A Fan of Biber? Since 1998, I have been publishing content online through weblogs to share my passion for music, technology, and cuisine. This website is dedicated towards the review of baroque and classical music, and musings on the performance of music and whatever else suits my interests. John Hendron is curator of the site, having discovered the music of Bach and others in the late 1980s.

Baroque Music

This site is named for the virtuoso composer of string music, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704) who is but one of many great composers from the Baroque. I also like the composers Georg Philip Telemann, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Antonio Vivaldi. Baroque musical history roughly ranges between 1600-1750 in echoed elements in art from between 1550-1740.

There are different philosophies behind performing baroque and other “early” musics. Starting the in the late 1960s, and blossoming in the 1980s-90s, a historically-informed performance practice became an important by-product of a renewed interest in baroque music. The basic idea behind it is to perform early music in the “sound world” of that time, using instruments germane to the period, and basing performance decisions (tempo, style, orchestration) on historical treatises. It’s not a science, but a rather academic way to approach the performance of what music from the period survives.

I like my Bach played as jazz, on the piano too, but I am a big supporter of the historically-informed movement. For me, music is an intellectual pursuit, one guided by reason, but also by the time in which we live. You will find that many of the recordings I review use “original” instruments, or baroque copies.

Other Music

I also like jazz, and modern compositions (so-called 20th-century music), including the so-called minimalists Reich and Glass. Some of my favorites include ECM artists Keith Jarrett Trio and Dave Holland. I think musical tastes evolve, and mine certainly are, over time. I still hate romatic (classical) music. If it’s older than Beethoven, I pass.

Your Curator

I am not so much an author as a curator, one who finds things of interests and pontificates and professes about them, in an informal style. I write for this blog as a hobby, and the primary audience is composed of friends and family.

I grew up in Pennsylvania, having attended the North Allegheny Schools. I later moved to Ohio, and graduated with honors from Avon Lake High School. For many years I was an active musician. I studied music at the undergraduate and graduate level. I currently live in Richmond, Virginia–a transplanted Yankee.

I’ve had an insatiable desire since I was younger to find some of the better things in life. At times, it borders upon becoming an obsession. My father likely gave me this trait, to strive for the best. Sometimes, I endorse products on this site: the best soft drink, the best writing pen, the best computer, the best this or that. It’s just my opinion. I’ve never been compensated for my endorsements.

This desire has also led to me creating fancy food in the kitchen. I enjoy the creative aspects of cooking and devote a lot of time to reading about food and dining. I’ve spent too many hours watching Food Network shows on television, but it has led to the creation of many tasty recipes over the years.

I also enjoy taking pictures and video. I find the two pursuits both creative and fascinating. I often think that my love of so many different things, from reading, to writing, to cooking, and gadgetry-using, echoes what I learned of my deceased maternal grandfather, whom I never had the opportunity to meet.

I think the communication of ideas and viewpoints–no matter how messy or unorganized–is important. That’s the reason behind my blogging and sharing. I invite you to interact with these ideas through blog comments, or e-mail.

Hi-Fi

(June, 2010) Over the years I’ve been more interested in finding budget-conscious ways to improve the listening experience in my home. Like many teenagers, I have used iPods and I certainly use my iPhone everyday to listen to music. But I have two listening areas/stations at home where I have better-grade equipment.

I use iTunes to manage my music. I have use XLD and iTunes to try and attain bit-perfect readings of CDs. I still have a few CDs still ripped using the LAME encoder, for recordings, honestly, I don’t listen to that often. I purchase music currently from a variety of sources, including the iTunes Store, Amazon MP3 Digital Downloads, Amazon.com (discs), ArchivMusic (discs), HDTracks, and Linn (HD tracks).

Home Office. I currently use a MacPro as my home computer, with a dedicated 1 TB drive for all media (TV shows, movies, and music – Apple Lossless). This drive is cloned monthly to another 1 TB drive using Carbon Copy Cloner. This computer manages all of my other devices, including the iPad, iPhone, and various iPods.

The MacPro’s digital output is sent at 192kHz/24-bit to a VDA-2 DAC by Channel Islands Audio, powered by their VAC-1 high current power supply. This is connected via MonsterCable to a Rotel Integrated Amplifier which powers a pair of B&W 602 bookshelf speakers and my headphones: Sennheiser 650HD.

Family Room This room is used more often than not as a “salon de musique,” for listening. A headless Mac mini operates as the media hub, connected to a 500GB external hard drive, connected via Firewire 800. iTunes is controlled using Apple’s Remote app, via an iPad. A Monster power cleanser is used in this set up. Monoblock amplifiers are by Channel Islands Audio. Analog (copper) interconnects and speaker cable is by Acoustic Zen. The digital signal is carried by the Mac mini via a Wireworld Supernova 6 TOSlink cable to a Bel Canto DAC 3. No preamplifer is used. The DAC3 can operate as a digital pre-amp. Speakers are current B&W 703, 3-way floorstanding speakers with the B&W FST Kevlar midrange drivers.

The two systems are always evolving, but I’m always looking for keeping them simple, keeping things affordable. Above all, I want to enjoy the music!

Contact

You may contact me via e-mail at: biberfan at biberfan.org.