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Public Library

Kansas City, Mo,

KANSAS CITY, MO. PUBLIC LIBRARY

0001

THREE-QUARTER TIME

The Life and Music of
the Strauss Family of Vienna

e &ie m

of tq

amily of i/i

ienna.

By JEROME PASTENE

ABELARD PRESS _ fl NEW YORK

Copyright 19 Jl by Jerome Pastene .

FIRST EDITION

Book Designed by Murray Schwartz
Musical Excerpts autographed by Samuel Warsager

and Bound in the United States of America
Published tknultaneowly tn Canada by George J. Ucteod, Ltd.

To My Mother,
In Remembrance of Vienna

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Johann Strauss, Sr. 25

A Ball in Old Vienna 26

Emperor Frans-Josef 59

Franzjosef and Elizabeth of Austria 60

Johann Strauss n 93

Josef Strauss 94

Johann Strauss n 127

Stadtpark Memorial to Johann Strauss n 128

Eduard Strauss 161

A Scene from Die Fledermaus 162

Adde Strauss 195

Franz Lehar 196

CONTENTS

An Introduction by ARTHUR FIEDLER 1
BOOK I

THE WORLD OF THE WALTZ

1. The Early Days of Josef Lanner

and Johann Strauss, Sr 7

2. The First Johann 18

3. European Pilgrimage 24

4. England: Coronation Tear 40

5. Domestic Revolution 48

BOOK II
JOHANN STRAUSS II, "THE WALTZ KING"

L The Rise to Fame 61

2. Civil War: 1848 71

3. The Early Waltzes 79

4. Jetty Trefiz 98

5. The Great Waltzes 103

6. A King for America 123

7. Return of the Dative 135

8. The Culmination of an Art 142

9. Successes and Failures 165

10. Adele Strauss 179

11. The Last Tears 190

BOOK III

THE END OF A DYNASTY

1. Josef Strauss 213

2. Music of the Spheres 221

3. Eduard Strauss 229

4. America Again 237

5. Franz Lehdr 245

REFERENCE SECTION

Selected Recordings of Strauss Compositions . . 262

A Catalogue by Opus Numbers of

the Compositions of: JOHANN STRAUSS I ...... 280

JOHANN STRAUSS H 284

JOSEF STRAUSS 294

EDUARD STRAUSS 299

Bibliography 306

AN INTRODUCTION

BY ARTHUR FIEDLER

THERE HAVE BEEN PREVIOUS BOOKS on the history of Johann
Strauss, the "Walts; King," and the life and light music of his
times. Yet this book is not a duplication of what already has
been covered in this field, for until now most biographers of
Johann Strauss have concerned themselves exclusively with
the romantic story of his life. Here that story is by no means
slighted indeed, details are included which up to now seem
to have escaped Strauss's biographers, notably the visits of the
Strausses to America. Jerome Pastene has even dealt at length
with other members of the family, who often come in for only
a casual mention from other biographers. Indeed, in this re"
spect "Three'Quarter Time" is not so much a history of Jo'
hann Strauss II as it is the history of light music in Vienna in
the Nineteenth Century.

But the main distinctions of this book are the degree of
attention which it pays to the compositions of the Strausses,
the picture it draws of the development of the waltz; as a con'
cert form, and the analyses (technical and artistic) of a num
ber of the compositions of the Strausses,

The average reader is, I think, inclined to Consider the per'
fonnance of a Strauss waits a simple matter for a conductor.
May I state emphatically that it is not! I have recorded more
music of the Strauss family for the phonograph than has
any other conductor, and still I find that I must approach

Three'Quarter Time

each performance as seriously and as carefully as I might
a Beethoven overture. In his foreword to the Eulenberg minia
ture pocket scores, Victor Keldorfer puts the matter suc
cinctly:

"The rendering of a Strauss waits is at first sight childishly
simple, and yet a book might be written on the way the com"
poser and more especially his younger brother Eduard con
ducted them, down to the beginning of the century. This
interpretation is still a living memory to the older Viennese
people, and to the credit of the younger generation it has
been handed down to them."

For all its apparent simplicity, the performance of a Strausa
waits, with its subtle and delicate use of rubato, is anything
but simple. There are any number of ways of playing a Strauss
waits, and the confusing fact is that more than one may be
in the Viennese tradition. As Mr. Pastene points out, this
tradition is something which can be learned only through
having played in a Viennese orchestra under Viennese con
ductors.

And since the technique of proper performance is something
so subtle, almost so national, as to defy words, Mr. Pastene
has rightly chosen to append to this volume a fairly complete
list of phonograph recordings, by means of which he seeks
to indicate the fine difference between the true Strauss per*
fonnance and a distorted one.

Jerome Pastene himself brings a respectable equipment to
his task as biographer of this period and form of music. First,
and not least, is his personal enthusiasm for this music and
his love for the period from which it stemmed. Second, the
care involved in the preparation of this book, ^vhich was begun
in 1941. Third* Mr. Paatene's personal experience with this
music and tfee Strauss operettas on the stage gained as Theater
and Music Control Officer for the Military Government of

INTRODUCTION

Wiirttemberg'Baden, Germany. Finally, Mr. Fastened ex'
perience as a conductor and the thorough technical under
standing of the Viennese waits; which he thereby acquired.
For it takes a certain kind of courage for any American to
venture to conduct a German or Austrian orchestra in music
which they consider so particularly theirs, and a definite talent
to make them accept such performances as authentic in style!

BOOK I

THE WORLD
OF THE WALTZ

1

THE EARLY DAYS OF JOSEF LANNER
AND JOHANN STRAUSS, SR.

THE Viennese Waltz did not, like Athena, spring into being
full-grown. It had a long and tortuous pedigree, beginning
with the Round Dance of the Middle Ages, and continuing
through the Carmagnole of the French Revolution, and the
so-called German Dances, to its immediate parent, the Land"
ler, to which it is so closely related that many waltz; passages
are marked im Ldndler tempo. But precisely at what period
the Landler shed its peasant boots for the elegant slippers of
the aristocratic ballroom, it is impossible to determine.

It is a popular belief that the first waltzes originated with
Lanner and Strauss. Yet long before either had tucked his
first violin beneath his chin, the wait? had made its appear'
ance and had gained a certain popularity. Mo?art, visiting
Prague in 1787, described the people of that city as "flying
about with such delight to the music of my Figaro, trans-
formed into waltzes and quadrilles." Mo?art was followed,
and the primitive wait? improved, by Fran? Schubert with
his Walzer, Valses Sentimentales, Vienna Belles and Valses
Nobles.

For practical purposes, however, yet another composer
must be credited with the creation of the wait? as both a
concert'and'dance form, for to none of these earlier compO"
sitions can one dance the wait? as it was known on ballroom
floors during the latter half of the Nineteenth Century.

41Y

Time

This first true concert-and-dance waltz; was the Rondo
Brillante in D-at major, Op. 65, by Karl Maria von Weber;
the founder of the German Romantic School of opera. This
composition, originally written for piano, is better known as
the Invitation to the Dance, as well as by the erroneous but
obviously natural title of Invitation to the Waltz. Written in
1819, when Johann Strauss was a lad of fourteen, it was sty
listically a full fifty years ahead of its time. (The formal struc
ture of the Rondo, however, is unlike that of the true Vien
nese Walts;.)

Invitation to the Dance is also the musical portrait of Vien
na, 1814. Napoleon I, defeated by the major powers of Eu
rope under England's aegis, was in exile at Elba; in Vienna
the ruling sovereigns and political lords of Europe were
gathered to settle the fate of France. King Maximilian*- Josef
of Bavaria, King Friedrich-Wilhelm of Prussia, C*;ar Alex
ander I of Russia and the King of Denmark led the van of
famous visitors. Talleyrand and Metternich, each intent on
his own political machinations and intrigues, mingled each
evening with the select guests, rubbing elbows with the
Countess Bernstorff, the Princesses of Hesse, Prince Lobko-
wits; and Prince Lichnowsky, the patrons of Beethoven,
Prince Esterhasy, Count Witt, and the Prince von und #u
Lichtenstein. Other great Austrian families were represent
ed: Auersberg, Colloredo and Zischy, among others. Even
the new aristocracy, the aristocracy of finance, was promi
nently in evidence. A few names suffice Mendelssohn, Es-
keles, Pereira, Arnstein.

Led by this glittering assemblage, the population of Vienna
and the one hundred thousand visitors to which it was cur
rently playing host turned the five months' tenure of the Con
gress of Vienna into a paradise in walt2;<time. The extrava
gance wa$ shocking, the pace appalling. It ended abruptly dur-

THE EARLY DAYS

ing a ball at Prince Metternich's palace on March 7th, 1815,
when the news of the little Corsican's return to France
"struck the party like lightning from the sky," as de la
Garde put it. The reaction of the guests was summarised by
the Countess Bernstorff when she noted that "the Csar's pal
lor shouted what his lips would never have breathed."

But while the party lasted, it was a gay one. And it was to
music such as Weber's Invitation to the Dance that the pace
was set . . . -

FAR from the elegant palaces of Austria's great, the Leopold'
stadt, situated on an island in the Danube, was at this period
Vienna's most northeasterly suburb. It was a poor locality;
the houses were old and shabby, and the streets, paved with
cobbles which showed the wear of a hundred years, were
medievally primitive. Street lighting was haphazard, often
nonexistent, and sewer systems unknown. The Leopoldstadt
was occupied largely by Poles and Czechs, together with a
great number of Jewish artisans, many of them refugees from
Russian domination.

Along the Flossgasse, a typical street, close enough to the
Danube for it to cater to boatmen and carriers travelling to
and fro between Southern Germany and Hungary, stood a
small inn, Zum Guten Hirten, owned by Frans Strauss and his
wife, Barbara Tollman Strauss. Here, amid the all-pervading
odor of beer and the noise of brawling bargemen, their only
child was born,

March 14th, 1804, dawned cold, with alternating rain and
snow. The midwife at first refused to venture out in the in
clement weather, arriving almost too late to lend any assist
ance. It was she who laid in the arms of innkeeper Franz; the
frail, thin body of his son, whom the Carmelites baptised
Johann.

Three^uarter Time

Among these sordid surroundings young Johann spent his
childhood. When he was less than a year old, his father was
found drowned in the Danube. There were rumors of suicide,
but these were never verified. His mother, unable to continue
operating the inn by herself, married another innkeeper, a
man named Colder.

Johann was fortunate in having a stepfather who received
him as his own child. He encouraged him in all his childish
amusements, and it was he who first noted Johann's constant
preoccupation with rhythm and melody. The child would take
a stick and beat it in three-quarter time, as though it were a
baton. Often, too, he would pretend to fiddle, using one stick
for a bow and another for a violin, tucking one end beneath
his chin, and fingering the other in rapt imitation of the va
grant fiddlers whom he sometimes saw in the Guten Hirten.

It was his kindly stepfather who gave him, on his name
day, a cheap Bavarian fiddle. The tone was dry, thin and wiry,
and might have well discouraged a less determined youngster.
Legend has it, amusingly but probably inaccurately, that he
at times poured beer into the body of the instrument to make
the tone more mellow.

On his own initiative, and with some irregular and not .al-
ways helpful advice from the strolling players who frequented
the inn, he taught himself to play. When we recall that it was
his warm tone and virtuosity which first established Johann
in Vienna, his early and almost formless beginnings as a vio"
linist are all the more amazing.

The love of music which he had known before now became
an all-enveloping and all-consuming passion, allowing him no
time for study. He brought his violin to school, and plucked
on it absently during classes. His teachers despaired of him;
his reports grew progressively worse. There was no cure. His
stepfather, anxious that young Johaan acquire at least the

4 10 Jh

THE EARLY DAYS

rudiments of a sound education, tried every form of persua
sion and compulsion, to no avail.

At last, one of the boy's teachers, hearing him play, went to
the parents and pointed out to them his remarkable talent. A
few close friends did the same. Emboldened by their support,
Johann had the temerity to tell his parents that he wished to
become a musician. They were horrified; their conception of
a musician was bounded by the itinerant "dinner musicians/*
those poor, bedraggled vagrants who wandered from Wtrts-
haus to Wtrtsh<ms, offering a day's fiddling in exchange for a
dish of food and a pallet on which to sleep. A "dinner musi
cian" was of the social level of the prostitute; this was not
the career for their Johann. His parents somehow never en-
visioned the possibility that their son might become a great
and successful composer like Beethoven or Haydn or Mozart.
And so he was apprenticed to a bookbinder.

Lichtscheidl, the bookbinder, was not an unkindly man, but
his patience was sorely tried by the unruliness of his new ap
prentice. Johann would go into tantrums of the wildest sort,
throwing his tools on the floor, scattering the books literally
as leaves before a storm. In desperation, Lichtscheidl would
beat him and then lock him in the woodshed. His wife, a more
understanding creature, waited until he had stamped off in
fury to let the boy free.

There seemed to be one solution to this intolerable sit
uation. One warm summer afternoon, his violin beneath his
arm, Johann slipped away from his master's shop and headed
for the Kahlenberg, that mountain which looks down so be
nignly upon Vienna. A casino was located on the summit, and
there Johann hoped to gain a few coppers by his fiddling, Out
past Dobling and Grinding he went. As he mounted the slope,
the valley of the Danube spread out further and further be
low htm, a vast panorama of orchards, meadows, woodlands

Three-quarter Time

and farmland. Fascinated by this enchanting vista, so differ
ent from the drab colors of his native Leopoldstadt, he came
to a halt. Stretching himself on the grass in the last warm
glow of the setting sun, he looked past Vienna along the
course of the Danube 'towards Hungary. Weariness and a sort
of contentment gradually benumbed him, and in this idyllic
setting he fell asleep.

By fortunate coincidence, he was found there some hours
later by the violinist Polyshanski. Intrigued by the sight of a
young boy so peacefully asleep in the country with a violin
beside him, he awakened the lad, who recounted his misfor
tunes, Polyshanski took Johann to his own home for the night,
and returned him to his parents the following morning. Their
relief was unbounded, for they had feared that in a fit of self-
pity and despair he might have thrown himself into the Dan
ube. His father's mysterious and tragic death did not allow
them to discount that possibility.

Johann's new protector talked at length with the parents
concerning their son's future, and at last secured their per
mission to allow Johann to study music as a career. Polyshan
ski himself undertook the violin instruction which the boy
greatly needed; although Johann was already proficient on
his instrument, guided by a natural and most catholic musi
cal taste, the finer points of violin technique bowing, finger"
ing, and such he could not teach himself, and Polyshanski's
aid was of the greatest importance.

Johann Strauss was only fifteen when he became a profes
sional musician. His eagerness actually to engage in musical
work led him to accept an offer which caused his parents some
anxiety* and certainly it was not precisely the career which
his tutor would have selected for him; but his headstrong
nature would take no refusals or denials. He secured
;an appointment in the orchestra of one Michael Pamer, a con-

4 12 V

THE EARLY DAYS

ductor famed more for his capacity as a Falstaffian tippler
than his ability as a sensitive musician. Nor was Pamer' s au
dience of much better stamp at the time Johann entered his or'
chestra. Pamer placed his new man in the viola section, him.'
self giving his new recruit some instruction on that instni'
ment.

The atmosphere in which Johann now found himself gave
his parents ample reason to claim that there was indeed noth'
ing good in a musician. Pamer himself was constantly drunk,
and many of his players followed the example he set. The
public to whom they catered was at best that of the lower
middle-class Viennese. When one remembers that Strauss's
musicians of a later day were famed for their soldierly preci'
sion, one wonders whether his disgust at the unmusical exhi
bitions in which he was forced to take part when he played
in Pamer's orchestra did not in a large degree influence him
in his later insistence on smart precision.

Wholesome or not, here Strauss stayed for close to four
years. Not all of his colleagues were cut from Pamer's cloth;
close beside him in the orchestra sat a tall lad, whose sensitive
features were surmounted by an aureole of wavy blond hair.
This young man, some three years the senior of Johann
Strauss, was Josef Lanner, Vienna's first famous walt^master.
Lanner remained with the orchestra only long enough to es
tablish a close friendship with Strauss; he then left Pamer to
form a trio with two brothers named Drahanek, of Bohemian
origin.

