A Philosopher’s Take on HIPP
I recently caught the interview between philosopher Rebecca Lowe and A Year of Bach's Evan Goldfine. In it, she shares her thoughts on historically informed performance practice, or HIPP, which Biberfan readers will no…
Musings
Apple Vision Pro M5
Two years ago I got the Apple Vision Pro for my birthday. It felt like an iPhone type jump in technology, if you can remember what cell phones were like before January 2007.
Entrance, Passage, and Fugue
An ever-obsessed Bach lover, I turned to Bach's Musical Offering, or more precisely, the royal theme highlighted in BWV 1079, as a fugue subject for a piece I understood my senior year of college.
Jack o’ Frost • Queer QuestTV
Readers may well not care that I have watched an unhealthy dose of so-called BL series shows, but this “movie” came across my YouTube feed, hailing from Japan. It tells the story of Ritsu and Fumiya.
Eating in Japan
My normal breakfast at home has been for the past year a coffee or an espresso-based drink such as a latte. But our credit card options gave us daily breakfast in Japan which was an opportunity for a high-culinary start…
Japan 2026
On the Metro lines, stops are announced in English, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. During April-May this year, right after the cherry blossoms and during Golden Week (what is that?), I took my first trip to Japan.
Somewhere: Musical Nourishment
There are many things I've found affinity toward throughout my life. For the purposes of this essay, I'd like to offer that they fall into two categories: things we are introduced to and things we discover ourselves.
Notable Recordings of 2025
This year has seen considerable growth for the website, which is likely a result of me kicking my own butt to try and process more recordings this year for review.
Near-field Listening
There are basically, as I see it, three ways to listen to music for high-fidelity results with stereophonic recordings: Sitting away from the speakers, allowing the room’s reflections to play into the effect of…
The Bach Effect
Quite a fun watch, knowing how many practicing musicians are influenced by JSB.
Bob Visits the Toy Store
Another post by Dr. Greene, from his days abroad in Moscow. I read this again today and marvel at his writing. Each of his tales, infused with an obvious nod to his sense of humor, were always welcome.
An Encounter from Moscow’s Finest
This essay was written by the late Dr. Robert Hunter Greene, and appeared on biberfan.com under the section entitled "The Moscow Muse," showcasing essays contributed by Greene.
A Survey of Bach Recordings (2001)
Another biberfan.com archives post. For solo violin, Bach wrote three sonatas, BWV 1001 (g), 1003 (a), and 1005 (C).
The State of Biber Recordings – June 2001
Another biberfan.com archive post. I looked at my own survey of Biber recordings I'd collected up to this point.
HMV: Harvard Square
Back in 1999, I interviewed for a job in Boston. During the trip I visited the His Majesty's Voice record shop and this comes from one of my early blog posts, c. 2000.
Understanding High Resolution Audio
I read a lot about music and music reproduction online, so I know this is something people are often interested in knowing more about: what is high resolution audio, and what am I supposed to hear?
Monteverdi & Bob(b)
When you meet people who are passionate about something, their passion can be infectious. And sometimes that thing they love rubs off on you.
Roon Updates (August 2025)
After my failed experiment of running Roon on my NAS server, I went back to running Roon Server on my i7 iMac (2015) and while it could run okay for a few days, it required frequent reboots. Enough.
The Four Seasons (Reflection)
I recently watched Tina Fey’s Four Seasons mini-series on Netflix. While the show features clips of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, it also includes other Vivaldi favorites.
Roon Server on Synology NAS
One of my best Macs was my iMac 5K. It was the first time I'd bought an iMac (having previously had over 15 years of PowerMacs towers from the G4 through an Intel model).
Music to Take You Away
I often write about music in terms of its recorded sound quality and too reference the context of its performance, many times referencing historical performance practice, something that is sometimes difficult to…
Trombone Choir
In college I joined the startup of a trombone choir. I didn't come up with the idea, but I became very involved with the group when I started writing trombone choir music.
On Writing about Music
Music can affect you in a profound way, even if you don’t consider yourself a musician. We all have a capacity to relate to the art form we call “music,” in a western tradition a combination of rhythm, harmony, melody…
Lost opportunities
This morning I read a concert review in the Wall Street Journal by David Mermelstein entitled Salonen conducts a bewtiching premiere in San Fransisco.
Performance Issues with Roon on MacOS
I've been using Roon audio software now for several years. I wanted to document my journey with it. It hasn't been a perfectly smooth ride, but I know there may be others who use this on an older computer at home and if…
Topping DX5 DAC/Headphone Amp
Ever since I walked into a stereo shop during my senior year in college, the build-up of anticipation for listening to hifi finally came with astounding glory.
Ripping SACDs on MacOS
I wanted to document how I was able to successfully rip SACDs to enjoy DSD files for playback on my hifi system. I only own around 10 SACDs so I didn’t see the need to invest in an SACD transport.
Apple Airpods Max
I wasn't originally going to purchase the Airpods Max headphones from Apple. I had the Airpods Pro, which I liked because of the advent of spatial audio.
Flamer by Mike Curato
I recently saw a recommendation for this book on Twitter. I watched an interview with the author and decided I’d be interested in the book; I say this through my lens as an educator but also someone who rarely reads YA…
Dr. Robert H. Greene
I regret saying this, but losing someone can be the surest way to acknowledge that someone meant something to you. And what do we have in life beyond one another?
iTunes Again—August 2018
It was iTunes—the Mac application—that started my use of the computer as a music repository, that helped me ween myself away from physical CDs.
How many albums?
I like comparisons. An old friend recently asked, "How many albums do you have now?" If I join Spotify or Apple Music, I'd have "them all." The concept of counting albums is moot.
Vivaldi’s RV 46
Released on the Decca label Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre in 1989, Christophe Coin recorded six sonatas by Vivaldi with the late Christopher Hogwood and friends.
The future (?) of music recordings
Might the future of classical recordings all be recorded with video of the performance? And what could be even more engaging than that?
Music of Note – A 2014 Reflection
For Christmas my mother kindly perused my Amazon Wish List and found something, frankly, I had forgotten was there.
Having Dialog with Musicians
It was several years ago that I was surprised to learn that a harpsichordist whom I wrote about in the context of a recording actually emailed me and started a dialog with me.
J.S. Bach Foundation
Often on Twitter I am reminded that a new recording of a Bach cantata is available, and I can go and view an excerpt (usually one movement) on YouTube from the J.S. Bach Foundation in St. Gallen. Mr.
Touching Music
Music is a gift, but it also can become an organizational burden... I recently made a sojourn to another city and while I did not find a cool music store like this one (located in Paris, near the Parthenon, close to…
A Gift of Pictures—Iconic
For this Christmas, two people thought I should have this book about Apple's design. It's a beautiful coffee table-style book, full of photographs of old computers, phones, printers, and even the cardboard boxes they…
School Kids Discounted CDs
Between 1996-1998, I made several trips visiting friends in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was the kind of college town experience I had never had, going to school in Rochester, NY.