Search "free classical sheet music" and you'll find countless websites. But is it really OK to download, print, and even arrange those scores freely? This guide clarifies the legal status of public domain sheet music, the licenses of the major free sources, and the principles the BeatNote library follows.
A work is in the public domain when its copyright has expired (or never applied), so anyone may freely copy, distribute, arrange, and even use it commercially. In most countries, copyright expires 70 years after the author's death. Beethoven (died 1827), Chopin (1849), and Bach (1750), for instance, have all been gone for well over a century — all of their music is in the public domain, free for anyone to use.
One caveat: even when the work is public domain, a particular edition published by a specific company adds new editing, fingering, and annotations — and that editorial work can carry its own copyright. Scanning and uploading a recent edition from a major publisher like Henle or Peters is therefore an infringement: the work is public domain, but the edition is protected.
A non-profit project founded in 1998, in which volunteers re-typeset public domain works from scratch in LilyPond and distribute them for free. Because the files are created entirely by Mutopia contributors, there are no publisher copyright issues. Every piece is explicitly marked CC BY-SA 4.0 or Public Domain.
Most of the scores in the BeatNote library come from the Mutopia Project.
A vast sheet music database operating under Canadian law (copyright expires 50 years after death). It hosts many scans of original publisher editions, and in countries with longer protection terms — the US, the EU, Korea — some of those materials may still be under copyright. Always check the "Public Domain in: USA / EU / Canada" notice displayed on each piece's page.
A public domain library specializing in choral music: Renaissance and Baroque choral works, along with some piano accompaniment scores. Most are volunteer-made editions, free to use.
The music section of Project Gutenberg, best known for its e-books. Rich in 19th-century salon music, hymnals, and folk song collections.
For the public domain work itself, yes. But you still need to check the license notices covered above.
Example — If a Mutopia Project piece is marked "CC BY-SA 4.0," you can print it and hand it to students for free, or use it in a YouTube performance video. But if you rework that score into a new PDF and distribute it, you must (a) credit the original contributor and (b) release it under the same CC BY-SA license.
Every score in the BeatNote library meets all of the following conditions.
The BeatNote library itself is free, and so are the PDF, PNG, and MIDI downloads on each piece's page. You're free to use them for personal study, teaching, practice, and recording.
Yes. Your own performance of a public domain work can be uploaded freely, ad revenue included. But if the score image shown in the video is a publisher's edition, remove it.
PDFs downloaded from BeatNote can be shared freely. To satisfy CC BY-SA's attribution requirement, don't strip the license text printed inside the PDF.
Yes. Printing for educational distribution is explicitly permitted by the license. The safest approach is to hand students the pages exactly as they are, with the source (BeatNote or Mutopia) and license visible.
The music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin is a shared inheritance of humanity. Thanks to the legal mechanism of copyright expiration, anyone can freely learn, perform, and re-arrange their music. The BeatNote library exists so more people can enjoy that possibility, curating the fruits of non-profit efforts like the Mutopia Project.
Found a piece you love in the sheet music library? Download it freely and put it to work in your practice. And try arranging it yourself in the BeatNote editor — reinterpreting a classical work in your own way is one of the best paths to a deeper understanding of music.