Category
Baroque sheet music
34,823 titles in the index · page 1 of 200
Almost all Baroque music is out of copyright, which means the question is never whether you can get it free — you can — but whether the free version is good enough for what you are doing. Baroque editions differ more than any other period, because the scores leave more unspecified.
The listing below covers keyboard, string, wind, vocal and continuo repertoire from roughly 1600 to 1750.
Seven Chromatic Baroque Motets
Pop Goes The Weasel
6 Sonatas or Duets for Two German Flutes or Violins, Op.2
Sonata a Violino Sono
Abendlied: Der Tag ist hin
Aria: Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder
Dialog: Es sei denn
Dialog: Sie haben meinen Herrn weggenommen
Dialog: Wer ist der, so von Edom kommet
Geistliches Concertlein: Exaudi, Domine, clamantem
Jairus begehrt, Jesus gewährt
Lerne dich selbst kennen
Magnificat
Menschliche Nichtigkeit
Merk auf mein Herz
Missa (1668)
Motette: Unser keiner lebet ihm selber
Song: Alles vergehet / Musik bestehet
Song: Bleib bei'uns Herr
Song: Demut ist allen Menschen gut
Song: Fürchtet euch nicht
Song: Gedult und Demut / Bringt Ehr' und Gut
Song: Mein bester Freund, mein Jesus weint
Song: Oster oder Auffahrtsfreude
Song: Teufel, dass du dich erkühnest
Song: Was säumest du dich doch
Splitter-Richter-Bösewichter
Supply Belcher -
Wir glauben all' an einen Gott
Motetti et Antifone della B. Vergine A' Voce Sola con Strumenti del Conte Pirro Albergati. Opera Settima. - In Bologna, per Gioseffo Micheletti. 1691.
VIII Sonate per Cembalo
Adaigo et Vivace
Sonata a Due Mandolini (Gimo 12)
Sonata a Due Mandolini (Gimo 14) (Barbella, Emanuele)
6 Sonatas for Violoncello
Fuga per Organo o Cembalo
Sonata per Cembalo od Organo
Concerto I in D Minor, for violin, strings & b.c.
Inventio II in G Major
Inventio VI in Bb Major
Inventio VII in E Major
Passacaille en Rondeau
Sonata I in F Min.
Sonata III, in G Minor
Sonata a Tre II in A Minor
Sonata in E Major
Cædmon's Hymn
Gloria in excelsis Deo
Buying guide
What to know before you buy
What the composer left out
Baroque notation records less than modern notation. Dynamics are sparse or absent, articulation is often unmarked, ornaments are indicated by symbols whose realisation was a matter of local convention, and the keyboard accompaniment is written as a bass line with figures rather than as notes.
Every edition therefore makes decisions. An urtext presents the source and leaves you to make them. A performance edition supplies ornaments, dynamics and a written-out continuo realisation. Nineteenth-century editions — which is what most free scans are — supply a great deal and reflect performance practice that has since been thoroughly revised.
Figured bass and continuo
A continuo part is a bass line with numbers indicating the harmony above it, historically improvised at a keyboard with a cello or bassoon doubling the bass. Modern editions usually print a realisation: a written-out keyboard part. If you are not able to improvise from figures, check the edition includes one, because a good many scholarly editions deliberately do not.
Pitch, and why your edition may be in the wrong key
Baroque pitch was lower than modern concert pitch and varied by city. Editions intended for period instruments are sometimes transposed accordingly, and recordings on period instruments will sound roughly a semitone below a modern edition. This surprises people playing along with a recording.
Common questions
- Is Baroque sheet music free?
- The music is out of copyright, so free scans are widely available. Modern scholarly editions are copyrighted as editions in their own right, and they are frequently worth paying for because Baroque scores leave so much for the editor to decide.
- What is a continuo realisation?
- A written-out keyboard part derived from the figured bass line. Historically the player improvised it from numbers under the bass. Most modern practical editions include one; scholarly editions often do not.
- Urtext or performance edition?
- Urtext if you know the conventions and want to make your own decisions about ornaments and articulation. A performance edition if you want a playable text with those decisions already made.