About the Glorious Mysteries

The Glorious Mysteries, the final set of sonatas in the Mysteries Sonatas cycle, begins with the Resurrection and the events of Easter. This piece deploys the most unusual scordatura tuning in this cycle; it is also the strangest tuning I’ve come across in any music period. The middle strings of the violin (the A and D strings) trade places, creating a double cross – one between the bridge and the tailpiece and another cross between the pegs and the nut. This cross symbolizes Christ’s cross. On the violin the pitches normally go from the lowest string (G), then D, then A then E – all ascending in pitch. This cross creates the a situation where the pitch goes from lowest to high then low and then the highest. Rather than having 4 different pitches, Biber creates two sets of octaves – a low g paired with a higher g and a low d paired with a higher d. After a flurry of improvisatory gestures, the sonata moves into an exploration of the hymn “Surrexit Christie hodie” – Christ is risen today.

 The Ascension sonata describes the 40th day after the Resurrection when Jesus ascended to Heaven. The opening Intrada begins with repeated notes from the violin that sound like a drum roll. A joyful and very grand procession follows, with the violin playing double stops in a style very much like a pair of trumpets might play. A suite of dances follows the aria tubicinum (trumpet).

The most somber of the Glorious Mysteries is The Descent of the Holy Ghost (Pentecost). The opening sonata is by turns prayerful, rhapsodic, full of awe and wonder. A small suite of a Gavotte, Gigue and Sarabande follows.

The opening movement of The Assumption of Mary bears a strong family resemblance to Biber’s great Sonata in A major from 1681. Virtuosic turns up and down the fingerboard alternate with tender and vocal melodic lines. The Aria is an exuberant and playful celebration of violin variations over a ground bass that gains momentum as it goes, finally transforming into a rollicking gigue.

The Crowning of Mary begins in a sacred and solemn character, after which comes a more celebratory and extroverted section with the violin playing many double stops (two notes bowed simultaneously). A deceptively simple air is followed with not one, not two but three distinct sets of variations. The aria returns disguised as a Canzona, and Sarabande and variation conclude the sonata.

The final piece in this cycle is a Passacaglia for violin alone. The image at the opening of the sonata depicts a Guardian Angel watching over a small child. The piece is constructed as a set of variations in g minor built over a simple falling bass line. Stately melodic sections that embrace painful passing dissonances alternate with quick flurries of notes that seem to represent the fluttering of the guardian angel’s wings. This piece stands outside of the 15 Mysteries and such there is no “story” that it represents. Perhaps it is simply a final meditation (whose meditation - yours? the angel’s?) on the Mysteries of the Rosary.

Notes by Tekla Cunningham