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Provider of Free Public Domain Music Re-Opens

Posted by kdawson on from the music-wants-to-be-free dept.

Chip Zoller writes "This community took note when the International Music Score Library Project shut down last October, and when Project Gutenberg stepped in to help three days later. I would like to alert you all that our site, IMSLP, has re-opened to the public for good after a 10-month hiatus. All the news updates in the interim can be found linked to the main page. We take great pride in re-opening as it demonstrates our willpower to make the masterpieces of history free to the world; and moreover to make manifest that we will not be bullied by publishers sporting outrageous claims of copyright in a country where they clearly are expired."

38 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Unfortunately... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    the ensuing slashdot effect will take it offline for another ten months.

  2. Re:I have to say it by mrbluze · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Be prepared to fight the music mafia, worse than you have before. After all, you are presenting a very nasty precedent for them, that copyright on music actually expires and that people can and do make use of it without even asking them first.

    I don't know about that. We're talking about sheet music and stuff that's been around for a LONG time, so it's not really different from what Project Gutenberg is doing - clearly public domain stuff.

    But yes, it's outrageous what people think they can milk money out of. If it were possible, the recording industry would sue you for breathing.

    --
    Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
  3. This is great news! by Eternal+Vigilance · · Score: 3, Funny

    But where's all the Metallica?

    1. Re:This is great news! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The members of the band don't know music notation.

  4. Re:I have to say it by Alarindris · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is sheet music, not actual music files.

    I don't think anyone can really claim to own Bach's Brandenburg Concertos written almost 300 years ago.

    The recordings of his concertos, on the other hand, are a different story.

  5. Fantastic by apodyopsis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Fantastic.

    I, for one, would like to thank and congratulate.

    There is no reason why anybody should not be able to download and print copyright free works from 150 years ago, I do - and I am very grateful indeed for the opportunity. Quite apart from that this is a matter of principle - to fight the insidious attempts by labels and corporations to extend copyright and hence earn money even after the original artist is sadly no longer with us.

    Now, if only my piano skills were more up to some of the music. Sigh.

    1. Re:Fantastic by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Now, if only my piano skills were more up to some of the music. Sigh.

      Don't let that stop you, friend.

      Even with a moderately difficult piece, if you work at a small section for, say, a half-hour a day, you'll sit down one day to play it and find that it sounds like music. I'm not saying that as an adult you can learn to play like Glenn Gould, but there's a lot of joy to be had getting a little better, a little at a time.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  6. Re:I have to say it by NovaHorizon · · Score: 3, Funny

    now.. to get sheet music for a lot of newer music.. and a Google search function to find songs based on note strings.. That way you can figure out that title of that one song that's always stuck in your head.. and all you remember is something like "na na na na NAAAA na na na na" lol

    --
    Defective Logic
  7. Re:I have to say it by Eternal+Vigilance · · Score: 5, Funny

    If it were possible, the recording industry would sue you for breathing.

    Of course! That violates the copyright on The Police's "Every Breath You Take" and Pink Floyd's "Breathe."

    I really can imagine the folks at RIAA humming "Every breath you take, every move you make, every bond you break, every step you take, I'll be watching you" as they're running deep packet inspections. Kinda creepy to think of that song as an NSA-FISA surveillance theme song. :-(


    I always feel like somebody's watchin' meeeee...

  8. Re:So by arose · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://musopen.com/

    --
    Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
  9. Lilypond by ageforce_ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sad they do not promote Lilypond more. Many PDFs on the site have been typeset using Lilypond, but only the PDFs are available.
    Lilypond: http://lilypond.org/

  10. Mutopia by ageforce_ · · Score: 3, Informative

    Can somebody explain the difference between IMSLP and Mutopia ( http://www.mutopiaproject.org/ )?

    1. Re:Mutopia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      As far as I can see, the main differences are that (1) IMSLP has a much better selection, and (2) its files are PDFs containing scanned images, rather than say Lilypond/Finale/Sibelius/midi files, and are therefore about 500 times the size.

    2. Re:Mutopia by Jeremy+Visser · · Score: 4, Informative

      Correct.

