Choral Public Domain Library

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL) is a sheet music archive which focuses on choral and vocal music in the public domain. Music is available for free download in a variety of formats, including score images in PDF format, sound files in midi and mp3 formats, and in the notation formats supported by various notation programs, including Finale by MakeMusic, Sibelius, by Sibelius, Noteworthy composer, Encore, and the open source GNU Lilypond. Most scores on CPDL are distributed under an open-source license. CPDL archives over 10,000 scores contributed by over 300 editors and composers. It includes large numbers of scores by many composers, especially from the Renaissance period, including nearly complete vocal works by William Byrd and Tomás Luis de Victoria in excellent editions.

CPDL is suggested as a resource by departmental or faculty websites at Kent State University, Northern Illinois University, the University of Oregon, the University of Western Ontario, the Internet Public Library of the University of Michigan, the University at Albany, The State University of New York, and by inclusion by faculty members in syllabi for courses at Stanford and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. It is also recommended by the Iowa and Massachusetts chapters of the American Choral Directors Association

In the past year it has moved to a wiki format, and is now accessible at ChoralWiki. This has allowed CPDL to provide many more features beyond the mere archiving and downloadability of scores:

a growing number of original texts, their sources and translations are available
choral music is cross indexed according to various useful criteria (such as musical genre, period, and voicing of choral parts)
composer information is provided
description and performance considerations are included for many works