JAVS Spring 2024

printing (such as not being able to reproduce double stops), allowing him to freely follow his own musical ideas. The work was presented in a brown full-leather binding and did not include a cover page. The first page is left blank in the pagination, and the text only begins on the second page: on the front with the dedication preface, and on the back with Sonata I. This dedication (Figure 1), written in Latin, is the only source of information we have to understand the meaning of this work.

Holy Mysteries, an honor that you (...) can promote very ardently.

In Your Serene Highness I present to you on my knees Your most humble servant

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber. 4

This manuscript, today located in the Bavarian State Library Music division 89, is the only source for the cycle in its entirety. Only one sonata is preserved in another source, namely in a large anthology of violin works from the second half of the 17th century, written after 1688 and preserved in the Convent of the Minorites in Vienna. 5 Engravings 6 An engraving is found at the beginning of each sonata. Each one of these engravings (Figure 2) serves as a meditation on one important moment in the life of Christ and the Virgin Mary according to the scriptures of the Catholic religion.

Figure 1. First Page of the manuscript’s facsimile. 3

This dedication reads:

The well-ordered work I will present very humbly, consecrated to the sun of justice and to the spotless moon, to you as the third light, which you have taken from the double divine light. As a son, shining in holy dignity, you defend, intact in celibacy, the virginal honor of your mother. Therefore, by your merit, you will be nourished with heavenly manna by her Son Christ, and you will be nourished with graces by Mother Mary. She, taking the first letter of her most blessed name, has added it as the first to your glorious name. This is how Mary distinguished Maximilian. Configured with four strings, you will find my violin, detuned in fifteen changes and in various sonatas, preludes, allemandes, courantes, sarabandes, arias, chaconnes and variations, etc., together with a basso continuo, worked with careful diligence and, according to skill, with great artistry. The reason for the number, if you want to know, I will make it clear: I have consecrated all this to the honor of the 15

Figure 2. 7

It is most likely that these engravings were originally copied from a publicity pamphlet for the national diffusion of the Confraternity of the Rosary. This institution was created in 1678, the year in which Biber was appointed vice-chapel master and when he probably wrote these sonatas. The discussion about the meaning and dating of Biber’s sonatas, after much speculation, obtained a reliable basis thanks to a discovery in February 2008 of a fascicle with the shelf mark 10/2/8. This large-format wide single sheet (Figure 3) which worked as a publicity pamphlet for the national diffusion of the Rosary Confraternity and which praises Max Gandolph as his founder and patron contains

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 40, No. 1, Spring 2024