      Mutopia's music is exclusively in LilyPond format, which basically means that not only can you print out the music, you can convert it to midi, transpose it to a different key (if you played a different instrument with a different range, for example) with not much difficulty, and even jam it up a bit.

      IMSLP's music is not necessarily in LilyPond format, so if you wanted to edit it, you'd have to re-input it into a music notation program manually first. (Or possibly OCR it, but that would be pretty shoddy.)

  11. Re:I have to say it by wrook · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't think anyone can really claim to own Bach's Brandenburg Concertos written almost 300 years ago.

    You'd think so wouldn't you. But what they do is get an "expert" to reinterpret the score every few years. They write notes, modify some things, etc, etc. I'm not musician, so I can't really comment, but some musician friends of mine really believe that the "new" scores have value.

    Anyway, these new reinterpretations have valid copyright. Yes, you can play the ones from 100 years ago, but as one of my friends said, "Why would you want to. They're horrible." Again, I can't really comment either way except to admit to "not getting it".

  12. Re:I have to say it by mrbluze · · Score: 5, Funny

    What creeps me out is that the topic of "Every breath you take" is simply and plainly stalking.

    Now go and listen closely to 'Don't Stand So Close To Me' ;-)

    Yeah, someone should go call the Police.

    --
    Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
  13. Re:I have to say it by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Sadly,we might as well enjoy it,as they won't be getting anything else as Public Domain is dead. They will simply keep extending the copyrights when it looks like something worth having is close to expiration. By all rights we should be able to listen to Hendrix,Elvis,Joplin, and share them all for free. But as it is now my nephews will be in the ground before any of it even has a chance at expiration,which will never occur. And it is kind of hard to "make your voices heard" and "vote the bums out" when both sides are on the take.


    You know,when I first read the right to read I thought it was a paranoid fantasy. I now believe like Orwell and Rand RMS has given us a glimpse into the future. I believe that the big desktop PC will eventually go the way of the 8 track,replaced by "media appliances" in the same way that cell phones are phasing out the landlines. When everything ends up hooked to the Internet it won't be hard to have a "WGA" style check done on all your media to check your usage rights,and sites like IMSLP will be relegated to content so old that Henry Ford was still making his Model T and talkies was still a popular name for a movie.


    I truly hope I am wrong,I really do. But with the huge warchests the media corps have to buy our laws,and with the US pushing hard for trade agreements that come with DMCAs for everyone,I honestly don't think I am. But I truly wish them luck,for with the unrivaled greed of these large media companies I think they will need it. And as always this is my 02c,YMMV

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  14. Needed: Cheap Sheet Music Viewer by jimmyhat3939 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is what we really need. Yes I know there's software out there for a laptop, and yes I know there are $800 devices for this, but there should be a OLPC type device with a decent sized screen that you can put on your piano or music stand or whatever and grab music off a shared drive or flash RAM card. One of these days people will figure out that people really do want single-purpose devices, like the Tivo or iPod, but for other, less pervasive, uses.

    --
    Free Conference Call -- No Spam, High Quality
    1. Re:Needed: Cheap Sheet Music Viewer by somersault · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I was going to say that there isn't enough market out there for that type of thing, but actually, there is. Current eBook/ePaper readers are probably too small. I still don't think you're likely to see an A3 sized ePaper device for cheaper than $800 for quite a few years though! You can't have your cake and eat it as they say. That kind of device really would be awesome though, you could even have a foot control to turn the pages, or have the device turn the page for you when it detects the music has reached that part of the page..

      In the meantime, I think a laptop with a 15" or larger screen would do a decent job, and you could pick up a second hand one pretty cheap. Wouldn't have anything like the battery life of an ePaper device though obviously.

      --
      which is totally what she said
  15. Re:I have to say it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    What's funny is much of the sheet music I've aquired over the years has copyrights on it, even though much of it was written well over 200-300 years ago. I have piece by Vivaldi that actually says "Do not copy." I'm not sure how they can get away with such things...

    They probably do have some sort of valid copyright on *their layout and presentation* of the music, so directly photocopying could be illegal; you're free to transcribe the notes yourself and then put the result into the public domain or whatever.

  16. PRS by slim · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My house was a licensed premises in a former life, and yesterday I received a letter from the Performing Rights Society (UK), explaining that if music was played on the premises (whether recorded or performed live) then I was obliged to pay them for a license.

