Biber, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Von

Related Category: Music: History, Composers, and Performers: Biographies

(hīn´rĭkh ĭg´näts fränts fən bē´bər), 1644–1704, Austrian musician. Biber was one of the first notable Central European violinists and may have been the first to employ scordatura, an unusual tuning of the violin to obtain special effects. He composed much violin music, some of it programmatic, that requires great virtuosity, and also various dramatic works.