They are the BandMusic PDF Library, conservators and stewards of our band music heritage from the time of John Philip Sousa, Karl L. King, Henry Fillmore and all the other great composers who were active during the Golden Age of the American Town Band. Our special focus is public domain music from the 1880s through 1922.

Ocean Park bandstand, Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts; Wikimedia Commons

Beginnings

Music from this time period was donated to North Royalton (Ohio) Community Band — boxes and boxes and boxes of time-worn, brown-edged sheet music. Most pages were too fragile to hand out so we decided to scan the music. Once everything was scanned, the next logical step was to share it with other bands. Just in time, our first webmaster, Graham Nasby, stepped up and agreed to create a library website and host it. The Library became a non-profit corporation in 2006.

Evolution

BandMusic PDF Library has been online since February 2006. Our first thought was to have about 50 pieces online — mostly marches and a few dances. That number soon surpassed the 100 mark. Fast forward a few years and we've passed 3,000 titles, with no end in sight.  And now the rich library holdings include marches of every description, all kinds of dances, ragtime, major period concert works, and solos with band accompaniment for a wide variety of instruments including voice.  All three websites that formerly contained our music are now rolled into one.

With this much music online, our former plan of operation has become unworkable. The current plan is to post everything, then go through and make as many pieces playable as possible. This will necessitate filling in missing pages and transposing Piccolo and Horn parts to modern keys.

The Scout Report notes:  * "A summer band concert in a white gazebo is always a highlight of small town life. The BandMusic PDF Library might just inspire such a musical gathering, as they offer up hundreds of pieces of band music at no charge. On their homepage, visitors can find Featured Content, such as the complete score for the Bacchanal from Samson and Delilah and the band music transcription of Verdi's Luisa Miller. Moving along, visitors can use the Search the Library link to look for pieces of interest, or they can just browse around by title, genre, composer, publisher, year, or keyword. Also, the Wish List contains items that the site is looking for, and perhaps a kind visitor can provide them with access to a copy so that others might enjoy said work."

Frequently Requested Titles
A Curated List 

•  Alte Kameraden (Old Comrades) Teike, Martin Tousignant, editor
•  American Festival Overture, Wm. F. Kretschmer
•  American Patrol, F.W. Meacham
•  Amidst Thunder of Cannons, J.C. Heed, edited by Marc Oliver
•  Aroldo, Overture to, Giuseppe Verdi
•  Barber of Seville, arranged by M.C. Meyrelles
•  Carmen, George Bizet, arranged by V.F. Safranek
•  Colonel Bogey, Kenneth J. Alford
•  Coronation March, G. Meyerbeer
•  Dance of the Hours, A. Ponchielli
•  Die Frau Meisterin, Franz von Suppe 
       - Continued on CODA page