Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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;
504 SOMIS SONATA
'The Power of Sound' (Do. 1895); 'Elegy'
(Robert Bridges, Hovingham, 1896); 'Charge of
the Light Brigade' (1896) ; 'Ode to the Sea '
(with soprano solo), Birmingham Festival, 1897;
' Intimations of Immortality ' (Wordsworth),
'
Leeds Festival, 1907. In Arcady,' a suite for
small orchestra, was given at Brighton in 1897 ;
but Somervell's purely orchestral works are very
few. Of sacredworks the most important is his
setting of the Seven Last Words from the Cross.
A quintet for clarinet and strings, and a
symphony, are still in MS. Two sets of variations
for two pianos, and a number of small
pianoforte pieces, including some excellent
concert- studies, are among his instrumental
compositions ; and a special success rewarded
his song-cycle from Tennyson's 'Maud,' while
other songs in series include A ' Shropshire
Lad, ' and James ' Lee's Wife ' (the last with
orchestra). His Songs ' of the Four Nations,'
and other books of arrangements, are an important
addition to the subject of folk-song;
and his many songs show remarkable skill in
writing for the voice, as well as possessing the
charm that makes for popularity while avoiding
all that could be thought meretricious. M.
SOMIS, Giovanni Battista, violinist, was
born in Piedmont in 1676. He studied first
under Corelli at Rome, and afterwards under
Vivaldi at Venice. After his return to Turin
he was appointed solo violinist to the King, and
leader of the royal band, a position he retained
until his death, which ocourreS on August 14,
1763. After having once settled at Turin he
appears scarcely ever to have left it ; and so
few of his compositions were published that
tliere is little opportunity of directly forming
an estimate of him as a, player ; but judging
from the style of his numerous and well-known
pupils, Somis did not merely hand on the
traditions of the great Italian masters, but
formed a style of his own, more brilliant and
more emotional, marking technically, and also,
in a sense, musically, a decided forward step
in the art of playing the violin. As the head
and founder of the Piedmontese School, and the
teacher of Leolair, Giardini, Chiabran, and
Pugnani—the latter again the teacher of Viotti
—he occupies a prominent place in the history
of violin-playing, and forms the connecting link
between the classical schools of Italy and France.
Fiitis names as his only published work Opera
'
jirima di-sonate a violino e violoncello o cembalo.
'
Roma 1722 [but a set of sonatas, op. 4, was
published in Paris in 1726, and twelve sonatas,
op. 6, in 1734. Besides these, an edition of
some of his works appeared at Amsterdam, and
a concerto is in MS. in the royal collection at
Dresden. Quellen-Lexikon.^ p. D.
SOMMER, Hans (actual name, Hans Fkibd-
KiOH August Zincken, the last name occasionally
transformed into
'
Neckniz '), born at
Brunswick, July 20, 1837, was educated at
Giittingen, where he became Professor ofPhysios
subsequently he was appointed Director of the
technical High School of his native place, a post
he gave up in 1884. In 1885 settled in Berlin,
in 1888 in Weimar, and in 1898 returned to
Brunswick. He has won success on the operatic
stage with his later dramatic works in a fantastic
'
form : Der Nachtwachter ^nd ' Loreley were
'
both given in Brunswiok^the iirst in 1865, the
second in 1891 ; in 1894, a one-act piece, 'Saint
Foix, ' was given at Munich ; two other one-act
operas deserve mention, Der ' Meermann, ' at
Weimar in 1896, and 'Augustin'; 'Miinchhausen,'
in three acts, and ' Riibezahl, ' were
given in Brunswick in 1904 ; and 'Riquet a
la Houppe ' at the same theatre on April 14,
1907. It is by his songs that Sommer's name
is best known in England : his op. 3, ' Madchenlieder,'
from Julius Wolffs Wilde Jager; his
op. 4, three sets of songs from the same poet's
JSunold Singuf; his op. 5, a set from Woltt's
Tannhmiser ; his op. 6, to words from Carmen
Sylva's Sappho, and his songs to words of
diiferent authors, opp. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 16,
contain many things that are effective for the
voice, well expressed, original, and full of a
sort of ingenuity that delights all cultivated
amateurs. In particular, his Stelldichein
'
from op. 4, a vocal obbligato to a brilliant pianoforte
waltz, and Am ' Waldtelche,.' in which the
alternate Latin and German words of the poem
are cleverly set to mu'sio in different styles, are
in their way little triumphs of art. Here and
there the composer drifts into rather commonplace
ways of expressing himself, but his best
songs are things that no educated singer can
afford to neglect. He has made several contributions
to musical literature, such as his
Ueber die WertsckcUzung der Musik (1898). M.
SOMMEROPHONE. An instrument of the
saxhorn or bombardon class, named after its inventor.
It was largely played in the Exhibition
of 1851. 'The Euphonic horn of Herr Sommer
is honourably mentioned in the Reports of the
Juries (pp. 331, 335) as 'an instrument of
great powte as well as sweetness of tone. ' It
possessed no very special peculiarities, and is
now seldom, if ever, used. w. H. s.
SON AND STRANGER. See Hbimkehr
AUS DBK FrEMDE.
SONATA. The history of the Sonata is the
history of an attempt to cope with one of the
most singular problems ever presented to the
mind of man, and its solution is one of the most
successful achievements of his artistic instincts.
A sonata is, as its name implies, a sound-piece,
and a sound-piece alone ; in its purest and most
perfect examples, it is unexplained by title or
text, and unassisted by voices ; it is nothing
but an unlimited concatenation of musical notes.
Such notes have individually no significance
;
and even the simplest principles of their relative
definition and juxtaposition, suchasarenecessary