He was born on a large estate, where his father was the huntsman or forester. There is no record of his early development as a musician.

What is known is that by the mid-1660s he was in the orchestra of Prince-Bishop Karl Lichtenstein-Kastelkorn of Olmütz, one of the leading music-lovers of the time and the owner of one of the great collections of early Baroque music manuscripts. Biber's fame was growing to the extent that he felt he could do better elsewhere, and left the Bishop's employment in 1670.

However, he had not obtained permission to do so and, according to the rules of that time, the Prince-Bishop issued a warrant for his arrest. Biber hid out with an instrument maker in the South Tyrol, Jakob Stainer, who was spreading the word that Biber was a "formidable virtuoso."

Biber obtained a job with the court of Maximilian Gandolf, Reichsgraf von Khünberg, Prince Bishop of Salzburg, in the winter of 1670. In May 1672 he married. In Salzburg he obtained a series of promotions: trainer of the cathedral choir boys (1677); vice-Kapellmeister (1679); dean of the choir boys' school and Court Kapellmeister (1684).

It is not known whether Biber traveled much. The record shows that he was decorated by the Bavarian court twice, indicating his presence in Munich, and the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I, awarded him a patent of nobility in 1690, raising an inference that he also played in Vienna.

However, he composed and published extensively. His jilted first employer in Olmütz received many of his manuscripts and first editions directly from Biber, indicating that Biber was forgiven for his independence.

Biber is best known to history for his violin music, especially for writing pieces exploiting effects made possible through scordatura, or non-standard tuning of the violin. However, he also wrote two operas (one of which survives) and a variety of religious music.

The two most famous works heavily reliant on scordatura for special tone colors are the Mystery Sonatas (15 sonatas on the Rosary) and Harmonia artificiosa-ariosa, a work for string ensemble.

He was also advanced in his treatment of the trumpet, writing sonatas for trumpet and strings. He may have been the author of the Messa salisburgensis, a highly polyphonic work in 53 voices. Previously attributed to Orazio Benevoli and dated 1628, it now appears to have been by Biber and first heard in 1682.

Biber had a highly accomplished contrapuntal mind which, coupled with a truly outstanding melodic gift, makes his music a wonderful flow of invention. He was also unconventional, with piles-ups of textures and ideas in his music that are oddly comparable with those of Charles Ives. Paul Hindemith considered him the greatest composer before J.C. Bach.

Joseph Stevenson