Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/20

4 13 harmony, and at 15 produced a mass at the Franciscan church at Zara. His father, however, had other views for him, and sent him to the University of Padua. But music asserted itself; he learned from Cigala and Ferrari, and wrote incessantly. At this moment his father died, the mother settled in Vienna, where Francesco joined her; and after a little hesitation between teaching Italian, practising medicine, and following music, he decided on the last, got lessons from Seyfried, and obtained a gratuitous post as Conductor at the Josephstadt theatre. This was followed by better engagements at Pressburg and Baden, and then at the theatres an-der-Wien, Quai, and Leopoldstadt in Vienna, with the last-named of which he is still connected. His work at these houses, though for long mere patching and adding, was excellent practice, and he gradually rose to more independent things. In 1844 a 'Sommernachtstraum,' founded on Shakspeare, and composed by him, is mentioned in the A.M.Z. 'Der Krämer und sein Commis' followed. In 1847 he was at the Theatre an-der-Wien and (Aug. 7) brought out a piece, 'Das Mädchen vom Lande' (The country girl), which met with wild success. Ten years later (Jan. 8, 1858) a Singspiel, 'Paragraph 3,' spread his fame into North Germany, and from that time a stream of pieces flowed from his pen. His works are said by the careful Wurzbach to reach the astonishing number of 2 grand operas, 165 farces, comediettas, and vaudevilles, etc., as well as a Mass ('Missa dalmatica,' Spina, 1877), a Requiem produced at Zara in 1860 under the title of 'L'estremo Giudizio' etc., etc. A list of 49 of his operatic pieces is given by Wurzbach, but a few only are dated. Another list of 21 is given by Batka in Pougin's supplement to Fétis, but the titles are French, and it is hard to make the dates agree. Some of the pieces are mere parodies, as 'Tannenhäuser,' 'Dinorah, oder die Turnerfahrt nach Hütteldorf.' One, 'Franz Schubert,' is founded on the life of Schubert, and contains five of his songs. The only pieces of Suppe's known out of Germany are 'Fatinitza,' produced at Vienna, Jan. 5, 1876; at the Alhambra, London, June 20, 1878, and at the Nouveautés, Paris, March 1879; and 'Boccaccio,' which was brought out in London, at the Comedy Theatre, April 22, 1882. The overture to 'Dichter und Bauer,' the only one of his overtures known in England, must be his most popular work abroad, since it has been arranged for no less than 59 different combinations of instruments, all published by Aibl of Munich. It is a stock piece in the Crystal Palace répertoire. [ G. ]

SURIANO. [See, vol. iii. p. 638.]

SURMAN,, born 1803, son of a dissenting minister at Chesham, became a music copyist, tenor chorister, and clerk at a dissenters' chapel. On the establishment of the Sacred Harmonic Society in 1832 he was appointed its conductor. In 1838 he became music publisher, chiefly of sacred music in separate parts. About the same time he was assistant conductor of the Melophonic Society. In 1842 he was chosen to conduct the Worcester Festival. An inquiry by a special committee into his official conduct as agent for and conductor of the Sacred Harmonic Society having resulted in an unanimously adverse report, he was removed from his office, Feb. 15, 1848. He then attempted the formation of the 'London Sacred Harmonic Society,' but failing to obtain sufficient members carried on concerts in the society's name at his own expense for 7 or 8 years. Surman died Jan. 20, 1871. [ W. H. H. ]

SUSANNA. An oratorio in three parts, by Handel; the author of the words is not known. The overture was begun on July 11, 1748, a month after the completion of 'Solomon,' and the work was finished on the 24th of the following month. It was produced during the season of 1749. [ G. ]

SUSATO. [See .]

SUSPENSION is the process of arresting the conjunct motion of one or more parts for a time, while the rest of the components of the chord proceed one step onwards, and thereby come to represent a different root. The part which is stayed in this manner commonly produces dissonance, which is relieved by its then passing on to the position it would have naturally occupied sooner had the motion of the parts been simultaneous. Thus in the progression of the chord of the Dominant seventh to Tonic harmony (a), the part which takes the upper note (or seventh) can be delayed and made to follow into its position after the rest of the chord has moved, as in (b), thereby producing a fourth in place of a third for a time. Similarly the fifth, or the fifth and third, can be suspended, producing a ninth, or a ninth and seventh, against the tonic note; and the dissonant effect is similarly relieved by their passing on to their normal position in the chord afterwards, as in (c). In all such cases the first occurrence of the note in the part whose motion is suspended is called the 'Preparation,' as in the first chord of (b) and of (c); the moment of dissonance resulting from the motion of the other parts, is called the 'Percussion' of the discord, and the release of the dissonance, when the part proceeds to its natural place in the harmony, is called the 'Resolution.'

Suspension was among the very first methods discovered by the early harmonists for introducing dissonance into their music. In the earliest times composers depended chiefly upon the different degrees and qualities of consonances—sixths, thirds, fifths, and octaves—to obtain the necessary effects of contrast between one musical moment and another. Then, when, in the natural order of things, something stronger was required, it was found in this process of suspension. But for