    The letter strongly implies that ALL music is in scope. I just have to decide whether I have the energy and inclination to enter a debate with them about out of copyright works, or works with a permissive license.

    This would all be for my own entertainment. Any suggestions?

    1. Re:PRS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      They are notifying you because your house previously had a premises license. However as it's now domestic (I presume) then simply notifying them that it no longer has a premises license and that it is a domestic dwelling should be enough.

      For private accomodation, the PRS can't do anything against you - it's only if it can be heard by the public, then thats when you need to pay them.

    2. Re:PRS by MathFox · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Pleas, for our amusement, publish your correspondence with the PRS. (Blacking out your address and if you're in a friendly mood that of the PRS too.) If you don't mind to infringe copyrights, you can publish the letter from the PRS completely.

      Then, publish the URL on Slashdot, so that we have another target for a good slashdotting.

      --
      extern warranty;
      main()
      {
      (void)warranty;
      }
  17. Re:I have to say it by mrbluze · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I truly hope I am wrong,I really do.

    Over the years there have been doomsday prophets, one after the other, but most have been wrong. I agree though that we are in for a rude shock if technology tightens enough so that we can't hack it and we can't share stuff anymore. As things stand currently, I think the movement against DRM is strong and healthy and I'm hopeful we'll manage to giver our grandkids a world that still cares and shares, hopefuly more than it does now.

    --
    Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
  18. Re:I have to say it by somersault · · Score: 4, Funny

    Of course! That violates the copyright on The Police's "Every Breath You Take" and Pink Floyd's "Breathe."

    Yeah. Occasional breathing would come under fair use as a public performance, but when you're doing it 24/7 then that's taking the proverbial biscuit. People should find a new way of oxygenating their blood instead of being a bunch of damn hippy copyright thieving pirates.

    --
    which is totally what she said
  19. Re:I have to say it by jimicus · · Score: 4, Informative

    What's funny is much of the sheet music I've aquired over the years has copyrights on it, even though much of it was written well over 200-300 years ago. I have piece by Vivaldi that actually says "Do not copy." I'm not sure how they can get away with such things or think anyone will take it serious, but apparently publishers try anyways.

    IIRC, while the sequence of notes is out of copyright the design and layout of the page on which they're printed isn't. So technically the publisher could well be in the right. IANAL, though.

  20. New editions of old music by oboeaaron · · Score: 5, Informative

    But what they do is get an "expert" to reinterpret the score every few years.

    There are actually very good musical reasons to do this. Music written or printed 300 years ago looks much different than that published today, and often requires an editor's help to bring it into a form usable by modern performers. To give one example, many instrumental sonatas and other works were written out in "figured bass" notation, which gave the keyboard player only the bass line and numeric symbols representing the harmonies. It was up to the player to improvise the right-hand part. Since very few keyboard players these days can do this, editors of modern editions of Baroque music usually provide a written-out interpretation of the chords, which looks just like normal, modern keyboard music. There are also many notational conventions that have either died out completely, or changed their meaning, which need an expert editor to "translate" them for modern players. In addition, many scores of the time were not published, but circulated in handwritten copies, which often contain many mistakes. Modern editors have to sift through the various copies and make judgments as to which versions are correct. Bach's Well-tempered Clavier is a famous example.

    On the other hand, if you want or need to study the scores as they were written, you want to get an "Urtext" edition, which preserves the original notation as much as possible. Collected editions are presented this way. In the case of the music of J.S. Bach, there are two collected editions, one completed in the 19th century, and the other in the latter half of the 20th. The 19th century edition (Bach-Gesellschaft edition) is now in the public domain and may be copied freely - in fact the Dover editions of Bach are simply reproductions of this edition. The 20th century edition (Neue Bach Ausgabe) is still very much under copyright.

    --
    Journey onward.
    1. Re:New editions of old music by grizdog · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Everything oboeaaron says is true, but it's more extensive than that. I manage the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, and we have had to put a low priority on sheet music. The only way to be really safe is to go to wherever the original or another uncopyrighted copy is located (in our case usually either the British Museum, the Yale Rare Books Library, or the Morgan Library in NYC), and copy it yourself. This is tedious, and even if a publisher hasn't really added anything substantial to their own copy, they will claim copyright.


