Where Can I Find Classical Lyrics/liedtext/libretto?

Seriously, I can't seem to find any at all.

I am pretty sure the vast majority of what I've looked for is all in the public domain (but I can't even find information of whether or not they are).

The closest I can get is finding a $100+ book. Sorry but, I'm not paying $100+ for the lyrics to ONE song that's 2-5 minutes long.

I just, don't get it at all. Like, where do all the "pro's" get them?

from the sheet music of the particular song... most likely... But, we have those books in our music library at IU. So... we don't have to worry about paying the 100 dollars.

Yeah but I mean, all I want is the lyrics, not the actual music.

For example, I am trying to learn (just the vocal part) Mussorgsky's "Song of the Flea" as sung by Vladimir Miller.

I have all the correct notes down, but I have no idea what on earth I'm supposed to be saying because I don't speak Russian...

Vladimir Miller singing Modest Mussorgsky - "Song of the Flea"

Text and Lyrics that are designed specifically for setting to music is hard to find.

Poems that are in the public domain are not, which are usually what composers used and use today. Just google public domain poems and you will find site dedicated to just free use poems. Be sure to double check to make sure they are for use in the public domain. Many sites have poems that are still under copyright but labeled as public domain poems.

Most, if not all poems written prior to the 1920s are in the public domain.

So they just... don't ever provide lyrics for classical bits?

So then how do people like Christopher Lee make an entire album of singing just 5 minute classical bits from various things? They pay hundreds of dollars per song to get the score for the entire thing they're getting the song from? I mean yeah, he's famous... but not for singing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iETKgc7e0Zk&list=PL2D3C063FFFBAE2C2

Christopher Lee performing classical bits.

Is this it:

http://imslp.org/wiki/Mephistopheles%27_Song_of_the_Flea_%28Mussorgsky,_Modest%29

?

Is this it:

http://imslp.org/wiki/Mephistopheles%27_Song_of_the_Flea_%28Mussorgsky,_Modest%29

?

Thanks, I already tried there though and the pdf of the score, the music part that I don't need is readable, but the words/text I do need is nowhere near legible.

Thanks, I already tried there though and the pdf of the score, the music part that I don't need is readable, but the words/text I do need is nowhere near legible.

I see.

I didn't look at the whole thing to see that parts aren't legible.

Good luck while you continue your search! ;)

So they just... don't ever provide lyrics for classical bits?

So then how do people like Christopher Lee make an entire album of singing just 5 minute classical bits from various things? They pay hundreds of dollars per song to get the score for the entire thing they're getting the song from? I mean yeah, he's famous... but not for singing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iETKgc7e0Zk&list=PL2D3C063FFFBAE2C2

Christopher Lee performing classical bits.

It depends on what you are doing. Classical Concert composers usually source their text from poetry. Examples of this would be Brahms' Neue Liebesliederwalzer in which he sourced the text from a series of poems by Georg Friedrich Daumer. Even that Mussorgsky piece you posted earlier here gets its text from text from scene five of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's verse play Faust, Part One.

more information about that piece and the translation can be found here:

http://www.conservapedia.com/Mussorgsky

The music in that youtube link sound more like musical theater in which the text would have been written specifically for that piece. people like Edward Kleban and Stephen Sondheim, who was also a composer, typically wrote the lyrics to songs specifically for a piece.

WAS??? Sondheim is still writing, good sir!