Yup. I’m a Beliber.

The violin family of instruments reached a point of perfection around the year 1600; modern violins are virtually the same as the instruments made 400 years ago. Whenever humanity produces a new musical instrument (or any worthy invention, for that matter), humans go and push that instrument to the extreme. Enter Franz Biber.

Biber’s contribution to music includes a variety of choral and instrument music, sacred and secular. But mainly, he is remembered for his wicked violin skills, employing double stops and alternate string tunings (scordatura).

Just like Bieber, Biber had some legal issues, but no model-worthy mugshots. The Bib just skipped out on his employer, prince Karl II, for a better gig elsewhere (musicians were servants, and could not leave their royal employers without permission).

Austrian violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler is known as a hot-dog violinist and his compositions, both of which were warm, juicy, and sweet. His best-loved work is Alt-Wiener Tanzweisen, three short pieces for violin and piano that recall the sound of, well, Old Wieners (er, old Vienna).

Written in 1905, Kreisler knew this musical style was out of fashion. For some stupid reason, there is an unspoken rule that new Art Music needs to be fresh and forward-looking, and that imitating or stealing another’s music is bad. So, he attributed the work to Joseph Lanner, who was a genuine Old Wiener Alt-Wiener Viennese romantic, with no artificial fillers. Once the piece became famous, Kreisler removed Lanner’s name and took credit for the music.

I’m telling ya, you never sausage a great violinist!

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor – not to be confused with Samuel Taylor-Coleridge. They’re both English. They’re both artists. But SCT was a black composer, and STC was a white poet.

Coleridge-Taylor’s musical career was skyrocketing when he died (like so many great composers) in his 30s. Thankfully, in his 37 years, he left a legacy of works that have earned him his nickname, “The African Mahler.”