Strauss kept his seat in Pamer's orchestra until he felt suf'
ficient confidence in his abilities to seek something better.
Then one day in the Prater he sought out Lanner, who was
giving an open-air concert with the two Drahaneks. Lanner
invited Strauss to dine with them. During the course of the
dinner, Johann asked if he might join their band and develop

Three-quarter Time

the trio into a quartet. Lanner was more than willing, for he
knew Strauss to be a fine musician, and sensed in him that
spark of mutual appreciation, sympathy and understanding
always so necessary to the success of any small instrumental
combination.

Josef Lanner was himself a native of Vienna, for his birth
place was Oberdobling, a suburb close to the bastions of the
city proper. He was in some respects the lesser musician, for
he lacked even Strauss's meager grounding in harmony and
composition; yet he was an inspired composer, and, despite
the accident of Weber's unique Invitation to the Dance, it is
Lanner who was the first to make the Viennese Waltz; a dance
of sophisticated appeal.

Lanner and Strauss made a perfect pair. They not only be
came sympathetic musicians and teammates, but roommates
as well, with all the close friendship which such an associa
tion brings. The curly black head of Strauss was never far
from the unruly blond thatch of Lanner. Life at first was not
easy for them, and, making both ends meet was a serious prob
lem, albeit one spiced liberally with humor. Matters at last
became so bad that the two young men had only one shirt be
tween them, so that one, perforce, had to stay at home when
the other ventured abroad. Together with the Drahaneks,
these two boys presented, in the nonchalant acceptance of
their lot, a picture that was the Viennese counterpart of Ru'
dolphe, Marcel, Colline and Schaunard, in Henri Murger's
La Vie de Bohewe.

But matters improved. Bn^agements began to come in with
regularity, partly because the qpuartet was capable of music
above the ordinary Kaffeehaus caliber, and partly because the
"musical twins** were making themselves so well known, in
itemgfe their irresistible escapades that they were

THE EARLY DAYS

personally in demand. Their antics were endless, until every
mystifying prank came to be laid at their door. Like Till Exi'
lenspiegel, they followed one practical joke with another until
the heads of the poor Viennese were spinning around like so
many tops.

Business improved so much that Lanner finally augmented
his forces to twelve, acquiring at last an orchestra of a sort.
Johann became his leader and first violin, even taking the con
ductor's stand on occasion. And still the demand continued,
and more music was required of Lanner. He engaged still
more men, enlarging the orchestra to the point where it could
occasionally be divided into two groups. Thus did Strauss at
times appear as conductor during one concert, whilst Lanner,
on the same evening, directed another. As the concerts in
creased, so did the demand for original music. Lanner had
brought forth waltzes which more and more were drawing
the respect of serious and competent musicians. He was doing
more for the waltz; than Weber had done, for Weber, a com
poser in other forms, had, like Ravel and his Bolero,, merely
taken a popular dance form and with one solitary composi
tion given to it the prestige of his name. Lanner, on the other
hand, had taken a scorned dance of the common people and
through his genius had succeeded in starting its rise to a level
worthy of respect.

Lanner' s famous Schonbrunner Waltzes are an excellent
example of his powers at their peak; these are, in fact, among
the few waltzes from his pen that are at all current today.
The first waltz will immediately be recognised by anyone
familiar with Stravinsky's Petrouch\a, for the Russian com
poser has made an almost undistorted use of it, acknowledging
its source, in the Dance of the Ballerina and the Moor, in the
Third Tableau:

Time

ii 7,7,i

if * P i

pHMN

r . M

" p

P**

^^

^

v^v

M

M

It is not without reason that one may stress Weber's inflxi'
ence on both Lanner and Strauss; there is more than a super"
ficial resemblance between this waits; and the D<flat major
theme of the Invitation to the Dance. Weber's is the more
elegant, but both are intimately related. Schoribrunner was
first performed at Dommayer's Garden Restaurant, where
Johann Strauss II was to make his debut a few years later.

The growing number of compositions demanded of Laiy
ner was the first step in creating a rift which was to rend the
"musical twins 7 ' asunder. The younger Johann once discussed
the occurence: "One day it happened that Lanner fell ill and
was incapable of work. Thereupon, he sent the perfectly nat
ural message to my father: 'Strauss, see if you can think of
something/ " Strauss did, and his own true Opus 1 appeared
that evening on the program, with Lanner's name on the
credit line. That assumption of credit which, it must be real"
feed, was and still is the rule in much of the world's dance
music, brought the first discord into the erstwhile harmon
ious relations of Laaner and Strauss. There was no longer the

THE EARLY DAYS

close association of the two men to counteract the poison.
Lanner was married and had been living in his own home for
some time. With their close intimacy broken, these little inci
dents which provoked ill-will grew to form a wedge which
finally resulted in a break-up. Probably Strauss was the more
to blame. His temper was notoriously shorter than Lanner's
and while the latter may have taken advantage of his good na
ture, there is no ignoring that broad streak of jealousy which
was evidenced not only here, but in Johann's later dealings
with his sons.

The final explosion happened in the Zum Boc\ ballroom.
Strauss had announced his intention of resigning, and Lanner
had agreed to allow him to go his way. That evening Lanner
began a farewell speech, addressed to the audience, and eulo
gizing Strauss. But a drink too many had loosened his tongue,
and insulting innuendoes crept in. Strauss endured all his lit
tle patience permitted; then, his temper besting him, he threw
himself at his friend. With their bows drawn as swords, they
went at each other until separated by members of the orches
tra. Their fisticuffs spread first to the players and then to the
audience, as the occupants of the hall took sides. Instruments
were broken; flutes were used as clubs; a violoncello exploded
when someone put an incautious foot through it; a contrabass
was smashed. Someone threw a chair, which crashed into the
enormous mirror, a costly and featured part of the hall's dec
orative scheme. This brought in the police.

Strauss departed, and with him fourteen of Lanner's best
men, the nucleus of the first Strauss Orchestra.

The two men who had grown up as brothers parted as ene
mies. Yet they still loved each other. Lanner returned home
that night to write his Trennungstvalzer (Separation Waltz),
"celebrating" his break with Strauss, and it is significant that
the word Klage (lament) appears in the music.

THE FIRST JOHANN

STRAUSS had been separated from Lanner for only a few
months when he married. His bride was Anna Streim, daugh'
ter of the owner of the Roter Hahn, an inn where Lanner
and Strauss often appeared. The origin of the Streim family
has never been clear. The genealogy may be traced back to
a certain Rober, who first appears as a cook at the court of
Duke Albert von Sachsen-Teschen. This man was variously
described as an ex-Grandee of Spain who fled his homeland
after killing a Prince of the blood in a duel, and as a Gypsy
of unknown origin. Decsey advances the argument that he
was really a Gypsy who, to maintain the security of his new
position, had invented the ingenious fiction of the "ex'
Grandee," a subterfuge which would well have accounted,
in the eyes of the unworldly servant class in which he found
himself, for his swarthy complexion and foreign accent. As
Decsey shrewdly says, this would have been a psychological
necessity, for the social station of a roving Gypsy was as far
below that of a court cook as the cook would have been be'
low the Grandee of Spain. Decsey's contention is further
substantiated by a legend which would have it that the Duke
of SaxonyTeschen, a friend of the fugitive Grandee,
him shelter on condition that he conceal his origin, lest, in
boring him the Duke place himself in a difficult diplomatic
position. Inasmuch as Duke Albert ^aa & bmt^%4aw of

THE FIRST JOHANN

the Emperor Josef, his power was sufficient for him to risk
the anger of the King of Spain, and openly give shelter to a
Grandee, if such indeed he was. Therefore, we may rightly
suppose Decsey to be correct when he suggests that this leg
end was merely a protective myth invented by the Gypsy
turned-cook.

This Rober of uncertain origin had five children: two sons
and three daughters. One son died young; the other became
a painter in the service of Prince von und zu Liechtenstein.
Like her brother, the eldest daughter also died at an early
age. Of the remaining two, the youngest, Maria Anna, mar"
ried Josef Streim, a coachman in the service of Prince Ester'
hasy. It was not until after their marriage that Streim left
Prince Esterhazy's employ and bought the Roter Hahn, where
his youngest and prettiest daughter, Anna, met and capti
vated dynamic Johann Strauss.

It was largely because of her that he left Lanner's orches
tra. It was a matter of necessity. He needed more money; he
had to marry Anna Streim, for she was with child. Actually,
although they were blindly in love, the two made an ill-
matched couple. Both were of a like and difficult tempera
ment; fiery, quick to anger, obstinate and reserved. They
seemed more like brother and sister than husband and wife.
Their children, born in a land where fair skin and light hair
predominate, had swarthy complexions which served to per
petuate the Rober legend.

The fifteen men who formed the first Strauss Orchestra
had little need for preparatory rehearsal, for each knew his
neighbor well. Their first public appearance together under
their new leader was at the Gasthof zu den Zwei Tauben,
where Strauss introduced his Opus 1, the Tduberln-Wdtesr,
honoring in name the scene of its first hearing. The orchestra
for which it was scored is interesting: four violins, one flute,

Three-quarter Time

two clarinets, two horns, one trumpet, and contrabass. Ap
parently, in leaving Lanner, Strauss was at first unable to se
cure either violas or cellos, with the result that his first or
chestra found itself with a strangely unbalanced string sec
tion. It is a compliment to his ability that he found no diffi
culty in confining his scoring to the instruments available.
For, as an orchestra, this first one was certainly unconven
tional. Apart from the missing strings, one notes the absence
of oboes, bassoons, a second trumpet and all percussion.

Strauss's success was immediate. He made his debut as a
musician already known in Vienna. His fracas with Lanner
had resulted in publicity which brought his first appearance
before his own orchestra to everyone's attention. This public
ity had one unhappy result; it prevented a settlement of the
differences between Lanner and Strauss.

Despite his quick and easy success and the attractive offers
of rival publishers, the new Walts King was aware of his defi
ciencies as a composer, and set to remedying them without
delay. He took lessons in composition, counterpoint and or
chestration from von Seyfried, the conductor who had been
a close friend of Beethoven. Not contented with this, he in
cluded a course in theory, under Jansa. Bolstered by an ever-
widening musical horison, he threw the narrow, unimagina
tive traditiotls of dance music to the winds, writing waltses,
each of which had its individual form and design* Previously,
the waits had been held within a rigid mold which arbitrarily
measured out the number of bars allowed the introduction,
the first waits phrase, its return phrase, the bridge passage
to the second waits, and so on. With Strauss, the waits for
the first time acquired freedom of motion. No longer did the
couples dance solely to a metronomical rhythm which barren
tunes could scarcely conceal, Now the dancers waltsed to

THE FIRST JOHANN

long melodies, new and ingenious, always fresh and almost al-
ways completely different.

Strauss's debut as orchestra leader came at a most auspi-
cious time during the midst of the Vienna Carnival Season,
with life at its gayest. Vienna always found time for music-
making throughout the year, but it was the annual Carnival
which brought all entertainment to a peak. Then any orches-
tra of the least ability was assured of engagements; an organ"
Ration as welt-drilled as Strauss's compact little group was
certain of a choice of good offers.

Now began a rivalry for control of the world of Viennese
light music that was not to end until Lanner's untimely death
in 1842. To Lanner's advantage was his earlier presence upon
the scene as conductor. Consequently, many of his more
blindly devoted followers- could not or would not see the qual-
ities which Johann Strauss possessed. The two men were ut
terly different in style. Like his waltzes, Lanner's approach as
conductor and violinist was persuasive and heavily sentimen
tal. Strauss, on the other hand, is well characterised in the
commanding power and exuberance of his waltzes; as a vio
linist, his tone was more brilliant and authoritative. Lanner
was master of the slowly swelling sforzando, while Strauss's
violin tone and technique were not unlike those of the Mag
yar Zigeuner fiddlers. Lanner's tone recreated the human
voice, warm, throaty and persuasive. Strauss held fast to the
Hungarian tradition that a violinist should perform dance
music with the utmost sensuality and brilliance. Strauss was
unexcelled in this -style, which he had learned from Poly-
shanski, but he could, with almost equal ease, imitate *Lan-
ner's more conservative technique, whereas Lanner was in
capable of playing in die Hungarian manner. Yet Lanner's
devotees refused to recognise this.

Striving to advance himself, Lanner, in 1829, secured the

421 Y

Time

appointment to direct the concerts of the Redoutensaal, the
Imperial ballroom in the Hofburg, and was honored with the
title of Koniglich und Kaiserlich Hofballmusi\dire\tor, which
he unfortunately later forfeited as a result of having rudely
addressed the Archduchess Sofia. This Johann Strauss would
never have done. Born into a world several social strata lower
than that of Lanner's glovemaker father, Johann Strauss was
by instinct a gentleman; never obsequious, yet far too well-
mannered to have been guilty of such a breach in conduct-
Countering Lanner's appointment in the Redoutensaal, in
1830 Strauss signed a contract to direct the concerts of the
famous Sperlsaal, that most select of Viennese ballrooms. En
gagement at the Sperlsaal was for him as great a triumph as
Lanner's newly gained title. Ten years earlier he had first seen
this room as a member of Pamer's orchestra; he now reentered
it as the co-ruler of Viennese dance music.

Johann Strauss, in 1830, had progressed far beyond his
humble beginnings as conductor of the few men who had fol
lowed him in his dramatic departure from Lanner's employ.
He now had approximately two hundred musicians under
contract. The best of these formed the regular Strauss Or
chestra; theirs was a steady occupation. The others were
called upon from time to time to make up other orchestras
when, as during the Carnival season, Strauss had signed con
tracts to provide music at as many as six balls a. night.

He was at this time twenty-six years old. His eldest son,
Johann II, was not yet five; his second son, Josef, almost
three. The third child, Nelli, was still a Kabe in arms. Three
more children were yet to be born to Anna Streim-Strauss:
first a daughter, Therese, born in 1831; later, two sons. The
first, Ferdinand, was born in 1834; he died when less than
two years old. The last was Eduard, born a year after Ferdi
nand.

i 22 }>

THE FIRST JOHANN

As a musician, Strauss at twentysix had gained the un"
qualified respect and admiration not only of the musical pub'
lie of Vienna, but of the leading musicians of his day, as well.
Strauss had brought the Viennese waits to a point of devel"
opment hitherto unsuspected of being possible; under his
hand, the waltz; had emerged from caterpillar to butterfly. It
now not only had enchanted the lay public with its immedi
ately apparent melody; it had assumed an artistic stature
which could withstand the probings of that great music
critic, Robert Schumann, and draw from him wholehearted
approval and pleasure.

EUROPEAN PILGRIMAGE

IN THE late 1820's, Strauss had taken his orchestra to Buda
pest. His success there had been sensational, yet it had not
excited him, for he wisely recognized Hungary's vassal status
undej Austria's aesthetic domination. Hungarian music,
which was later to play so prominent a role when national
ism began to concern the artistic world, was still of interest
only to the peasantry, and Hungary turned toward Vienna
for its music, just as it had in the days when the Princes Es-
terhasy brought Haydn back to their Magyar estates to pro
vide musical entertainment. Now, in 1834, some five years
after the Budapest excursion, having scaled the heights which
Austria afforded, Strauss assembled a picked orchestra and
sallied forth to make his name in Berlin. This was no easy
task. There has always been between Berlin and Vienna, each
representative of a widely different sort of Teutonic mind,
a strong feeling of jealousy and distrust. Vienna (and to some
extent Munich, too) mocks the artistic efforts of North Ger
many, which it considers ponderous, while Berliners find
amusement in the tastes of the Viennese, which they consid
er shallow and effervescent.

Strauss's first appearance in Berlin, before King Friedrich
Wilhelm III, his Queen and the Prussian Court, in the Kon-
igsstadtertheater, was sometJbong in the nature of a daring
venture/ The Berliners were delighted, yet also amazed, at this

JOHANN STRAUSS, SR.

Lithograph by Kriehuber in 1835, autographed by Strauss with the
notation "K. K. Hofballmusikdirektor."

25

A BALL IN OLD VIENNA

Oil Painting by Charles Wilda. Josef Limner on the conductor's stand,
with Johann Strauss, Sr,, playing first violin to his right.

