On Franz von Suppè’s ancestors and his early years at Zadar

A few words on myself and my book on Suppè

In April 2017 I published a book on the history of the summer resort Gars am Kamp (Lower Austria) and the numerous artists who went there. Most prominent among them were Franz von Suppè and his wife Sofie, who spent their summer holidays in Gars from 1876 on. In 1879 they bought a house and a piece of land and from then on spent most of their spare-time in Gars.

My book on stars (and some celebrities) in Gars (An illustrated history of the summer resort Gars-Thunau from the beginnings to the present) was one of the reasons why I was invited both 1.) to put an exhibition on Suppè‘s relationship with Gars and 2.) write a book on the same topic in honour of Suppè’s 200. birthday.

Dealing with Suppè’s biography lead to numerous substantial revisions and amendments of what had been known and written on Suppè’s ancestors, his living together with his first and second wife (Theresia Merville and Sofie Strasser), the various artistic milestones in his life, his support of the artistic ambitions of his children (Anna, Peter, Theresia) and the whereabouts of his legacy to name just a few topics.

Above all the painstaking investigation uncovered the original wording of several popular anecdotes on Suppè which had been passed on and quoted only in distorted versions over a century. Moreover the book shows many illustrations, portraits and photographs from Suppè’s legacy for the first time since almost a century.

Suppè‘s ancestors originate from Rijeka, Karlobag and Senj – not as asserted from Belgium

Looking into the five German-speaking biographs on Suppè I learnt that the biographers (Julius Kromer, Otto Schneidereit, Ingrid Scherney and Hans-Dieter Roser) relied unseen on Suppè’s first biographer Otto Keller – and their particular forerunners. Due to the fact that Keller was Suppè’s grandson-in-law [he was married to Suppè’s granddaughter Else] the biographers were convinced that Keller’s biography included everything what had to be said on Suppè’s life, his marriages, his children and family matters.

Well-fed misgivings and nurtured doubts

Among Suppè’s biographers was only one person who began to consult original sources such as Suppè’s autobiographical calendar and personal notebook which can be read at the “Austrian National Library” since almost a century. I’m talking about the former violist and future Suppè-biographer Vladimir Haklik who for example found out that neither Suppè’s father nor Suppè’s grand-father came from Belgium or was born in Cremona as Suppè’s biographers had told so far. Haklik considered that maybe Suppè’s great-grandfather might have come from Belgium which between 1714 and 1797 was called “The Austrian Netherlands” as it was under Habsburg rule.

Franz Robert Müller’s ground-breaking newspaper article

Vladimir Haklik’s doubts were the main reason why I had second thoughts on the real home country of Suppè’s ancestors. My investigation lead to a Viennese Suppè-scholar whose research results were overlooked for almost a whole century. Suppè was an orphan due to his father’s early death so the musicologist Franz Robert Müller (1864-1933) opened up new resources by inspecting Suppè’s guardianship files in 1926. Afterwards Müller published a revealing newspaper article on Suppè and Suppè’s ancestors, his early years and education. Müller’s article is a stroke of luck as in 1927 most of Suppè’s guardianship files got lost during the burning of the law courts in Vienna (“Justizpalastbrand”).

Suppè’s paternal ancestors

Müller’s ground-breaking newspaper article proves that Suppè’s paternal ancestors originate from Rijeka, Karlobag and Senj. Suppè’s parents married at Makarska and then lived in Split (where Suppè was born) and Zadar where Suppè grew up until he and his mother moved to Vienna in September 1835 (as Suppè tells in his personal notebook) or rather in October 1835 (as the guardianship files assert).

Suppè’s great-great-grandparents Georg alias Gregor Franz Suppè and Antonia Buratelli married on 9th February 1722 at Rijeka. Gregor Suppè was castellan at Bakar but resided in Rijeka where he owned a house next to his brother-in-law Giovanni Buratelli who was a clergyman. Suppès great-great-grandmother came from Rijeka which from 1465 on belonged to the Habsburg Empire (most of the time).

Suppè’s great-grandfather Peter Suppè married Anna Maria Vukasovic from Senj on 20th October 1753 at Karlobag. About 1755 he was a cashier or rather treasurer at the tollgate at Karlobag as Vladimir Haklik found out.

Suppè’s grandfather Francesco de Suppè was born on 21st February 1762 at Karlobag. On 11th January 1791 he married Magdalena Demelli von Löwensfeld at her birthplace Senj. Vladimir Haklik found out that Suppè’s grandfather worked as a public servant for the authorities at Senj. In 1791 Suppè’s grandfather became the city’s treasurer and in 1796 the city’s major. In 1797 he became the director (“Verwalter”) of the Kvarner Islands.

