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H. I. F. Biber: The Mystery Sonatas

by Maya Homburger with Camerata Kilkenny

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about

It was a joy and privilege never to be forgotten, to perform and record these sonatas in the Propstei St. Gerold which is a place in this world that really manages to connect heaven and earth and to induce in people a new kind of listening to their inner spiritual self and to each other.

Special thanks go to Father Nathanael for his support and inspirational presence.

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber dedicated the Mystery Sonatas to Archbishop Maximilian Gandolph von Khuenburg with the following words: “Here you will hear my four stringed violin using different kinds of tunings [scordature] in various Sonatas, Preludes, Allemandes, Courantes, Sarabandes, Arias, Chacones, Variations, with basso continuo, composed with the greatest care and, so far as my small capability allows, with my best artistic skill. If you want to know the reason for this number, it is this: I have devoted the whole to the honour of the XV sacred Mysteries, which you support so ardently.”

They were conceived in all likelihood to accompany the rosary devotions in Salzburg and to be meditations in the traditional sense of Catholic Mysticism. Today they reach yet another level of spirituality since in performance the magical communication with the audience adds an extra degree of insight into the emotional and religious depths of these pieces.

Even when played just with our duo of baroque violin and double bass we have had the most intense experiences with audiences within a wide range of festivals from old music events to Contemporary Music and even Avant-garde Jazz Festivals.

The continuo group chosen for this recording allows us to bring out a wide variety of colours and illustrate closely the rapid emotional changes within the music. At this point I wish to thank my colleagues for their immense support, wonderful creativity and the ingenious way in which they reacted with great improvisational freedom to the many deeply involving images of the Rosary.

The inclusion of the double bass is an homage to the many amazing occasions the two of us have shared over the years performing some of these sonatas as a duo, but I also feel that the 16 foot register provides the extra depth and earth bound dimension which balances the moments when the music seems to soar weightlessly into heaven.

I have a great respect for the many extremely varied solutions to the continuo part and individual interpretations by my violin colleagues all over the world. The huge variety of approaches and their intensity also proves how close these sonatas are to everybody’s heart, and how deeply committed we all are to do them justice. In a similar way to Bach’s solo Sonatas and Partitas the Mystery Sonatas of Biber are with a violinist for a lifetime and constantly develop and change with our own personal growth and also through the two-way communication with audiences.



H.I.F. Biber (1644-1704) was born in Bohemia in the small town of Wartenberg and considered one of the finest violin virtuosos and composers of the 17th century. His reputation as a violinist survived into the late 18th century, when the English historian Charles Burney described him thus: "...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."

His musical education might have been at a Jesuit School, which would also explain his close affinity to the Rosary devotion. But it is not known for sure. After serving the Count Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn of Olmütz and Kremsier, he entered the chapel of the Archbishop of Salzburg in 1670, where he remained for the rest of his life, rising to the posts of Kapellmeister and Dean of the Choirboy School. His 15 Mystery or Rosary Sonatas can be dated between 1670 and 1680. They survive in a beautiful manuscript, in which a small engraving depicting one of the fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary precedes each sonata.

In the manuscript the 15 Mystery Sonatas are followed by a Passacaglia in G minor for unaccompanied violin. A picture of a guardian angel leading a child prefaces it. The rosary devotions were often associated with the feast of the Guardian Angel, celebrated during the month of October, and Biber creates a work suitable for this occasion by basing it on the four notes G, F, E flat, D which relate to the first line of the hymn 'Einen Engel Gott mir geben'.

A special technique distinguishing the sonatas is the use of scordatura: the retuning of the violin strings to a variety of tunings. Among the most unusual are for example A flat, E flat, G, D (No 6) or B, F sharp, B, D (No 3). There are a total of fifteen different tunings in the whole collection.

Scordatura is notated in the manner of certain tablatures in that the violinist is told where on the string to place the fingers, but the audible pitch is different from the notated, visual pitch. The most extraordinary scordatura tuning appears in the Rosary Sonata XI ('The Resurrection'), which requires the violinist to interchange the middle two strings, crossing them below the bridge of the violin and above the nut, resulting in a symbolic cross shape. This means the D string sits in the position of the A string and vice versa.

The Scordatura itself transports the performer into another world. It is not possible anymore to play with “normal” instincts. Simple mechanisms, ingrained in your system since childhood are turned upside down, since the notated music you see, bears hardly any relationship to what you actually hear. This immense intellectual effort, together with the overwhelming emotional impact which changes dramatically from one sonata to another leads to an almost trance-like state and a detachment from the self and from so-called virtuosic violinistic playing.

Biber’s mastery, both as a composer and as a violinist are also evident in his handling of the various musical forms. The toccata like Preludes and Finales alternate between extremely virtuosic passages (symbolising excitement and happy anticipation, or else torment and pain) and recitative inserts, leading the listener into the unfolding story with a high sense of drama, whilst the Sonatas and Canzonas are more reflecting, even pastoral at times. The dance movements and Arias with their Doubles and Variations evoke a wide variety of changing moods and atmospheres.

Thanks to the intensity of Biber’s compositions the essence of religion and human existence can be reflected upon in a meditative way. I hope that through his work, core issues of our life, emotions like compassion, hope, joy, trust, anxiety, torment, anger, pain, fulfillment and release, can be conveyed musically and reach deep into our soul.

— Maya Homburger

credits

released November 19, 2006

Maya Homburger: baroque violin
Camerata Kilkenny: Siobhán Armstrong, harp · Sarah Cunningham, viola da gamba · Brian Feehan, theorbo · Malcolm Proud, organ, harpsichord · Barry Guy, double bass

Harpsichord and Organ built and prepared by Bernhard Fleig · Violins: Antonio dalla Costa, Treviso 1740 (Sonatas 1, 4, 6, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16) · Samuel Thompson, London 1720 (11) Thomas Perry, Dublin 1780 (7,12) · Ventapane Italy 1788 (3, 13) · Jacobus Stainer, Absam 1659 (2, 5) · Jacobus Stainer, Absam (8)

Recorded by Nicholas Parker 16 – 23 July 2006 in Propstei St. Gerold, Austria · Produced by Nicholas Parker and Maya Homburger ·
Cover art by Fritz Steffen «Nestwärme», photographed by Hans Mosimann · Text by Father Nathanael, St.Gerold and Maya Homburger, Translations: Isabel Seeberg and Paul Lytton (English), Antoinette Schlütermann (French). Graphic design by Jonas Schoder.

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Maya Recordings Oberstammheim, Switzerland

Barry Guy and Maya Homburger founded Maya Recordings in 1991 to take care of their desires to document the various projects that occupy their musical lives. So unusually
you will find Jazz and improvised musics alongside baroque masterpieces.
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