You’ll probably like Goodreader. Not only can it read annotations from Preview, but Preview can read annotations from GR, and GR can sync a folder if you want it to. GR doesn’t have a great interface, but you get used to it.
I like using multiple apps for multiple books. It’s faster to switch between apps than it is to switch books within an app (with the exception (usually) of GRs pdf tabs). It’s also useful to have multiple devices, so with several iPads I can have one on the text, one on the footnotes, one on a map. I’d love to have one of those Thomas Jefferson lazy susan book holders with 6 iPads mounted up on it.
I too was distressed to find out that music is use it or lose it. I can still noodle around, but I pretty much have to start from scratch again to relearn breath control, tuning, fingerings, reading. At least it should go faster the second time around. I need to spend more quality time with the Tunable app which does a wonderful job of showing me just how wavery I’ve become.
https://www.tunableapp.com/
I also want to spend more time with Musica Touch from Ars Nova. It’s an ear training/theory app. It hasn’t been updated for years, but still works fine as of ios 14.4. Free for a taste, $20 for everything including counterpoint writing or you can buy subsets. It’s on the mac app store and from their site too, which also has a free introductory theory book that’s pretty good. The ios app is the best price though.
Practica Musica - Music Theory and Ear Training
Nice to hear about more blowies! I too love the oboe, and rented one one summer when I was a grad student, but I couldn’t afford both the rental cost and lessons, so I mostly fumbled around. But it was fun. In order of least incompetent to most, I play renaissance & baroque recorders (mostly G & F alto and soprano), baroque flute (a resin Aulos), cornettino (resin), and I’m playing around with a plastic soprano gemshorn to see if I like it enough to invest in a real one (probably yes). I got to borrow a sackbutt once and I loved it, but they’re quite expensive and there were no teachers around. I want a rackett, but they’re hard to find and expensive for what would basically be a really spiffy toy. It might be possible to make crude one though. I’m planning to get a rebec to learn something about bowed strings. Even the smaller viola da gambas are too expensive, sadly, especially since I’d need lessons. So many instruments, so much music, so little time!
For the bemused (no apple content below this point):
Renaissance recorders have a wider bore than baroques (the kind often used in schools). They’re stronger at the low end, have less range, but have a tone that blends very well in an all-recorder consort, which sounds somewhat like a small pipe organ:
John Dowland (1563-1626): The Earle of Essex Galiard [a5] - The Royal Wind Music - YouTube
Baroque recorders are better in a mixed instrument consort or as solo instruments, and the increased range is required for baroque through modern music:
G. F. Haendel. Recorder Sonata in F major, HWV 369. - YouTube
A cornettino is a small cornetto (aka cornett outside of the US), which is a curved woodwind with finger holes played with an acorn-sized trumpet-like mouthpiece. Its bigger siblings are the far less common lysard (lizard) and serpent. Cornetto is one of the most flexible and beautiful of instruments when played well. On a scale of 0 to 10 where 0 is sick cow noises and 10 is Bruce Dickey, I’m about 0.3–on a good day.
Jeremy West Introduces the Cornett - YouTube
Bruce Dickey: Ancor che col Partire (Angelus ad Pastores), with Margriet Tindemans - YouTube
Lizard | Musica Antiqua
Serpent | Musica Antiqua
A sackbutt is a renaissance trombone, lighter weight and less loud than modern ones. They were frequently played in ensemble with cornettos:
Adam Woolf Introduces the Sackbutt - YouTube
Washington Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble performs Gastoldi's Baletto: "L'innamorato: A lieta vita" - YouTube
A gemshorn is a cow horn with finger holes and a recorder-like blade to make the sound, but since it’s a closed cavity, it plays about an octave lower than a similar length recorder, and has a nice hollow sound:
Gemshorn Duett Pastimes Music - YouTube
A rackett is a double reed woodwind the shape of a small cylinder, which puts out an impressively deep sound because the tube inside goes back and forth many times:
Baroque Rackett - "Hymnus" - YouTube
A rebec is a small medieval bowed string with three or four strings and a gourd shaped body, no frets, no sound post. There’s a lot of variation in size, shape and construction since it’s basically a folk instrument. The tone is usually fairly harsh so it can be heard for dances in a noisy room:
Lauda Novela - Tenor Rebec (medieval 13th c.) - YouTube
Viola da gambas are fretted bowed strings played in the lap or between the knees like a cello depending on size. Often/usually played in consorts. The orchestral great bass is derived from the viola da gambas, but not violin//viola/cello, which are related to the medieval vielle:
viol consort:
William Lawes, Consort Sett in G minor - Performed by Fretwork - YouTube
vielle:
Dance (after Machaut) | Shira Kammen and Robert Mealy - YouTube