Matthias Siegmund Biechteler von Greiffenthal

Matthias Siegmund von Biechteler, also known as Mattia Sigismondo, was an Austrian composer and lutenist born around 1668 in Leibnitz, near Graz, and who died in Salzburg in August 1743. His significance lies above all in his work at the head of the musical chapel of Salzburg Cathedral, one of the most important religious and musical centres in the Baroque German-speaking world.

He studied at the Jesuit university in Graz from 1684 at the latest, and around 1687 moved to the Benedictine university in Salzburg, probably thanks to the election of Archbishop Johann Ernst, Count Thun, a former protector of his father. In 1688 he joined the court Kapelle, possibly as a solo singer. He was promoted to deputy Kapellmeister in 1703 and to Kapellmeister in 1706, a post he held until his death, and for a time he also taught singing to the choirboys. In 1723 he was ennobled by Emperor Charles VI and, in 1726, the reigning archbishop appointed him Obersthofmeister. It is striking that, as Kapellmeister, he earned less than his predecessor, Heinrich Biber.

His abundant sacred output helped to build a distinctive repertoire for Salzburg Cathedral. He followed the customary distinctions in Catholic sacred music between stylus a cappella, stylus mixtus and stylus solennis, and took into account the particular arrangement of the musicians, some of whom were placed in galleries beneath the dome. For this reason he gave greater weight to sonic effects than to contrapuntal complexity. His vocal works often revive the older technique of the motet with mote, and his church sonatas, apparently influenced by Corelli, follow the form of the sonata da chiesa of his time.

He was also one of the last great virtuosos of the lute in southern Germany, an instrument he learned to play at the commission of Archbishop Thun. His legacy, preserved in archives in Salzburg and Vienna, establishes him as a key musician in Salzburg's musical life in the first third of the eighteenth century.