Henle Library

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.

The app no longer can export pdfs for use in other apps. Support said it’d be fixed, but it’s been over a month

I bought music through this app because sometimes it takes weeks for physical copies to be shipped, but it’s a pain that I cannot print he music I purchased out or open them through other apps. It just keep failing and close the app every time I tried to print or share. Quite disappointing.

The Henle Library is a very good. I use it for piano and harpsichord on my 12.9” iPad Pro. I’ve been using a different PDF-based app for a year, and the Henle’s rendering is significantly easier to read then even a good PDF. The sizing controls are great. Even though I have all the music I play on open source PDFs, it was worth it to me to purchase it in the Henle Library because it is easier to read and play, and I can get trustworthy urtext editions. The fingerings are generally reliable. I play all the time in two-page mode fitting as much of the music on the screen as possible, and I don’t have a problem reading the score. I use a foot controller to turn pages. The Henle Library is only about 80% of the way, there, though, lacking features I find very useful in other music reading apps. - In two page mode, I really want to be able to turn only one page at a time so I can see the next page while still playing the current page. This also lets me choose the most opportune time to turn pages, which is an issue because using two pedals makes it difficult to hit the page turn pedal. - I really don’t like the hi-lighter transparency level and would like to set it myself. It’s not usable with the current transparency. If these issues were fixed this would be an enthusiastic five stars. As is, this is great for learning a piece, but for performance I’m likely to use my other app that lets me turn the page when I want to.