Seaching for sheet music and a shutdown

Late yesterday I decided to stroll back onto the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) website after not dropping by for about a week and a half. I wanted to once again check out the latest uploads to see if there was anything that I might like.

As it usually takes a while for the main page to be fully downloaded and displayed on my browser, I read some other webpage on another browser tab in the meantime. When I returned to the tab where I had the IMSLP page loaded, I was momentarily surprised to find not the usual wiki-looking main page but just some plain text displayed on the screen. At first I thought that I had typed in the wrong URL. But no. There it was on the address bar, http://imslp.org.

Finally after recovering sufficiently from my initial confusion to read what was on the screen, I was shocked to realize that the website was no longer there. It turns out that the website's project leader had received legal threats from a classical music publishing firm regarding some uploaded material that was in public domain in Canada (where the IMSLP server is located) but protected by copyright terms in certain countries. In order to avoid the expenses of dealing with the issue, the project leader decided to simply shut down the site.

I tell you I was downcast after that discovery.

I love playing the piano and always look forward to the challenge of learning something new to add to my so-called repertoire even if it takes a long time since I rarely have the time to practice nowadays. (I reckon that if I got to practice daily, I'd be able to learn a new piece every one or two weeks, depending on the difficulty of the piece. But as I actually get to snatch about three hours of practice every two months--more or less, depending on how hectic things are at work--that rate is down to about one new piano piece a year.)

So it became a habit of mine to stock up on music pieces that I wanted to learn sooner or later. I naturally began looking for music books and sheet music in bookstores here but was only met with disappointment when I found that bookstores here generally don't stock up on classical music books or sheet music. Music stores that had shelves of classical music books were rare as well. I'd come across a store that labels itself a music store only to find musical instruments (mainly guitars and electronic keyboards) and pop sheet music. Classical music here seems be an extinct commodity.

Of course, it is an entirely different story abroad where there are many good music stores stocked with good classical music. I would come across one and upon entering, I'd feel like a kid let loose in a candy store with a blank cheque. But then, I can't afford to travel often and I can't stay forever in one country when I'm a resident in another.

This lack of a local reliable source of classical sheet music is the main reason why searching for new music on the web had been an on-and-off obsession in the past few years--especially after locating a few good websites with sheet music still in public domain.

And IMSLP happened to be one of those websites for the past several months.

Sigh. This feels like Sam the Record Man store closing shop all over again.