Free School Music
Free music for school choirs, bands, and orchestras.
A library of public-domain works and original commissions for school ensembles — free to read, rehearse, print, and perform, with no royalty and no per-performance fee. The funding comes from ticket sales, not from the school: when a show is ticketed through the School Box Office network, we keep a small share. If the show is not ticketed, it costs nothing. The library is being built out now; the same model backs Free School Plays, which is live today with real scripts.
What you get
Free to the school, funded by the audience
Free to perform
Every work is free to read, rehearse, print, and perform — no royalty, no per-performance fee. When a show is ticketed, tickets are sold through the School Box Office network and we keep a small share, which keeps the scores free. Keep the composer and Free School Music credit on your program.
The full score, on the page
Each work carries the conductor score and the individual parts your ensemble needs. Print exactly what you require straight from your browser — no login, no download gate, no copy limit. A director can read the full score and decide in four minutes.
Rights-clear by construction
Public-domain works are engraved as our own editions of the original score, so there is no murky edition provenance and no "is this arrangement licensed?" doubt. We host compositions, never recordings. Originals are commissioned works we hold the rights to.
Stated honestly
What is built, and what is being built
The School Box Office ticketing infrastructure — gate-scanning, reserved seating, concessions, shared ticketing for multiple organizations — is built: the same infrastructure the Free School Plays model uses today. The score catalog, the score-browsing surface, and the parts-printing feature are in build: we are engraving the library one repertoire pack at a time and we do not publish placeholder entries. The catalog opens, work by work, as each edition is ready.
From the library
Works to start with
Morning Mood
Classroom · easy to medium (grades 3-6) · 1 min · single-line instrumental melody (treble, any C instrument); no lyrics
The opening theme of Grieg's 'Peer Gynt' Suite No. 1, Op. 46 (1875) -- the famous flute 'Morning Mood' melody, its octave-lower oboe answer, and the rising sequence to the high-C climax -- engraved as our own edition in C major, 6/8 (transposed down a major third from Grieg's E major to center the classroom range). Instrumental, no lyrics.
Open the score →Waltz of the Flowers (theme)
Solo and piano · easy to medium (grades 1-3) · 1 min · two-staff keyboard: melody (treble, any C instrument or recorder) + oom-pah-pah waltz bass
The cantabile horn theme of Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers (Nutcracker, 1892), engraved as a clean two-staff keyboard edition in D major: the singing melody over an oom-pah-pah waltz bass. Instrumental, no lyrics set.
Open the score →The Irish Washerwoman
Solo and piano · easy to medium (grades 1-3) · 1 min · two-staff piano/keyboard: treble melody + simple bass (playable as melody instrument + bass, or piano)
'The Irish Washerwoman' -- the classic Irish traditional jig in G major, 6/8, engraved as a two-staff classroom edition. Instrumental, no lyrics.
Open the score →The Easy Winners
Solo and piano · medium (grade 3, intermediate) · 1 min · piano / 2-staff (treble melody + stride bass); playable as melody instrument + bass
'The Easy Winners' (Scott Joplin, 1901) -- the bright A strain of Joplin's ragtime two-step, engraved as a two-staff classroom edition in C major. Instrumental, no lyrics.
Open the score →Solace (A Mexican Serenade) -- main theme
Solo and piano · medium (grade 3, intermediate) · 1 min · two staves -- melody (treble, any C instrument or piano right hand) + habanera bass (piano left hand or bass instrument)
'Solace (A Mexican Serenade)' -- the main theme of Scott Joplin's 1909 habanera-flavored rag, engraved as a two-staff classroom edition in C major. Instrumental, no lyrics.
Open the score →The Washington Post
Solo and piano · medium (grade 3, intermediate) · 1 min · 2-staff piano (or melody instrument + bass instrument): treble melody plus a plain root-motion march bass
'The Washington Post' (Sousa, 1889) -- the main strain of Sousa's celebrated march, engraved as a two-staff classroom edition in G major, 6/8. Instrumental, no lyrics.
Open the score →Connected to freeschoolplays.com
Free School Plays is live today. Free School Music follows the same model.
Free School Plays is the sibling site for school theatre: a live library of scripts, free to read, print, and perform, funded by ticket sales through the same School Box Office network. Directors read the whole script on the page, print copies for their cast, and put it on. Free School Music follows the same model for ensembles — the ticketing infrastructure and the funding structure are built; the catalog is what is being engraved.
Data & privacy
This site collects no student data.
Free School Music is a score library. There are no student accounts, no student profiles, and no minor-photo features — the site does not collect, store, or process any student personal data. The School Box Office network, when used to ticket a performance, operates under strict data standards: no behavioral tracking and no third-party data sharing.