There are a bunch of vocal works hosted in digital form at the University of Rochester from the collections of the Sibley Music Library of the Eastman School of Music. Documents are served as PDF files, and are high enough resolution to print well.
Curiously, they state at the bottom of each entry “All items in UR Research are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved,” despite having noted elsewhere that all hosted material is in the public domain. Jim Farrington, Sibley’s Head of Public Services, explains that this is boilerplate language over which they have no control, and that the public domain works in the collection are “freely accessible for anyone to download and do anything they want to with them.”
My favorite discovery in this collection was 9 volumes of songs by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry. Parry’s music can be quite good, but his songs are rarely heard in the US. I hesitate to call any of them part of the “standard repertoire,” but will probably go through them enough to highlight some favorites here.
It is also worth noting that they have a bunch of songs by Oley Speaks and Reginald De Koven, both of whom were quite popular in the early 20th century, including Speaks’ big (but not very PC) hit “On the Road to Mandalay“.
Some choice items in this collection:
Mélodies pour Chant et Piano by Ernest Chausson
- Nanny
- Le charme
- Les papillons
- La dernière feuille
- Sérénade italienne
- Hébé
- Le colibri
- Apaisement
- Sérénade
- L’aveu
- La cigale
- La caravane
- La nuit (duet)
- Réveil (duet)
Folk-Song Carols arr. Cecil Sharp
- King Herod and the cock
- The moon shines bright
- The holly and the ivy
- Come, all you true good Christians
- Come, all you worthy gentlemen
- As I sat on a sunny bank
- The Virgin unspotted
- Sons of Levi
- Wassail song
Mélodies by Léo Delibes (in 2 volumes)
Volume 1:
- Églogue
- Que l’heure est donc brève!
- Myrto
- Avril
- Départ
- Les filles de Cadix
- Heure du soir
- Chanson de l’oiseleur
- Regrets
- Bonjour, Suzon!
- Chant de l’Almée
- Blanche et rose
- Le rossignol
- Poème d’amour
- Arioso
- Les Norvègiennes (Chorus)
- Les nymphes des Bois (Chorus)
Volume 2:
- Sérénade à Ninon
- Chanson de Barberine
- Chrysanthême
- Chanson Hongroise
- Sérénade de Ruy-Blas
- A ma Mignonne
- Le meilleur moment des amours
- Faut-il chanter?
- Epithalame
- Vieille chanson
- Les trois oiseaux (duet)
- Valse de Coppélia
- Ave maris stella (duet)
- Agnus Dei (duet)
- Chanson slave
- Dumka
- Les Frileuses (Chorus)
This one also looks really interesting:
4 Creole Songs by Efram Zimbalist (in English and Creole)
- Belle Layotte
- Mamselle Zizi
- Michié Preval
- Michié Bainjo
