Biber’s Rosary Sonatas

We will post our Sunday musical selection a day early this week, as there is a Marian theme, fitting for this Saturday in August, the feast of Pope Saint Pius X – who restored the beauty of chant to liturgical worship – and what would be the vigil of Our Lady’s Queenship.

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644 – 1704) was a baroque composer prolific in more ways than one. He and his wife, Maria Weiss, had eleven children, four of whom survived to adulthood. As well, Biber wrote numerous works, Masses, requiems, motets, one, Missa Sancti Henrici, for his daughter’s entrance into religious life. But he is most famous for his series of fifteen Rosary sonatas for violin and continuo, also called the Mystery sonatas, composed around 1676. They were meant to accompany the public recitation of the Rosary, as Catholics meditated on the mysteries of our Saviour’s life. I, for one, would be too distracted by the music, which, like the pieces themselves, I discovered serendipitously, listening to some streamed music. These were so difficult to play, they were lost for three hundred years, until found in 1905. The technical skill to play them was very rare, some say non-existent, in the 17th century (which I find difficult to believe, looking at some of Bach’s scores). Biber used scordatura, different tunings of the strings of the violin, to change its colour and tone, so the player must not only stretch his finger for many of these difficult arpeggios, filled with double-stops (follow along the rolling score, and even try to play, if thou dare!), but the player also hears notes different from what he is used to from normal fingering.

All in all, endless hours of practice, and a gift, music worthy of a heavenly King and Queen. Here is the first of the fifteen, but the rest may all be found quite easily:

Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress

This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→

A Closed, Unsustainable, Descending Loop

As a follow-up to my thoughts on Payette’s payout, here be a stark image of where are here in Canada. As the graph shows in, well, graphic terms, since 2025, the public sector has contributed to 95.5% of economic growth. The private sector – which funds the public sector, or is supposed to – has[…]Continue reading→

Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk

(Today marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Father Alphonse de Valk, C.S.B., a faithful, courageous and indefatigable Basilian priest, pro-life-and-family apostle, and the founder of Catholic Insight magazine. Here is what we wrote those on his entering into eternity five years ago, as we continue to remember him in our prayers and thoughts)[…]Continue reading→

My Name is Bernadette

April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→

Presidential Pardon of Weronika Krawczyk

As a good news, follow-up to our story from Poland, of the persecution of Weronika Krawczyk for her pro-life views, we heard that she has been granted a presidential pardon. One might still wonder why one needs a presidential pardon for simply holding the long-held belief that the child within the womb is a child,[…]Continue reading→

Canonizing Sister Faustina and Divine Mercy

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Divine Mercy Sunday – An Echo of Every Mass

Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe’…  ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn. 20:18)). Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and as we celebrate the end of the Easter Octave, we contemplate the wounded side of our Saviour, the Church’s source of life. On Good Friday in the[…]Continue reading→

Pope Leo and a Rosary for Peace

Pope Leo XIV has asked Catholics across the world to join him in a Rosary for peace today, at 18:00 Rome time (6 pm), which would be noon from where I write (EST). If you are able, whether at that time or another, and in whatever way you pray, to join in intercession with the[…]Continue reading→

Payette’s Payout

I was glancing through some headlines, and noticed a mention of Julie Payette – engineer and astronaut and sometime the Queen’s representative in Canada – which brought back vague memories. She was appointed Governor-General by Justin Trudeau in 2017. Ms. Payette resigned in 2021, amidst claims that she created a ‘toxic work environment’, with allegations[…]Continue reading→

Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów

We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→