IMSLP re-opens--Sibelius & Canteloube catalogs

[daphnis]

Dear friends of IMSLP and musicians abroad,

I'd like to welcome everyone back to the grand re-opening of IMSLP, now the Petrucci Music Library, and notify users of the happenings and news on the site in our absence. Since IMSLP went down in October, Feldmahler, Carolus, the admins. and copyright reviewers have worked long and hard to scan over the entire collection, weeding out any violations or unreviewed files to ensure our copyright review system is still the best it can be. We've instituted a new tagging system which tells users of the copyright status in Canada, the U.S., E.U., and also a warning system put in place to notify users of the status of a given piece in their country. In addition to this, there have been some massive site upgrades and a new composition information system designed to serve as a hub for IMSLP/Petrucci and other sister sites that may find the details of referenced compositions useful. While there are certainly many, many more worth mention, I'd like to express my personal thanks and gratitude to all the other admins. and reviewers for their diligent work in bringing back our beloved site to the world.

I'd also like to bring attention to some great news that has occurred during the silence. As many know, the site is hosted in Canada and the term of copyright here lasts for 50 years after the death of a composer. As of 1 January, 2008, two very influential composers went public domain in Canada: Jean Sibelius and Joseph Canteloube. Because we are a repository of free musical scores from around the world, holding some of the greatest masterpieces in history, the coming-about of these two masterly composers into the public domain and into our collection was a much-awaited event. In order to celebrate the occasion, I began a project back in October to collect, scan, and upload the complete catalogs of both of these composers, preserving their genius on-line and in a non-degradable medium for eternity. The Sibelius project was especially challenging out of the sheer quantity Sibelius had written during his lifetime and so much published in many fashions over the decades. With the assistance of a few colleagues, close friends and many kind scholars and University libraries, I have created an almost 100% complete Sibelius catalog of his public domain works, most of these also public domain in the U.S. This project, spanning some 4,300+ pages, encompassed approximately 95% of his written works, 97% of his published works, and of those 99% in the public domain. Included are all 7 symphonies, the complete series of tone poems (including all 4 parts to the Lemminkäinen Suite), most stage works, the nearly complete works for violin and piano/orchestra, practically all of his output for the piano, and vocal works. And for any of those that wish a set of companion recordings, I'd like to strongly recommend the new project launched by the record label BIS to collect and record every single note ever written by Jean Sibelius. This 13-volume, in-progress Sibelius Edition is available on their site at http://www.bis.se/bis_pages/bis_sibelius-edition.php and through retailers on-line.

While ethnomusicologist Joseph Canteloube certainly had his fair share of compositional success stories, his output was not nearly as large. Nevertheless, I have done him the same favor and scanned and uploaded his (nearly) complete works catalog. Among these 1,200+ pages are the beloved Chants d'Auvergne, vocal scores to both operas, the Poème for violin and orchestra, and most of his collected and harmonized folk songs from around France.

I highly recommend both of these composers to anyone seeking to learn new and exciting music and hope their catalogs make a welcome contribution to IMSLP/Petrucci and the world abroad. Enjoy!

[emeraldimp]

*jaw hits the ground*

Stupendous!

[Melodia]

I think I just...well ok I won't use that euphamism.

But as Sibelius is such a favorite (I already have all five of the released Sibelius boxes), well you can imagine how much this excites me.

-Lala-

[horndude77]

Wow! Thanks for doing all that work. I'm looking forward to tomorrow!

[horndude77]

Oops! I didn't realize it was open already!

[Yagan Kiely]

Impressive!