Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber - Sonata Representativa in A major

Composer: Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber von Bibern (12 August 1644 (baptised) -- 3 May 1704)
Performers: "Il Giardino Armonico":
Enrico Onofri (Violin), Vittorio Ghielmi (Viola da Gamba), Luca Pianca (Archlute and Narrator), Michele Barchi (Gravicembalo), Riccardo Doni (Organ)
Conductor: Giovanni Antonini
Year of recording: 1998

Sonata violino solo representativa (Representatio Avium), for violin & continuo in A major, C. 146 (B. IV 184), written in 1669.

00:00 - I. Allegro
01:52 - II. Nachtigal (Nightingale)
03:15 - III. CuCu (Cuckoo)
03:56 - IV. Fresch (Frog)
05:06 - V. Die Henn & Der Hann (Cock & Hen)
05:41 - VI. Die Wachtel (Quail)
06:25 - VII. Die Katz (Cat)
06:50 - VIII. Musqetir Mars (Musketeer’s March)
08:05 - IX. Allemande

Sometime in the middle of the 1660s, Heinrich Biber entered the service of Count Karl von Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn, who established his residence in the city of Kromeriz in Moravia and maintained an orchestra for performances in his castle. Between the beginning of his tenure at Kromeriz and his departure for Salzburg in 1670 against the Count's wishes, Biber composed a great number of instrumental works, the manuscripts of which are still housed at the Kromeriz Castle. Count Karl had a predilection for programmatic music and this was surely the impetus behind's Biber's composition of the Sonata representativa, for violin and continuo in A major.

Biber's Sonata representativa is not programmatic in the nineteenth century sense, rather, the sonata "represents" the sounds of several animals. Biber took these imitative passages directly from the Musurgia Universalis, written by the musicologist Athanasius Kircher. Kircher was the first to develop a "Doctrine of Affections," which directly related psychological states to various musical devices and expressions. In Musurgia Universalis, Kircher attempted to transcribe in musical notation the sounds of animals. Biber's sonata is for solo violin with continuo, often realized with a theorbo, harpsichord, or organ, or a combination of these. Each movement runs into the next without pause.

Biber opens his Sonata representativa with a not-so-programmatic Allegro that is in AB form with a slow introduction. A dotted figure in the opening melody becomes increasingly prominent at the climax of the movement.
The "Nachtigal" movement begins with an extended, cadenza-like segment for violin alone in which the instrument imitates a nightingale through falling thirds and trills.
In "CuCu" we hear the familiar sound of the cuckoo played beneath a rapid tremolo on the violin. This high-energy movement lasts only about half a minute before moving into...
the next section, "Fresch" (Frog), in which Biber conveys the croaking of a frog by writing harmonic seconds and out-of-tune glissandos mixed with some tuneless scraping of the strings. A lyric slow passage closes the movement.
"Die Henn und der Hann" (The Cock and Hen) is a very fast, brief movement also featuring glissandos and clashing semitones.
"Die Wachtel" (Quail) provides contrast with its slow tempo and pp dynamic as it presents a reiterated dotted figure.
"Die Katz" (Cat) has a rising tune, the last note of which slides downward, evoking a cat's "meow."
The eighth movement, "Musqetir Mars" (Musketeer's March) also appears in Biber's later Battalia (1673), although somewhat altered and with the title, "Der Mars." Its drone accompaniment and percussive interjections, supporting rapid violin figurations, set it apart from the rest of the sonata.
Biber closes the sonata with a slow Allemande, in ternary form, and devoid of imitative noises.