Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber - Works

Works

Biber's violin music was possibly influenced, on one hand, by the Italian tradition of Marco Uccellini and Carlo Farina, and on the other, by the then-nascent German polyphonic tradition as exemplified by Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, who may have been Biber's teacher. Biber's achievements included further development of violin technique–he was able to reach the 6th and 7th positions, and his left-hand and bowing techniques were far more advanced than those of contemporary Italian composers. He also excelled at counterpoint, frequently writing fully polyphonic textures, with much use of multiple stops. Yet another area in which Biber made a substantial contribution was the art of scordatura, i.e. music for alternative tunings of the instrument. Finally, much of Biber's music employs various forms of number symbolism, affekten, programmatic devices, etc., as seen in, for example, the symbolic retuning of the violin for the Resurrection sonata of the Mystery Sonatas.

During the latter half of the 17th century Biber was, together with the composers of the Dresden school (Johann Jakob Walther and Johann Paul von Westhoff), regarded as one of the best and most influential violinists in Europe. However, soon after his death, German violinists started following the style of Arcangelo Corelli and his imitators.