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Online Music Scores

This is a guide to online sources for digital copies of music scores.

What are Song Sheets or Broadsides?

These are single printed sheets, usually six by eight inches, with lyrics but no music. Song sheets were published in the U.S. in the nineteenth century and peaked in popularity in the period from 1850 to the 1870s. They were either new songs or new lyrics to familiar songs, and they were often illustrated with a woodcut scene or portrait. In Britain, broadsides were popular songs and were published between the sixteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Song Sheet/Broadside Collections