26

EUROPEAN PILGRIMAGE

slim, pale conductor whose methods as a leader and violinist
were so alien to all they had previously experienced. They
were fascinated by his Gypsy-like manner of playing, the VKX
lin now held high in the air, now down and almost crouched
over "playing into the well." But unlike the Viennese, who
have been known to go to any extreme to maintain a first
opinion, however erroneous, the Berliners melted at once be"
fore the warmth and fervor of this art from the south. The
Queen of Prussia did her utmost to persuade Johann Strauss
to remain in Berlin, while the Csar and Czarina of Russia,
then in the Prussian capital, made him fabulous offers if he
would only visit St. Petersburg and assume direction of the
Court music there.

It is interesting to speculate on what developments the
waits might have taken had Strauss accepted this profitable
offer. One need only compare the typical Russian concert
wait? (those by Tchaikovsky from his J^utcrac\er t Sleeping
Beauty or Swan La\e ballets, or from the String Serenade) to
the Viennese waits; as typified by Strauss, to note the contrast
of Russian weightiness to Austrian ebullience. It can almost
certainly be assumed that had Strauss taken up residence in
Russia he would have exercised a considerable influence on
that nation's music.

But, at the same time, it is impossible to imagine what the
development of Austrian music (of all types) would have
been without the Strausses. That their influence was enor'
mous is clear to anyone who considers carefully such works
as the Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes, or the waltzes for piano.
As with these, other great masterpieces of Austrian music,
such as Richard Strauss's Rosen\avalier, could never have
come into being without the broad and solid foundation
which the waits composers of Vienna had prepared.

However, Strauss made a courteous refusal to these offers,

Three' Quarter Time

explaining that his contract with the management of the
Sperl was unbreakable, and doubly so with the Carnival close
at hand. In truth, with Strauss it was more likely a matter
of personal choice than of ethics; he would not have hesitated
to break any contract or other obligation which might have
bound him, if he had genuinely wished to go to Russia.

The end of the Carnival Season and the Spring of 1835
found Strauss again outside Austria. It was a real tour this
time; the orchestra visited Munich, Augsburg, Stuttgart, Hei
delberg, Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. The next year took him
still further afield: Leipzig, Halle, Magdeburg, Brunswick,
Hanover, Hamburg, Bremen, Oldenburg and Diisseldorf . He
even traveled beyond German-speaking frontiers to Amster-
dam, The Hague, Liege, Brussels and Aix-la-Chapelle, find'
ing opportunity to include performances in Cologne, Mains;
and Wxirsburg as well

It was on October 4th, 1837, that Strauss bundled twen
ty-eight of his best men into the mail coaches of the Vienna-
Strasbourg-Paris express. Crossing the Rhine at Kehl, they
gave their first concert on French soil on October 20th. As
Strauss was preparing to go upon the stage, he received a note
from the Prefect of Police requesting him to have a trum
peter sound a tattoo. Mystified, and reluctant to do the Pre
fect's bidding because he did not know what it might mean,
and felt himself in a difficult situation, a stranger in a foreign
land, Strauss nonetheless signaled his trumpeter to carry out
the request. The tattoo was sounded, and silence fell upon
the house. The Prefect, in the center box, then arose and an
nounced the capture of the Algerian city of Constantine the
day before by French troops under General Damremont. Wild
cheering broke forth. A second tattoo was played. The Pre
fect, with sobs racking his voice, then announced that ff le
brave General Damremont" had fallen in the battle. Facile

EUROPEAN PILGRIMAGE

tears gushed from the eyes of the obliging audience, and the
ladies fluttered their handkerchiefs in welL-simulated (and
perhaps well-believed) grief. A third tattoo followed, and the
Prefect invited the audience to join in singing La Marseillaise.

Then Strauss appeared. Catching the audience at a high
emotional pitch, the first waltz;, played in a truly Viennese
manner for which even familiarisation through piano edi-
tions had failed to prepare the listeners, swept them off their
feet and started an avalanche of acclaim which preceded
Strauss into Paris.

This advance publicity was more welcome to Strauss now
than at any other time in his brilliant career. In attempting
to gain renown in Paris, he was storming the central bastion
of Europe's intellectual citadel. Paris was then reaching the
peak of her glory, the moment when she ruled the interna-
tional world. The Second Empire, a more glittering era, was
aesthetically shallow; Paris never equalled during that period
the wealth of artistic endeavor which she brought forth under
the reign of Louis-Philippe.

Advance publicity was one assurance of success. The other
was the strong attraction which Parisians felt at that time for
the culture of Germany and Austria, before three bloody
wars and untold Prussian indignities roused in the Gallic
mind a lasting hatred for the world of the Teuton. In Louis-
Philippe's Paris, German art was eagerly sought. Von Web
er's opera achieved nightly successes, and while the mysteries
of Schubert escaped the French, Mozart, Haydn and Beetho
ven ruled the firmament of composers. Foremost among the
intelligentsia upholding German art were Madame de Stael,
Victor Hugo, and Theophile Gautier. Germanic art itself was
represented in Paris by that expatriate German, Heinrich
Heine. The adulation of German culture is even reflected in
the "new" section of Auteuil, where streets and avenues are

Three-quarter Time

named for people famous in the world of letters, and the Ave
nue Mozart is intersected by the rue Georges Sand, the
rue Henri Heine and the rue la Fontaine.

Strauss had no cause to fear that he might be introducing
to Paris an art form alien to its intellectual thought. His con
cern rested with more material causes. He had not counted up
on the gigantic scale on which music was heard in Paris. He
had forgotten that he was entering the native city of Hector
Berlioz, that composer-conductor-critic who had introduced
the concept of the orchestra of several hundred men. With his
.small band of less than thirty, Strauss found that he would
have to compete against so formidable a rival as Musard,
whose orchestra numbered close to two hundred.

On November first, Strauss gave his opening concert. He
suffered agonies of nerves before his entrance. The house was
sold out; no need to fret there. Rather need he concern himself
with those who sat in his audience. In the hall that night were
the musical great of France. Auber was on hand to hear how
Strauss played his Overture to Les Faux-Monn#yeurs. Cheru-
bini was also present; a leading opera composer, he was an
even more powerful figure by virtue of his Directorship of the
Conservatoire. Berlios, too, was in the hall. Strauss had reason
to quail before this critical battery. However finished a musi
cian he might be, there was no telling how a group of Parisian
composers might welcome him. Some of the most biting musi
cal witticisms ever spoken were given birth in Paris concert
halls by jealous composers. It was Gounod who spoke in con
temptuous terms of Franck's D Minor Symphony at its first
performance; it was Saint-Saens who, listening to the opening
bassoon solo of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printem^ remarked
acidly, "What instrument is that?" and left the hall, precipi
tating a first-class riot,

Strauss need not have worried. He brought the French to

EUROPEAN PILGRIMAGE

his feet, composers and all, just as he had subdued his own na
tive Viennese.

ON THE evening of November 5th, Johann Strauss led his
small band of musicians into the Palais des Tuileries, where
they had been commanded to appear before King Louis-Phi'
lippe and his Court. In the antechamber before the central
staircase, they discovered a complete company of infantry,
drawn to attention before a battery of guns and a pyramid of
cannon balls. Mounting slowly up the broad carpeted stairs,
they at last arrived in the huge ballroom which was to serve as
concert hall. There, in a central position, they encountered the
epitome of parvenu bad taste a white marble statue of the
King, astride his favorite charger. The room was almost gar
ishly illuminated by an unusual number of candelabra. A stand
had been erected for the players behind a brass rail which was
to separate them from their august audience. To this point they
were conducted by attendants in resplendent livery.

Unexpectedly, drums were heard resounding through the
corridors from a distant point of the pakce, and finally the
self-styled "King of the Bourgeois" appeared, accompanied by
diplomats, courtiers and military aides.

Louis-Philippe presented an appearance as completely op
posed to that suggested by his magnificent statue as was
humanly possible. He was in truth the first constitutional mon
arch, lacking all semblance of majesty or military dignity; actu
ally boasting that his power rested not with the army, as in the
past, but with the new world of power represented by the
great financiers and industrialists.

Chattering with one another, diplomats and courtiers, of
ficers and ladies took their seats on the opposite side of the
brass railing. Suddenly a young man on the King's right arose
and, scmtinising Strauss through his lorgnette, advanced to-

Three-quarter Time

wards the barrier. It was Leopold, King of the Belgians, only
a few years previous the Duke of Saxony-Coburg-Gotha, un
til the Belgians drove out the Dutch in 1830, and called him
to the throne.

King Leopold saluted Strauss, and asked him, in a natural
and friendly manner, "Tell me, Herr Strauss, did we not meet
before in Brussels?" Utterly confused and embarrassed, and
uncertain of what etiquette was correct in this opera^buffa
court, which was neither democracy nor monarchy in its pro
tocol, Strauss made the same deep obeisance that he would
have tendered in the Hofburg's Zeremoniesaal, and remained
in that position until Louis-Philippe, to save him further em
barrassment, gave the signal for the music to begin.

The first half of the concert followed the scheduled pro
gram, but at the intermission the musicians found that mat
ters were getting out of hand. The members of the court stood
chatting amongst them, the brass railing with its social signif
icance completely ignored. Louis-Philippe bore down on the
hapless Johann, took both his icy hands, and said to him, "I
have known you through your waltzes for a long time, Mon
sieur Strauss. It does me all the more pleasure that you should
now do me the honor of appearing here personally," Beside
himself, Strauss relinquished his violin to a 'Stranger, who be
gan to play it quite decently. It was the Due d'Orleans. Later,
Strauss found himself in conversation with two attractive
ladies. They had been talking for some time before he sud
denly realised that his two companions were none other than
the Queens of France and Belgium.

After the concert, champagne was served, and Louis-Phi
lippe eulogized Strauss and his superb orchestra. Jacob* re*

* H. E. Jacob, author of Johann Strauss, Father and Son> published by
Greystone Press, New York.

EUROPEAN PILGRIMAGE

marks that "the musicians had the feeling that the concert
was being continued on the social plane, with everyone play"
ing an appointed part, and no one word-perfect."

But in the chill light of the next morning the Court of
France, for all its democratic veneer, revealed itself as not one
whit different from those other courts which had preceded it.
Strauss received, at his hotel, a diamond clip and two thousand
francs. Precisely the same sort of honorary token had been
given to another Austrian in an earlier day; Mozart was sim x
flarly recompensed when he appeared at the court of Louis
XV.

But this appearance at Court had one valuable result. It
heightened enormously the esteem in which Parisians held
him, and subsequent concerts were even greater successes
than those which had gone before. Strauss himself guaranteed
their successes with some clever bargaining. He concluded a
contract with his greatest rival, Musard, whereby the Strauss
orchestra would present the first half of a concert up to the
middle intermission, after which Musard' s orchestra of two
hundred men would conclude the soiree. Through this ingen"
ious expedient, Strauss gained a contrasting chamber-music
atmosphere, a highly piquant comparison with an orchestra
almost ten times larger. To the credit of Strauss's players,
their perfect coordination and skilled execution, resulting in
a brilliant technical finish and exquisite clarity of tone, stood
in sharp relief to Musard' s expert, but not nearly so tonally
balanced, orchestra.

Strauss's complete discipline over his men finds a parallel
only in the great masters of the baton who came at a much
later date: Muck, Toscanini, Koussevitsky, Nikisch, Mahler
and Furtwangler. His word was law. In performance, he
could draw from his men a precision unknown elsewhere in
his day, a precision which is to be found only in a few

4 33 f

Three'Quarter Time

tuoso orchestras of our own time. It was this same complete
obedience of his men to his slightest desire which made it pos-
sible for him to give concerts with an orchestra of less than
thirty pieces in a city whose public was accustomed to or
chestras twice that size and larger.

In the daily lives of his men, Strauss exacted and obtained
the same unswerving loyalty and blind obedience. On the six-
teenth of December, at a time when many of his men were
thinking of a return to Vienna for Christmas, Strauss unex
pectedly announced that the orchestra would leave that very
evening for Rouen. He had consulted no one, nor did it mat
ter to him that his men had engagements of a personal nature
for the next few days. He issued marching orders, and, like a
general, expected them to be obeyed without question or de
lay. They were.

After three concerts and a masked ball, he again bundled
the men into a post chaise. This time the destination was Le
Havre, France's greatest port, center of the coffee importing
trade and home of some of the wealthiest French merchants.
Here they were to play for a gala supper and ball.

This extravaganza surpassed even the Byzantine debauch'
ery of Paris and Rouen. Half-a-hundred bottles of champagne
were uncorked simultaneously. Of all those present, only
Strauss contrived to remain sober. The next morning, more
dead than alive, Strauss's men found themselves once more
en route for Rouen. Here their leader offered them a sump'
tuous luncheon, rivaling the supper of the night before. The
whole meal was topped off with an abundance of champagne.
Strauss had heard that still more champagne was the best cure
for the aftereffects of too much champagne. He found that
the effects of the cure were unexaggerated*

On the twenty-third, stiU in Rouen, the players began to
show manifest signs of homesickness. The men longed for

34

EUROPEAN PILGRIMAGE

their wives and children, for the green of a Christmas tree,
for baked apples and hot roast chestnuts, for all the other
delicacies and homely intimacies of the Christmas season in
Vienna.

Instead of these familiar customs, on Christmas Eve there
was another magnificent supper, followed by a masked ball
and gambling and a great deal of champagne. This was, al
though the men were unprepared for it, a typical French
reveillon. They were shocked; their sober and religious Aus
trian souls could not comprehend a race of people who would
carouse and make merry on the eve of the Saviour's birth.
The ball continued until four in the morning, and in the cold
dreary dawn that followed, the orchestra found itself once
more on the road to Paris.

La Ville Lumiere was shivering joyfully in the midst of the
Christmas Day Carnival. Pierrots and Pierrettes, Harlequins
and Columbines huddled on every street corner around the
little coal braziers of the cafes, which formed small pools of
warmth in the bitter cold. The Left Bank had turned out in
force; artists and their models, costumed in the most bizarre
and fantastic fashion, were on every street. It was a true Fete
Bohemienne, and the exhausted musicians could only blink
their eyes in shocked amazement.

From December 27th to February 28th, the Strauss Or
chestra gave a concert every evening without interruption.
The body-aching weariness which overcomes and benumbs a
musician who undertakes such a program can never be im
agined by the layman who watches from the audience. Some
of these concerts were public; others were given in the exclu
sive quarters of the great private houses in the Faubourg St.
Honore. One of these private balls was held New Year's Eve
at the home of Maurice Schlesinger, editor of the Gazette
Musicale. The ball was in Strauss's own honor* Paganini con-

Three'Quarter Time

gratulated Strauss on his music and his orchestra, and partic'
ularly on his excellent technique as a violinist, a concession of
no small nature for this taciturn genius. Gherubini insisted
that Strauss fiddled "come uri* Italiano" the highest praise he
could think of to bestow on the Walts; King, and one which
was scarcely conceit, when one considers that the Italian school
of violin playing has always been superior to the German.
Jacques Halevy, composer of La Juive, paid him compliment
after compliment, while Meyerbeer made much of the modest
manner in which Strauss accepted all these honors. He re'
ceived another great ovation at a ball given by Prince Ap'
ponyi of the Austrian Embassy, at which the famous poet,
Anastasius Gruen, then enjoying a mild sensation in Paris,
recited an ode in his honor. Here, too, he met and talked at
length with the Prince de Benevent, that self "Styled Talley
rand, whose Machiavellian intrigues had brought about so
many wars, griefs, political changes and upheavals; whose
machinations had kept the Congress of Vienna in a constant
state of turmoil when Strauss himself was just ten years old.
Now the hero of the French capital, Strauss permitted him."
self many of the liberties which had made him famous in
Vienna. At the great mid'winter ball of the Ville de Paris,
where he was scheduled to play alternately with Duf resne, a
leading French conductor, black domino costumes had been
laid out for both the French and Austrian musicians. It had
long been the custom for everyone, guests and musicians
alike, to dress in costume; admittance was otherwise refused.
Yet Strauss categorically refused to have anything to do with
the costumes, and forbade his men to put them on. He insisted
that this was beneath his dignity; he was a musician, not a
down. Count Apponyi approached him and gravely explained
that to persist in his refusal would cause diplomatic repercus"
siotxs. Monsieur de Gasparin, Minister of the Interior, argued

EUROPEAN PILGRIMAGE

that if Strauss and his men appeared in ordinary evening
clothes, there would be a riot. Strauss remained adamant, and
the festivities were nowise disturbed. After the initial shock
of discovering that the members of their Viennese orchestra
were wearing regular evening attire, a fact which provoked
only mild curiosity and comment, the dancing began and the
public promptly forgot the incident.

