A Note on Song Sheet Sizes

Before around 1920, most song sheets were published in large size. These sheets vary slightly in size but are approximately 10.5 to 10.75 inches (wide) by 13.5 to 14.0 inches (high). Along with the sale of pianos during the nineteenth century came the sale of piano stools and music cabinets to hold sheet music. With the later production of piano benches, large sheet music was trimmed to fit. In addition, due to efforts to preserve paper during WWI, the U. S. government asked music publishers to shrink the size of their paper and to reduce the number of pages. Thus, song sheets produced from about 1918 and after measure 9 x12 inches; these are referred to as standard size, and are identified by the abbreviation ST. Some publishers went farther and produced much smaller sheets of approximately 5” in width and 9” in height. These are referred to as war size and abbreviated WS. Since the late 1950s, song sheets have been slightly reduced from standard size to 8.5 x 11 inches. We have characterized these as contemporary size (CS).