TyndaleSoft LLC

ClassicalPlayer 4.0

Is music more to you than just "songz"? When picking something to listen to, are you as likely to think of a composer and piece as an album? Is "shuffle play" on a symphony more than a little silly? ClassicalPlayer may be for you!

ClassicalPlayer presents your iPhone's or iPad's music library to you arranged by composer and pieces. Choose, for instance "Beethoven," and from the list of his pieces you have, choose "Symphony no. 5", and see the 4 movements ready to play in order. Push the play button, and ClassicalPlayer plays the movements (in order) and then pauses.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why would I want ClassicalPlayer when I have Apple Music or Apple Classical? Apple Music presents albums and songs or tracks. ClassicalPlayer presents multi-movement pieces. Apple Music and Apple Classical stream music, whereas ClassicalPlayer works from the library on your device.
• Does ClassicalPlayer compete with Apple Classical? No! ClassicalPlayer only presents the contents of the library on your device in a manner calculated to warm the heart. It is not a streaming service.
• What happens to my media library if ClassicalPlayer crashes, or I delete the app? Nothing! ClassicalPlayer only reads the contents of your library; it cannot modify your library.
• Will ClassicalPlayer allow me to see albums as albums? Yes: In addition to the composer + piece view, ClassicalPlayer displays albums, all songs or tracks, and playlists.
• How can I find the album that a track comes from? The "Now Playing Album" tab will display the album for the currently playing track.
• I have popular as well as classical music in my library. How does ClassicalPlayer distinguish between them? It doesn't: most popular music will appear (in the Composer + pieces view) as single-movement works. In addition, the Albums view displays albums as albums, with the tracks in their album order.
• What devices does this run on? Almost any iPhone or iPad model, running iOS or iPadOS 16.5 or later.
• How does ClassicalPlayer figure out what tracks represent a piece? That's actually the secret: ClassicalPlayer intuits pieces by looking for similarities in the names of tracks in an album. Based on extensive research (my library), the hard-working scientists at TyndaleSoft have identified a number of patterns typically employed by the ink-stained wretches who label tracks in CD databases, and ClassicalPlayer applies those patterns to notice pieces. This is by no means foolproof, and a major goal of testing is to validate and extend the patterns ClassicalPlayer applies. See below!
• I use Apple's iTunes Match, so some of my music is "in the cloud"--can ClassicalPlayer play that music? Yes. Those tracks will be cataloged like any on your device, and should play without problems.
• Does ClassicalPlayer work with video? ClassicalPlayer will play the audio of a track that has both video and audio.
• When I reload my library I get an alert entitled, "Missing Media" with a message "Some tracks do not have media. This probably can be fixed by synchronizing your device." What's that about? Sometimes synchronization between the Music app and your device isn't quite complete, and some media goes missing. Repeating the synchronization seems to fix the problem.
• Why does my composer list contain "Bach", "Bach, J. S.", etc? See previous remark about track labels: the "composer" field on tracks is notoriously inconsistent. Unfortunately I don't have a good way to overcome this inconsistency, so the best solution is a little "curation" on your part. In the Music app on the Mac, right-click a track or set of tracks in the offending album and choose "Song info." You can reset the composer.
• What is the app's privacy policy? Look here.>

Siri Support

The "Siri badges" on the main screen of the app advertise support for Siri. This support was added to allow ClassicalPlayer to be used with CarPlay.

• If you say, "Give us something in ClassicalPlayer," the app will pick a random composer and piece to play. Favorite composers have a higher likelihood of being chosen.
• If you say, "Give us a piece in ClassicalPlayer," Siri will ask for the composer's name, and then the name of the piece. This works some of the time; sometimes Siri gets lost. The system is unexpectedly good at recognizing composer names but isn't perfect, especially with somebody obscure. For piece names, "symphony number 5" or "piano concerto number 3" or the like work pretty well.
• If you say, "Give us a playlist in ClassicalPlayer," the app will ask the name, and then begin the playlist.

Consulting Wikipedia

You'll notice "W" buttons on Album and Piece pages. Tap on one, and a sheet will come up with a search bar filled out (which you can change). Tap the search icon, and ClasicalPlayer will ask Wikipedia for articles that match the search. Choose an article summary, and be taken to Safari for the article.


Contact us at classicalplayer [at] tyndalesoft [dot] com.


Updated 2025-07-01