BIBER, 1600's listenable version of Charles Ives

Biber was one of the first composers to write music that could be used as either popular or sacred music. He experimented with alternative tunings for the Violin (scudatura) and his hauntingly beautiful works sound new even to modern ears. He was the Charles Ives of his time in that Ives sometimes includes two or three orchestras playing different pieces in different keys in his music (and why Ives is often difficult and inaccessible). Biber also used such ideas but managed to create listenable music from these experiments because he used strange sounds and dissonances as seasoning for his music rather than as whole meals as Ives and other modern composers often do. In the Battalia Biber used eight different folk songs played simultaneously, placed paper over strings to simulate snare drums, and had string instruments struck with the wood of their bows rather than the bowhairs - but it still ends up listenable.

The 16 Mystery Sonatas are his most famous works and the Holloway recording won a Rosette from Gramophone. These explore the different mysteries of Virgin Mary and since the Violins are tuned differently in each Sonata, they create unusual sounds, which are not possible for the normally tuned violin to make. 

Mensa Sonora is secular music written as an accompaniment to aristocratic dining. (17th century dinner music?) The recording has a lot of sparkle and will give an idea of his secular or non-religious music.

The twelve Sonata's, "Sonatae Tam aris..." (Sonata's suitable for chapel and court) are examples of his work that are neither secular nor sacred, and are my favorite works of this composer.

If you are jaded on most classical music or crave more complex and intellectually disturbing dissonant music, and find Bartok, Ives and modern music too remote and inaccessible, then Biber’s your man.