Suppè’s father Peter de Suppè was born on 21st March 1796 at Senj. His son noted in his autobiographical calendar that his father began to work for the authorities of Zadar in 1815. From 1816 until 1819 he worked for the authorities of Makarska. There on 27th April 1817 the 21 year old Peter de Suppè married the Viennese Katharina Jandowsy who was nine years older than he. Their first son Francesco was born in November 1817 but died only a week later. On 18th April 1819 their son Francesco de Suppè was born at Split shortly after Peter and Katharina de Suppè relocated there.

The spelling of Suppè’s name

Paul Clemens Miossich (1784-1837) the priest who baptized the newborn misspelt Suppè’s name as Suppe without any accent at all although Suppè’s father spelt Suppè with grave accent (as it is common practice in Italian language). Even as a public servant Suppè’s father signed the communiques by the authorities of Zadar which were proclaimed in the “Gazzetta di Zara” as Suppè with grave accent that’s why his spelling is the right one. [By the way: Suppè’s father’s rank was clerk or secretary. He neither was a commissioner nor a captain as Suppè and his biographers referred.]

Suppè’s maternal grandparents‘ Name is “Jandowsky”

Moreover the priest misspelt the name of Suppè’s mother as “Landovschy”. Keller who in his biography quoted Split’s parish register on Suppè passed on “Landovsky” as Suppè’s mother’s maiden name. Subsequently all of Suppè’s biographers told unanimously and unevaluated that “Landovsky” was Suppè’s mother’s maiden name. In contrast all other entries in the registers of births, deaths, and marriages mentioned her maiden name correctly “Jandowsky” or “Jandovsky” . For instance Zadar’s register of deaths accurately noted “Jandovsky” as her maiden name in conjunction with her husband’s death in 1835.

At first sight one might suppose that this is a minor mistake one must not care about but it isn’t. Since her maiden name was misspelt by Keller his successors could not find out who Suppè’s maternal ancestors were and where they originate so far.

Nevertheless Suppè’s biographers claimed that Suppè’s maternal grandfather urged him to leave all musical interests and ambitions for a medical degree or a civil service career. In contrast I found out that Suppè’s maternal grandfather already died in 1803 why he did not even know his grandson at all. It’s a matter of fact that his grandson was born 16 years afterwards and moved to Vienna not until 32 years after his maternal grandfather’s death.

This sole correction already shows how important it is to know who Suppé’s maternal ancestors are. Anew it was Vladimir Haklik who stated first that Katharina von Suppè’s maiden name reads Jandowsky. Haklik learnt the correct spelling by Suppè’s autobiographical calendar and by the numerous entries in the registers of births, deaths, and marriages. – And so did I.

In addition Christine Steininger and I found out that Suppè’s maternal ancestors came from Moravia and Germany. Katharina Jandowsky was the daughter of Ignaz Jandowsky who was born on 21st April 1752 at Munich and his wife Katharina Hundsfeld who was born in 1765 at Brno.

Conclusion

Neither Suppè’s father, nor his grandfather, nor his great-grandfather came from Bologna, Cremona, Padua or rather the Austrian Netherlands. Currently we don’t know where Suppè’s great-great-grandfather was born but we know for certain that he married in February 1722 at Rijeka the native Antonia Buratelli. Finally there’s no doubt that Suppè’s ancestors originate from Rijeka, Karlobag, Senj and Makarska instead of Belgium or Cremona.

Mostly in the dark: Franz von Suppè‘s early days in Zadar

Creator of the humbuggery on Suppè’s ancestors was Franz von Suppè himself. Most of what he had launched about his origins deviates from the facts. That is the reason why we have to doubt anything he told us about his early days at Zadar too. Currently we only know few matters of records on his musical education, his schooldays, teachers and schoolmates. But I suppose that there are revealing files at Croatian archives which will shed new light on Suppè’s time in Zadar. Prospects are even good that one set of the guardianship files still exists in an archive in Senj, Zadar or Zagreb. After all there was an exchange of letters between the authorities in Vienna, Senj and Zadar between 1835 and 1839.

As a freelancer I can’t afford to do research on site in Croatia. Moreover I can’t read Croatian, Italian and French documents therefore I have to cede these aspects of Suppè’s live to someone who can overcome the obstacle of the Croatian, French and Italian language (as Vladimir Haklik partly did).

