Henle Library

Frustrating. I can’t trust it. Ever. It just randomly whites out a page while I am playing or most of a page. I have to close the piece to get it back. If the music didn’t cost an arm and leg, I would not be using it! I

Just awful to use. The annotation tool is so awful that it is hard to understand how it came to light. I love Henle and I wanted to get this app so I could mark the score without destroying my paper edition. That function is basically so cumbersome that it is totally useless. Just wasted money buying credits for something that is unusable. What a wasted opportunity to create a beautiful app. Such a disappointment.

Better than a pdf scan of the score and the new pdf upload feature is great. Plenty of features like bookmarking, easily switching from the solo part to the same part in the full score, and annotating.

I consistently have problems opening scores that I’ve purchased, scores disappear all the time. Very buggy. Such a shame since the concept is so lovely.

[update to previous review] After some delay I finally got the credits I purchased last year and could begin test the app. Thank you Henle support for getting my issue resolved—and thank you for the extra credits! ***** The good stuff ***** The app is very smooth and responsive and (after a short learning curve) easy and intuitive to navigate. Scores are legible and the ability to annotate without a physical pencil is amazing. (If only we had this 40 years ago!) Based on the urtext complete Beethoven quartets the cost is very competitive with printed scores: $64 for the set vs. $153 from Amazon—almost a 60% discount. And you don’t need to lug a backpack full of scores around. ***** Not-so-good/needs work ***** Scores are scans of printed editions sliced into staves, not digital vectors. This has some knock-on effects: Supported zoom levels appear to be limited (via SCORE SETTINGS > Stave Spacing). Changing orientation to landscape shows a higher resolution rendition, but only 1-2 staves vs. 4-5 in portrait. You will want the largest tablet screen you can get. Print quality is … terrible. The score images (printed on a 600 DPI PostScript laser printer) suffer from severe aliasing and are pretty much useless. If you need hard copy buy the excellent printed edition. But then you’ll need to transcribe all your annotations by hand. And get a fat backpack to lug the paper. ***** Summary ***** If you need to schlep a large collection of scores around the campus and don’t have the budget of the Hamilton production this app is made for you. The annotation capabilities will be an invaluable layer of frosting on your cake. If you cherish high-quality musical typography and need paper scores the Henle app will disappoint.

Implementation is barely there. I feel like there is no organization in my library. The search function for the Henle store especially is straight up to find any score it’s a straight up nightmare. Why can’t I zoom into the score?

U can’t write on top or bottom of the page because their writing menus block those areas. Absolutely ridiculous

Search function doesn’t work well. Your files don’t load right away so if you have a minute to play piano it’ll take 10 minutes before the app “remembers” what songs you purchased really terrible experience. Edit: the developer says there is a problem with the app. Yes I agree but it is not an installation problem, it is a problem with the app. Buy the PDFs separately, or use a different app, but don’t count on your music to show up right away.

Everything is great but the eraser function is not working.

Love the scores, but lots of minor annoyances. Have to reload several times when iPad restarts. Very limited annotation symbols. Annotation hides top and bottom lines of piano scores, sometimes. ForScore was at same level two years ago, but now is far superior. What keeps me on this app are the Beethoven piano sonatas, where I can change fingering editions with one click. That being said, the written comments aren’t available so I still have to keep my Schnabel on hand.