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The Missa Salisburgensis à 53 voci is a large-scale Baroque mass setting for two vocal and four instrumental choirs (or orchestras) in the style of Venetian polychoral music. The anonymous composition is now attributed to Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber; previously Orazio Benevoli or Andreas Hofer were suspected to be the composer. The mass was probably first performed in 1682 in Salzburg Cathedral on the occasion of the 1100th anniversary of the Salzburg diocese (calculated according to the house tradition of St. Peter's Abbey). Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, from 1690 Biber von Bibern, (baptized August 12, 1644 in Wartenberg, Bohemia as Hennericus Pieber; † May 3, 1704 in Salzburg) was a Bohemian composer and famous violinist of the Baroque period. Biber received his musical education at a Jesuit grammar school in Troppau, Silesia. Here he came into contact with the trumpeter and later Kapellmeister of the Archbishop in Kremsier Pavel Josef Vejvanovský. He probably took further lessons from Johann Heinrich Schmelzer or the court Kapellmeister Antonio Bertali in Vienna, but this is not certain. His first known composition dates from 1663, a Salve Regina for soprano, violin, viola da gamba and organ. He received his first job in 1668 as a musician in the court chapel and valet of the Olomouc Bishop Karl II of Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn. He did not return from a trip to Innsbruck without permission. On this trip he came into contact with the violin maker Jakobus Stainer, who was famous at the time and who later referred to him in a letter as "the excellent virtuoso Mr. Biber". From 1670 he entered the service of Archbishop Max Gandolf von Kuenburg in Salzburg. In 1678 he was appointed vice-conductor and, after the death of his predecessor Andreas Hofer in 1684, he was appointed conductor. He was considered a brilliant violin virtuoso; in 1690 Emperor Leopold I awarded him a title of nobility (Truchsess) for his compositional work. From then on he was allowed to call himself "Biber von Bibern", which meant considerable social advancement. At that time his monthly income was 60 guilders, including free accommodation, wine, bread and firewood. In 1715 his son Carl Heinrich Biber (1681–1749) succeeded his father as conductor.