Finding classical sheet music

Cafe Society
#1

The thread about “great moments in music” reminded me about a project I’ve had in mind for a while:

I want to do an all-synthesized version of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Rodeo (inspired by Wendy Carlos’ Switched-on-X stuff). I want to call it 808: Hoedown. Not for profit, or anything, of course – just for fun.

The problem is that I have no musical talent, and can just barely read music. So there’s no way I could reproduce it from memory, or even by ear, so I’m going to need the sheet music. All the online resources I’ve been able to find, though, seem to be targeted towards school music programs and such, selling only complete orchestral arrangements for hundreds of dollars.

How do people who are just casual fans/performers of music do it? Is there any relatively-affordable way to get a fairly-complete arrangement (as in, not $50 for just the timpani part) of a specific piece of music?

#2

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com

Search on Appalachian Spring and you’ll find a miniature score in the under-$20 range.

#3

That’s perfect, thanks! I can’t explain why I didn’t find that sooner; I swear to God I did a google search on “sheet music” and didn’t come up with that site before…

#4

You might also want to check out Volkwein’s. I’m lucky. Not only are they in my city, but when I was in college, they had a huge store just across the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh, so I could walk in and browse to my heart’s delight. I’ve no idea how they are on-line, but I know their store is wonderful!

CJ

#5

Ummm… if you can’t read music, just how do you intend to accomplish this project? I have the Appalachian Spring score, and it’s not the simplest music to follow. Maybe I’m just missing something.

#6

Perhaps a midi file would be useful to you as a starting point. Google turned up a raft of Copland midi files.