Navigating IMSLP
  • LarsLars
    Posts: 116
    Can somebody help me understand how to properly navigate IMSLP. Its great for when you more or less know what you’re looking for, ie search Bach organ works etc..

    but I would like to randomly browse lets say Italian Renaissance or French Baroque organ music.
    so I go to IMSLP home page, click time periods, Renaissance, now theres all these composers from the that era, how do I narrow it down to just organ music from specific country. ?
    Thanked by 2CharlesW PhilipPowell
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,933
    I would like to know what the deal is with Adobe. I used it for years to print pdf copies and it doesn't seem to work these days. Anyone else encounter this or is it evil Windows planning all our demises?
    Thanked by 1Lars
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,721
    to the OP: if you just search "renaissance" anything that either has that in the title or the metadata will pop up. Admittedly, it is a real chore to search through ISMLP, but I've yet to find a better way than the native built-in function.

    To charles, you're not crazy. I've stumbled across a number of PDFs recently that allowed me to see them on screen just fine, but if I tried to print them, they came out entirely black. There appears to be some sort of DRM thing going on... although I suspect this is actually an issue on the uploader's end, not IMSLP. They present you the disclaimer about copyright and you do with that what you will... but they don't seem to be in the business of actively censoring things. The best I can suggest is trying another viewer, or sometimes you can "print to PDF" or re-save under another file name and get around it. Just depends on the file, in my experience.
    Thanked by 2Lars CharlesW
  • LarsLars
    Posts: 116
    thanks @ServiamScores, but I would really like to be more specific, I'd like to narrow it down to:
    renaissance-italian-organ works.
    or
    baroque-french-organ works. etc...
    wondering if someone has figured how to do that, if its possible at all...

    in regards to pdfs, try Brave Browser(best web browser currently), you can view online or open saved pdfs and print them directly there.
  • MarkB
    Posts: 1,025
    I don't know if this will help solve the unprintable pdf problem: when I have encountered pdfs that are locked to prevent printing, I have used the tool at the website below to unlock them, and then I can print them.
    https://smallpdf.com/unlock-pdf/
  • CatherineS
    Posts: 690
    There is a way to sort the results of categories by instrument, genre, voice, and other details. It's called the 'category walker'. But I don't remember where exactly one finds this tool.
    Thanked by 1CCooze
  • Andrew_Malton
    Posts: 1,156
    @CharlesW,

    We all stopped using Adobe for pdf reading this year, because they finally made it too dependent on their business model, not to mention just being an awful app.

    My team switched to Sumatra on Windows, and it’s just fine, and Firefox Reader on Linux. On Android I switched to Xodo and I’m perfectly happy with it.

    I don't think there’s any actual Adobe software left in my working or personal environments, and I hardly notice any more.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Adobe became very greedy and may have been that way for quite a while. I unfortunately have to keep using the cloud, in design, illustrator, Photoshop, as these are the tools of the trade for creating the highest level of marketing and print publications.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,933
    Yeah, I still have to use Adobe, too. I work part-time and Adobe is what the agency has. Still don't understand why I can't download pdf files on IMSLP.
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,464
    It is very confusing to navigate ISMLP. the best way - if you are looking for organ music - type in "Organ" then you in some way i think be able to choose period.,
  • JonathanLCJonathanLC
    Posts: 74
    For PDFs I prefer Foxit. Adobe has never been my favourite. usually very heavy on resources and difficult to work with, but these are merely my feelings on the subject.

    IMSLP is quite powerful. The page has changed quite a bit since I last used it. A lot cleaner and easier to navigate.

    Perhaps someone who knows the ins and outs of IMSLP could do a video recording on how to use the search features?

    The easiest is to go to the home page, then:
    1. Hover over "Scores", click "Instrumentation/Genre"
    2. Click "Instrumentation"
    3. Click "Show" on the "Keyboard" bar
    4. Click "Organ"
    5. Click "Sort this list by..." near the top
    6. Scroll down to "Periods"
    7. Pick your poison - though one might want to suggest breaking these categories down a bit more. Not sure who to message regarding that kind of alteration to the site.
    Thanked by 3GerardH PhilipPowell Jeffrey Quick
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,045
    It takes some practice to use the category crawler effectively, but once mastered, it works pretty well. There's the occasional poor coding; searches for "Masses" get you not only individual movements, but also Proper settings.

    As for pdfs, some years ago Adobe broke their then-licensed version (which I'd gotten via work) and replaced it with a subscription-model thing, which stopped working when I retired. I tried several free or trial pdf tools. I use Acrobat to clean up scans, and nothing else had the functionality I was looking for. So I broke down and bought a perpetual license for it.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
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