      Providing parts and scores would be a useful service for our site to provide, but it's going to remain on the back burner for a while. Along the lines of another thread, it would be great if there were a standard, open format for sheet music. That would provide much more of an incentive for me to pack up my laptop and get some of those parts copied and available.

  21. Re:I have to say it by dam.capsule.org · · Score: 5, Funny

    That must be "Hey Jude" by The Beattles.

    --
    What sig ?
  22. Re:I have to say it by Kjella · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I believe that the big desktop PC will eventually go the way of the 8 track,replaced by "media appliances" in the same way that cell phones are phasing out the landlines. When everything ends up hooked to the Internet it won't be hard to have a "WGA" style check done on all your media to check your usage rights,and sites like IMSLP will be relegated to content so old that Henry Ford was still making his Model T and talkies was still a popular name for a movie.

    You think the world is online? You think the world is ever going to BE online? They'd be lucky if they could stop selling Blu-Rays in 100 years or more, in my opinion. Also, anything that doesn't play unsigned music/video is dead on arrival and that's not about to change. They tried putting the cat back in the bag with iTunes/AAC/FairPlay, they tried putting the cat back in the bag with Nlu-Ray/AACS/BD+. I think they're out of options, if you tell people to replace their perfectly working 1080p 7.1 LPCM player that looks and sounds great with something new just so they can try it again it won't work. Try as they may, I don't think they'll ever "unbreak" media.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  23. Re:I have to say it by Mateo_LeFou · · Score: 5, Funny

    They could organize a Sting.

    --
    My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
  24. Re:I have to say it by mo^ · · Score: 3, Funny

    +1 Coffee coming out of my nose

    --
    bah!*@%!
  25. Re:I have to say it by cfc-12 · · Score: 4, Informative

    There already is one: http://www.multimedialibrary.com/barlow/solfeggio.asp. It's based on the excellent book version by Barlow and Morgenstern, which has helped me out in many a "na na na" moment.

  26. Re:I have to say it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    We just need to retroactively extend copyright back to the time of the brothers Grimm and we'll see a few corporations change their tune.

  27. Royalty-free music! by greyhueofdoubt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, folks, all these FREE public domain HITS can be YOURS!

    -Camptown Races!
    -Amazing Grace!
    -She'll be comin' round the mountain!
    -Ain't we got fun!
    -Anchors Aweigh!
    -Hail, hail the gang's all here!
    -I can dance with everyone but my wife!
    -Mammy o'mine!
    -Row, row, row!
    -Swing low, sweet chariot!

    Yes folks order now and for NO CHARGE you can sing these songs ANYWHERE! Saloons! Public squares! The telegraph office!

    And if you order NOW we'll include at no extra charge:
    -The whiffenpoof song!
    -Stop yer ticklin', jock!
    -Nobody knows de trouble I've seen!
    -It's delightful to be married!
    -I love my wife, but oh you kid!
    -Everybody works but father!

    Don't wait! Call now! DO IT!

    [all real songs]
    [not a troll]

    -b

    --
    No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
    1. Re:Royalty-free music! by dbc · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's interesting that you should pick on "Camptown Races", by Stephen Foster. Foster was pretty much the first person to attempt to make a living as a writer of popular songs. It was a tough slog, mainly due to the fact that his work was widely "pirated" by music publishers. It is in part because of his efforts in the early days that songwriters today actually can make a living writing music.

      BTW -- if you want an intelligent, well-researched, non-corny, sensitive, and exquisitely recorded selection of Stephen Foster works, go here: http://www.joeweed.com/ and look for "Swanee - The Music of Stephen Foster". (Disclaimer: yes, Joe is a friend of mine. My opinion of his work wouldn't change if he wasn't -- just google for some reviews.)

  28. Re:I have to say it by somersault · · Score: 4, Funny

    I dunno, when I have had girlfriends I didn't pretend they were balloons when kissing them.. could be fun though!

    --
    which is totally what she said
  29. Re:I have to say it by mrchaotica · · Score: 4, Funny

    Pro tip: there's a difference between kissing and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz