Hey,
Due to popular demand I’ve decided to make this public. It’s my list of music-works that are essentially free to use (commercially and non-commercially), by virtue of either being a folk-song (and thus belonging to “the folk”), or because they are so old they precede copyright and are generally accepted as public domain. This can help save you a lot of time when scouting for music to use in your film/game/podcast/etc.
I have compiled this over several years, and add interesting titles whenever I stumble upon them. Since I picked these from all kinds of different places there are no unified sources.
Some notes:
- While a certain title might be public domain, most modern recordings are NOT. Kilgary Mountain is free to use, Metallica’s cover Whiskey In The Jar is not.
- Due to this I advise just creating an own version. It is possible to create something reasonable with simple audio-software (i.e. Guitar Pro) and some sheet-music.
- I take no ultimate liability for this information. It is supposed to point you in the right direction. While I am fairly sure of the availabitly of these songs, I implore you to check for yourself. In which case you might very well end up saving a huge amount of time and/or money anyway.
- This list is by far not final. In fact there are tons of more pieces, these are the more “popular” ones. Go dig through some Chopin-CDs for the truly underused (und underrated) stuff.
- There are few games with a primarly classical soundtrack (Flotilla, Unstoppaball DX). Other games often add these in a few places. In Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, for example, a “high class”-character has some Beethoven running in his room.
Folk-Songs
- Auld Lang Syne
- Dixie
- Greensleeves
- Korobeiniki (Tetris-theme)
- Levan Polkka
- Oh Danny Boy
- Scarborough Fair
- Whiskey in the Jar
Classical Songs
- Bach – “Little” Fugue (G minor, BWV 578)
- Bach – Brandenberg Concerto No. 3 – Allegro(1721)
- Bach – Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
- Bach – Concerto No. 4 in A
- Bach – Concerto No. 5
- Bach – Fantasy and Fugue
- Bach – Partita No 1. – Gigue
- Bach – Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
- Beethoven – Egmont Overture
- Beethoven – Für Elise
- Beethoven – Piano Sonata No. 14, “Moonlight Sonata”, First Movement: Adagio sostenuto *
- Beethoven – Sonata No. 14 “Moonlight”, 1st Movement.
- Beethoven – Sonata No. 14, 3rd Movement.
- Beethoven – Sonata No. 23 “Appassionata”, 1st Movement.
- Beethoven – Symphony No. 1, Finale
- Beethoven – Symphony no. 5 in C Minor: Allegro
- Beethoven – Symphony No. 5 in C Minor: Allegro con brio
- Beethoven – Symphony No. 5, 1st Movement.
- Beethoven – Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral”, 1st Movement.
- Beethoven – Symphony No. 9, 4th Movement.
- Beethoven – Symphony No. 7, 4th Movement: Allegro Con Brio
- Bizet – Les Toreadors
- Bizet – Habanera
- Boccherini – Minuet
- Brahms – Hungarian Dances No. 5
- Chopin – Ballade No. 1
- Chopin – Concerto No. 2, 1st Movement.
- Chopin – Concerto No. 2, 3rd Movement.
- Chopin – Etude No. 11
- Chopin – Etude No. 3
- Chopin – Impromptu
- Chopin – Prelude No. 15
- Chopin – Prelude No. 17
- Chopin – Prelude No. 3
- Chopin – Waltz No. 6
- Chopin’s ‘Funeral March
- Delibes – “Flower Duet” from Lakme
- Dvorák – Humoresque Op. 101 No.7
- Dvorak – New World Symphonie
- Dvorák: Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”
- Grieg – Hall of the mountain king
- Grieg – Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 – “In the Hall of the Mountain King”
- Grieg – Peer Gynt Suites Suite No. 1 – “Anitra’s Dance”
- Handel – “Hallelujah” from Messiah
- Handel – Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba
- Handel – Music for the Royal Fireworks
- Handel – Water Music (Handel) Suite No. 1 in F Major
- Handel – Water Music Suite No. 1 in F Major (Overture)
Khachaturian – Sabre Dance- Léo Delibes – Coppélia Ballet Suite, Act 1, No. 1
- Liszt – Funerailles
- Liszt – Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
- Liszt – Liebestraum No. 3 in A Flat Major
- Mendelssohn – Spring Song
- Mendelssohn – Violin Concerto, 3rd Movement.
- Mily Balakirev’s ‘Song of the Volga Boatmen’
- Mozart – Concerto No. 21 2nd Movement.
- Mozart – Der Holle Rache
- Mozart – Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (1787)[2]
- Mozart – Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 2nd Movement.
- Mozart – Haffner Serenade No. 7 in D Major
- Mozart – Marriage of Figaro – Overture
- Mozart – Serenade No. 13 in G major, IV Rondo – Allegro
- Mozart – String Quartet in G Major – 2nd Movement
- Mozart – Symphony No. 40 – 1st Movement
- Mozart – Turkish March
- Mozart – Lacrimosa
- Mussorgsky – Night On Bald Mountain
- Offenbach – Gaiete Parisienne – Can Can
- Pachelbel – Canon In D
- Paganini – 24 Caprices
- Rachmaninov – Piano Concerto n.2, I. Moderato (part1)
- Rossini – Barber of Seville Overture
- Rossini – Call to the Cows (William Tell Overture) (1829)
- Rossini – La Gazza Ladra
- Rossini – Largo al Fatotum
- Rossini – Overture from The Barber of Seville
- Rossini – The Thieving Magpie
- Rossini – Wilhelm Tell Overture
- Saint-Saëns – Danse Macabre
- Saint-Saëns – Aquarium
- Schubert – Ave Maria
- Scott Joplin – Maple Leaf Rag
- Scott Joplin – The Entertainer
- Sousa – Stars and Stripes Forever (1897)
- Strauss – Die Fledermaus Overture
- Strauss – Leichtes Blut Fast
- Strauss – The Blue Danube Waltz
- Strauss – Tritsch Tristsch
- Strauss – Thus Spoke Zarathustra
- Tallis – Fantasia on a Theme
- Tchaikovsky – “Dance of the Reed-Flutes” from The Nutcracker
- Tchaikovsky – “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from The Nutcracker
- Tchaikovsky – 1812 Overture
- Tchaikovsky – Nutcracker Suite
- Tchaikovsky – The Sleeping Beauty Waltz
- Tchaikovsky – Violin Concerto, 1st Movement.
- Tchaikovsky – Violin Concerto, 3rd Movement.
- The Blue Danube
- The Charleston
- Verdi – La Traviata
- Verdi – Rigoletto
- Vivaldi – The Four Seasons No. 1
- Vivaldi – The Four Seasons No. 2
- Vivaldi – The Four Seasons No. 4
- Wagner – Lohengrin Overture
- Wagner – Ride of the Valkyries
- Wagner – Rienzi Overture
- Wagner – Tannhaesuer Overture
- Wagner – Twilight of the Gods
- Waldteufel – Skater’s Waltz
Last updated on August 2nd 2012
Matthias Zarzecki 