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About HASM On this Page: What is Sheet Music? About the Collection at Duke Background of Music Publishing Dating Sheet Music Preservation Technical Information What is Sheet Music? The only definition of sheet music that can be applied with certainty is to define it purely by physical format. Some have suggested that sheet music applies only to "popular" music, but a close look at these publications over the course of history shows that the musical content of these publications is as varied as the history of music itself. Especially in the mid-nineteenth century a publisher may have issued sacred and secular songs, Lieder, opera excerpts, potpourris, waltzes, marches and descriptive etudes side-by-side. Only the physical format remains constant. The difficulty occurs with the definition of "popular." What is "popular" to one group may be "classical" to another. Musical taste is, like art and fashion, subject to extreme changes and subtle nuances. On this basis then, sheet music is best described as single sheets printed on one or both sides, folios (one sheet folded in half to form four pages), folios with a loose half-sheet inserted to yield six pages, double-folios (an inner folio inserted within the fold of an outer folio to make eight pages) and double-folios with a loose half-sheet inserted within the fold of an inner folio to produce ten pages. For more information about the physical description of sheet music, please consult the Music Library Association Sheet Music web site.