are now, in obedience to his admirable practice, occupied by distinct ideas, usually of small scope, but of definite purport. [See vol. i. p. 203b.] The 'Eroica' Symphony affords early and striking examples of subsidiary subjects in various positions. Thus, on the usual dominant passage preceding the 2nd subject appears the plaintive melody:—
which becomes of so much importance in the 2nd part. And the same title belongs also to the fresh subject which appears transiently during the 'working-out' with so much effect:—
Equally noticeable is the phrase in a similar situation in the 4th Symphony,
while the melody which Schubert interpolated as an afterthought in the Scherzo of his great C major Symphony is too well known to require quotation.
These two last however are not worked, and can therefore hardly be classed as 'themes,' but are more of the nature of 'episodes.'
In some cases a Subsidiary acquires so much importance in the working out as to rank as a third subject. The Italian Symphony of Mendelssohn supplies a type of this. The subject—
which appears shortly after the double bar in the 1st movement, though properly speaking merely a Subsidiary, is so insisted upon and elaborated in the working-out and coda as to rival the ist subject itself in importance.
As a notable exception to the rule that a Subsidiary is usually very short, we may mention that in the Rondo Finale of Raff's PF. Quartet in G (op. 202) there occurs a subordinate theme over 60 bars in length.
SUCCENTOR, i.e. Sub-cantor. A cathedral officer, deputy to the Præcentor. His duty is to supply his principal's place during absence, in the regulation of the service, and other duties of the Præcentor.
SUCCÈS D'ESTIME. A success which is due to the sympathy of friends, or the desire to do justice to a meritorious composer, or to the hidden inner merits of a work, and not due to those qualities which appear on the surface and compel the applause of the public.
SUCHER, Josef, born at Döbör, Eisenburg, Hungary, Nov. 23, 1844, was brought up in the Löwenburg Convict at Vienna, as a chorister in the Hofkapelle, which he joined on the same day with Hans Richter, the conductor. On completing his course at the Convict he began to study law, but soon threw it aside, worked at counterpoint with Sechter, and adopted music as his profession. Beginning as sub-conductor of a Singing Society in Vienna, he advanced to be 'Repetitor' of the solo singers at the Imperial Court Opera, and conductor at the Comic Opera, and in 1876 went to Leipzig as conductor of the City Theatre. In the following year he married Fräulein Rosa Hasselbeck, the then prima donna of the same house. She belongs to Velburg in the Palatinate, and is the daughter of one musician and the niece of another. Her first engagement was at Treves. Thence she went to Königsberg and thence to Berlin and Danzig, where she was engaged by her future husband for Leipzig. From Leipzig in 1879 husband and wife went to Hamburg, where they are settled as conductor and prima donna. They visited England in 1882, and Mme. Sucher proved her eminent qualities both as a singer and an actress by the extraordinary range of parts in which she appeared at the German opera at Drury Lane—Euryanthe; Senta; Elisabeth; Elsa; and Isolde. Her husband produced a 'Scene' or Cantata entitled 'Waldfräulein' ('The wood maiden') for soli, chorus, and orchestra, at the Richter Concert of June 5. Composition is no novelty to Heir Sucher; even in his chorister days we hear of songs, masses, cantatas, and overtures, one of which, to an opera called 'Ilse,' was brought forward at a concert in Vienna in 1873. One of his best-known published works is a Liedercyclus entitled 'Ruheort.' [App. p.797 "Add that Frau Sucher gained great renown by her singing of Isolde at Bayreuth in 1886. In 1887 her husband was appointed to the post of conductor at the Hofoper at Berlin, she remaining at Hamburg to fulfil her engagement."]
SÜSSMAYER,[1] Franz Xaver, composer and Capellmeister, born 1766 at Steyer in Upper Austria, and educated at the monastery of Kremsmünster, where he attempted composition in several branches. At Vienna he had instruction from Salieri and Mozart. With the latter he formed the closest attachment, becoming, to use Seyfried's expression, 'the inseparable companion of the immortal Amphion.' Jahn details the work he did for the 'Clemenza di Tito' on its production at Prague, whither he accompanied Mozart. Süssmayer was at his bed-side the evening before Mozart's death, while the latter tried to give him the necessary instructions for completing his Requiem, a task for which he was peculiarly fitted by his knack of imitating Mozart's handwriting. Jahn has stated in detail (ii. 172) how much of that work is in all probability Süssmayer's. [See vol. ii. p. 402a.]
- ↑ He signs himself on a symphony Siessmayr.
