Choral Public Domain Library

Choral Public Domain Library

URL	http://www.cpdl.org/
Commercial?	No
Type of site	Music score library
Registration	Optional (required for contributing)
Available language(s)	English with some help pages in other languages
Owner	CPDL community
Created by	Rafael Ornes
Launched	December 1998
Current status	Active

The Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL) is a sheet music archive which focuses on choral and vocal music in the public domain or otherwise freely available for printing and performing (such as via permission from the copyright holder).

Description

The site CPDL.org was launched in December 1998 by Rafael Ornes.^[1] In 2005 CPDL was ported, or converted, to wiki format, and is now accessible at ChoralWiki or via cpdl.org. In July 2008, Ornes stepped back from the site administration and turned the operational responsibilities to a group of the site administrators. A transition committee was formed which subsequently incorporated CPDL as a non-profit under California state and now operates CPDL.

In addition to making sheet music scores available, the wiki format supports additional features including:

• original texts, their sources and translations;
• cross-indexing of choral music using criteria including musical genre, period, and number and voicing of choral parts;
• composer information;
• description and performance considerations can be included for works;
• contents of collections of choral music;
• community discussion such as through "Talk" pages related to composers or specific works.

Music is available for free download in a variety of formats, including score images in PDF, PS and TIFF format, sound files in MIDI and MP3 formats, and in the notation formats supported by various notation programs, including Finale, Finale Allegro, Finale PrintMusic, and Finale Notepad 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. As of May 15, 2011 CPDL archives over 12,750 scores by more than 1800 composers, contributed by over 750 editors and contributors. It includes large numbers of scores from the Renaissance and Baroque eras, 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, by the UCLA Music Library, by the libraries at the Universities of Boston^[2] and Stanford and by inclusion by faculty members in syllabi for courses at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh.^[3] It is recommended by the Iowa and Massachusetts chapters of the American Choral Directors Association, and is included in the resource database of Intute, an association of Institutions in the UK.^[4]

Other public domain music projects

• Werner Icking Music Archive
• Mutopia Project
• Kantoreiarchiv
• International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)

See also

• List of online music databases
• Public domain resources

References

1. ^ Rainsford, Miriam. "Internet Music Publishing - A Survey". MStation — Internet Music Publishing 2002. http://mstation.org/internetpublishing2.html. Retrieved 14 May 2011. 
2. ^ "BU Libraries | Music Library | Sheet Music". http://www.bu.edu/library/music/sheetmusic.html. Retrieved 19 March 2009. 
3. ^ Liske, Kenneth. "Connecting with Technology: Web Resources for Choral Musicians". http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/liske/techpres/. Retrieved 19 March 2009. ^{[dead link]}
4. ^ "Full record details for Choral Public Domain Library". http://www.intute.ac.uk/artsandhumanities/cgi-bin/fullrecord.pl?handle=artifact3757. Retrieved 19 March 2009. 

External links

• CPDL — Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)