum.

The Mutopia Project provides access to classical music for free download through digital sheet music editions based on editions in the public domain. The Project also hosts modern editions from composers, editors, and arrangers who have chosen to make their works freely available to the public. MIDI files of some works are also available.

The National Library of Australia has digitized over 12,200 Australian printed music items from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The collection includes original scores of "Waltzing Matilda" and the offical Australian national anthem "Advance Australia Fair."

The Nazareth Project presents an official catalog of the works of Ernesto Nazareth. It includes digital transcriptions of the scores and audio files.

The New York Public Library's Digital Gallery provides free access to over 700,000. The Digital Gallery includes nearly 12,000 of scores and manuscripts from the Music Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

A collection of over 1,000 pieces of public domain sheet music from and about Washington State and the Pacific Northwest, selected from the University of Washington Music Library's Ashford Sheet Music Collection.

Patriotic Melodies, by the Library of Congress, tells the stories behind many of the most well known patriotic songs of the United States. The site includes descriptions of each song along with selected sheet music and audio recordings.

The Performing Arts Encyclopedia is a guide to performing arts resources at the Library of Congress. The Encyclopedia provides access to digitized scores, sheet music, audio reordings, films, photographs, and other materials.

Auburn University's Piano Bench Digital Collection is comprised of sheet music published prior to 1923, much of it found in the benches of second-hand pianos purchased by the family of former Auburn University librarian Fred Edminston.

The Library of Congress's collection of Presidential Campaign Songs presents a selection of sheet music composed for presidential candidates from the 1870s to the 1920s.

Ragtime, by the Library of Congress, presents a selection of sheet music, audio and video recordings, and other materials related to this uniquely American musical phenomenon.

Recent Researches in Music Online is a collection of critical performing editions of music in seven series. The series fall into two basic categories: editions that span the history of Western music, and editions with ties to specific cultural milieus. Most editions in Recent Researches in Music are devoted to works by a single composer or in a single genre.

Franz Peter Schuberts Werke is the late 19th-century edition of Schubert's complete works, originally published by Breitkopf & Hartel and digitized by the International Music Score Library Project. Some listings include other digitized public domain scores, digitized and audio files (MIDI or recorded performances).

The complete works of Robert Schumann, originally published by Breitkopf & Hartel in the late 1800s and digitized by the Munich Digitization Center of the Bavarian State Library

A selections of digitized sheet music from York University Libraries' Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections.

The Sheet Music Consortium, hosted by the UCLA Digital Library Program, is a cooperative project to build an open collection of digitized sheet music through harvesting metadata from collections around the world.

Sheet Music from Canada's Past, a project by Library and Archives Canada and published via Aurora, provides digital access to a selection of sheet music published in Canada before 1921. Selected titles also include audio examples.

The University of Mississippi Libraries' Sheldon Harris Sheet Music Collection provides digital access to popular sheet music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including jazz, blues, and minstrel songs. Note: please read collection disclaimer.

The digitized collection of music scores from Eastman School of Music's Sibley Music Library includes over 14,000 digitized manuscripts and scores in the public domain, many of which are unique to Sibley's collection.

The March King: John Philip Sousa presents selected music manuscripts, photographs, printed music, sound recordings, and more from the Sousa Collection at the Library of Congress

A project of Temple University, Temple Sheet Music Collections contains approximately 840 pieces of sheet music published from the early 19th to early 20th centuries.

The Digital Archive of Popular American Music consists of a selection of materials from UCLA Music Library's Archive of Popular American Music. The Digital Archive includes sheet music and performances of the songs now in the public domain.

The University of Colorado Digital Sheet Music Collection provides digital access to sheet music published between 1890 and 1922. The collection is divided into four separate sub-collections: the Colorado Collection (music about the state of Colorado), the Ingram Collection (music published by the Tolbert R. Ingram Music Company from 1900-1915), the Ragtime Collection (ragtime songs and piano rags), and the Western Trails Collection (music inspired by westward migration).

A collection of manuscript musical scores dating from the 17th through 19th centuries, digitized from the University of Washington Music Library's Rare Book Collection.

The University of North Texas Music Library's Virtual Music Rare Book Room presents digitized materials from the Edna mae Sandborn Music Rare Book Room, as well as items that were borrowed from private collectors and scanned with permission. A primary focus of the collection is 18th-century French opera, including scores and libretti.