Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber

During his lifetime, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber von Bibern (b. 1644–d. 1704) was widely recognized as one of the foremost performers on the violin, and his published instrumental music helped spread his reputation, though he was criticized by some of his contemporaries for his extravagant technique and use of scordatura. Charles Burney’s comment in his 1789 General History of Music that “of all the violin players of the last century, Biber seems to have been the best, and his solos are the most difficult and most fanciful of any Music I have seen of the same period” was most likely based only on a visual examination of the original print of Biber’s 1681 violin sonatas. Aside from a few specialized studies by Guido Adler, Paul Nettl, and others, and four acknowledged works published in the Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich (two collections of music for solo violin, a mass, and a Requiem), Biber’s music was little known until the 1940s. Modern editions of the other instrumental and sacred music, both published and in manuscript, along with critical studies of both his sacred and secular compositions have significantly enhanced the appreciation of Biber’s compositional creativity. Performances of Biber’s music have also steadily increased along with the “Historically Informed Performance” movement. Since Susanne Lautenbacher’s recording of the “Mystery” Sonatas was released in 1962, there have been a further thirty-four recordings and many of Biber’s other instrumental collections now have multiple recordings available, and even the Missa Salisburgensis has been released on six recordings and two DVDs.