It should not be supposed that Strauss acted out of childish
pique. His refusal to wear guignol clothing, even on so apprcK
priate an occasion, was founded on a sincere respect for the
value of his art and the dignity of his profession. Just as cer x
tain of his contemporaries had to teach the society of that
day that a man can be both a musician and a gentleman, so
did Strauss, in his own way, wage his part at every turn in the
battle to bring the musician out of the servant class and into
the position which he properly deserved.

Strauss never lost his desire to learn, to progress and grow.
In Paris, he asked Musard whether he might occasionally play
in the violin section of the Frenchman's orchestra. When
Musard, amazed and immensely flattered, asked why, he exs
plained that he wished to learn what he could about the
French quadrille, that he might introduce it to Vienna. To
return with full pockets was not enough; he must also bring
back something novel in his field of music.

IT WAS inevitable that Strauss, seeking new worlds to con'
quer, should have led his little band across the Channel to
English shores. It is, in fact, strange that he never made the
voyage to America, for Johann the Elder was the true adven'
turer of the Strauss family. It remained for his famous son
finally to invade the New World, which is in itself a paradox,
since, of all the Strausses, it was that son who carol least
for travel and was happiest close to his own hearth. Yet per'

Time

haps Johann Strauss was wise in not attempting a transatlan-
tic pilgrimage; perhaps America was not yet ready for the
polished elegance of the Viennese Walts;.

England was. No other moment could have been more
propitious. It was the Coronation Year of England's famous
sovereign, Victoria, future matriarch of a continent of royal
families, who was to give her name to the way of life of a
whole half -century. The great Queen Victoria who was years
later to greet Johann's son, Eduard, with pleasure in fond
remembrance of her Coronation days, was, in that year of
grace, 1838, a shy and graceful girl who had been unexpect
edly called to rule the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Johann Strauss foresaw a flood of balls in honor of the Cor
onation, and immediately concluded a number of contracts
for appearances in England. This was the act of an astute
businessman, but his failure to require guarantees was not,
even though no ill came of it. But when he unexpectedly an
nounced that the orchestra was to leave directly for England
without returning first to Vienna, open dissension broke out.
Many of his musicians pointed to the lack of guarantees as
proof that the expedition might prove a fiasco; after all, they
argued, the British were notoriously cold and uncertain mu
sical audiences, and they all might end up in Debtor's Prison.
Some of them openly called him an adventurer, and intimated
that he had no intention of ever returning to Vienna. They
insinuated that his domestic ties were none too strong, and
that he was contemplating taking the whole orchestra to
America. In this they were not far wrong. Although Strauss
never went so far as to make active plans for such an expe
dition, a stupendous undertaking in that day of difficult trav
el, there is proof that he did toy with the idea,

Strauss simply insisted that, after the success which the or
chestra had achieved in Paris and other important centers, ft

38

EUROPEAN PILGRIMAGE

was quite inconceivable that they should not enjoy a warm
reception in England. However insular the English might be,
he refused to believe that the notices of jthe phenomenal sue-
cess of the Strauss Orchestra had not penetrated the island
kingdom. If any of the men doubted him, they were welcome
to return to Vienna. As far as he was concerned, he meant
to go to England, if he had to do so alone and play there in
solo recital.

His persuasive powers, his determination, his faith in future
successes and his never-failing personal magnetism convinced
almost all of his men that the best thing to do would be to
remain with him. Of his whole band of twenty-eight men,
only four refused to follow him to the British Isles, and took
the coach for Vienna.

ENGLAND: CORONATION YEAR

IT WAS on April llth, 1838, that Johann Strauss and his or
chestra found themselves upon the packet steamer Princess
Victoria, on their way across the Channel. Their arrival in
London the following day was x weU'timed. It is problematical
whether puritanical England would have taken to this arch'
priest of the sensuous waltz at another time; only a few years
before, the walu had been denounced throughout England
as shocking, vulgar and immodest (because the man placed
his arm about his partner's waist!), just as the rumba was a
century later. But the wave of emotion which swept through
England this Coronation Year, a wave of romanticism in
which a girl of sixteen summers was the central figure, served
Strauss's purpose, and made it possible for him to attain a
success in England which greater musicians might well have
envied.

What ensued, once Strauss reached London, might well
have served as a libretto for a Gilbert and Sullivan lampoon
on British customs and reasoning.

On arriving, Strauss visited the Austrian Embassy, where
he was received by Prince Esterhasy, Ambassador to the
Court of St. James. Here he received a severe lecture from Es'
terhasy on how to conduct himself in England. He was to ex"
amine every contract minutely, to read it at least three times.
There would be no chance to plead ignorance of contract stip'

ENGLAND: CORONATION YEAR

ulations because of language difficulties. He was to keep all
his money on deposit with a reputable banking establishment,
and not in his rooms where it might be stolen. He was, finally,
to live quietly, with none of the reveillon antics of France,
and to avoid all lawsuits. England, the Ambassador warned
him, was not France; in the British Isles publicity of that na'
ture was not conducive to a successful career. That the ad'
vice stemmed from someone so improvident that his own f or ;
tune was sequestrated some twenty years later did not alter
its worth.

Strauss soon felt the full import of Esterhasy's advice.
First, his rooms were burgled and 97 stolen from the pocket
of a coat. Then, less than a week after his arrival, he was sum"
moned to the law courts by an enraged hotel proprietor, who
claimed that Strauss had reserved a number of rooms at his
establishment, .and then had failed to occupy them. This was
true. When the party arrived at the hotel, they found that,
contrary to representations made by letter to Strauss, the
hotel did not even possess a public dining room, and that
they would have to take all their meals out. Such being the
, case, they had picked up their belongings and moved to
another, more practical hotel.

In court, Strauss was obliged to have his clarinetist, Reich'
mann, deputise for him, his own English being inadequate
to the task of explaining himself to the peruked and be'
frocked judge. Even Reichmann could make but little headway,
and matters had practically reached an impasse when a Ger'
man seated in the court volunteered as interpreter.

Then it appeared that matters were not so serious after all.
Strauss should not have moved in the middle of the week. In'
stead, he should have given notice and waited until the week'
end, as was required in England. Furthermore, if die accomo'
dations provided were not in keeping with the promises made

Three-quarter Time

him, he should have brought suit against the landlord. As it
was, he must now pay for the four days, from the day he
moved out until the end of the week, amounting to a sum of
29, or approximately 290 gulden. Strauss was delighted
with so simple a solution, until he discovered that, as loser of
the suit, he must also pay its costs, amounting to 140.

He was horrified. "I cannot leave the house until I have
found surety/' he screamed at Reicnmann. "If I do, they will
put me in their Debtor's Prison I" He urged Reichmann to
get out and find some means of raising the money required by
the bailiff. Reichmann went to the most logical place to
Cocks, one of England's leading music publishers. Cocks will"
ingly put up the required surety, in exchange for the publica"
tion rights to Strauss's next waits. Nothing could have been
more satisfactory to Strauss. The waits was immediately
forthcoming, and Cocks made a tidy profit from its sale. Per*
haps Strauss should not have given the waits to Cocks; he
was under at least moral obligation to Haslinger. But the sit"
uation demanded prompt and drastic action, and Haslinger,
his Austrian publisher, understood.

Rescued from his difficulties through this opportune inter"
vention, Strauss found himself free to discuss contracts with
managers, and arrange for his London debut. This was held
at the Hanover Square Rooms, on April 17th, and although
it was not well attended, the audience was keenly receptive
to the magic of his bow and the excellence of his orchestra,
with the result that warm notices from the press and com"
ments of those present at the concert combined to bring about
a full house for the second concert.

On the morning following the debut, the music critic of

v the Times said, "The pieces performed were dbiefly his own

waltses, but they are done in a manner most extraordinary

and altogether novel in this country. He has so completely

ENGLAND: CORONATION. YEAR

trained his band to work with him that all separate individ
uality is lost, an effect is produced like that of an accurately
constructed machine. The most eccentric instruments, such
as bells, castanets, cracking whips, etc., are occasionally in
troduced, and the construction of many pieces is highly
fantastic, yet never is the mechanical perfection lost for an in
stant. Thus the band, though small, is made to give the ef
fect of one three times more numerous. From the immense
fame which Herr Strauss has acquired in Vienna, a more
numerous audience might have been expected on this occa
sion. The smallness of this audience is chiefly to be attributed
to the very inefficient means which were taken to give the
public notice of the concert, as well as the injudicious selec
tion of an opera night."

The program that evening was as follows:

Le Serment Overture AUBER

Philomenen Walzer, Op. 82 STRAUSS
Introduction and Variations for Flute

(performed by the composer) R. FRISCH

Les Bouquets Walter STRAUSS

Gabriellen Walzer, Op. 68 STRAUSS

Rondo for Oboe BAMBERGER

Ein Strauss von Strauss Potpourri, Op. 55 STRAUSS

Musil{alische Telegrafe Potpourri, Op. 106 STRAUSS

The reviewer of the Musical World had this to say: "The
disposition of his brass band is generally novel, frequently
clever, and always claims attention. Of the wood band, we
cannot say so much, and the string band appears scarcely
powerful enough to make its way through the other instru
ments."

A strange commentary, indeed, when one considers that
the essence of the Strauss waits is its emphasis on singing

Three-quarter Time

string tone. The truth was that Johann Strauss was compelled
by the exigencies of travel to limit his orchestra to such an
extent that a sufficient number of strings could not be in
cluded. And how was the critic of the Musical World to
know that the four men who had refused -to accompany
Strauss to London were all from the string section? Strauss
certainly had not publicised the story of his orchestra's
mutiny.

In Paris, Strauss wrote a number of compositions whose
titles were occasioned by the French capital itself, and the
daily events within its walls. Thus, one encounters in
Strauss's catalogue these compositions dating from the Paris
visit: Der Karnival in Paris Waltzes, Op. 100, Paris Waltzes,
Op. 101, and the Versailles Galopp, Op. 107.

The London visit brought forth a similar flow of titles:
Huldigung der Konigin Victoria Waltzes, Op. 103, and the
Londoner Saison Waltzes, Op. 112. The Musii^aZischer Tele-
grafe Potpourri, Op. 106, which was given its first perform
ance at the London premiere (though no mention was made of
this by any of the critics), was written during the coach trip
from the Channel steamer to London.

With the second concert, which was completely sold out
in advance, Strauss established himself in London as he had
before in all the great cities on the Continent, and future en"
gagements for both public and private concerts began to come
in one after the other, as the leaders of English society sought
to obtain the services of this peerless dance orchestra. And
great balls were frequent that season; five or aix gatherings of
especial social glitter were held every evening of Coronation
Week. And, as had happened before in the other capitals of
Europe, the social elite of Engknd admitted Johann Strauss
to their acquaintance, both as musician and social equal. A
feat of some consequence on the Continent in the 1830's,

+ 44 ;>

ENGLAND: CORONATION YEAR

this was truly extraordinary in the England of that period.
Yet here was Johann Strauss, son of an innkeeper from the
Hossgasse, walking arm-in-arm with the Duke of Sutherland,
attended by Prince Schwarsenberg and Prince Esterhasy. The
demand for Strauss grew to such proportions that his sched
ule called for a morning musicale in town, an afternoon con
cert out of town, and an evening performance in the city, in
public or at Court.

An account of such an appearance was printed in the
Court Gazette for Saturday, May 12th, 1838. It was the first
State Ball since the young Queen's accession. "A temporary
stage for Strauss's Walts; Band was fitted up on the south side
of the ballroom, as the regular orchestra only afforded ac
commodation for eighteen musicians. The Band performed
Strauss's entire new set of waltzes entitled Hommage a la
Reine d'Angleterre, which were much admired by Her Maj
esty."

On Coronation Day, Strauss and his orchestra took up
a position before the Reform Club, along the route which the
Royal Procession was to follow. The noise was deafening, as
the crash of many cannon echoed through the streets, punc
tuated every few minutes by the ubiquitous God Save the
Queen, played by a military band or the Strauss orchestra.

Instead of ending the festivities, the Coronation seemed
only to increase them, and Strauss and his men shuttled
here and there, trying vainly to fill all the calk for their serv
ices. They played in all types of halls, sometimes in the great
private houses and castles of England's nobility, as well as in
public, at Almack's and Willis's Rooms and the City of Lon
don Tavern.

There was no sleep now for Strauss. Hither and yon, across
the broad, green face of England, he followed the will-o'-the-
wisp of fame. In France he had given eighty-six concerts in

Time

ninety days, but almost all of these were given in one city.
In England, touring from city to city, he gave no fewer than
seventytwo concerts in one hundred and twenty days: Birm
ingham and Liverpool, Manchester and Dublin, Glasgow and
Brighton, Southampton and Bath, Plymouth and Edinburgh
there was no end to the madness. It became a fever with
him; no woman could have enslaved him half so much. He
was given up to one passion only the mingled sounds of
applause and a turning wheel. That he could withstand the
exhaustion of this endless journeying is incredible, but it is
even less believable that his men should have been willing to
share its hardships with him. Strauss was a name which was
becoming immortal in England, but the musicians remained
anonymous, an unknown quantity described simply as
"Strauss's Orchestra." It was a pure, fanatical devotion to
their leader which impelled them to follow him so blindly.

Yet it must end. Even Strauss realised it reluctantly. His
health was failing; he could not endure much more. 'And the
men would not. During a return visit to France, bringing
them closer to their homeland, open revolt occurred. A vk>"
loncellist averred that he had proof that Strauss did not in'
tend to return to Vienna, that he had severed his home ties
and was separated from his family, that he meant to desert
his wife and children, and that it was for this reason that he
was now mumbling to Reichmann about an insane plan to
take the orchestra to America.

Nonetheless, the men were back in Halifax on October
4th, 1838. Precisely a year had passed since they left home,
They were miserable from fog and cold and acute homesick'
ness. They alternately cursed Strauss and the wet English
climate, so different from their own crisp air.

On the first of November, after a solid week of rain, on
roads which were flooded and, in places, washed out, they jour'

ENGLAND: CORONATION

neyed to Edinburgh. They reached the Scottish capital a day
late, all ill with severe colds. A doctor examined them, pre'
scribed a homely antidote of hot claret laced with quantities
of nutmeg and ginger, and left them to perspire and recover.
All did, except Strauss. Gravely ill with influenza, he
would not rest, would not go to bed, would not give his tired
body a chance to revitalise itself. As long as his orchestra
could play, he would conduct. With a raging temperature,
he gave concerts in Hull, Leeds, Newcastle, Wakefield and
Derby. It was in this last town that an incorrect prescription,
calling for a deadly overdose of opium, almost ended his life.
Strauss noticed the mistake himself at the -last moment; the
shock was so sudden that it gave him pause. He realised that
recovery was out of the question in that foggy climate, so
alien to his nature. He crossed the Channel to Calais, and
there, during a concert, collapsed. He was taken to Paris, ar'
riving on December 9th. He asked to stay there for a month
until his strength should return and he could conduct again.
He hated above all else the thought of being brought back to
Vienna an invalid. But the doctors, urged by the musicians
who wanted to return to their native hearths, insisted on an
immediate return, and so he was placed on the Strasbourg
mailcoach which had brought him to Paris. Almost at his na'
tive city, during a stop in Lins, he walked delirious into the
freezing street in his nightgown, and fell unconscious. Two
days later, he was carried up the stairs of his home. Johann
and Josef ran up the steps ahead of the cortege, crying, "Our
Father is dying!"

