# Sheet Music



## Festus (Aug 11, 2020)

All,
Recently I was searching for a particular piece of music and was overwhelmed by the number of music sites that offer sheet/book music.
Does anyone have insight as to how they work?
Thanks,
festus
.


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## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

Since I don't know if you are already aware of this or not: IMSLP is the usual choice for public domain works. It's free; just PDF files which are scans of printed sheet music. They have a very, very large collection; you can often choose multiple editions of a work. Their webpage is at imslp.org but you can find them easily on Google. Sorry if you knew this already but I thought this was the right place to start this thread.

For example: BWV 846, J. S. Bach. Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 846 (Bach, Johann Sebastian) - IMSLP: Free Sheet Music PDF Download


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## composingmusic (Dec 16, 2021)

Yes, seconding IMSLP for public domain stuff. 

Certain urtext editions can be really good for specific composers. For instance, lots of people like the Henle edition of the Beethoven sonatas, or Wiener Urtext and Barenreiter for Mozart. Different people have conflicting opinions on the best edition for Chopin, but people often like the Paderewski edition. 

If you’re looking at more recent composers, there will often be a much smaller selection of editions, and often a single publisher. Some composers self-publish as well. 

But yeah, there’s a bunch of publishers, and then there’s quite a large number of distributor sites where you can buy sheet music published by these publishers.


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## Nate Miller (Oct 24, 2016)

IMSLP is great for free sheet music, so if you want to just check something out or you dont mind reading from loose sheets, its a great resource. But if I'm going to work on a piece for real, I still like having a printed score that I can hold in my hand that is actually bound and printed better than a pdf off the interwebs. For that I go to Sheet Music Plus. That is a good retail site that I've used for years. If its published, they have it.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

A lot of musicians I work with now load up their iPads or Tablets with their sheet music. There are programs that allow you to edit or add written notes (or musical notes) if you want.

I'm not up to speed with all that, and I don't even know the storage capabilites needed or offered.

But if you "do" tablet music, I think you can download digital music directly to your device.


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## prlj (10 mo ago)

In addition to all of the above, many works that are not in the public domain are available through nkoda. I find their iPad app to be hit or miss, though. 

Dover Publications has a ton of PD stuff, although sometimes the editions they use aren't the latest or critical edition. (I've been collecting Dover scores for almost 40 years now, though. I have hundreds of them.)


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## Festus (Aug 11, 2020)

Thanks for all of the replies. I guess I am more interested in finding out who is getting paid when you purchase a piece of music and who controls the music.
For example, if I buy a copy of Mr. Lucky, does Henry Mancini or family, the publisher, etc. receive a royalty? How did the seller acquire the music in the first place? Is there a "central repository" of music and the sellers buy the right to sell a particular song from that organization?
It seems that the number of seller has increased exponentially over the past couple of years.


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