Biber: Rosary Sonatas

HEINRICH FRANZ IGNAZ VON BIBER (1644–1704) was born in Wartenberg (nowadays Stráž pod Ralskem) in northern Bohemia. His father was a huntsman at the count Maxmilian Lichtenstein-Castelcorn’s local estate, and it was most likely this music-loving count that supported the young boy’s education. Around 1668, following a few brief jobs, Biber accepted the joint post of butler and Kapellmeister at the Castle in Kroměříž. His employer was the Prince-Bishop Karl, Count Lichtenstein-Castelcorn of Olomouc and brother of his previous benefactor from northern Bohemia. However, Biber didn’t stay long and already in 1670 left Kroměříž to enter the services of the archbishop of Salzburg. The young composer and violin virtuoso took this step without permission from his employer, which at the time was not only regarded as ill-mannered, but by law a criminal act. However, nothing could stop Biber and luckily for him, both members of the clergy - the bishop and the archbishop - were on friendly terms, so he managed to successfully move upwards in his career from Kroměříž to Salzburg. The episcopate in Olomouc had to wait another year before it achieved parity with the archiepiscopate of Salzburg. For Biber’s career, his “foul play” more than paid off. In 1690 he was promoted to the rank of nobility, and started using the title von Bibern; he also gave concerts for Emperor Leopold I, and his wages were roughly sevenfold compared with those of Pavel Josef Vejvanovský, his successor in Kroměříž.

The Rosary Sonatas for violin and basso continuo were written in Salzburg around 1675. It seems highly unlikely that they were printed at the time, and consequently fell into oblivion for many decades. Their rise to fame started with their publication at the beginning of the twentieth century, and nowadays they are Biber’s best known compositions. Each of the sonatas in this cycle is symbolically devoted to one of the Mysteries of the Rosary, i.e. to the episodes from the lives of St. Mary and Jesus Christ which are the subject of the Rosary prayers. The use of scordatura, whereby the tuning of the strings of the violin is changed, gives a different character to each of the sonatas. Biber’s musical language is a wonderful example of instrumental sonatas in the style of the High Baroque era, usually associated with popular Italian names, such as Arcangelo Corelli, who was de facto Biber’s contemporary. The Rosary Sonatas are so-called Sonatas da chiesa - they belong to the category of church sonatas played as a musical accompaniment to a mass. The soaring virtuoso violin part is complemented by the basso continuo, whose frequent variations in harmony and voicing demonstrate another characteristic of Baroque music.