.{47V

DOMESTIC REVOLUTION

As IT happened, he did not die. The practiced attentions of
two good physicians, abetted by the devoted ministrations of
his wife and the mental peace of being once more at home in
Vienna, all combined to coax his exhausted body back from
the edge of the grave. Two months brought about a partial
recovery. Still convalescent, he insisted on appearing again
before the public. Carnival time had come again, and having
missed the festivities of the previous year during his Paris so
journ, Strauss could not bear to see a second season pass in
which he was not the dominating figure. Feebly, almost me"
chanically, he led a Carnival Ball at the Sperl. It was not a
Strauss evening. The public sensed the lack of poise and con
fidence in its favorite, and the ball was not gay. Yet Strauss
would not give up. The following evening, he conducted a
private ball at the Russian Embassy. The first part of the
program passed reasonably well, and the orchestra began to
breathe more freely. But at the intermission he collapsed, and
Hirsch had to rush him back to his home. Here doctors ex-
amined him once more, and pronounced him to be suffering
from gravely ulcerated kidneys. They warned him that there
could be no question of his conducting again for some years.
Thus the highly mobile Strauss found himself immured in
his apartment as firmly as a prisoner within his cell The psy
chological impact on this nervous man can scarcely be con-

DOMESTIC REVOLUTION

ceived. The Hirschenhaus was a typical building of the lower
middles-class. Odors of cooking, women's chatter across the cen"
tral court, the cries of passing hawkers, the noisy bustle of chil'
dren in all their passing moods of joy and sorrow his own
among them all these set his nerves on edge. He grew iras"
cible, finding constant fault with his wife, who restrained her
own quick temper only through constant remembrance of his
illness. She bore all his ungracious sarcasms and fits of ill'hu'
mor, and saw to it that the children bothered him as little as
possible, keeping them always away from the sickroom,

Strauss himself took remarkably little interest in his sons.
The children, for their part, were not sorry to avoid him.
They idolised their famous father, as children will (who else
in the Hirschenhaus could boast of so magnificent a parent?),
but he was a stranger to them, and he did little to break down
the barrier. The affection intermingled with fear which his
sons felt for him was well described by Johann II:

"He allowed Pepi (Josef) and me to have music lessons, but
he thought that we simply strummed like most children; yet we
worked very hard and played well, though he had no idea of it.
The rehearsals for his concerts were held in the house. We boys
listened to every note, and afterwards played the various pieces
as pianoforte duets, trying to reproduce them exactly as our
father liked to have them played, for he was our ideal. We
were often invited out to other people's houses, and played his
compositions by heart. One day an acquaintance it was Carl
Haslinger, the music publisher congratulated my father upon
our playing (my brother and me) . He was greatly surprised.
'Send the boys to me/ he said. Not knowing what to expect,
we slunk into the room. After he had told us what he had
heard, he commanded us to play for him. As was customary
at that time, he had an upright piano and Pepi declared he
could not play on it. 'What/ he said, 'you cannot play cm it?

449^

Three* Quarter Time

Then fetch the grand!* The grand having been brought, we
played our very best, introducing all the features of the or*
chestration. Our father, who had listened with a beaming face,
said, 'Boys, no one can play it like that!' "

Yet Strauss had no intention of allowing his sons to become
professional musicians. Was it a selfish, jealous impulse? Prob'
ably, although he certainly could not know that in the end his
eldest boy would eclipse his own great fame. He was willing
that his children should study piano, for it was inconceivable
to him that they should have no ability or interest in an art in
which he excelled. But not the violin. That was the sword and
shield of the professional dance musician. Without ability up
on this instrument, no man could hope to become a famous
leader in the world of dance music. Young Johann II had com"
posed his first, stumbling waltz at the precocious age of six. His
father foresaw, perhaps, to what this might lead, and his pro
scription of the violin had been emphatic.

Thus it was all the more inexplicable when, resting one day
upon the couch in his room, he heard someone playing a violin
in another room of the apartment. Excellent fiddling it was,
too. Intrigued and vaguely disturbed, he followed the course
of the sound until he stood before the door of the room shared
by Johann and Josef. Unmistakably, the music was coming
from within that room. Nor was what attracted him merely
that someone was playing the violin with capable fingers. It
was both the composition and the technique which surprised
him. Had he lived a hundred years later, he would have
imagined himself listening to a phonograph record of himself.
It was a Johann Strauss wait?, played in unmistakable Johann
Strauss style.

Silently he opened the door a trifle, and stood rigid with
rage at what he saw. Before a long pier glass stood young Jo"
harm, carefully dressed in foppish imitation of his father, play

DOMESTIC REVOLUTION

ing a violin with practiced fingers, watching himself all the
while in the mirror and carefully imitating the rapt expression
of the elder Johann, tossing his long, black hair back and forth
as he swung his body to the rhythm of the music.

Johann Strauss tore the violin from his son's fingers. A few
questions elicited some startling replies. Johann had been
studying with Amon, Strauss's own concertmaster.

"And how did you manage to pay Amon?"

"By giving lessons myself."

"Lessons? In what?"

"Piano lessons. I teach some of the children in the build"
ing."

Strauss saw in a flash how thoroughly he had been out
witted. Livid with fury, he took the violin and locked it in a
closet. The next day, Anna Strauss gave "Schani" another
violin. Ironically, the new violin was from his father's own ex'
tensive collection of instruments. The boy went right on prac'
ticing, but henceforth he was careful to do so at a friend's
house.

Bent on punitive measures, Strauss enrolled his son in a
school where the lad was forced to busy himself with a por
ridge of business correspondence, bookkeeping and stenog"
raphy. What a disastrous curb on his naturally artistic bent
this must have been! He refused to endure it; he was unatten-
tive, impudent, and prankish. At last he was sent home with
a warning never to show his face in the school again. The
father remained adamant; he engaged a private tutor, and
Schani was condemned to continue his lessons within the limits
of the Hirsdienhaus. Fortunately, the tutor sympathised with
his pupil, and Schani's life was somewhat easier.

The intractable spirits of his eldest son, the manner in which
Anna Strauss sided with that son against her husband, and
the incessant little quarrels among his boisterous children, made

Three'S>uarter Time

Strauss's life thoroughly miserable. This and the menace to
his fame, which he jealously foresaw in Schanf s determined
preoccupation with music, served to bring about a complete
cure in a matter of months where his doctors had foretold a
convalescence of years.

He was happy to be free of the Hirschenhaus, where the
penury of his homelif e stood in sharp relief against the luxury
of his public life. Welcome as he was in the fashionable world,
the enormous costs of maintaining and transporting his orches-
tra, and the exorbitant salaries of managers and agents, cut
deeply into the fees which he received. Strauss never became
rich; this was due as much to his inability to budget himself
properly as to conditions which obliged him to pay out almost
as much as came in. To keep his orchestra contented while on
tour, he found it necessary to bribe them with fine wines and
foods, expensive lodgings and the best in travel accomoda-
tions. The fact that he was the most famous musician in his
field did not prevent those who engaged him from doing their
best to reduce to an outrageous minimum the fees which they
paid him. Nor did it prevent his publishers, many of them pro-
f essed friends, from fleecing him mercilessly.

Poverty was only one of his domestic woes. Anna Strauss
was no shrew, but neither was she the sort of placid, patient
woman whom her son Johann was to find years later in Jetty
Treflfe. Nor did she lack cause for anger. The idol of Vienna
was fair game for a barrage of feminine charms; every woman
wished to make herself attractive to this handsome and diarm-
ing MusiJ^nten, and not all of them failed. Many rumors
found their way back to Anna Strauss, rumors of flirtations
and more, and she knew her fears were well-founded*

Strauss indeed had good reason to prolong his absence from
Vienna, in the face of his men's determination to return. For
some time previous to the Paris expedition, he had been in-

DOMESTIC REVOLUTION

volved in a liaison with a young and pretty Viennese girl,
Emilie Trampusch. That Strauss should have fallen prey to a
pretty face which could make him forget his domestic troubles
is not surprising, but his choice of petite amie is. Famed as he
was, he might have made a-sub'rosa alliance with a daughter
of the Viennese gentry, perhaps even the nobility. Yet he al"
lowed himself to be utterly captivated by an inconsequential
and uneducated little milliner from an unfashionable suburb.
Was it an unconscious acknowledgement of his own humble
beginnings, an admission that he was not, and had never been,
truly at ease in the haut monde where he was so famous? Or
was it a genuine love, a product of maturer years, where his
union with Anna Streim had been the result of a youthful in'
discretion which he regretted?

Whatever the reasons, Strauss began, with Emilie Tram"
pusch, an affair which quickly developed into something much
more permanent. He found her an apartment in the Kumpf'
gasse, on the other side of the Schwedenbriicke and the Dan'
ube Canal. For some time, he visited her here whenever pos
sible, while still maintaining his home in the Hirschenhaus.

There is nothing new in this story of a dual menage and a
double life. Strauss's affection for his wife and children was
profound; he was genuinely loath to make a final and irrevo"
cable break, but the situation passed beyond his control. To
Anna Strauss came rumors of his new alliance, rumors which
were so persistent, so detailed and so parallel that there could
be no refuting them. To his former passing attachments, Anna
Strauss had willingly closed an eye. There was, she knew,
something of the Gypsy in her husband. Restrict htm too
much, and she would lose him; give him a sense of freedom
and he would always return. She had learnt to be satisfied
with that. But this time, it was a different matter. To establish
a second household when you do not provide money enough

Time

to maintain the first properly was inexcusable in her eyes. She
could ignore indignities to her own person; she could pretend
that they did not exist. But she would not allow her husband
to squander money on a mistress while her children were de
prived of the sort of food and clothing and opportunities
which she believed they deserved of their famous father.

It was her attacks and recriminations which finally drove
Strauss from his home. He removed himself to the Kumpf'
gasse, to a miserable little apartment that was far worse than
the Hirschenhaus flat. Here the children of this illicit union
were born. There were four daughters Emeline, Klemen-
tine, Marie, Therese and one son Johann. It was this man'
child who broke the last bond between Strauss and his true
family. Anna Strauss could, unreasonably, endure the exis'
tence of the daughters; the final alienation was caused by her
husband's giving his name (and that of his eldest son) to this
illegitimate boy.

The children came to no good in the end. The boy, Johann,
was sickly, accomplished nothing in life, and died at twenty-
nine. Emeline tried to become an actress, without success. The
younger daughter whose illness, transmitted to the father, was
the cause of his death, was so maltreated by her mother that
she had to be sent to a Home for the Protection of Children.
She escaped from there and returned to Vienna, where she
was found by Sisters of Charity and cared for. Later she
made a miserable living as a maker of artificial flowers.

True to his fine character, their half brother, Johann II,
later did much to alleviate their misfortunes and reestablish
them. But theirs was, from beginning to end,- a tragic story.

From this late period date Strauss's finest waltzes: Sorgen"
brecher and the magical Lorelei'Rhein'Klange, his greatest.
From this period, too, come the Dowulieder Waltzes, Op,
127, which rank as an example of the elder Strauses best, al"

4 ^4 }>

DOMESTIC REVOLUTION

though considerably less well known. The melodies are more
ingenious, longer flowing and more closely interwoven and
interrelated, than those he commonly wrote, and there are
occasional touches of genius. One of these is the delightful
question-and'answer dialogue between the lower and higher
strings in one of the middle waltzes. Johann II indicated his
own high esteem of this work when he recalled this passage
in his Wo die Zitronen bluh'n. Another splendid passage is
the delectable use of trumpet in the coda.

This waits; marked the summit of Johann Strauss's career;
it was just at this time that the throne of Johann I was shaken
to its foundations. A pretender had appeared from within. . .

BOOK II

JOHANN STRAUSS II
"The Waltz King"

EMPEROR FRANZ-JOSEF I
OF AUSTRIA IN 1848

59 .

FRANZ-JOSEF AND ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA

at the time of their marriage in 1854. (Left; rear: Sohoubninn Palace:
right rear; Vienna with the Stefansclom.)

60

THE RISE TO FAME

IN THE annals of the Strauss family, the date which eclipses
all others is October 15th, 1844, for on that evening Johann
Strauss II dared the wrath of musical Vienna and in those
days, it seemed that the entire population was musical to
appear for the first time as an orchestral director under the
aegis of a name already made world-famous by his illustrious
father. Small wonder, then, that many Viennese insisted that
the lad only proposed to capitalize on his father's hard-earned
reputation, and that he himself possessed no musical ability.
To support their contention, they pointed with conviction to
the posters on which the words "Junior" and "Son" were set
in admittedly small type.

Although the decision to compete against his father was a
painful one for the nineteen-year-old boy to make, he had lit
tle choice. The desertion of the mother by the father, and the
constantly dwindling allowance from Johann, Senior, grad
ually forced this upon him. Young Schani was a finished mu
sician, far more so than his father had been at his age. In the
study of the violin, he had progressed from Amon to Kohl-
mann, conductor of ballet at the Carl Theater. He had stud
ied composition with Hofmann, and counterpoint with Josef
Drexler, the famous ecclesiastical conductor and organist.
Nor was Drexler so serious that he could not remember ear
lier years, when he had written the music for many of Rai-

Three-quarter Time

mund's comedies, including Maiden from the Fairy World,
which had become a widely popular song. With so thorough
and well-schooled a musical background, and possessed of the
same charm, grace and creative ability as his father, there
could be no choice for young Schani but the life of a musi-
cian. Every fiber in him demanded it; his father's early efforts
to divert his course from its natural flow served only to set
him more firmly in his determination to achieve this lifelong
desire.

Yet before he could appear in public in front of an or
chestra, it was necessary that he obtain a license from the
Viennese magistracy "to make music for entertainment in
public resorts." For a minor to obtain this license required the
consent of the father. Schani knew that Johann Strauss would
never give his consent. In lieu of this, he obtained warmly
worded letters of recommendation from several prominent
people. Even these might not have sufficed had it not hap
pened that Drexler was a member of the committee which
passed upon the application. Although the famous church
musician had tried to lead the lad along the path of ecclesias
tical music, even to requiring him to write a Tu qui regis to-
tum orfcera, which was actually performed at the Am Hof
Church, he willingly assisted the boy when he sensed the
fixed purpose of his mind. The ironical touch to the applica^
tion was that, as evidence of his ability as a musician, he sub
mitted the Tu qui regis totum orbem before the licensing
board. Thus it was through ecclesiastical music that the fu
ture master of the seductive and sensuous walta gained his
right to appear in public.

Once possessed of his precious license, he began to fre
quent those cafes where the musicians of Vienna were wont
to gather. He was hypercritical in his selection, almost un-
satisfiable. From among these men he chose those he needed,

THE RISE TO FAME

changing them time and again, trying still more applicants,
until at last he felt that his group, small as it was, could per
form in a manner befitting the name of Johann Strauss.

Schani did his utmost to keep word of his activities from
his father, but word inevitably passed from mouth to mouth.
Eventually the newspapers took up the story, giving it con
siderable publicity. While this publicity was helpful as such,
the manner in which it further estranged the two Johanns
was not. Actually, there was nothing sensational in the mere
appearance of a new orchestra and conductor. What did ex
cite the unhealthy curiosity of the populace were the impli
cations of rivalry and discord within the family.

The reports of Schani's doings agitated the elder Strauss
beyond description. It seems strange that he should have
been so affected by the impending debut of his eldest son and
namesake, but the fact is that he was so upset that he was ac
tually ill for several days before the concert, and went so far
as to express a hope that he would not live to see that day. It
may be that Johann Strauss was exceptionally intuitive about
his son; perhaps he had guessed what the world was later to
learn: that his own personality was, after his death, to be
come confused and submerged in the more effulgent radiance
of his son's genius.

Vienna, frustrated by an autocracy that kept every polit
ical interest and opinion but its own under rigid surveillance
and check, found an outlet in taking up the sword over minor
matters which, in a more politicaEy balanced day, might never
have been given a second thought. Thus the forthcoming ap
pearance of young Johann had all Vienna up in arms, with most
of the citizens divided into two distinct, vociferous and inim
ical camps. The one contended that he was perfectly justified
in his actions, regardless of talent, since the father had treat
ed his family shamefully and deserved retribution; the other

Three'Quarter Time

argued that he had no talent, that he was a young whipper-
snapper of a charlatan who ought to be given a good hiding
and sent home to bed without supper. A third group, dis
tinctly in the minority, sat quietly through the turmoil, re
marking simply that it mattered not at all what his name and
antecedents were, nor what the skeletons in his family closet
might be; that the only questions of musical import which en
tered the picture were whether he could play, and whether
he could compose.

