Library Guides: Music: Scores

Score Databases

Music Online: Classical Scores Library v. 4 & 5
Digital access to in-copyright scores, many from the 20th and 21st centuries
Naxos Sheet Music Library
Subscription ends 6/30/2025. Digital classical sheet music
Art Song Transpositions
Print and download official, licensed scores of art songs and arias in various keys. (REQUEST NEW REPERTOIRE not included in this subscription).

Finding Print Scores

Browsing

Browse for print scores and collected editions on the lower level of Smith Library.

Library of Congress Classification Subclass M
This one-page guide to music call numbers can help you browse for music scores in the collection.

Other Print Scores at Shenandoah

Professor Newman's score library, Ruebush 139
Check with other faculty members!

Print Scores from Outside the University

You can request items from other libraries through interlibrary loan.

Edwin A. Fleisher Collection of Orchestral Music The world’s largest circulating collection of orchestral performance sets – with over 22,000 titles – including many rare and out-of-print works, 19th- and 20th-century American music, and new, noteworthy, and overlooked works. The lending service is available to music organizations upon receipt of a written request.

Transcriptions and Translations

IPA Source
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions and literal translations of opera arias and art song texts

LiederNet Archive
Archive of texts and translations of art songs and choral works.
The Aria Database
Translations of arias and aria texts; includes operatic sound files.

Public Domain Digital Scores

International Music Scores Library Project (IMSLP) | Petrucci Music Library "a virtual library containing all public domain music scores, as well as scores from composers who are willing to share their music with the world without charge"
Hathi Trust Digital Library To search for scores, use the "Advanced Full Text Search" option, and limit the original format search to "Music Score."
Sheet Music Consortium Searchable database of images of sheet music from collections throughout the United States.
Opera and Ballet Primary Sources | Brigham Young University Nearly 10,000 scanned libretti and scores, plus other resources related to opera, ballet, and 19th-century vaudeville.

The Public Domain Song Anthology by David Berger; Chuck Israels
an open access collection of 348 popular songs with modern and traditional harmonization for both study and performance

Other Libraries' Lists

Digital scores: Public domain resources | Juilliard Links to free collections of digitized public domain scores from libraries and archives around the world.
Online Resources for Music Scholars | Harvard University An extensive, searchable database of websites, catalogs, databases, and other scholarly resources in music maintained by the librarians at Harvard University libraries. Note: Many of the entries link to Harvard-only sites, but many others are open access.
Online Scores / Sheet Music | Duke University An extensive list of online collections such as DIAMM (Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music) and 19th Century American Sheet Music.

Perusal Score Sources

Professor Newman's Score Study Resources

Perusal scores are viewable but not necessarily downloadable. Most are for large ensemble works. Look for them on individual composers' sites and publishers' sites:

G. Schirmer
Boosey & Hawkes (requires free registration)
Schott
Theodore Presser
Peermusic Classical
Faber Music

Need to find the publisher of a work?

ASCAP Repertory Search Find the publisher and rights owners for a musical work.

Sources for Purchasing Scores

MusicalTheaterSongs.com
Index that links to sites for buying, renting, trading, or downloading musical theater sheet music and recordings

Music: Scores