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What you will find on bestsheetmusicedition.com

On this website, you will find the best sheet music editions for classical music from the leading music publishing companies.

The composers you will find are:

Johann Sebastian Bach

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Franz Joseph Haydn

Frederic Chopin

Claude Debussy

Alexander Scriabin

Sergei Rachmaninov

Franz Liszt

Franz Schubert

Robert Schumann

Maurice Ravel

George Gershwin

And many more!

Why is it important to buy the best edition for classical sheet music?

You may ask yourself, “Why do I care about which edition I use for my classical music score,” or “Why should I spend money trying to buy the best edition for the classical piece I am working on?” These are actually very important questions to ask.

Using a literary example, imagine if you are trying to read a Shakespeare Work. You would want to find an edition of Shakespeare that contains commentary notes and chapter summaries, right? If you purchase an edition without commentary notes or aids, it would be very difficult to read the English dialect of that time. With buying sheet music, it is very similar.

The reason so is because there are many bad, fallacious editions out there, and you do not want to accidentally purchase and study one of these scores. It is not only a waste of money, but a waste of time as well, as you spend your precious time learning erroneous sheet music.

These editions can usually be found on “free” sheet music websites, online public domains for sheet music, and sheet music websites where you can print the music on your printer at home. Sheet music from online public domains come from expired copyrights, and these copyrights are not renewed because the editions are full of too many errors.

Many musicians that use scores from “free” sheet music websites, online public domains, and online printed music websites complain that their scores have typos, bad fingerings, bad pedal markings, improper ornaments, and missing details.

Also, if you are competing in serious music competitions, the judges will not like to see that you are using a bad edition for your music.

If you want to be the best, then you need to use the best edition for classical music! Every top competitor in major competitions use the best editions to their music. Is this a coincidence? Think about it!

With this in mind, please take a good look at the information posted on this website. You may find surprising information on the best sheet music editions, and may want to click on the picture of the music so you can follow the link to purchase the score.

To read more about problems with public domain and other sheet music websites, please click on the following links:

What Makes an Edition a Good Edition?

In the past, what made a music edition a good one differs greatly from the modern definition of a good music edition. In those times, it was a good thing to see many editor commentaries and personal suggestions that may have differed from the composer’s original intent. Musicians wanted to see originality in the editions, and to be able to see the ideas of the editor in the music.

While seeing editor notes can be a very good thing, a problem that occurred is that many editors would not make comments based on the original scores of the music they were commenting. They would often base their comments from another edition that already featured commentary notes from another editor. This would lead to many fallacious commentaries and details.

The change of trend for good editions of sheet music occurred with music editors such as Heinrich Shenker and, notably, Gunter Henle. In around 1948, when Gunter Henle, an accomplished pianist, wanted to make an edition of music that closely followed the original writing of the composer.

By studying the first edition of the music scores, notes of the composer, notes from the students of the composers, and other supplementary sources, an edition was made that attempted to show the composer’s original intent for the score. Many editions now follow this trend, and also add editor notes that try to not conflict with the original writing of the score.

To be short, what makes an edition good with today’s trend is showing the composer’s original intent, having commentary notes such as a preface, fingering suggestions (not always the case as with the Barenreiter edition), and performance practices, and showing what sources were used to determine the composer’s original intent.

Read about the best sheet music publishing companies here.





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