The ringleaders of the group antipathetic to Strauss were
Carl Haslinger, the elder Strauss's publisher, and Carl Hirsch,
his life-long friend and business manager. Both Haslinger and
Hirsch had made a canvass of the important Viennese ball
rooms, in an effort to secure promises that none of them
would engage Schani. They failed; Dommayer, owner of
Dommayer's Garden Restaurant, located in the fashionable
suburb of Hietsing, not far from Schonbrunn Palace, had al
ways wanted to engage Johann Strauss the Elder to brighten
his establishment. He had never succeeded, largely due to
Strauss's obligations to the Sperl. But now opportunity of
fered him, if not the great man himself, at least his son and
name. Dommayer was a good businessman; he realised, long
before it happened, the furor which would be occasioned by
the announcement of Schanf s debut (he probably did all he
could to increase the uproar), and he understood that what
ever the outcome for Strauss, only profit could come to him.
Hence the small type, of which some of the public complained,
in the posters pasted throughout the city; Dommayer count
ed, perhaps, on some of the more gullible being taken in by
the deception; but even more, he intentionally created the
controversy which preoccupied Vienna for days before the
concert took place.
- This, then, was to be no quiet, little-heralded debut. Schani

THE RISE TO PAME

was to make his formal introduction to the world of music
at a resort scarcely inferior in elegance and reputation to the
famous Sperlsaal, over which his father presided. Nor did it
please the older man to recall that his own debut had been
made under less pretentious conditions, without fanfare or
publicity, at a small, and far less elegant hall. There were
doubtless grounds, therefore, for Strauss's annoyance with his
son; unquestionably, without the Strauss name, Schani would
never have obtained a first hearing at so ostentatious a res
taurant.

The evening of the concert arrived, and with it so large
a number of Vienna's population that it seemed as though the
entire city had converged on Dommayer's. The crowd began
to gather at six, and shortly afterward people were beginning
to take their seats at the tables of the restaurant, although the
concert was not scheduled until later. Soon all the tables were
occupied, but people continued to press past the ticket win-
dow, content to take standing positions along the walls and
on the dance floor itself. Every inch of floor space was ac
counted for, precluding any possibility of dancing, until fi
nally it became impossible to wedge another soul into the build
ing. Thousands of latecomers, disappointed at not finding ac-
comodations within, stood their ground and filled the outer
square as far back as the walls of the Park of Schonbrunn it
self, dimly sensing, perhaps, the making of musical history.

Leading the clique which hoped to see Schanf s defeat in
this opening joust between father and son were Haslinger and
Hirsdh, and a group of their friends, who had found a table
directly opposite the conductor's stand, with the intention of
creating a disturbance. Joahnn, Senior, was not present; he
had his own concert at the Sperl to conduct, but even with
out that excuse for his absence, it is doubtful that he would
have put in an appearance at a time when his close friends

Three-quarter Time

were on hand to shout his son down. He simply claimed to
be overwrought at the very thought of the concert, and again
repeated his wish to die before it took place.

The crowd murmured interestedly as Johann appeared on
the stage. Indeed, this young man was truly the son of Johann
Strauss. Only a heavier, squarer build distinguished him from
his father. Here were the same manner, the same pallor, the
same burning, intense eyes. Only the motions were a little
slower, a little more deliberate, without the quick nervous
ness which was typical of the father.

Now the important questions were to be answered. Could
he play? Could he compose? Young Strauss gave the answer
to the first at once, opening his program with the Overture
to Auber's opera La Muette de Portt'ci, at that time enjoying
an incredible popularity in Vienna. For a moment, it seemed
that he would not be given a cursory hearing, for the Haslin-
ger-Hirsch combine made a furious din, but the interest of the
multitude prevailed, and the orchestra was able to begin.

The Auber Overture did not meet with much approval,
largely because the small group of fifteen players was un
equal to a work demanding a symphonic body. Yet the musi
cianship of the young leader and his men was apparent, and
sufficiently impressed his audience despite the continued
protests of his opponents to permit him to introduce the
first of a group of four of his own compositions, the Gunst-
werber Waltzes, Op. 4. The audience was now greatly im
pressed, although the elder Strauss's faction clung with deter
mination to their whistles, hisses and boos. Nonetheless, the
waits had to be repeated four times; the title, Seeders of Fa
vor, had served its purpose well. Originally, it had been
Schanf s desire to call this set of waltzes Das Mutterherz (A
Mother's Heart) , but Frau Strauss, although not insensible to
the fond compliment, was aware of the weapon it would place

4*6

THE RISE TO FAME

in the hands of his enemies, who would not hesitate to call
attention to the significance of the title, and the rift with the
father which it implied. If this young and untried Strauss was
to secure a foothold in a field dominated by the great Johann,
it must be through conciliatory measures, and not through
open antagonism at the start. It was with a certain degree of
relief that Schani found himself freed from the original title,
which may have been the result of a momentary excess of sen"
timent. He had no desire to antagonize his father; indeed, he
hoped to retain friendly relations with him, and had even
written him a touchingly naive letter, explaining his reasons
for venturing into his father's prof ession, and asking for their
continued mutual affection.

A polka, Herzenslust, Op. 3, followed. Again, several re
peats were demanded. The Debut Quadrille, Op. 2, followed,
and finally the Sinngedichte Waltzes, Op. 1. This occasioned a
tempest of applause. Even the elder Strauss's faction rose to
its feet and cheered with the rest. The audience called for a
total of nineteen encores this was unheard of, even at a
Strauss concert! Schani had conquered Vienna.

Now he showed his true, generous nature. Had this been
his father, he would have dismissed his men, packed his vkx
lin and gone home. Not Schani; he signalled for yet another
encore, of another and unannounced work The audience was
quite still. Then there floated out into the hall the magic
opening strains of the Lorelei'Rhein'Kldnge, the elder Jo-
hann's greatest waits;. The listeners, touched and moved as
only the Viennese can be moved, shed tears and held their
breaths as the last note melted pianissimo away into the
night. When Schani ended this generous tribute to his father,
the audience rose as one, and salvo after salvo of bravos
echoed into the square and the park, rousing the startled
birds in the trees from their sleep. Lai by Haslinger, the el"

Three-quarter Time

der man's followers, now Schani's as well, rushed upon the
stage, bore the delighted conductor aloft on their shoulders,
and in this fashion carried him to his home. Hirsch, hastening
out of the hall to carry the fantastic news to the Sperl, came
upon a small woman seated alone at a table in the fast-empty'
ing hall, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks. It was Anna
Strauss. With tears in his own eyes, Hirsch stopped to con
gratulate her before continuing on to the Sperl to explain to
his friend that, for better or for worse, the world of music
now recognised two men by the name of Johann Strauss.

The news of Schani's triumph was not such a surprise to
the father as Hirsch had feared, though he did blanch when
he heard the account of the nineteen encores. Nineteen! How
could it be possible; it had never happened to him! But he
was a good gambler; he took his losses as coolly as he had his
winnings.

The following morning, the music critic Wiest wrote,
"Good night, Lanner; Good evening, Father Strauss; Good
morning, Son Strauss!"

Not long after the debut, a sort of reconciliation between
father and son took place. Schani was eager for this, for, de
spite all past misunderstandings, he was both fond and proud
of his father. Proud of him, at least, as a musician, if not as
a man. Nor was the older man anxious to remain at swords'
points with a son who threatened to outshine him. They met
on the neutral ground of a Viennese public house. Anything
more was impossible; neither could visit the other in his home.
For this reason, much as the elder Johann might have liked it,
and much as Schani might have wished to accept, he could
not take the position of concertmaster and assistant conduc
tor which his father offered him. It would, it is true, have ef
fectively silenced much of the vicious gossip that was hurting
both in equal degree. But the young man had his own career

THE RISE TO FAME

to make; having begun it so illustriously, he could not now
retire to a comparatively obscure position. He went his own
way, playing at the Dommayerbau, Zogernits's and Zum
Grunen Tor, while his father remained at the Sperlsaal, Zei'
sig's and the Dianasaal. They parted friends, and so they
remained.

TYPICAL of the first compositions of the new Walts King are
the Serail'Tanze Waltzes, Op. 5. The piano edition of this
early effort is now in the Library of Congress in Washington,
D.C., where it forms part of an enormous collection of Straus'
siana. This collection is so vast that it is said to contain over
ninety per cent of the total output of the Strauss family a
monumental labor. It was the life hobby of an Austrian rail"
road man, Paul Lowenberg, and constitutes a comprehensive
picture of the glittering days of the AustrO'Hungarian Em'
pire from Lanner to Lehar. The influence of these composers
can hardly be estimated by our present standards; one need
only recall the remark of an official of the Hapsburg Court,
"To be precise, Frans- Josef ruled until the death of Johann
Strauss." For it was these composers, over whom Johann
Strauss II reigned supreme, whose music united the widely
divergent racial strains which constituted this conglomerate
empire into a whole that reacted as of one accord, living, as it
were, in a champagne'bemused world that was governed by
the tempo of the Viennese Walts. Only in the music which
streamed from Vienna throughout the whole of the Nine'
teenth Century could the many racial minorities of the Em'
pire find any basis for unification and agreement.

In his tragic novel, 'Mayerling, Claude Anet mentions the
debt which Vienna owed her waits composers. "In the oper
ettas which have carried the spirit of Vienna throughout the
world, everything takes place to the rhythm of the waits,

Time

which touches the heart and caresses it without penetrating;
in the third act, there is traditionally a dramatic moment: the
lovers have a misunderstanding, are about to kill themselves,
or separate, which is worse. But in the midst of this great
quarrel, there sound the unforgettable accents of the waits;
they become more insistent, until at last they triumph and the
lovers fall into each other's arms. This same waits, sometimes
gayer, sometimes sadder, gives to Viennese living its accent
and its cadence."

The Serail'Tdnze opens with an introduction for full or"
chestra that is a deliberate attempt to evoke the atmosphere
of the Orient, and which is based on an alia Turca rhythm
and style of figuration. Twelve bars presto, and then an ada*
gio, followed by a 4/4 time section that might well be another
Turkish March from Mozart's pen. (Need one mention the
Mo^artean opening of the Kaisertualzer, with its similar rem'
iniscences?) A short transition, and then the first waits ap'
pears. Brisk, almost brusque, there is, as yet, neither senti
ment nor romance to ,be heard. But these are not long in
forthcoming, in a slow, sensuous theme that Strauss, with
maturer perception than one expects, has fully exploited.
Here is the perfumed night, the intrigue, the romance; in
short, the seraglio itself. Another sentimental moment, punc
tuated with triangle. Finally, the conventional reprise to the
first waits quasi una marcia, and from there through the other
waltzes in normal sequence, until the flashing stretta with its
traditional climax is reached. One senses throughout the
young eaglet essaying his wings. To seek here the tonal im/
agery and the suavity of his later works is to search too deep'
ly; the atmospheric effects are superficial. Yet the mastery of
the medium and the promise of what was to come are fully
in evidence here.

i 70 >

CIVIL WAR: 1848

1848 is a year written in blood on the pages of most Euro-
pean nations. In France it signalled the overthrow of the last
of the Bourbons, King Louis-Philippe. There, too, a young
composer and church organist named Cesar Franck was
obliged to clamber up, down and over barricades flung across
the streets, in order to reach the home of his bride on their
wedding day. In Germany, at the Court in Dresden, a young
composer-conductor and revolutionary hothead by the name;
of Richard Wagner fled into exile at Weimar. In Vienna,
this continental malaise found expression in an abortive, but
nonetheless sanguinary, revolution which drove the Emperor
Ferdinand from the Imperial throne, only to set up in his
place the still more reactionary Frans- Josef . It was at this
time that Johann I wrote his ill-starred Radetzky March.
While he espoused the Imperial cause, his sons joined the
revolutionary republicans. Eduard was still too young to
leave his mother and fight his 'way through those tumultuous
days, but both Johann II and Josef were in the front lines.
Josef was a private in a student regiment, his elder brother
a private in the Second Regiment of the Viennese National
Guard. Johann had been obliged to enlist in this manner in
order to be eligible for the position of Conductor of the regi
mental band, a post left vacant by Lanner's death, and highly
coveted by him.

Three-quarter Time

But although Schani was sympathetic to the revolutionary
cause, his expression of this sentiment at its strongest took
only a musical, and extremely passive, turn. He gladly wrote
march after march and song after song to hearten and enliven
the lives of his fellow soldiers, but the discipline and regimen
tation of army life aif ected him not at all. He ignored them as
effectively as though they had not existed. He left his post to
return home to compose or sleep whenever the spirit moved
him; he even slept on guard duty. Only his popularity and
the prominence of his position in Vienna saved him from severe
punishment.

However, if he displayed no interest in active military life,
he nonetheless set himself, in his music, on the side of the civil
ian rebels. Among his compositions of this period are some
whose titles bear directly upon the world which was dying
and being reborn around him: the Freiheitslieder (Songs of
Freedom) Waltzes, Op. 52, the Revolutionsmarsch, Op. 54,
and the Studentenmarsch, Op. 56.

While Schani and Pepi took their stand on the revolution-
ary ramparts, the elder Strauss was among the vanguard of
the reactionaries. The pathetic feud between the Hirschen-
haus and the Kumpf gasse, kept alive by the shallow-minded
followers of both father and son, had in itself little to do with
this. Strauss was unwaveringly loyal to the regime which had
nursed him for so long. Like many another man reaching mid
dle age, he fought any change in his established pattern of
living. Not so Schani; like his contemporaries, the students,
he did not hestitate to question the propriety of a rule which
forbade parliamentary debate and freedom of thought and ex
pression. The doctrines formulated by the American and
French Revolutions found fertile soil among the young people
of Vienna, and these constituted Schani's public. As; his pub
lic went, so did Schani, just as the elder Strauss followed the

CIVIL WAR: 1848

current .of the established order which comprised his audi
ence. In this, each was genuinely sincere and completely
expressed his personal convictions; their stands were not com
mercially motivated. Neither was so completely cynical, al
though the elder man tended to be.

In August of 1848, the Imperial Austrian Army, under
one of its leading commanders, General Radetsky, met the
Italian forces in battle and scored a major victory. This occa
sioned great jubilation in Vienna, and Radetsky became the
hero of the day, despite the fact that he commanded Imperial
forces. (The explanation of this paradox lies in the fact that
Italy was the traditional enemy. This was not an instance of
civil war.) During this period of rejoicing, the elder Strauss
composed a march in celebration of the victory, and gave it,
as title, the general's name.

Unfortunately, delays of one sort and another prevented a
hearing of the Radetzky March until Winter had come.
Meanwhile, he regaled Vienna with the Sorgeribrccher
VSaltzes, Op. 230, the Brunner^ationalgarde March, Op.
231, the Freiheitsmarsch, Op. 226, and the Marsch des eirri-
gen Deutschlands, Op. 227. When the Radetzky was finally
performed, it was in a Vienna which had been sacked, raped,
raided and burned by its own Imperial troops under Jellacic.
The Radetzfy March branded Strauss a firm supporter of the
hated autocracy; his public cooled, and attendance at his con
certs dropped rapidly; at kst (could it really happen? he won
dered) he was actually hissed!

Nothing so typifies old Vienna as the Radetz\y March. Its
piquant melodies, recalling the musical-comedy stage in
deed, all of Austria's military music contains the spice of
operetta are the perfect symbol of Imperial Austria's armies,
gorgeously panoplied in the ballroom, and pathetically inef
fective on the field of battle:

Three'Quarter Time

J^g. i J^ A j% , A ki * ^ u ' -
~ T" I D * I r I-T/ *f "H-% -f\ *-

ill il*7^ uil tr'r u i y vu *y p *y L^TTF^ LZJ v *t ~LJ i

fy'it vTt*m IKT^KTSJ |i/T"rr^ |yr pf ip

The main melody has a strong dash of pepper, and some
thing of the comic feeling of a children's march. The Trio
offers effective contrast, even the hint of a waltz; lilt, possibly
intended as a remembrance of the Vienna which the soldiers
had temporarily put behind them.

