News
Free sheet music for your grade exam
9 July 2012
Having noticed how much exam syllabus music is Public Domain and available for free on Cantorion, we've created a section for free exam music where you can browse popular exam syllabuses and, where available, download the music from us!
Make sure to check the rules of the exam board before learning from your selected edition, and good luck!
Tell your friends about Cantorion
1 July 2011
With Google
If you've found Cantorion useful, you can help us grow by telling your friends about us.
A new way we're doing this is with Google "plus one". Click the button below to '+1' Cantorion (so it turns red)
Wherever you see this button on the site you can use it to '+1' a specific page.
If you can't see the button above, just search for 'Cantorion' on Google and click '+1' there.
With Facebook
You can also share us with your Facebook friends by 'liking' our page:
Again, wherever you see the 'like' button on the site you can use it to share specific pages.
Thanks for your support!
Cantorion in numbers
11 April 2011
To celebrate our 3rd birthday, here are some facts and figures which show how far we've come so far:
- We launched with 3 pieces of music, we now have over 3,600 from 260 composers
- Over 10,000 daily visitors come to Cantorion from over 100 countries
- We have served up over 3 million downloads
- 4,500 reviews in 17 languages have been posted
1,000 fans!
20 July 2010
We've now passed 1,000 followers on our Facebook page. Thanks to everyone who keeps using the site, and don't forget to tell you friends about the best free sheet music site around.
Become our fan on Facebook
18 December 2009
We've set up a fan page on Facebook, so you can follow our activities and updates. Don't forget, you can also catch our daily trivia and updates on Twitter.
Quizzes: how much of a music geek are you?
17 December 2009
In the run up to Christmas we've all got a little bit more time on our hands. That's why we at Cantorion have written a Quiz page, to keep you all amused through the cold months ahead. (Or the hot if you're in the southern hemisphere!)
Menu reshuffle
2 December 2009
Our conclusion? On the one hand, we offer some things for free: sheet music, concert listings and recordings. And on the other hand, Cantorion is a place to have (musical) fun and to become part of a community.
And that's what you'll see in the new menu. Hope you like it!
Videos and recordings on your concerts
10 November 2009
Give people an extra incentive to see you by adding videos and recordings to your concerts. Example concert.
With concerts becoming more popular with groups and venues, you can now add extra dates to a listing without having to create a whole new concert.
Adding a concert to Cantorion is a great way to get found by Google - and you can link to your own site from it. Ideas of how else we can improve concerts are very welcome!
CantorionVideos
16 October 2009
The creators of Cantorion have made some videos to kick-start our recording campaign. Check us out on Youtube and let us know what you think!
You'll also find these videos on Cantorion, next to the relevant sheet music.
Play, Listen, Record, Rate, Upload!
13 October 2009
To add a video simply upload it to one of the major video sharing sites (YouTube, Vimeo etc.) then click 'Add recording' on the music page and copy the link in.
To add some audio, upload an MP3 or Ogg Vorbis file to a public accessible place on the internet (if it's under a free licence you can use Archive.org or Wikimedia Commons) then copy the direct link in as above.
Better organised database
4 May 2009
You may notice our database is now better organised. In particular:
- Every composer has their own page, listing their sheet music. This makes it easier to search for music by composer. Some composers, such as Mozart, also have compositions listed that we don't have sheet music for. This is the start of our campaign to list all works written by all composers. Ever. Including the ones still in copyright (though obviously we won't include sheet music for them).
- We now have a collection of "pieces", and each bit of sheet music is attached to a piece. Eg, for Beethoven's 5th Symphony there are full scores, piano arrangements, scans, typeset files, etc. all in one place. We have defined a "piece" as a musical entity generally performed all in one go that does not form part of a larger musical entity that is generally performed all in one go. For example, the whole of an opera is a piece, but its overture is part of the larger piece. So the Overture to The Marriage of Figaro is filed under the piece The Marriage of Figaro. On the other hand, each prelude from Chopin's Preludes Op. 28 is a separate piece, because they are generally not all performed in one go. Of course, we're talking about the crazy world of sheet music here, so of course there are some anomalies. For example, we've called Bach's 371 chorale harmonizations a single piece, because it just makes more sense for everyone that way.
