USING IMSLP

IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project) is an incredible repository of public domain (not copy-righted) music, open and available to anyone, at no charge, with no registration or password. 

I use IMSLP almost every day, but it's possibly you haven't yet had the privilege of working with it.  The following is an email I sent to a friend, explaining how to use IMSLP to download the 2nd violin parts for 2 different works.  I hope it helps!


Hi friend,
IMSLP can be a bit confusing when you first work with it, but it's worth getting acquainted!  There shouldn't require any charges, log-ons or passwords, unless you wish to subscribe. It's free, completely.

When you click on the IMSLP link on the repertoire list (or search IMSLP from its home page) , you should get a page like this:

About half-way down there's a header that says "Sheet Music", and below it a tab that says "Score and parts". Below that is a gray bar, with a large arrow. That's the download arrow. Click on it.
You'll get a window that looks like this:

This is the optional-subscription page.

Look at the top of it, above "IMSLP needs your help." In blue you'll see "Your download will continue in __ seconds" 

After 10 seconds it changes to, "Click here to continue your download." Do that, and it should deliver a .pdf directly to your computer.

(This is the point at which subscribing to IMSLP gains you something.  Subscribers don't see ads, and subscribers don't have to wait 15 seconds to start their downloads.)

In the case of the Arthur Foote Quintet (the one I've used as illustration), the entire piano score and string parts are together in one file. You'll only need to print pages 73-84 for the 2nd violin part. (Scroll to those pages, and you'll see that each one says "Violin II" on the top.)


For the Borodin String Quartet,

You'll see that under "Sheet Music" There are 2 tabs, one white (scores) and one blue (parts).

Click on the Parts tab.

Now there are several gray bars, each with the name of an instrument part on them. Go to the bottom set of gray bars, where there's only 1 download arrow. In the description under that, it says "Reprinted: International Music". That's the edition we'll be using.

Violin 1 is ready to download, but under that, it has a black arrow with "4 more" beside it. Click the black arrow to bring up the other instrumental parts. Click on Violin 2, and download it. (You'll find the same subscription page as before. Wait 10 seconds, then at the top in blue you'll see "Click here to continue your download.")

Thanks for your willingness to try this out! It's a bit confusing until you've used it a few times and explored what each page/bar/tab offers.  You shouldn't need to sign in with anything, and there's no charge for using it.


Regarding the Earsense links, they should take you to pages about each piece, like the one below.  From there, you can listen to recordings and/or watch videos, you can research the composer's other works by clicking on his name, you can look him up on Wikipedia or other sites, you can find a glossary of words used in the names of movements, or you can link back to IMSLP!  It's a really rich resource.

If you have any more difficulty with it, please let me know!

Blessings,
Ellen

Synchronous HausMusik
Founded May 2020
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