Abstracts Biological Sciences

The mystery of the Mystery sonatas : a musical rosary picture book

by Katia. Strieck

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber's (1644 – 1704) Mystery Sonatas of 1676 are a set of fifteen sonatas for violin and continuo plus one unaccompanied passacaglia for solo violin. They are unusual in their use of scordatura and in the presence of an image associated with the Rosary devotion before each sonata. This association between image and music in the sonatas, and the correspondence to the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary closely resembles the structure of seventeenth-century Rosary picture books. In this thesis the context, background, and meaning of the sonatas is explored. The first chapter examines the function of the sonatas and places them in context by outlining musical life in Salzburg, the sonata tradition, the Rosary devotion, Emblem books, and Rosary picture books. The second chapter focuses more on the collection as a whole and on elements such as key, dance affect, and scordatura. The third chapter consists of an examination of three sonatas – each one unique in placing the listener in a different relation to the mystery.