where to find public domain music with documentation

Everything except LibriVox (yes, this is where knitting gets discussed. Now includes non-LV Volunteers Wanted projects)
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GettingTooOld
Posts: 416
Joined: October 19th, 2021, 3:28 am

Post by GettingTooOld »

I've been looking for provable public domain music and it's somewhat difficult to work out if a piece IS actually public domain, or it's simply SUGGESTED that it's public domain.

There are three different licences that apply to any piece of music as far as I understand it, however you'll more often find it explained as the first two.

1) There is the melody and lyrics if there are any and that was all written by a composer who does or did own it. Lets call him tchaikovsky.

2) There is the performance on a piano of that piece by the performer who plays it. Call him Liberace.

3) There is the person who makes the recording of the performance. Call them wachowski.

So liberace owns copyright to his own performance of nutcracker suite dance of the sugar plum fairy. Dearest tchaikovsky doesn't want a cut because he is dead, so thats ok, although you need to be careful because tchaikovsky has been placed under sanctions for his part in the war in ukraine. So it's only PD if you can find liberace saying he is donating his performance that day to all of humanity under a free license for all to enjoy. This is a good strategy because more listeners means his reputation spreads to more people who are willing to pay. Ask Kevin McCloud about that one.

I'm looking for music composed by long dead composers, so that it is at least easy to get past that hurdle. There are many such composers.
The second one, which would perhaps be enough is often harder to find, at least, sometimes you can find out who the performer was, but all too often you can't find a record of them putting their work into the public domain, or commenting on that subject.

There is the well known musopen which is not free at all, it's "Free" perhaps,..... AFTER you give it at least all your details and then it wants money to boot. You simply cannot find what they claim to be making which is freely accessible public domain stuff, unless I'm looking at the wrong site. You can find some music from the musopen site on other sites like internet archive, which is good because you can download from that site for free, but as a general rule, there is plenty of material on internet archive which is obviously NOT free, even when it claims to be. Ditto youtube and everywhere else. Lots of claims, not much luck finding documentation. Musopen did a kickstarter and raked in the cash, distributed it who knows how much went to artists and how much was administration, I can't find any info, and now the 'public domain Chopin works exist, behind a pay-or at least register wall, although it is available elsewhere if you can actually find it, but it's hard to know for sure if it is perfectly legit that way, because it's not on their site anymore. Basically, it's claimed to be from musopen, but how do I know for sure ? Today data is worth more than the item being offered for 'free' same as meals are often available without payment in cash, someone will buy you a meal, but the free part is not actually free. Downloading an app or registering your data to log in is not free.

There are the USA army navy air force bands, their performances are public domain, so when they play public domain tunes and lyrics, it's safe public domain with a provable heritage. However, they don't always play the nice pieces you want to hear. I mention them because it may help people looking for the same thing as I am. Legit, above-board, above-reproach, public domain.

I guess at the end of the day I should line up a bunch of chickens, sample their vocal performance and use a computer to mix it into a famous tune. Then at least I'll know I can distribute it as public domain and show the lineage and people can do as they please with it, which is what I would like.

as long as the chickens agree to do the gig.
Beeswaxcandle
Posts: 1499
Joined: June 20th, 2022, 1:34 am
Location: Aotearoa

Post by Beeswaxcandle »

I use IMSLP (https://imslp.org) for most of my PD music requirements. Most scores and some recordings are PD. If you choose not to join, the only cost is to wait 15 seconds before downloading an item.
"Just because you can doesn't mean you should"—my first law of life.
GettingTooOld
Posts: 416
Joined: October 19th, 2021, 3:28 am

Post by GettingTooOld »

Thank you so much for this, it is exactly what I have been searching for. Thank you.

I'm reminded of whale rider, I loved that film when it came out. Makes you feel good and makes you cry too. I hope I can visit that part of the world one day, I see many sailors traveling there, looks so lovely.
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