Eble Music
Eble has considerably spruced up their web site recently to enable online browsing and ordering, but if you can, pay a personal visit to Iowa City's venerable and amazing sheet music emporium and enjoy joyous the serendipity of rummaging through the filing cabinets. You may also order by phone (319) 338-0313, fax (319) 338-0108, or email (information@eble.com).
Hickey's is an impressively comprehensive online source for sheet music, accessories, manuscript paper, orchestral scores & parts, chamber music, textbooks, software; it even boasts a repair shop and rentals. And more... The interface is very user-friendly.
Robert King Music
Robert King is a large and fairly comprehensive source for brass music. Their catalog is now available as a searchable database on this site (King’s print catalog is once again available). The search engine is clunky and frustrating to use, but it is still a good comprehensive list of available brass literature.
Solid Brass Music Company
They specialize in brass music and their selection includes some harder-to-find-in-the-US European publishers. Very good links page to composers, small publishers of brass music, and brass organizations.
Pel Music Publications - Large selection of arrangements; some original music. Catalog includes solos, duets, trios, quartets, quintets for horn, plus brass quartets and quintets, brass choir and more. Pel also offers "custom arrangements for small instrumental ensembles, band or orchestra accompaniments for solos of small ensembles, and accompaniments for unaccompanied" music. Attractive web site with a good set of links.
Wind Music Publications - Home of such venerable tomes as Farkas's Art of Brass Playing, Art of Musicianship, and Photo Study of 40 Embouchures...; Yancich's Practical Guide to French (sic) Horn Playing, and much more. No internet orders; phone, fax, or snailmail only. But you can ogle the publications online and print out a pdf order form.
This is the online presentation of (UI horn studio alumnus) Daren Robbins’ doctoral thesis on the most important orchestral horn excerpts and it is worth its weight in gold for making access to the excerpts exceptionally quick easy. Features: 46 excerpts (from Brandenburg to Oberon), printed (and printable!) excerpt, 4 recorded versions (including with period instruments) of various interpretations that you can hear (via Quicktime) online. There are a few favorites missing (e.g. Short Call), and his selection of excerpts might not be exactly the same as yours or mine, but these are minor quibbles: this site is a great boon to horn players. Bravo, Daren! Update: 1) All these excerpts are now available in a 160 page spiral-bound book – order from the web site ($30). 2) A link to upcoming auditions is included.
Thompson Editions
A specialty publisher/distributor of music for horn; publisher of the huge orchestral horn part compendium. “Founded in 1985 at the behest of Robert King, we specialize in quality solo and chamber music publications for brass, and also have one of the most complete collections of standard concerto repertoire in transcription for solo instrument(s) and symphonic band. Our catalog currently contains well over 100 publications...with more original works on the way.” “Additionally... we are specialists in tracking down hard-to-find publications from other publishers. So if you have been experiencing difficulties in locating a particular solo, chamber or ensemble work, method book, etc., please feel free to e-mail us and we will do our best to supply it. ...We have expanded our offerings to include exciting new lines of horn cases, mouthpieces and mutes.”
Thompson also sells a quality line of horn cases, gig bags, mutes, and mouthpieces. His weighty (over 1000 pages) Orchestral Audition Repertoire book (collection of copies of the original orchestral parts) is essential for any horn player preparing for an orchestral career.
The Hornists' Nest
Lowell Shaw is a national treasure as far as horn players are concerned, turning out wonderful arrangements and jazzy compositions for horn ensembles for half a century.
Emerson Horn Editions - Jim Emerson's mail order site is a treasure trove of horn music for horn. Categories include: Horn Ensembles, Horn & Trumpet duets, Horn with Mixed Instruments, C.D. Wiggins Horn Library, Music by Burton Hardin, Alphorn Music, Christopher Jones arrangements, Don Abernathy arrangements; I bought a ton of Emerson Horn Edition music at the IHS Denver workshop and wish I'd bought more... Just one thing: don't confuse this site with June Emerson's site (if you've seen one, you haven't see them both! They're both great!).
Paxman
Paxman offers more than just horns: they also sell CDs, the Orchestra Musician’s CD ROM Library, and notably the sheet music to the London Horn Sound arrangements. An interesting source of good and useful music not necessarily well known in the US are the required pieces for the British Associated Board Examinations, Grades 1-8. There is also considerable music for horn & piano, horn duets, trios, quartets & ensembles, plus books, excerpt collections, and CDs.
