Example Set

These voice and piano examples are taken from the Recordare Editions of digital sheet music. They are deliberately chosen to be more difficult, and make use of more MusicXML features, than the interactive example. Some of the features illustrated include:

• 8va: Mandoline
• Appoggiaturas: Das Veilchen
• Clef changes: Das Veilchen, Mandoline, Wie Melodien zieht es mir
• Cross-staving: Mandoline, Après un rêve, Im wunderschönen Monat Mai, Wie Melodien zieht es mir
• Cue notes: Die zwei blauen Augen
• Forward over disappearing voices: Wie Melodien zieht es mir
• Grace notes: Ave Maria, An die ferne Geliebte, Mandoline
• Multiple voiced piano parts: Im wunderschönen Monat Mai
• Pedals: An die ferne Geliebte
• Pickup measures: Im wunderschönen Monat Mai
• Repeats and multiple verses: Ave Maria
• Time signature changes: Die zwei blauen Augen
• Tuplets: Après un rêve, An Chloe, Ave Maria, Die zwei blauen Augen
• Turns: An Chloe
• UTF-16 encoding: An Chloe, Das Veilchen. You will need to handle 16-bit characters in order to read MusicXML files produced by Dolet for Sibelius.

The example from Schumann’s Dichterliebe is a complete song; the rest are the first pages of songs. All of these files were created in Finale first, then exported into MusicXML 4.0 and PDF formats.

We are pleased to post contributed examples of modern music. Each copyright holder has granted us permission to include these samples of their sheet music on this site.

Lee Actor‘s Prelude to a Tragedy opens his debut CD of Music for Orchestra. Peter J. Rabinowitz describes it in Fanfare as “a patiently brooding 12-minute tone poem that makes chilling use of eerie ostinatos and–even more disturbing–ambiguous rocking harmonic progressions that open up new vistas without offering any real escape from the slate-grey claustrophobic surroundings.” This is the most complete orchestral example that we offer.

Jonatha Brooke‘s “West Point” was recorded on both her Plumb and Live albums; this transcription is based on the live recording. The tablature is based on transcriptions done by Ken Temple and Marian Russell. It is the most complete guitar tablature example that we offer, including alternate tuning, capo, pull-offs, and complex chords. It is a beautiful example of a contemporary song for voice and guitar.

The song “越後獅子” or “Echigo-Jishi” is a MusicXML example with text in Japanese. Tom Potter has an online collection of Japanese songs transcribed into Finale from the book Japanese Popular Music: a collection of the popular music of Japan rendered in to the staff notation by Nagai and Kobatake (2nd ed., Osaka, S. Miki & Co., 1892). It seems that Puccini was familiar with this collection when composing Madama Butterfly. Mr. Potter has donated these transcriptions to the public domain. Karen Tanaka assisted in adding the Japanese lyrics and title to the original music-only transcription.