Considering discretion the better part of valor, retreating
before so hostile a public, Strauss, Senior, took his men to
Prague. The evening of his arrival, he was serenaded outside
his hotel by the caterwauls of Bohemian students. He had
forgotten that the violent hatred of the Bohemians for the
Austrian government would make the people of Prague anti
pathetic to those who were known to be its friends. Persis
tent, nonetheless, he gave his concerts, building the programs
with extreme care so as not to include any item which might
be considered controversial, and achieving a good measure of
applause, although his houses were never full. Back to Vien
na went the crestfallen hero. A short stay in the still un
friendly capital, and the men set off again, this time for Ger
many, which Strauss hoped to find more receptive.

First to Munich, where the audience was warm, if not en
thusiastic. Munich remembered the Strauss of yesteryear, free
from political stigma, and, remembering that unfettered musi
cian, applauded the man who stood before them, though most
of them opposed his political leanings. But elsewhere in Ger
many, the reception was definitely antagonistic. Heilbronn
and Heidelberg, and more particularly Frankfurt, shouted
lios" at him, a suggestion that he play the Rd^ocsy

CIVIL WAR: 1848

March, Hungary's national air, to which Berlioz had given
world fame in his La Damnation de Faust. They shouted "Ber
lioz" at him, and dared him to play the Radetzty. He played
neither. Instead, he bolted from Germany, bag, baggage and
orchestra, and sought refuge in Belgium, In Brussels, for the
first time in more than six months, he felt the warmth of a re
ceptive public, and could laugh and be happy once more.

Yet he wished to remove himself even further from the
scenes of his recent sorrows, and so he turned once more to
England, landing on April 21st, 1849. More than ten years
had passed since he had last visited those shores, but the Eng
lish had not forgotten him. He was most flatteringly received
by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The members of the
Tory Party made much of him, according him every honor
within reason. But their motives were, withal, political and not
aesthetic. It was most apparent when he noticed that the
leading members of the Liberal Party kept their distance and
maintained a cool reserve. It became indisputable fact when
he found threatening letters in his mail; the same sort of
bigotry which had pursued him through Europe. Was there
then no rest to be found in this insanely political world? The
humor of the people reacted sharply upon his delicately bal'
anced mind and tense nerves, and impaired his health once
more.

Yet he was not without his triumphs. In one instance, the
Duchesses of Cambridge, Gloucester and Mecklenburg'Stre'
lite assumed the personal direction of the sale of tickets for
a concert in his benefit. It was with brimming heart that
Strauss thanked his good friends, whose patronage had in'
sured what was possibly his greatest single success, and this
at a moment when at least half his world was turned against
him.

But his state of health prevented a prolonged stay. In the

Three'Quarter Time

midst of summer, when England was at her loveliest, he de
clined into a state of mental depression; his letters to Emilie
and to Haslinger were gloomy; he even ventured to foretell
that this was to be his last journey. He embarked for the
continent at the Port of London. During his voyage down the
Thames, his ship was accompanied by smaller craft, bearing
some of Britain's noblest names, while the men of his orches
tra sang the plaintive So Fare Thee Wel^ Thy Silent House
from Raimund's Der Alfien\onig. It had all the character of a
modern morte d' Arthur.

On July 15th, Strauss again gave a concert in his beloved
Vienna. He played with his heart overflowing, for thousands
were present, and the ovation which they gave him at his first
entrance left no doubt as to the true depth of their affection
for him. It was a day of rejoicing, marred only by one evil
omen. As he was about to begin, his bow snapped. This up
set him considerably, for he was profoundly superstitious,
but the gaiety of the occasion carried him along, and he
picked up another bow and began the concert.

The joy of being in Vienna once again caused him to for
get his solemn vow never to dabble, even indirectly, in poli
tics. He surely had not forgotten so soon those sorry days
which impelled him to pen the melancholy Des Wanderers
Lebewdhl Waltzes, Op. 237, just before the start of his last
tour. Yet with his Op. 244, he published a march which he
rashly titled Jellacic, after the infamous Croatian general
whose armies of hired Russian mercenaries had sacked revo
lutionary Vienna only a year before. It is amazing that
Strauss could have been so completely unfeeling for his pub
lic; it is incredible that his audience should have held their
peace and refrained from stoning him from the stage. But the
period of storm and strife was past, and Vienna took calmly
in 1849 that for which it would have lynched him in 1848.

^76).

CIVIL WAR: 1848

Yet Jellacic, unlike Radetajky, was a hated figure, held in con
tempt by the monarchy that gave him his rank, loathed by
those who had been exposed to his brutality, despised by his
own troops.

Radetsky, by contrast a universally popular figure, re
turned from Italy after a victorious campaign. A monster
banquet was planned in his honor for September 22nd. Of
course, no one but the composer of the Radetzl^y March
would do when it came to handling the musical part of the
evening. And then, on the day of the banquet, Strauss col-
lapsed without warning. Unknown to him and to Emilie
Trampusch, one of their daughters had caught scarlet fever
in school and' had transmitted it to her father. First one, and
then a second, doctor was called. Nothing availed. Complica
tions in the form of an inflammation of the brain developed,
and Strauss died on the twenty-seventh.

Anna Strauss had known nothing of his illness, and learned
of his death only some hours after the event. A messenger
brought the news, and Frau Strauss, knowing that her Jo-
hann had a horror of death amounting to a phobia, sent
Josef to the house on the Kumpfgasse to see if he could de
cently assist Emilie in any way. A terrible sight awaited the
impressionable young man when he reached his father's
home. The apartment was in a state of complete disorder.
Many of the furnishings had been hurriedly removed, and
there was not a sheet or blanket in sight. The cold body of
Johann Strauss, half -naked, lay upon slats from his bed, in
the center of the room. Emilie Trampusch had packed her be
longings, taken her children, aftd fled. It was a long time be
fore she was heard from again.

The funeral of Johann Strauss I took place quietly, two
days later.

With Johann Strauss the Elder passed the entire formative

Time

period of the Viennese Walts. Taking it from its humble be
ginnings, little more than a dance-formula in the hands of
those who had preceded him, and with nothing of artistic
value to guide him save the unique Rondo of Weber and his
Dwn endless and fertile imagination, Johann Strauss the El-
ler had created a new dance form which had important ar
tistic merit. There remained only for his son to convert the
Jance form into an- art form.

THE EARLY WALTZES

ALTHOUGH it is evident today that even the immature Schani
was more spontaneously talented than his father at the peak
of his career, there were many admirers of the elder Strauss
who could not see this as long as the father lived. Such com
parisons demand the third-dimensional measurement of time,
and this yardstick was not then at hand.

Consequently, Schanf s first months following his father's
death were not easy. Highly sensitive man that he was, he
was keenly aware of the cabals which circulated like quick
silver about Vienna. Friendly though he and his father had
been during those last years, his own followers and those of
his father, each opposed to the other, had prevented any pub
lic expression of this sentiment, and, after the father's death,
his followers remained for a time the young man's enemies.
(This was partly the result of that small-mindedness which
admits of black and white, but no greys, but also it was the
residual outcome of 1848.) This situation was so oppressive to
him that he resorted at last to the newspapers, in an article
justifying his actions and choice of profession. It was a docu
ment not unlike the letter which he had previously written
his father, but without the naivete of the earlier letter, and
with a sophistication which marked the passing of the years.
The appeal served to turn the tide of public opinion in his

Time

favor, and won to his side his father's partisans; from that
day on, as Vienna's beloved Schani, he knew no rival.

Now, at the suggestion of Amon, his father's leaderless or'
chestra approached him with the request that he assume direc'
tion over it. He agreed, combining into it, as well, the best
elements of his own group, and acquiring thereby an orches'
tra whose ability had never known an equal in its genre.

With all the rival Strauss factions now united under one

hand, the press of engagements became so great that only a

man of Strauss's vitality could withstand the strain. Yet, de'

spite his popularity, one great ballroom still remained barred

to him, one coveted title still beyond his reach. That ballroom

was the magnificent Redoutensaal in the Hofburg; the title,

"hat of Kaiserlich und Koniglich Hofballmusikdirektor. This

tionor had belonged to his father; it was to have been expect'

id that it should fall to the even more talented son upon his

leath, but Schani was not in the good graces of the Emperor

md his Court; the role that he had played during the Revo'

ution had not served to insure him a warm welcome into the

: rosty chambers of the Hofburg. Young Emperor Fran' Josef

vas a martinet; he had shown this trait from his earliest

raining. No detail was too minute for him to concern him'

ielf with; the matter of the appointment of the new Hofball'

nusikdirektor, a minor matter though it would seem, was

lot unimportant to him. He knew that eventually it must go

o Strauss, that no one could compete with him in the light

ausic of that day; yet it pleased him to inflict a punishment

or Strauss's minor revolutionary role before handing over

he prise.

Appeasement of the young Emperor was, therefore, a
tecessity. Strauss made the first essay on July 15th, 1850,
luring a concert at Dommayer's, when he performed the
Raiser FranZ'Josef March, Op. 67. Then, with his Opus 96,

THE EARLY WALTZES

Schani published a piece directly dedicated to the Emperor,
the Viribus Unitis Waltzes. If Strauss inscribed this to the
Emperor, a degree of forgiveness must already have been un'
officially accorded. Haughty though the Emperor was, his
pride was no less intense than that of the Walts King; Strauss
would not have published a dedication which ran the risk of
being refused.

He appeared for the first time in the Redoutensaal on Feb
ruary 23rd, 1852, where he conducted the first performance
of his Die Unzertrennlichen Waltzes, Op. 108, with great
success. Yet it was not until 1863, eleven years later, that he
finally received the coveted title. By then, the great Johann
Strauss did not need it.

ON THE evening of March 27th, 1854, the immense Zere>
moniesaal of the Hofburg was brilliantly illuminated. A soft
but radiant light, from hundreds of candles set in chandeliers
and candelabra, streamed through the windows onto a Vienna
equally decorated and illuminated. Despite the season and
open windows, the temperature within the hall was more
than comfortable, for the many candles and tremendous press
of guests combined to give off intoxicating warmth, spiced
with the scent of rare and expensive perfumes. The elite of
the Austro'Hungarian nobility was present, together with
royalty of other lands, for the ball was in celebration of the
marriage of his Imperial Majesty, Emperor FranS'Josef, to
his cousin, the young and exquisite Princess Elisabeth of
Bavaria, reputed to be the most beautiful woman in Europe.

The courtship of Frans'Josef and Elisabeth is one of the
rare love stories in the history of Europe's royal families.*

* The reader is referred to Bertita Hoardings excellent "biography > Golden
Fleece.

Three-quarter Time

Theirs had been a romantic courtship; theirs was destined to
be a tragic marriage of misunderstanding and disenchantment.
The sincere young love which these two had borne each other
from the instant of their first sudden meeting in the Hapsburg
summer palace at Bad Ischl was slowly soured and turned to
distrust by the machinations of intriguing court officials, and,
more directly, by the jealous mother of the Emperor, the
Archduchess Sofia herself. It had been her intention to have
her son marry Elisabeth's older, less attractive but more tract
able sister, Helena. The Archduchess, morbidly jealous of any
lessening of affection in her son, and determined to retain her
hold on him and, thereby, indirectly over the Empire, realised
that she could achieve this ambition only if he married the
plain, but completely docile, Helena, whose utter lack of spirit
would not be an opposing force to the Archduchess's plans.

Helena was sent for; she departed for Bad Ischl with her
mother and her fifteen-year-old sister Elisabeth, who had
begged relentlessly, through the weeks of preparation for the
departure, to be also permitted to visit the Austrian Court.
Arriving in Ischl, they found their suite prepared in one -of
the wings of the summer pakce. They were visited there by
the Archduchess herself, who came to welcome them and ar
range for a rendezvous between the bride-to-be and the Em
peror, She did not fail to perceive both the extraordinary
beauty and the wild wilfulness of Elisabeth, and, in arrang
ing for a luncheon on the morrow, she gave explicit instruc
tions to her sister that the young girl was not to be of the
party.

When, the following noon, the impulsive girl found that
she had been left to dine in her own rooms with her lady-in-
waiting, she stormed out of her suite in a fine fury. The world
of protocol had hitherto passed Elisabeth by; the Wittelsbadi
family was noted for its informality and even ecc^tricity;

i 'ft >

THE EARLY WALTZES

their Bavarian castle was run along the lines of a modest
manor house. She therefore felt no compunction about burst'
ing through chambers into which she had not been invited,
leaving in her wake a stream of dasjed courtiers. Entering a
small salon, she suddenly found herself face to face not only
with her aunt, her mother and her sister, but with the Emperor
himself. She understood the situation at once. Completely
abashed, and yet with a freedom of spirit which Franv Josef
could not fail to note, she sank to the floor in a deep curtsy,
her cheeks pink with embarrassment. The Emperor was im"
mediately struck by her dark, exuberant, and yet patrician,
beauty. He insisted that Elisabeth be seated next to him.

From that moment, the die was cast. The previous evening,
Elisabeth had dined at the same table as the Emperor, but at
its other end, with his younger brothers. Now the position was
reversed; she sat in the place of honor, and it was her sister
who found herself relegated to a place "below the salt." Furi"
ous, bitterly determined to eliminate this girl whom she rightly
regarded as a disconcerting and dangerous influence, the Arch'
duchess, nonetheless, was obliged to watch impotently while
the romance flamed through its spectacular course. It reached
a dramatic climax at a court ball at Ischl, to music by the
Strauss Orchestra. Before the cotillion, it was customary for
each gentleman to present a corsage to the partner of his
choice. As the basket containing the flowers was brought to
Frans' Josef, the Court watched intently, for it was generally
assumed that his choice of partner would also indicate his be'
trothed.

The Emperor reached into the basket and scooped up not
one, but an entire armful of flowers, and, heels clicking smartly
on the parquet floor, strode across to where Elizabeth and
Helena sat with their mother. Bowing low, he deposited the
entire mass of flowery onto the lap of the enchanted Elizabeth.

i 83)-

Three'Quarter Time

The Court gasped, almost in unison. The orchestra struck up
the music to the cotillion. As if in a dream, Elizabeth rose to
dance. . . .

A year passed before they married. Elisabeth was sent home
with her mother and sister, as it was deemed unwise that she
marry before having passed her sixteenth birthday. It was a
year of impatience for the young lovers, a year which came
to a happy close on the night when Johann Strauss directed
his orchestra from the balcony of the Zeremoniesaal.

For so important an occasion, Strauss gave extra attention
to a special composition. This was a set of waltzes, the BaUg*'
schi'chten. When it was first played, the later tragedies which
were to culminate in the suicide at Mayerling of the Arch'
duke Rudolf, and the assassination aboard a Swiss lake steam
er of the Empress herself, were certainly undreamed of, and
only the aura of this wildfire courtship was there to be re
membered.

In the short introduction to Ballgschichten, there is none
of the imaginative description to be found in the symphonic
introductions of the later waltzes; this composition'is definitely
for the ballroom, and Strauss could hardly keep his dancers
teetering on one foot while he made a quasi-concert of the in
troduction. This would hardly do at so august a function.
Violins introduce the first waltz;; here is the first clear evidence
in Johann II of that style which is synonymous with the
Strausses. This waits abounds in romance and a gentle pas
sion (as our elders used to say), yet it also possesses strength,
a virile directness and that elegant twist of melody that al
ways set the Strausses apart from their lesser satellites. The
second is a fine instance of the exuberant tempi that so de
lighted Johann II Light-footed and fleet, too, is the second
waits, and definitely Straussian in its catch-accent. Toward
the end of the set appears a martial tune; this is followed at

THB EARXT WALTZES

once by a rotating melody, which is a forerunner of the not'
too'distant Accelerationen*

Several other compositions of interest date from this year,
many of them with titles suggestive of the everyday life of the
city. Sometimes these titles bear no discoverable connection to
the music to which they are affixed, but occasionally they are
distinctly pertinent. This is true of the Schnellpost (Fast
Mail) Pol\a, Op, 159; like his brother Eduard's later Bahn
Frei (Free Track) Gdopp, it is obviously railroad music. But
whereas Eduard's composition is a fairly factual approxima'
tion, in musical notation, of an express train running full tilt,
Johann's polka remains in the sphere of pure music. Therein
lies the essential difference between the two brothers, a differ'
ence as fundamental as their characters. In every way, Edi was
the materialist of the family; he thought in terms of solid reali'
ties, he lacked the imagination to sublimate these almost photo'
graphic impressions into great music, as did his elder brother.
Johann, on the other hand, was a poet, though not a dreamer
and a visionary like Josef; in patterning his work on a fast'
running rapi&e, he penned sounds which are his impressions
of the scene; Eduard's writing, on the other hand, shows scant
imagination, and little more than a straightforward notation
of the sounds of the train.