We're still in a transitional phase since we're still working on making the database editable by anyone, so you'll have to bear with us for a while. If you have uploaded anything you'll probably notice it's been assigned to a piece. And if you're a composer we've probably made a composer page for you too. If you'd like us to add any information about you do contact us. If you upload anything in the near future, you'll have to fill in the same form as before, and we will assign it to the correct place in the database.
27 April 2009
Check out our brand spanking new Twitter feed, bringing you all the classical music trivia and quips we can muster for each day. Music geek heaven!
Hear it first
9 February 2009
Hello again - sorry it's been so long, but the Cantorion team have been very busy making the site more useful to more people! So this is just a quick update on what's new and what we're working on for the future...
New features:
- You can now listen to recordings of pieces as well as downloading the sheet music. We're adding the recordings piece by piece so only the most popular ones have this feature so far. (Check out Für Elise and The Entertainer.)
- We've now launched Cantorion in nine languages. If you'd like us to launch the site in your language do contact us.
For the future:
- We're working on a huge upheaval of Cantorion's structure. At the core will be a database of every piece of Western Classical Music ever written (or at least a database tending towards this end as it grows and grows ad infinitum). We'll aim to make public domain sheet music available for as many of these pieces as possible, adding recordings along the way.
- Of course, this'll be a ginormous task for the current team alone, so we'd like eventually to open the site up to allow more user contribution.
- For the performers among you we'll also be tying the pieces in more closely to the concert pages, so your uploaded concert will appear on the homepage of each piece in your programme.
Sign up, sign up!
27 October 2008
Thanks to everyone who has been visiting Cantorion, requesting music, and sending us messages of general encouragement!
As ever, Cantorion is developing, and our latest feature is for all the working musicians among you: you can now sign up to Cantorion and create your own personal web-page. Read on...
What you get:
- A profile page displaying your biography, photograph and professional info, compositions and forthcoming concerts.
- An optional messaging service so people can contact you through Cantorion.
- The ability to upload your compositions and arrangements to the Cantorion library. You can create an information page about each piece, and your works will be listed on your profile page.
- The ability to advertise your concerts and performances of your works. You can create a page about each concert, displaying general information, a photo, a map, etc. The concerts will be listed on your profile page.
Why it's better than making your own website from scratch:
- Cantorion attracts a lot more visitors than most personal sites - very important if you're advertising concerts, teaching, etc.
- It's completely free. We don't charge you for anything.
- It's much easier - you can edit your details whenever you like without having to phone 'the guy who does your website'.
- If you already have a website, you can still sign up to Cantorion, reap all Cantorion's benefits, and link to your other site through your profile page.
Why it's better than using a social networking site:
- It can get rather embarrassing having to keep referring professional contacts to Facebook.
- Cantorion is a classical music website, run by musicians who understand what their fellow musicians need. All this is kept in mind as we plan future developments. (We're still working it out, but ideas for the future include a searchable concert diary, self-publishing through Cantorion, selling tickets ad CDs through Cantorion, uploading sound files, and more.)
Just click here to register.
More features coming soon
18 August 2008
We've rearranged the site a bit, and are working on a few things in particular, including:
- An upload facility to let you put your own arrangements and compositions onto the site. We hope that through collaboration we can amass a really large body of free sheet music.
- An advanced search system so you can find the arrangements and pieces you want more easily.
- Portfolio pages where you can display your uploads along with biographical information.
Keep checking back!
New news feed
11 May 2008
Christmas carols!
8 May 2008
Welcome to Cantorion
11 April 2008