June Emerson Wind Music
Tons of all kinds of music; a bit like the Robert King site but prettier. A search for "Horn Pieces A-K" turned up 430 pieces (i.e. solos), displayed 50 at a time. L - Z has 437. Brass quintets A-F: 420. I even found some compositions listed by an obscure composer named Agrell. Lots of pieces not easily found in the US (or known - the Brits have a raft of music for horn that we almost never hear about. This is the place to catch up on what's out there!). Pieces are graded A (easy) to E (difficult), a big plus. Bookmark this one!
Select-a-Press
This is the web site of Gary Slechta, a terrific arranger of music for brass quintet. Categories of BQs: Christmas, Church, Transcriptions, Ceremonial, Educational, Recordings, Trombone ensembles. First rate arrangements.
Pelican Music Publishing
Wide assortment of compositions and arrangements for horn, horn ensemble, and horn in chamber music.
Really Good Music - The horn offerings from this site number about 4 dozen, and the title of the site is correct: there is some really good music for horn here, notably a mother load of titles by Douglas Hill, our personal nomination for the most amazing/talented/totally cool horn teacher/player/composer/bird watcher ever. There are other high quality pieces here by some other talented hornist/composers, making this a site to remember and order from again and again.
Faust Music
Randall Faust has long been one of the most creative hornists around. His web site is a model of clarity and user-friendliness and gives us all easy access to his considerable body of works (plus those of some other composers & publishers) in many categories. Prof. Faust is also an alumnus of The University of Iowa!
Phoenix Music
Is a European publisher whose catalogue is distributed in the US by Brodt Music. Phoenix offers a wide variety of high quality music for horn, horn ensemble, and brass various brass ensembles, most notably the works of award-winning composer Kerry Turner and his many works for the American Horn Quartet.
Joseph Patelson Music House
Famed classical sheet music store located behind Carnegie Hall. They carry 47,000 titles in all instruments and categories...
McCoy's Horn Library
University of Iowa horn studio alumnus Marv McCoy started this sheet music publishing business in 1977 with a few of his own horn quartet arrangements and two Alphorn works. The catalog has grown tremendously over the years, and the business is now owned by McCoy's daughter Terry Preston. A lot of excellent music for horn in a variety of categories.
Robert Ostermeyer Editions
Extensive collection of music for horn, much of it hard-to-get items. (The UI Rita Benton Music Library has much of it)
Editions Bim & The Brass Press
Good collection of high quality music for horn (and brass).
Quintessential Brass Repertoire offers many transcriptions for brass quintet useful for weddings and ceremonies, with genres including classical, religious, jazz/pop, Christmas, and Hannuka. There are similar offerings for brass trio.
Tap Music Sales - has some sheet music for horn and various brass ensembles - but look under Recordings...(!)
Cherry Classics - a few horn and piano arrangements and transcriptions, but what will be of most interest to hornists are the many brass quintet arrangements.
Mozart Millenium Edition
New edition of the Mozart horn concertos with 1) "practical, pianistic, and playable" piano parts and 2) horn parts as Mozart wrote them - without dynamics or phrasing.
Ken Pope
I know what you're thinking - Ken Pope is a repairman and sells new and used horns. Oh, and accessories, CDs, books, etc. Right you are. But he also offers a fine selection of brass and woodwind quintets, horn ensembles (duets through octets), solos, methods, etudes, excerpts, and more. Very user-friendly, easy-on-the-eyes web site. Kudos to Ken!
Art of Sound Music's online catalog offers 69 brass quintet compositions, transcriptions, and arrangements. ASM boasts that you can hear and view the scores before you buy, that you can order the parts as a download or have them shipped, and get free lost part replacements and part transpositions. They also offer "The Gig Ready Brass Quintet Library" Vol. 1 (Gr. 5) is "Classics," a pdf download (only), but a bargain at $30 for 25 pieces (633 pages!), including Gounod's Funeral March of a Marionette, pieces by Pezel, Handel, Scheidt, Monteverdi, and more. Vol II is "Holiday" (Gr. 4), for $35, with 25 arrangements of Christmas carols, selections from Nutcracker Suite and The Messiah, and others.
