User:Free Library of Philadelphia

Welcome! This is the official user page for the Music Department at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

The Free Library Music Department is a free, conservatory-quality music library and community space which has been carved out for Philadelphia's professional musicians, students, hobbyists, and music lovers. Our department lends a wide variety of print resources, including books, scores, and periodicals, and curates unique collections including our CD and Vinyl Record Collections, our circulating Musical Instrument Collection, and our Chamber Music Collection (see below).

If you are interested in learning more about our programs and resources, explore our Linktree, or contact us directly at music@freelibrary.org.

Chamber Music Collection (CMC)

Numbering nearly 30,000 works, our Chamber Music Collection (CMC) is one of the largest circulating collections of chamber music performance parts on the east coast of the United States. Representing all periods and styles of western classical music from Renaissance to Contemporary, the CMC includes works for up to ten musicians in a wide variety of instrumentations, including solo instruments and vocal accompaniment.

Works in the CMC are available to borrow for any amateur, student, or professional musician, with or without a library card. Since 1934, musicians from all over the United States—and the world—have borrowed music from the CMC. To learn more or to borrow a work, please contact us directly at chambermusic@freelibrary.org.

CMC on IMSLP

The Music Department is excited to begin making its chamber music holdings available to the public through IMSLP. Editions which are in poor physical condition and which are not already available on IMSLP have been prioritized for scanning by Free Library staff. If there is a specific edition in the CMC which is public domain and you would like to see prioritized, please contact us with your request at chambermusic@freelibrary.org. Most CMC holdings are searchable on the Free Library of Philadelphia catalog. For the best results, run an advanced search with "MCH" in the CALL NUMBER field and the composer name in the AUTHOR field.

See the following table for a list of editions in the CMC which are also available on IMSLP. This list includes editions which have been scanned and uploaded by Free Library staff, as well as editions in our holdings which have already been scanned or uploaded by other users. NOTE: This list is a work in progress and is being continually updated by Free Library staff. If you have a question about a specific edition in the CMC which is absent from this list, please contact us at chambermusic@freelibrary.org.

Table of Holdings

Last updated May 27, 2026