Open to change: a history of scordatura

This is an extract from the article ’Peg-turning masterpieces: Heinrich Biber Baroque Scordatura’ from June 2003. To read the full article, click here

Scordatura has often been considered a fleeting fancy, an experimental technique of limited consequence used by a few little-known Baroque composers, even something which went out of fashion for good reasons.

With the rise of interest in historical performance, however, and an increasing amount of time devoted to such specialised techniques, scordatura is under the spotlight again - in particular on several widely acclaimed recordings of Biber’s Mystery or Rosary Sonatas.