Site: Choral Public Domain Library

The Choral Public Domain Library has been around since 1998, and was an early inspiration for the creation of Art Song Central. As we do here, CPDL tries to provide its users with the widest range possible of relevant sheet music. They host many of their own files, and link to others when known.

While the focus of CPDL is on choral music, there are a number of solo songs which have been transcribed and hosted there.

To find solo lit on CPDL requires a little diligence at the moment. There is a category there for solo vocal music, which lists both hosted material and material hosted at other sites. There is also a category “solo” which has more entries, as do those for “art songs” and “lieder.” One can also search for pieces for one voice, and find more.

CPDL is constantly adding material, so this post will always be incomplete and out of date, but here is a partial list of solo vocal repertoire that is hosted there: (This does not include songs which have an entry at CPDL, but are hosted elsewhere.)

  • Henry Martin (Traditional)
  • I Know Where I’m Going (Traditional)
  • Ich bin die Auferstehung, BuxWV 44 (Dietrich Buxtehude) *full score only
  • Island Sheiling Song, An (Marjory Kennedy-Fraser)
  • Le Captive: orientale (Hector Berlioz) *with cello part
  • Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal (Roger Quilter)
  • O Quam tu pulchra es (Allesandro Grandi)
  • Verborgenheit (Hugo Wolf)
  • Vergin, tutto amor (Francesco Durante)
  • Verschwiegene Liebe (Hugo Wolf)
  • A Fairy Town (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • A Welsh lullaby (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • And yet I love her till I die (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Armida’s Garden (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Blow, blow, thou winter wind (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Crabbed age and youth (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Dirge in woods (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Gone were but the winter cold (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Grapes (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • If thou wouldst ease thine heart (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Julia (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Lay a garland on my hearse (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Looking backward (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Love is a bable (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • The Maiden (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Mak žari (Benjamin Ipavec)
  • Marian (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • My true love hath my heart (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Nightfall in Winter (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • No longer mourn for me (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • O mistress mine (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Of all the torments (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Oj rožmarin (Hrabroslav Volarič)
  • On a time the amorous silvy (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Planinec (Emil Adamič)
  • Proud Maisie (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Take, O take those lips away (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • There (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Thine eyes still shined for me (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Three Aspects (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Through the ivory gate (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • To Althea from prison (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • To Lucasta on going to the wars (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Under the greenwood tree (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Uppsala är bäst (Gunnar Wennerberg) *Duet
  • Weep you no more (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • When comes my Gwen (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • When icicles hang by the wall (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • When lovers meet again (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Whence (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Whether I Live (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Why so pale and Wan (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Willow, willow, willow – (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • The Witches’ Wood (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Ye little birds that sit and sing (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
  • Ave Maria, Op. 52, No. 6 (Franz Schubert)
  • Eriskay Love Lilt (Arr. Marjory Kennedy-Fraser)
  • From Elijah (Mendelssohn):
    • O Rest in the Lord
    • If with all your hearts
    • Lord God of Abraham
  • This will take longer than I thought… more to come…

Notes:
CPDL has a distinct advantage in the wiki style system and wide user base it has developed over the past decade, in that many people are able to contribute and thus they are able to add scores with much greater frequency. A downside of that system is that quality control is harder to manage, and there is no guiding vision for appropriate content. CPDL and Art Song Central are beginning to cross link to each other’s collections, which will hopefully make it easier for all our users to find the music they seek.