Ulrich Köbl
Tremendous source of sheet music for brass. The site is in German and in Germany, but it is not to be missed. No fancy graphics, but the content is there: it has a huge selection of all kinds of music for horn (and other brass – e.g. there are over 84 web pages of brass quintet music listings), including items (also CDs, books, and out of print books) that are very hard to find in the USA. Prices are in Euros and are generally fairly steep given the current rate of exchange – use Köbl mostly for items you can’t find in the USA. The site is much easier to use than, say, the Robert King site. Sign his guest book and tell him I sent you…
Spaeth/Schmid Blechbläsernoten
Expensive, but possibly even bigger than Köbl, claiming that it offers 50,000 musical works, books, & recordings for all brass, brass ensemble, and wind band. Example: it lists at least 150 horn CDs for sale, including many European ones difficult to find in the US. Prices in Euros; 15 Euro charge for overseas deliveries, i.e. you.
BVD Press
The BVD Press is a rich source (i.e. online store) of music for horn and for brass (especially brass quintet!). Categories: Quintet, Quartet, Trio, Large Ensemble, Solo, CD.
The Orchestra Musician’s CD-ROM Library
This site is not exactly an online resource resource per se, but you can access information about (e.g. Table of Contents) this amazing series of orchestral parts available for horn (and most other instruments) in 10 (count ‘em, ten!) volumes as PDF files (Adobe Acrobat) on CD-ROM, $19.95 each. A great bargain for a huge collection of orchestra parts that you can print out as you need.
Luck’s Music Library
LML is the “world’s largest distributor of orchestral sheet music.” Catalogs are available in Jazz, Solo & Ensemble, Educational, Orchestra, Pops/Holidays, and are downloadable in pdf form. The editions are reprint editions (Luck’s, Kalmus) as well as critical editions (Bärenreiter, Universal, Schott, and others).
Birdalone Music
Offers an excellent selection & editions of both historical and contemporary works hard to find elsewhere. Also offers books, notably an English translation of the entire Dauprat Method for Cor Alto and Cor Basse (Paris, 1824) - 500 p. long! Beautifully done.
Wiltshire Music Co.
Not a huge selection of horn music, but interesting for items not readily available elsewhere.
John Jay Hilfiger - Composer/arranger/hornist Hilfiger has done an enormous assortment of compositions, transcriptions, and arrangements in various orchestrations for horn (or that include horn). He is also an alumnus of The University of Iowa!
Allegro Music Sales
Has music for all brass and woodwinds + ensembles. Downloadable pdf catalogues. Not bad selection of horn music (all publishers), plus some duets, trios, quartets, etc.
Denis Wick Publishing - for wind band, brass band, brass quintet, solos, tentet, and more. Confusing interface and organization, e.g. solos of all instruments all mixed together in category called "Solos." Yikes. One of the few sources of transcriptions of orchestral masterpieces of the classical era for the 19th c. "Harmonie" wind band instrumentation (2 fl, 2 ob, 3 cl, bcl, 2 bsn, 2 hns, 2 tp, timp, 2 str. bass.)
Amis Musical Circle
Wonderful collection of compositions and arrangements for brass (and more) by Kenneth Amis, tubist with the Empire Brass.
Trevor Wagler
Interesting arrangements and compositions for horn and brass ensembles by a professional Canadian composer and arranger.
J.W. Pepper
Bills itself as the 'world's largest sheet music retailer.' Music in every category, but the interface is kludgy as far as finding horn music is concerned.
Theodore Front Musical Literature - "...easy access to performing and study music editions as well as historical, biographical and theoretical monographs (books)." Pro: a "horn" search turns up 876 pieces. Con: it displays only 10 of them per page. So it's better here to search very specifically for a composer or piece. But T. Front is quite an amazing resources, offering a huge selection of books, sheet music, CDs [8000+], DVD/Videos [1000+], new releases, plus old, out of print books, etc. They also have a "wanted" section - they are looking for certain antiquarian books and sheet music - from you, if you own it and will sell it!
Robert Elkjer is an arranger who offers a variety of (most-jazz based) brass quintet arrangements on his web site.
