Battalia à 10

Pictorial or programmatic works were quite popular in the Baroque, including Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Kuhnau’s Biblical Sonatas. In the same vein, many composers from the Renaissance onward had been inspired by new techniques in instrumental performance to depict battle scenes. Starting with Monteverdi’s famous concitato style in The Combat of Tancred and Clorinda (1624), rapid, agitated tremolos in string music became a hallmark of warfare in music. Heinrich Biber (1644-1704), contemporary with Williams, Michael Bach, and Pachelbel, wrote a brilliant Battalia à 10. Some speculate that this piece represents Biber’s feelings about the Thirty Years War (1618-48), but such precision is hardly necessary. Conflict was a common feature of life in Biber’s time. Born in Bohemia at the intersection of modern Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic, Biber would have encountered war first hand from his childhood all the way through his employment for the independent bishopric at Salzburg.
Perhaps more important, however, would be Biber’s ability to adapt string music to meet the expressive demands of combat scenarios. He had achieved an international reputation for a virtuosic violin technique, and he was among the first to negotiate higher positions on the fingerboard. He also pioneered the use of scordatura (alternate tunings), double stops (fingering notes on multiple strings simultaneously), and col legno (using the wood side of the bow). For portions of the Battalia à 10 he wrote polytonality: in the second movement, melodies in seven different keys trample upon one another like so many confused conversations. It is about as close to chaos as music could get in 1673. The contrast is only heightened by the gracefulness of the surrounding material. By the fourth movement a military tattoo has begun, with col legno in low strings supporting a virtuosic high solo. At the end, Biber closes with a lament for the fallen.

(c) Jason Stell