I have multiple out of copyright ebooks  in my collection from the Harvard School of Music.  Now you may be asking why is any of this is useful.  Well, think of it this way. Music is one of the few subjects in which the teaching methods have not changed much in the last 100 years.  Orchestration and Composition have made the most advancements with additional instruments being added to the modern orchestra, and orchestration techniques being augmented by digital media composition (midi, etc).  However the underlying principles of musical tonality, harmonic analysis, timbre, good counterpoint and musician technique are still very much the same. So a book on musical composition from say 1907 is actually quite useful if you can stomach the funny dialect that was often used back then. The same rule applies to sheet music.

But don’t take my word for it. Go check it out yourself be sure to check out the music books from the Harvard Library, and if anyone asks you , you can tell them that you got your musical education from Harvard.  :-)

P.S.

I was obviously joking about that last part.

~

Donnie