That’s the reason why first of all I started to tap new German and English resources on Suppè’s early years. Accordingly my book sums up what is known about Suppè’s time in Split and Zadar so far and emphasizes the aspects that seem to be inconsistent for the present.

The main open-ended questions are:

How intimate was the relationship between Suppè and his parents? What do we know on his father and his mother? Did his parents really obstruct his musical ambitions or did they maintain his musical education? Reports say that Suppè was both self-educated and taught by professional musicians.

Vincenzo Poiret (1813-1868) who was a historical painter, landscapist and portrayer painted a portrait of the 15 year old Suppè that suggests that Suppè was pampered as his parents’ the only child he was. The portrait shows a wealthy fashionably dressed fellow with a sheet of music in his hands. The portrait suggests that Suppè’s mother and/or father who presumably ordered the canvas were proud that their son had musical talent and ambitions (By thee way: The background displays a ship of the Austrian Navy with a naval ensign based on the red-white-red colours).

Again it was Suppè himself who invented contradictory legends about how he learned to play the flute and the trouble his love for music provoked. Until 1874 he reported that due to learning the flute he had neglected his duty as pupil at school so his father got so angry that he hid his son’s flute.

Suppè began to exaggerate his report on this incident little by little. From 1874 on he claimed that his father not only hid the flute but also tore apart his son’s compositions. From 1876 on he asserted that his father not only tore the compositions apart but also broke his son’s flute. This quite dramatic version was passed on and on by Suppè’s biographers as Otto Keller mentioned it in his biography on Suppè.

Details about Suppè’s musical training and education are uncertain as well. They say that Giuseppe Ferrari who was the bandmaster of the local military music and Giovanni Cigala who is said to be the chorus leader of the cathedral chorus were his music teachers in Zadar. In 1850 Suppè told the publicist Philipp Weil that he studied with Cigala at Padua although Suppè never had been in Padua as a student as his guardianship files clarify.

Above all the musicologist Zdravko Blažeković reports in his paper on Suppè and Dalmatia that Cigala came to Zadar in 1827 to start as a harpsichordist at the Teatro Nobile. Blažeković mentions that until 1836 not Cigala but Antonio de Licini was the choirmaster of the cathedral chorus. So Suppè’s report is inconsistent anew.

In addition Vladimir Haklik doubts that Suppè sang with the cathedral chorus because as a child (with a child’s voice) he would have been quite misplaced in a male-voice choir.

In 1867 Suppè told the journalist Ferdinand Gross that as a child he not only had learned flute, clarinet, violin and bassoon but even composed for those instruments.

There’s some hope that at least two compositions of Suppè’s early days might be found in some Croatian archive. First: The historian and publicist Giuseppe Sabalich jun. mentioned that he owned the fragments of Suppè’s setting of Giuseppe Sabalich’s sen. libretto “Il Pomo”. So this early work might be among Sabalich’s jun. legacy wherever it might be kept safe. Second: In 1876 the Franciscan Donato Fabianich (1808-1864) who in 1835 helped Suppè get his “Mass in F major” performed at the monastery in Zadar sent Suppè a copy of this score since Suppè wished to revise this early work which he was unsatisfied with. As soon as Suppè had reworked the “Mass in F major” to “Missa Dalmatica” he returned the original score to Fabianich so it might be stored in some Croatian archive too. (By the way: In 1835 while Fabianich was a 27 year old monk and student Suppè was only a 16 year old teenager why Fabianich rather has to be seen as Suppè’s mentor than as Suppè’s boyhood friend.)

Some other untapped treasures

If one would look up the class-registers of the schools Suppè attended in Zadar (like I looked up the class-registers of the secondary school that Suppè attended in Vienna) we would come to know who his teachers and classmates were. Maybe we even learn if Suppè as pupil really neglected school and his duty by playing truant as he claimed so often.

Among his teachers might have been the priest Paul Miossich who baptized Suppe in Split and later became Split’s bishop and the Austrian botanist Andreas Alschinger (1791-1864) who taught at Zadar’s secondary school and became Suppe’s guardian in 1835.

Another interesting question is: Who were Suppè’s schoolmates who are said to have helped him perform the music he had composed for his father’s birthday? It would be interesting to learn their identities and some details on them and their relationship with Suppè.

Two Oddities

For now I could not find neither a newspaper report on the 1835’s performance of Suppè’s “Mass in F major” nor on the sudden death of Suppè’s father although both incidents seem quite to be newsworthy as Suppè was some kind of prodigy (wunderkind) and Suppè’s father was well-known as a public servant for the authorities of Zadar.

I’m convinced that some of these questions could be answered soon on site.