Talk:Sheet music

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 systically 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.

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)

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.

External link freesheetpianiomusic.com

I put a link to www.freesheetpianomusic.com that was deleted. Any comments??? Free Sheet Piano Music” is a free non commercial resource with unique(!) content. So I think it can be very usefull for some adultes peoples who start to teach play piano. So if the link is deleted please let me know why? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Reggina (talk • contribs) 13:44 2008-11-23