JAVS Spring 2024

the long-sought print from which Biber most likely took his engravings. 8

instrumental music standards. In the center are the variations framed by the improvisation movements. In the first sonata he demonstrates the movements model in full: Praeludium - Variatio - Finale. Only Sonata IV, with its single Ciacona movement, dispenses with the introduction and conclusion frame. The separate final sections are also dispensable in other sonatas, but otherwise an introduction is obligatory, except for Sonata VII. The free preludes that Biber uses as introductions combine elements of both unscripted music- making in the service of tuning and warming up, far removed from all art, with the highly artificial patterns of virtuoso keyboard music or the measured opening movement of the ensemble music, and with the harmony staying close to the tonic (except for a couple of rare occasions) without excessive modulations. sixteen works of the collection, seeks to achieve different resonances of the instrument by changing the tuning of the strings, and to allow for the performance of double stops and chords not feasible with standard tuning. This German practice was first documented in an engraving by Erasmus Kindermann from 1653 and was also popular in Vienna and Kremsier, the places of Biber’s earlier activity. Johann Joachim Quantz, who in his 1752 flute school attempted to describe the German characteristics in instrumental music, noted that “many pieces were set for which the violins had to be retuned.” 11 However, Biber used the possibilities of scordatura much more radically than his contemporaries to get the timbral effects he wanted as they became almost as important as tonalities. Not only did he use the scordatura so that chords that are not possible in normal tuning could be played, but also for special effects such as note doubling, octave coupling and achieving brighter or softer “tonal colors” that can favor certain tonalities when set up accordingly. For the sonatas in which he seeks a brighter tone, the composer uses scordatura in which he raises the pitch of the strings, sometimes going up to a fifth above the normal string’s capacity. This increases the string tension and for the same reason achieves brighter colors. On the contrary, when he is looking for more somber sonorities, he lowers the tuning of some strings to achieve this effect. Scordaturas and Key Signatures The scordatura technique, used in fourteen of the

Figure 3. 9

Due to the possible lack of a front page, or the lack of a title on the dedication page, there is no known official title for these sonatas. Furthermore, due to the inclusion of the engravings, different names have been given to this collection including the Biblical Sonatas , Passion Sonatas , Christ Sonatas , Sonatas of the Copperplate Engravings , Rosary Sonatas and Mystery Sonatas , the last two versions being perhaps the most widely used due to the impossibility of choosing a singular name. Collection, Movements, and Style This collection comprises fifteen sonatas (plus an additional final Passagalia ), each one preceded by a programmatic engraving describing the fifteen mysteries of the Christian rosary. The time required to perform each of Biber’s sonatas is roughly equivalent to that of reciting an Our Father and ten Hail Mary prayers. Biber’s music is thus offered to accompany the archbishop’s private meditation or “contemplation” on one of the mysteries at a time. 10 The basic arrangement of the individual sonata movements is always similar, following the seventeenth-century

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

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