Talk:Sheet music

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[edit] Removed

I removed this:

In England, the first piece of printed sheet music was the XX Songes, which included songs by John Taverner among others, and which appeared in 1530.

In A History of Western Music Grout & Palisca state:

Printing from a single impression... was apparently first practiced by John Rastell in London about 1520 and first applied systematically on a large scale by Pierre Attaingnant in Paris in 1528.

Did someone just get the date wrong for XX Songes, or was there stuff before it? -- Merphant

Hm, I put it in. I can't remember my source for it right now - I'll check in my books later and look in Grove. Well spotted. By the way, do you have a date for the Grout & Palisca? --Camembert
OK, I checked in Grove, and it says that two fragments of music printed by John Rastell exist from 1526 or "possibly earlier". So XX Songes (which Grove confirms appeared in 1530) can't have been the first printed music in England. It's possible that what the source I got that from (whatever it was) meant was that XX Songes is the earliest English printed music to have survived complete, but I'm just guessing. In any case, it can happily stay out of the article until somebody researches the whole subject and writes about it properly. My mistake, apologies. --Camembert

I put up an external link to www.rowy.net, a sheet music database, and it was removed without reason. Why? --AL

A link to www.rowy.net is always removed from the sheet music section, because it's one of the largest multilingual databases with free sheet music, AL. It even has almost twice as much music as mutopia. I don't understand it either. Maybe Wikipedia should be called Editorpedia. -- Rowy

I put a link to Classical Sheet Music Downloads® (www.virtualsheetmusic.com) which, I think, is an important reference to be added in the sheet music article (they are the leading site for pure digital sheet music), and it has been removed. Any idea? Instead I can find listed the Mutopia Project which is not an unique site (like that one there are thousands).

I find that the sites being linked to externally provide a horrible collection of sheet music. Sites like Rowy, Sheetmusicfox, and the Werner Icking are a million times better than the sites currently linked to. Does anybody else have an opinion? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.159.252.141 (talk • contribs) 14 January 2007.

[edit] Cut

I cut this material that seems to duplicate some stuff in music notation.

Sheet music may come in several different forms. If a piece is written for just one instrument (for example, a piano), all the music will be written on just one piece of sheet music. If a piece is intended to be played by more than one person, each person will usually have their own piece of sheet music, called a part. If there are a large number of performers required for a piece, there may also be a score, which is a piece of sheet music which shows all or most of the instruments' music in one place. Scores come in various forms:

  • A full score is a large book showing the music of all instruments. It will be large enough for a conductor to use in rehearsals or performance.
  • A miniature score is like a full score, but reduced in size. It is too small for practical use, but handy for studying a piece of music.
  • A study score is a rather vague term, sometimes used as a synonym for miniature score, and sometimes used to mean a score somewhere between the size of a full and a miniature score.
  • A piano score (or piano reduction) is an arrangement of a piece for many instruments, for just a piano. It will often include indications of which instrument plays the various melodies and other notes.
  • A vocal score is a piano score which has all the vocal parts, both choral and solo, on separate staves. It is used by singers.
  • A short score is a reduction of a work for many instruments to just a few staves. Short scores are not usually published, but are often used by composers on their way to producing a finished piece. Often, a short score is completed before work on orchestration begins.

It should be noted that the word score can also refer to the incidental music written for something such as a play, television programme or film (when it is called a film score).

It seems to me that this material is not particularly accurate or informative, since the terminology for these things varies from one publisher to the next. UninvitedCompany

I completely disagree, and I'm putting it back in the article. If that info is duplicated in musical notation (and only very little of it is), then it should be removed from there, not here, since it's about sheet music, not about notation, per se. As for terminology varying... well, if you can show me a number of publishers who uses the term "vocal score", say, to mean anything other than what is described here, then I'll concede you have a point, but I believe the terms (apart from study score, the vagueness of which is noted) are used pretty consistently. --Camembert
  • Full score -- usually the term "score," alone, is used. "Full" is just hyperbole.
  • Miniature score, study score. Not particularly informative or helpful, since there are miniature and study editions of much else, such as paperback editions of Homer, and miniature or study editions of keyboard works that, by virtue of being solo music, are not scores.
  • Piano score -- I've never seen this term used, anywhere. I've seen the term piano reduction used. I've seen scores for piano trios, that the pianist usually plays from, since there is no separate part for the piano the way there is for each string, but that isn't usually called a piano score, is it?
  • Vocal score -- I see this terminology rarely, but usually something is identified as, say, SATB, with the presence of the piano accompaniment implied.
  • Short score -- never heard of this but I have no training in orchestration or composition, so I withhold any opinion
  • Film score -- this is an article about sheet music, not about film or about scores, so why does this belong?
UninvitedCompany (signed by Hyacinth)

[edit] Guido

I think Guido d'Arezzo needs a mention here in the "History" section. I am aware that he is noted under Musical Notation, but it also seems that he should get credit here. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 80.176.230.174 (talk • contribs) 23 Feb 2006.

