If post-Christian music exists, David Lang’s Mystery Sonatas  (the composer has also written a number of vocal settings of  Old Testament texts) are a perfect example of it. The American  composer drew on the popular analogy between instrumental  Baroque music and Anglo-Saxon minimalism to create an equally  virtuosic contemporary response to Heinrich Ignaz Biber’s famous  cycle of the same title. “The sonatas don’t tell the story of Jesus, but  of my most intimate spiritual reflections,” the composer explains  straightforwardly. 

Almost nothing remains of the narrative frame of the Rosary  Sonatas—or perhaps what remains is exactly what matters most:  the mysteries of joy, sorrow and glory.