In the late seventeenth century, the sonata genre was becoming
more and more standardized, but there are always exceptions. One
example is this set of violin sonatas by Heinrich Ignaz Franz
von Biber depicting the Mysteries of the Rosary, a series of
biblical narratives used for religious meditation. The sonatas
were not published, an indication of their eccentricity, their
difficulty, and their distance from the development of mass-
marketed music. Fourteen of the sixteen sonatas also use a
technique known as scordatura, in which the strings are re-tuned
to achieve particular colors and facilitate the playing of
unusual chords. Another distinction of these works is that each
sonata is accompanied in manuscript by an engraving of its
associated mystery. The Sixth sonata depicts Christ’s painful
coming-to-grips with his fate, traditionally believed to have
taken place in an olive garden.