Choral Public Domain Library

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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.

1 Description
2 Other public domain music projects
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Description

Music is available for free download in a variety of formats, including score images in PDF 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. CPDL archives over 8,900 scores contributed by over 400 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, by the UCLA Music Library and by inclusion by faculty members in syllabi for courses at Stanford and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

In 2005 CPDL was ported to wiki format, and is now accessible at ChoralWiki, making it easier for users to obtain more features beyond the mere archiving and making scores accessible for download from CPDL, 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, and
contents of collections of choral music.