Dorico files of 'existing' classical music

Dorico
1

Is there (yet?) a location, depository or other collection of files already in Dorico format - as opposed to MIDI and MusicXML - of, say, Baroque instrumental music (but not limited to that area) which I could use in my study thereof, please?

I am aware of these links and threads:

  • @benwiggy’s and @JeroenH’s thread including Bach’s 2-part Inventions
  • Benwiggy’s project files thread between September 2025 and May this year leading to Ancient Groove Music); but is there documentation (there), please, on how to load those files into Dorico?
  • @dan_kreider’s thread begun in 2022 and nothing since February 2025, and the links therein.

Many thanks in advance; my apologies if I’ve missed something (obvious).

2

It looks like the files there are all zip files. Download and unzip the .dorico file inside.

3

Thanks, Aaron. I thought they would be. Maybe I’m doing something wrong:

contents of zip
contents of zip436×650 54.7 KB

4

Oh, that’s interesting. On my phone, the files download as zip files, but on my Windows laptop, they just download as regular .dorico files.

If you’re getting a zip file, try just renaming it to something with a .dorico extension and opening it directly. I don’t have a Mac, so I can’t test it.

(A Dorico file is just a zip file with a different extension. The file tree you’re showing is what you get when you “unzip” a Dorico file.)

5

no problems on Mac too

6

Thanks, @TonH and @asherber!

Maybe the way the links have been coded in the HTML. Or it could be a security feature of macOS 26.5.2, or my settings for it.

But - Yes, thanks - some renaming of the downloads gets them both to work perfectly. Appreciated!

7

At one time, early on, we had to change Dorico files to zip files to post them here, but that was a long time ago.

8

Thanks, Derrek. Maybe the coding on the site in question has them posted that way?

I also learnt something about Dorico files. All good :slight_smile:

9

A little further research indicates that the root issue is that @benwiggy’s server is lacking a MIME type specification for Dorico files. (Probably should be application/x-dorico)

In the absence of that, Windows is happy to download it as a Dorico file, based on the filename; iOS and MacOS may decide to download it as a zip file, depending on certain browser settings.

10

Thanks. Yes. Makes sense. Your help, as always, greatly appreciated!

11

The files are just “plain” .dorico files. However, Dorico files are themselves a zipped up collection of objects. It looks like your computer is unzipping the contents.

Curious. The files download as dorico files for me on Mac and iPad. What browser are you using? Safari has a setting to “Open safe files after downloading”. Perhaps that’s unzipping the files?

I don’t know if I’ll be able to add a MIME type to the server – I may just have to zip them all.

No one’s commented on this before!

12

I had similar problems a while back.

Jesper

13

So you did. Completely forgot!

Oh well, it’s probably best if I zip them all up, unless I can get my webhost to add the MIME type.

14

I tried with Chrome on Linux (no Dorico on this computer obviously, but I figured it might be interesting to check what happens), and it downloads the files as application/zip, both on your site and in this forum. (It doesn’t change the file name, but the downloaded files are treated as zip files by the OS.)

Unless I’m misunderstanding something, there is no official MIME type for Dorico files. I don’t know if it’s worth it for the Dorico team to request registration?

15

So how do .dorico files survive on this forum?

16

That’s a good question. Can the people who have trouble downloading files from Ben’s site download files from this forum? Is there a difference between the sites, or does it only depend on the end user’s system?

Update: On my Mac, Dorico files are recognised as such no matter where I download them from, if I use Chrome. If I download using Safari, it treats the file as a zip archive and unpacks it automatically if I download it from Ben’s site, but recognises it as a Dorico file if it comes from this forum.)

17

OK, I have zipped all the files on the page. Hopefully, that will fix it.

Can people test that it works at their end?

18

I get zip files after a reload of the page. (Before that I got 404s on the dorico files.)

19

Yes: I’ve removed the .dorico files and replaced them with .zip files, which you will have to unzip at your end.

20

It took me a while to figure out how to look at the headers, but I have now checked how this forum sends the Dorico files. (I’ve now learned that curl has a verbose mode for this.) This site serves Dorico files as binary/octet-stream, so for anyone wondering what it should be to work for all (?) browsers there’s your answer.