Boulder Brass Publications has quite a selection of arrangements for brass quintet. Check out their "(More or Less) Complete Wedding Book" for BQ with arrangements of 30 of the most requested wedding music, such as Water Music, Bridal Chorus, Pachelbel Canon, Mouret Rondeau, Ode to Joy, Clarke Trumpet Tune, and more.
Corni World - horn ensemble music specialists. Not a huge selections, but interesting, quality stuff. Music for horn ensemble: 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, or 12 horns, by John Lynsdale-Nock; also some brass ensemble pieces.
IMSLP stands for the International Music Score Library Project. The idea is to be an online repository for musical score that are in the public domain and may be freely downloaded by anyone. For a list of the free public domain compositions for horn available (Mozart, Kopprasch, Dauprat, Beethoven, Schubert, and more), click here
Danish National Digital Sheet Music Archive - digital facsimiles of printed and manuscript music.
Free Scores.com
Links to free sheet music available online for downloading for horn and other instruments.
Musopen
"is an online library of copyright-free music (public domain music)." Not much here for horn players yet (this is a new site) but we suspect that will change.
Musica Viva
Musica Viva is “the internet center for free sheet music downloads and more.” There are lots of arrangements and folk songs, many for “F-instrument and ________” (the blank might be keyboard, guitar, percussion, accordion, harp, banjo, you name it). The music is available in several formats, including PDF, GIF, and MIDI. This site also has a directory that lists other sites offering free sheet music and an encyclopedia of music.
Read the Wikipedia's interesting article on sheet music...
For the fun of it, see also the Historic American Sheet Music collection of Duke University, or the Library of Congress's Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music 1820-1885
Encore Music
Encore Music has a good selection of sheet music for horn and brass ensemble, plus accessories and reference books.
Music for Brass - no horn specific sheet-music, but some interesting brass quintets. Payment is via Paypal; "shipping" is via pdf downloads.
Figaro Tunes
Features the many arrangements for brass (various ensembles) of arranger William Berry; includes a very large assortment of arrangements of holiday music.
Norwegian Brass Sheet Music
Lots of music not available elsewhere; with listings of CD recordings.
Mozart Scores
Downloadable PDF files of scores of the four Mozart Horn Concertos (plus scores of all his symphonies, overtures, concertos for strings and winds, plus serenades and divertimentos. Part of a larger Free Sheet Music site that also has similar collections for Beethoven, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky.
Sheet Music Plus
A search for "French horn" turns up 12,671 items that you must go through page by page (10 per page). The items are many and do contain horn, but the listing include a great gallifmaufry of everything under the sun - solos next to symphony scores next to Disney movie favorites next to chamber music and on and on. If you browse "By Instrument", it has 13 pieces (including one for baritone horn). There is a sidebar with "Favorites" in different categories (finally), and if you follow one of those, say, "Instructional", you will be directed to a list of 317 instructional pieces (etudes, method books, [lots of ] band methods, etc.). There are some inappropriate clinkers as well, such as a reprint of "Neu erfundene und Grundliche Anweisung zu vollkommener Erlernung des General-Basses" - ooops). Clumsy interface, but quantity there is. Good luck.
IBEW - The Internet Bandsman's Everything Within - a phenomenal set of brass links on the web site of The Harrogate Band, a British brass band: books, journals, bibilographies, publishers (including sellers of sheet music), services & supplies, music software, sounds & sampling, recordings, recording companies, vintage and secondhand recordings, brass on radio & TV, videos & DVD, recording studios, musical reference, music technique, music education, theory, general music reference. An incredible collection of links, but there are a number of dead links, making you wonder if they collapsed from exhaustion after setting it all up and haven't been back...
Eric Ewazen - order direct from the composer.
International Opus offers an unusual assortment of woodwind quintets, with categories including African, Arabic, Asian, Australian, Classical, Latin-American, Operatic transcriptions, and more.
Musician's Supply Shop - boasts of being "the largest print music store in Los Angeles," but gives only sketchy info online about current offerings. However, it has some potentially interesting sources for the curious, including fake books and books on various types of ethnic music.
Boulder Early Music Shop
Okay, so this is not a horn music site per se. But it has so much interesting music + books that it should be checked out. With only a modicum of imagination and/or industry, one could transform all this early music for recorder, vocals, chamber music and more into music for horn(s). Very interesting selection of books on many subjects as well.
Pizka Edition
Includes the former KaWe Editions.