MCP Imslp

mcp-imslp

IMSLP, the International Music Score Library Project, is also called the Petrucci Music Library. It is a free library of classical music run by volunteers, holding the sheet music, the parts, the arrangements and the recordings of works whose copyright has lapsed, together with what its pages say about each composer. It reviews the copyright of every score for Canada, the United States and the European Union separately, and publishes its pages under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This server connects a chat client to that library. You can search the works and the people it catalogues, read a work with its opus number, its key, its instrumentation and the year it was written, page through the editions a work holds with their publishers, editors and copyright terms, read what the library says about a composer, and browse a genre, a key or an instrumentation. It reads the library and links to it, and it needs no API key and no account.

_Version française_

Install

One-click install

Claude Code

claude mcp add imslp -- npx -y mcp-imslp

Claude Desktop, Cursor, and any client using the standard config format

{

"mcpServers": { "imslp": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "mcp-imslp"] } } }

Node 24 or later is required, and no environment variable has to be set.

With Docker

{

"mcpServers": { "imslp": { "command": "docker", "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "ghcr.io/smeet666/mcp-imslp:1.1.0"] } } }

-i keeps stdin open, which is where the protocol travels, and -t is left out because a TTY rewrites the stream. The container needs outbound HTTPS to imslp.org, and nothing else: no volume, no port, no credential.

Bundle, without npm

Download mcp-imslp-1.1.0.mcpb from the latest release and open it. A client that supports MCP bundles installs it on its own, with no npm and no configuration file to edit. The bundle carries its dependencies, so nothing is fetched at install time.

What you can ask

• "What does IMSLP hold of Chopin's nocturnes?"
• "Read me the page of Erik Satie and tell me when he lived."
• "List the editions of Debussy's Clair de lune, with who published each one."
• "Is the Henle edition of that piece free to use in the United States?"
• "Show me works for solo cello in the library."

The ordinary path runs from a search to a work: search_works names the page of a work, and get_work reads that page. The same holds for a person, from search_people to get_person or list_person_works.

Tools

A work is addressed by the title of its page, written Work (Composer), as in Nocturnes, Op.9 (Chopin, Frédéric). A person is addressed by a category, written Category:Surname, Forename. Both come back from a search, and the Category: prefix may be left out.

The library titles a work in the language its composer used, so Die Zauberflöte finds the opera where The Magic Flute finds the pages written about it. A thin answer for a famous work is a sign the title is in another language.

search_works

Searches the pages of the works for words appearing anywhere on them, so a title, a composer or a dedication all find the works carrying them.

In return: rows carrying page, which get_work takes; work and composer, read off that title; page_url; snippet, the words around the match; size_bytes, words and last_edited as the library states them. The envelope carries returned, has_more and next_offset, which is the offset to read on from. total is always null: the library publishes no count of what a search matched. composer is null on a title written outside the Work (Composer) form, and snippet is null on a row the search summarised with nothing.

search_people

Finds the composers, editors, arrangers and performers by name. The library writes a name its own way, surname first, so searching finds a person where guessing at the spelling reaches nothing.

In return: rows carrying category, which get_person and list_person_works take; name without the prefix; page_url; snippet; and redirect_to. A row with a redirect_to stands for another category and holds no works of its own, so follow the category it names. The envelope is the one search_works returns, and total is null here for the same reason.

get_work

Reads one work: its title and alternative titles, the composer, the opus and catalogue numbers, the year of composition and of first publication, the dedication, the key, the language, the librettist, the instrumentation, the movements, the first performance, the style and the period.

In return: every facet above, each null when the page leaves it empty, and each in the wording the page used, so ca.1830 stays ca.1830. Beside them come genre_categories, which browse_category takes; external_links and authorities, the records of the work at VIAF, LCCN, WorldCat, BNF and GND; sections, with the number of entries the site counts in each; and copyright_summary, one entry per distinct statement, with the number of editions carrying it. editions holds every edition with its files, and turns null with editions_truncated true when the work holds more than five, which list_work_files then pages through. redirected_from names the title asked for when it led here, and pageid is null for a work addressed by title.

list_work_files

Reads the scores and the recordings of a work, edition by edition. An edition is a set of files published under one set of terms: the publisher, the editor and the copyright statement belong to the edition, and the files sit under it. A block of recordings carries performers and no copyright statement.

In return: editions, each with its section, publisher_info, editor, copyright and files. A file carries imslp_id, description, `fo