Biber's Rosary Sonatas Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Biber's Rosary Sonatas - Essay Example The fifteen sets of pieces are each in a different scordatura or a returning of the violin and the divisions between the sets are clearly marked booth by the scordatura indications and by the engravings that each set (Brewer 2011). Heinrich Biber was known in his time as a virtuoso on the violin and his writing that is meant for the instrument pushes the performer to greater levels of technical skills by employing the use of a number of stops that are designed to develop independent polyphonic lines as the main feature of his style. In addition, he had mastered scordatura which was the tuning of the instrument in such a manner that was not the regular tuning. His Mystery sonatas are good evidence of his use of scordatura in the entire musical repertoire. In the Sonata number eleven, scordatura is employed to make the chosen key that is G major more brilliant and to make the string crossings that are normally difficult to execute, easier to play (Roden, Wright and Simms, 2010). Biber was considered to be the finest practitioner that existed of the art of the scordatura and the only person that could be able to match his skills was J Walther (Sadie 1998). The Rosary Sonatas for solo violin and continuo that are created by Biber are the most famous violin music today next to Corelli’s that were created in the seventeenth century. The curious programmatic design, the amazing virtuoso techniques and the unique varieties of scordatura are basically the sources of the fame that is accorded to them.