When you know how to choose, filter, and search for music that is open-licensed and/or in the public domain, you'll quickly find the piece or composition you want to listen to, print, or download to your computer from MUSOPEN, a site dedicated to classical music.
Steps
Selection criteria and filtering methods in practice
Visit MUSOPEN's homepage. Head to MUSOPEN's homepage at https://musopen.org/
Musical Artist
Musical Instrument
Musical Era
Structure
Principles of selection, filtering, and searching
Practical example of selection and filtering on MUSOPEN
Observations from the analysis above. From the analysis above, it can be seen that only when starting with the selection of a performer from the Performer criteria, filtering can take place based on the theoretical principles, applied to all four remaining criteria. This is the most comprehensive and typical case, and therefore, it will be used as an example here, based on real data from MUSOPEN. Other cases are similar and will not be discussed here.
Borromeo String QuartetBorromeo String Quartet Music Recordings
Start filtering the tracks in the list of Borromeo String Quartet music.Borromeo String Quartet19FilterFormsHistorical PeriodsMusical InstrumentsFamous ComposersString QuartetMusical Forms1916
Romantic EraMusical Eras169
String QuartetMusical Instruments98
Ludwig van BeethovenFamous Composers83
Searching combined with selection and filtering
The search tool on MUSOPEN.
Displaying Search Results. Upon performing a search, the results are typically displayed in a table format, listing various musical compositions or pieces. This table consists of 6 columns: (1) Title - The name of the composition; (2) Composer - The composer of the piece; (3) Form - The musical form or style; (4) Instrument - The instrument used; (5) Period - The historical musical period; (6) Ratings - The rating of the piece, where 5 stars is the highest rating.
Initiating the Search and Viewing Results. For instance, if you are searching for etude pieces by composer Sergei Rakhmaninoff, you would type the word etude into the search bar and press Enter.

Returned Results. You will receive a list of 33 musical compositions, displayed in a table with 6 columns as previously mentioned. The results are divided across 2 pages: the first page displays 20 pieces, while the second page shows 13 additional pieces. The illustration shows the first page of the results. If you click the next link located at the bottom right, you will be taken to the second page, where the remaining 13 pieces matching your search will be displayed.
Keyboard instrumentMusical apparatusNumber sixThe number fiveShapesExercise pieceDocumentsStudy
ResearchKeyboardFive
Sergey RachmaninoffMusical ComposersThe Number FiveThe Number Two
Sergey RachmaninoffMusical Scores
Études Tableaux, Op. 33
Etudes Tableaux, Op. 39
Review the license and save the music tracks to your computer
License Verification.Études Tableaux, Op. 33
- Section VI is under the CC BY-NC license. With this license, you are free to do anything, as long as:
- You acknowledge the performing artist, Natsumi Kataoka, in any material that references your use of Section VI.
- You do not use the performance for commercial purposes.
- You provide a link to the CC BY-NC license, as seen here.
- Section VII is under the CC BY-NC-ND license. With this license, you are required to:
- Acknowledge the performing artist, Peter Bradley-Fulgoni, in any material that references your use of Section VII.
- You must not use the performance for commercial purposes.
- You are not allowed to adapt, modify, or create derivative works based on the original. The original must remain unchanged.
- Section VIII is under the CC BY-ND license. With this license, you must:
- Acknowledge the performing artist, Den Pisarevsky, in any material that references your use of Section VIII.
- You are not allowed to adapt, modify, or create derivative works based on the original. The original must remain unchanged.
- However, you are free to use it, including for commercial purposes.

- The CC BY-NC license applies to parts I-Zhang, III, VIII, and I-Natsumi. With this license, you are free to do anything, as long as:
- You acknowledge the performing artist in any material that references your use of these parts, specifically:
- Acknowledge the artist Shuwen Zhang in materials referencing parts I-Zhang, III, and VIII.
- Acknowledge the artist Natsumi Kataoka in materials referencing part I-Natsumi.
- You must not use the performance for commercial purposes.
- You must provide a link to the CC BY-NC license, as shown here.
- You acknowledge the performing artist in any material that references your use of these parts, specifically:
- The CC BY-NC-ND license applies to part IX. With this license, you must:
- Acknowledge the performing artist, Gleb Ivanov, in any material that references your use of part IX.
- You must not use the performance for commercial purposes.
- You are not allowed to adapt, modify, or create derivative works based on the original. The original must remain unchanged.
- You must provide a link to the CC BY-NC-ND license, as shown here.
- Part V is marked with the Public Domain symbol (Public Domain Mark). You are free to use it.

Advice
- If you, your child, or someone close to you is studying at a music school or conservatory with a focus on classical music, this page is likely a great resource for you.
- Check out the article: Link to licensed open access content on Mytour.vn.
