Biber, renowned as a violin virtuoso, and also skilled at the bass and viola da gamba, wrote many of his finest compositions for this instrument. He was a Kapellmeister who trained singers for whom he generated magnificent choral works, and also a court composer. He also composed three operas (of which only one, Chi la dura la vince, 1687, is extant), and approximately 15 school dramas.

The Fifteen Mystery (or Rosary) Sonatas with Passacaglia for violin & bass continuo, completed about 1676, combine ecstatic quasi-improvisatory playing with secular dance forms, the whole beautifully transformed into religious tone poems. In 14 of these 16 pieces, Biber employs alternate tuning known as scordatura, introduced by Biagio Marini, which allows for new sympathetic resonances with richer sonorities, multiple stops, and unusual timbres. The Guardian Angel passacaglia is a thrilling series of written improvisations built over 65 repetitions of a simple four-note descending figure.

Biber's eight virtuoso Sonate violino solo with basso continuo (1681) feature extended pitch range and bowing techniques, polyphonic passages, and amazingly uninhibited variations. The "Sonata violino solo representativa" employs bird and animal imitations. The brilliant seven scordatura partitas, Harmonia artificiosa-ariosa: diversi mode accordata (1696) for two instruments and bass, are earthy dances and variations of vastly contrasting tempi and style.

Biber's ensemble music is as fine and varied as his solo works: the Sonata S. Polycarpi for eight trumpets and timpani, the Sonate Tam Aris Quam Aulis Servientes (1676), 12 alternately fiery and lyrical Venetian-style sonatas for strings and trumpets serviceable "for altar and table," and the Fidicunium Sacro-Profanum for strings and basso continuo (1682) with its strongly contrasting lively and profound sections.

Biber's sacred compositions are impressive sonic landscapes, like the Requiem in F minor, the brilliant Missa Sancti Henrici for five soloists, five chorus parts, brass, timpani, strings and continuo, the 53-part Missa Salisburgensis recently realized by 50 voices in six choirs with soloists, strings, oboes, recorders, dulcian, cornets, sackbut, bassoon, five trombones, six clarino trumpets, timpani, and four church organs, the Missa Bruxellensis, the 32-part Vesperae longiores ac breviores una cum litanis Lauretanis, the Missa Alleluja, and the elaborate motet Laetatus sum.

Besides many Balletti and Arien, Biber's many programmatic pieces include the Battalia à 10 which depicts a battlefield with many amazing effects: col legno battuta (hitting the strings with the wood of the bow), a drunken section in which eight different tunes in different keys (!) are all played at once, and paper attached to a string of the violin to imitate a drum. The Serenada "Nightwatchman's Call" is for a beery-voiced bass vocalist announcing the time of day in friendly little poems accompanied by strings played like lutes. The Sonata à 6 known as the Peasants Procession to Church depicts young and old in differing tempi gradually assembling, and a humble chant fading as the worshipers enter the church. A happy, lively dance indicates the peasants have moved to the village tavern.

© "Blue" Gene Tyranny, All Music Guide