[edit] Sheet Music Archive.net

Unfortunately, the longstanding free sheet music bastion sheetmusicarchive.net, currently listed with "external links," is no longer available. If no one is opposed, I suggest leaving the link but posting a temporary disclaimer that it likely does not work. Any word on the problem? --Entangledphotons 20:56, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

Seems to be working now. - Jmabel | Talk 04:16, 23 April 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Linkspam

And yet another page seems to be filling up with linkspam. Sure the pages are interesting, useful, and hell I even appreciate em -- but they DO seem to be often self-serving and somewhat against the rules. TIme for a trim, perhaps? ♫ Melodia Chaconne ♫ 16:07, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

Any time you feel so moved, I'd be happy to see them significantly trimmed. I usually just don't have the energy to investigate all the external links which end up on this page. Mak (talk) 17:18, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

I put a link to Classical Sheet Music Downloads® (www.virtualsheetmusic.com) which, I think, is an important reference to be added in the sheet music article (they are the leading site for pure digital sheet music), and it has been removed. Any idea? Instead I can find listed the Mutopia Project which is not an unique site (like that one there are thousands).

I didn't remove the vitualsheetmusic.com link, but I assume it was removed because it is a commercial site, where one has to pay, in this case, to be a member or to access the music without being a member. According to the Wikipedia guidelines[1]: editors are supposed to avoid "Links that are added to promote a site, that primarily exist to sell products or services, with objectionable amounts of advertising, or that that require payment to view the relevant content." Mademoiselle Fifi 15:25, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Apologies for the Chappell of Bond Street link. Innocent newbieness I assure you! I honestly thought it would be a useful resource... *hangs head in shame* Lesson learned about the Wikipedia definition of spam...

DuckyPoos (talk) 15:54, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Incomprehensible sentence

"In the case of medieval polyphony, such as the motet, writing space was economized by copying the parts in separate portions of facing pages, thus making possible performance by the fewest number of soloists needed." Huh? I cannot parse the last phrase ("making possible…needed"), and I suspect there is an implied causal step that I am missing. - Jmabel | Talk 05:21, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

I dunno, something like people standing next to each other, sharing the page while still looking at their own part? ♫ Melodia Chaconne ♫ 16:06, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

That still doesn't make any sense about "the fewest number of soloists". Maybe it's something about "the fewest number of copies"? Whatever is meant the sentence as it stands seems incoherent. - Jmabel | Talk 16:09, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] SheetMusicFox

I noticed many of the external links are so useless to expanding upon the sheet music topic. How about adding an external link to a free sheet music library.

  • SheetMusicFox- offers free public dommain sheet music with a powerful search engine


—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Iotamary (talk • contribs) 00:31, 10 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Literature?

I'm a pretty big literature buff, but was interested in sheet music. This line really threw me off. What does sheet music have to do with literature?

"As with literature, one must be able to read musical notation in order to make use of sheet music."

It's the first sentence of the secong paragraph under Purpose and Use.66.119.27.235 20:13, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

The point being that sheet music has its own form of literacy. I'll see if I can reword more clearly. - Jmabel | Talk 05:24, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] What is the plural of sheet music?

"Sheets of music"? "Pieces of sheet music"? "Pieces on sheet music"? Heaven forbid, "sheet musics"? I do not think "sheet music" as a plural works when trying to make comparisons: "I have as many [plural of sheet music] as I have books." Robert K S 00:47, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

It would be "I have as much sheet music as I have books". Sheet music is probably a mass noun. ♫ Melodia Chaconne ♫ 01:16, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
"Much" and "books" do not agree. You can't say "I have much books." Just as you can't say "I have as much orange juice as I have apples." I need some way to, as it were, compare apples to apples. If you're wondering, this is for a translation from the French, where the word is partitions. Robert K S 10:32, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
May I suggest asking here then? ♫ Melodia Chaconne ♫ 11:25, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Flummoxed

Why in the world does "Musical score" redirect here? Sheet music is one very small part of the world of musical scores. (See the New Grove article on "Score"; it's enormous!) Chubbles 05:12, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] German reader please

Notensatz is directed here but it doesn't seem to be the same as Partitur. Can somebody fix this? ALTON .ıl 08:34, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Spam control deleted my post!?

Hello, I don't understand.... I tried to include this: *Music scores of The European Library - browse and search sheet music from all over Europe

But when i did, I received a message from a robot (?) that this wasn't allowed because it is considered????? The European Library....spam??? Maybe someone can help?

Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.156.209.165 (talk) 11:26, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] RTL lyrics?

How do languages with RTL writing system write the lyrics on the sheet music? --­ (talk) 03:24, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Kyle's Project

Added a link to my website. Very many different types of sheet music. Continually maintained... about 3,100 (1 gig) of sheet music as of today. Gpit2286 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 20:39, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a collection of links, plus many of them probably are copy vios. So, I reverted it. ♫ Melodia Chaconne ♫ (talk) 20:50, 23 March 2008 (UTC)