Schnellpost is a roistering piece that is Strauss at his most
robust. The flashing tempo follows die rapid turning of the
wheels. This is a delightful polka, an example of Strauss's
most ingratiating talents. A critic once wrote, "When Strauss
has been hounded to death by the too'frequent playing of the
Blue Danube, he will be born again in some exuber&nt polka/'

* It is a lamentable tendency of latter-day conductors who have not
grown up in the Strauss tradition to believe that aU the waltzes in a
single Strauss composition should be played in one tempo; this is com
pletely falsethe tempo varies to suit the mood of each section.

Time

Some of Strauss's most interesting compositions of this per
iod are those which he wrote for school dances. He was especi
ally prodigal in his attentions to the balls of the Wiener Hoch-
Schule. Strauss wrote for, and dedicated to, the medical stu
dents of this school his Paroxysmens Waltzes, Op. 189, the
AescuUp Pol\a, Op. 130, and the Panacea-Kldnge Waltzes,
Op. 161. To the law students were dedicated the Solon-
spruche Waltzes, Op. 128, and the Juristenball Tdnze, Op.
177. The engineering students were in their turn honored by
the Motoren Waltzes; the electrical students by the Elec-
trophor Pol\a, and the chemistry students by the Explosions
Pol\a.

The Paroxysmenswalzer was first heard in the popular So-
fiensaal on January 20th, 1857. The title page of the original
edition of the piano arrangement depicts skeletons, test tubes,
retorts, stethoscopes and other familiar medical paraphernalia.
Victorian to the last degree, this is one of the many colorful
piano editions which, of itself, provides a vivid picture of that
bygone day.

The introduction to the Paroxysmenswalzer, somewhat
more extended than those of the earlier works, marked agitato,
is in 4/4 time. Apart from the clue in the marking, there is
little in this section (or for that matter, in the waltzes them
selves) to recall the hospital. Yet James H. Fassett, in his pro
gram notes for the Columbia Record albums of Rediscovered
Music of Johann Strauss, contends that the fourth waltz; "has
a distinctly neurotic character and continues with a somewhat
gayer fifth waits." One must question the possibility of neu-
roticism, while admitting the unusual heavy-handedness of
this section. It is doubtful that Strauss, with his peculiar psy
chological make-up, was at all capable of portraying neuroti-
cism in music. Certainly no one would pretend to compare
any one of his walfees to the Landlev of Mahler's ?s[int7i Syra-

THE EARLY WALTZES

phony, which is neurotic. Just as Strauss in daily life fled every
aspect of life's sordid realities, even to the extent of flouting
convention and fleeing Vienna because his abhorrence of death
was such that he could not force himself to be present at the
funeral of his beloved mother, so did he flee everything in

music tending to the tragic

In the Telegrafische Depeschen (Telegraph Messages)
Waltzes, Op. 195, one finds one of those infrequent composi-
tions of Strauss's early period in which the composer has com"
bined a descriptive title with descriptive music. The introduc
tion is the most programmatic section, as always. The waltz;
knows but one rhythm, in 3/4 time, and this rhythm, to boot,
cannot vary widely in tempo. But in his introductions, Strauss
could permit himself free rein, Telegrafische Depeschen opens
with the clicking of telegraph keys, then a few sharp chords,
like miniature explosions, and the message crosses the spark
gap and speeds out over the wire. It flashes through the wood
winds and over the higher strings at lightning speed. A pause,
the three-quarter accent appears, and the first waits is heard.
In the background, and in an occasional chord sequence, the
clicking keys are heard. With the second waits;, opening in
brass, the message motive returns, streaking now through the
strings, and it continues to flit through the background during
the course of the third waltz. Two additional waltzes, a re
prise and a short coda conclude the work.

IT WAS during the summer of 1854, not many months after
he had played the Ballgfschichten in the Zeremoniesaal* that
Strauss went to lovely Bad Gastein, which lies, encirded on
three sides by the Satekammergut Alps, at the impassable end
of a valley, the resort town rising in tiers up the steep sides
of the rocky wall on either side of a foaming cataract, which
comes tumbling down to split town, mountain chain and valley

Time

in two. Here he was visited by a number of Russian gentlemen.
They were, they told him, certain of the directors of a new
railway company which had lately built a line from St. Peters
burg to Pavlovsk and Tsarskoe-Selo. Pavlovsk was then a
fashionable summer resort, very much in vogue with the Rus
sian nobility and gentry because of its proximity to Tsarskoe-
Selo, a city of palaces, which was the summer home of the Rus-
sian Imperial Family and its attendants.

In an effort to increase even further the number of visitors
to Pavlovsk, and thereby stimulate passenger traffic along the
new line, the directors had built in Pavlovsk the Vauxhall, a
large casino suitable for both concerts and dancing. Having
built the most beautiful public ballroom in all Russia, they now
needed the King of the Waltz; to entertain Russian society.
The presence at this new casino of the most famous orchestra
leader of his day would unquestionably insure the success of
the project. The Russians, with native prodigality, offered him
a fee of such magnitude that even his deep-rooted distaste for
travel could not bring him to refuse it.

There was at this time more than one Strauss Orchestra.
This was the result of a demand for his music at more concerts
than a single orchestra could encompass. As a result, he en
larged upon his father's idea of employing two or three or
chestras. On evenings when he had booked as many as six or
chestras in various halls and private ballrooms, he would make
a tour of his orchestras, appearing for a short time with each
of them, thus evenly distributing his favors and presence
among those who clamored for the sight of him. But even this
arrangement proved untenable, and after much persuasion he
was able to induce first Josef and later Eduard to share the re
sponsibility with him.. But that is another story.

Th? Strauss family had thus become "Big Business." Strauss
now controlled over two hundred musicians, a staff of library

THE EARLY WALTZES

ans, assistant conductors, copyists, publicity and booking
agents. He rode in the driver's seat, demanding fees which
would have left his father aghast (and getting them), publish
ing his works on a royalty basis only, and refusing to be cheat
ed, as his father had been before him, by outright sale of an
immortal waltz for a small fee.

Leaving Josef in charge of entertainments in Vienna, Jo-
hann entrained in the early summer for St. Petersburg, at the
head of a picked band of musicians. His arrival created con
siderable interest, but nothing to compare with a later occasion
when the police were obliged to clear the square before the St.
Petersburg station in order to allow him to leave the building
and mount a carriage for his hotel without being mauled by
well-intentioned admirers.

In Pavlovsk occurred the first of Johann Strauss's impor
tant romances. Before this, he had been drawn to many women
how could it be otherwise for this handsome and personable
young man, who represented the essence of all that was ro
mantic? but these attachments had always proven ephem
eral. Now, for the first time, Strauss fell in love. The girl was
Olga Smirnitski, daughter of a wealthy family of merchants.

He wished to marry her, but he soon realised how impos
sible this was. The social world of St. Petersburg was not yet
the society of Vienna; the idea of a musician, no matter how
exalted, marrying the daughter of one of Russia's merchant
princes was a fantastic absurdity to the Russian mind. Olga
was forbidden to have further communication with Johann.
Their actual encounters were few, clandestine and fleeting,
but messages passed steadily back and forth between the lovers,
through the confidential intermediation of Olga's maid. Strauss
at first begged her to marry him without delay, and, if neces
sary, elope with him. Olga hesitated and begged for time, and

Three-quarter Time

later Strauss did not press her further; he had written his
mother, who urgently counseled him against this marriage.

Anna Strauss knew her Johann well. He needed a woman
who could give him much love, much self 'sacrifice, much pa'
tience; a woman who would watch over him, who would see
that his absorption in composition would not interfere with
his eating and sleeping, and (most important of all) a woman
who would guard his finances and check his extravagances,
for Strauss's purse was a cornucopia of largess to all. Olga
Smirnitski, beautiful, charming and well'bred though she was,
would have made no wife for Johann Strauss. A perfect pro'
duct of her environment, it would have been she who would
have demanded attention; their marriage would have been a
disaster.

Schani heeded his mother. He. recalled the wisdom of her
counsel in past years and knew that she had never been jeal'
ously possessive of him. He realised that her reasons must have
been well'founded. Perhaps, too, he did not love Olga enough.
At any rate, he bade her auf wiederseh'n in Pavlovsk, and re'
turned to Vienna to consider the matter. There, freed from
the enchantment of Olga and the bewitching, endless, twilit
summer nights of the North, this romantic idyl slipped into
the background of his memory.

But the perfume of Olga Smirnit^ki lingers in the catalogue
of Johann Strauss's compositions. Olga was a talented amateur
musician, and her love for Schani momentarily fanned its ex'
pression. She composed a number of light pieces, two of which,
the Reise'Abenteuer Waltzes, Op. 227, and the Kobold Ma-
zur\a, Op. 226, were arranged and published by Strauss as in"
elusions in his catalogue. There are other traces of his Rus'
sian sojourn: his farewell to that semi'oriental land, the Ab"
schied von St. Petersburg Waltzes, Op. 210, and his joyous

4 90 V

THE EARLY WALTZES

home-coming salute to Austria, the Gruss an Wien
Franfaise, Op. 225.

f

ON FEBRUARY 14th, 1860, Johann Strauss sat at sunrise be
fore a small table in the deserted Sofiensaal. An hour before,
the hall had been filled with couples stepping briskly to the
tune of a polka. Now the music was over, and the men had
packed their instruments and were heading homeward to bed.
Strauss always enjoyed this hour of relaxation, suspended be
tween the excitement of the concert which had gone before,
and the day's work which was yet to come.

Stretched in a chair, cigarette in hand, draining the last
drops of champagne from a glass, he was approached by one
of the committeemen of the Technical Students' Ball, sched
uled for the coming evening. The young man asked whether
he had written the waits which had been commissioned for
the ball. Strauss confessed that he had not; however, there
was no cause for worry the waits would be ready.

On the spot, he reached for the menu and traced some
staves on its blank side. Then he lounged back in his chair,
searching for an idea. He thought of the experiments of the
technical students: currents, stresses, strains, torsions, de
creasing and accelerating speeds all these ran through his
mind. Along this train of thought, a rotating melody sprang
up. Beginning dreamily, it began to whirl ever faster and faster
perhaps inspired by that earlier spinning passage in
schichten. Quickly, he sketched out this passage:

Three'Quarter Time

Everyone who has heard it once remembers it well the dis-
tinctive Accelerationen Waltzes., Op. 234. This marks the
flood tide of that period which may be designated as the first
of three into which Strauss's career was divided. This is his
formative period; those years which began with his first waits,
conceived at the age of six, continuing on through his Donv
mayer debut to come to an end with the Wiener Bonbons
Waltzes. It was during the second stage that Strauss produced
the so-called "Great Waltzes" works which represent Vien
nese dance music at its fullest flowering. Even so, it was not
until the third period that Strauss completely revealed his
genius. These were the years when he relinquished the direc-
torship of his orchestra to his brothers in order to devote him"
self to the composition of operas and operettas, but, unfortu-
nately, these are the works which are, all in all, least known in
the Anglo-Saxon world.

Accelerationen opens with an introduction in high tremolo
strings, under which other instruments, notably the lower
strings, suggest a fragmentary melody reminiscent of the first
waits. This rises in a gradual crescendo, which fades suddenly
at its climax in anticipation of the opening waits. The theme
of this waits is quoted above. Starting slowly, it gathers mo
mentum until it seems to fling itself up and out into space by
virtue of its own centrifugal force. This a trait peculiar to Jo-
hann II his melodies often have this twist, but nowhere more
effectively than here. One finds in the writing for the violins
in the second waits a style used repeatedly in other works
(notably the later Morgenblatter Waltzes), the taking of the
melody out of its original, simple form, and the weaving about
it of a quasi'variation figuration in eighth notes.

That Strauss was ever full of a gay and almost childlike
humor is shown at every turn in his early compositions, before
experience had brought him the sophistication which so illumi-

JOHANN STRAUSS II

JOSEF STRAUSS
Photograph taken shortly before his death.

94

THE EARLY WALTZES

nates the pages of Die FledernuLus^ and nowhere more incisive
ly than in the famous Perpetuum Mobile, in which Strauss took
a mild dig at the tendency of his day to emphasise virtuosity
to the detriment of musical content. In spirit, this work is
closely akin to a scherzo; certainly it deserves the name, for
few examples of a musical joke are its equal. But the Perpetual
Motion is a scherzo only in the literal sense of the word, for
in form it is the apotheosis of the dance-hall galop.

Like the Perpetuum Mobile which it sought to ridicule (those
of Paganini and others), Strauss's Perpetuum Mobile is a vir"
tuoso piece, in which the men of the orchestra, collectively and
individually, find opportunity to demonstrate their technical
proficiency. Based entirely upon a series of quasi-variations on
a theme only eight bars long, it opens first with a galloping
rhythm in the strings, following which wood winds and strings
introduce the tune. A rollicking bit for high wood winds in
terrupts, and then follows an hilarious bassoon solo, picked up
at once by solo piccolo, with obbligato by the bassoon. Then,
a snatch for trumpets and trombones, contrasted immediately
with the ethereal tones of bells (celesta or glockenspiel).
Flutes again, then the clarinets, and now the French horns
have their moment. The flutes return, and the whole orchestra
goes galloping off on a madcap variation which leads into that
most ridiculous and delightful of passages, a solo for tympani.
over tremolo strings. The orchestra rockets off again, until it
crashes up against the tam-tam. From there, clarinets and flutes
resume the escapade, leading the orchestra into a few measures
which end the work abruptly and without warning, leaving it
hanging harmonically in mid-air, as though the composer had
tired of his efforts.

This ending is one which displeases most conductors; it is
not only too abrupt, but almost anticlimactic after some of the
wonderful ideas which have gone before. A final touch of

Three-quarter Time

humor is somehow needed. It was Mengelberg's practice to
effect a da capo, and end at the close of the variation for solo
bassoon, finishing this with a downward glissando by that in'
strument. Although the writer finds no fault with this idea,
his own experience has been that the average bassoonist (in
Germany, at least) cannot effect a good glissando in that regis
ter. The writer's personal practice is to make the da capo, but
to play only the first four measures, which establish the basic
rhythm ad libitum, all the while having the strings play more
and more softly until they are no longer to be heard.

UNDER the energetic rule of Franz- Josef, Vienna had been
undergoing with not a little protest a major face-lifting
operation. The old battlements which had encircled the Kaiser-
stadt (the inner city) were rased, giving place to what is to
day Vienna's main thoroughfare, the Ringstrasse, a spacious
avenue along which a Baroque palace, an early-Gothic City
Hall, a neo-Gothic church, a Grecian House of Parliament
and the Renaissance Burgtheater rub elbows. Along this
same avenue stand also the Hof operntheater, the Museums of
Art and Natural History, and the Academy of Fine Arts.

The Viennese citizen is, by nature, almost fanatically, at
tached to old and familiar objects and surroundings. The old
battlements, along the top of which fashionable Vienna loved
to stroll, were of dated military usefulness; necessary during
the days when Vienna was besieged by the Turks, they were
useless in withstanding a modern army. No one knew this
better than Frarn;- Josef , who had studied military tactics from
childhood. Yet when the demolition of the battlements was an
nounced, committees came to him from all quarters, begging
that the old, familiar landmarks be allowed to stand. Two com
positions by Johann Strauss commemorate this change in the
familiar pattern of old Vienna. The first, written when the

THE EARLY WALTZES

order for the rasing of the bastions was published, was the
Demolierer Polfa, Op. 269. The second, penned when Vienna
was given its beautiful new Ringstrasse, was the l^eu Wien
Waltzes, Op. 342.

JETTY TREFFZ

LOVE had, until this time, scarcely affected Schani. His one
important affair of the past, the romance with Olga Smirnitzjki,
was now but a memory. He had known many other attach
ments since Olga, but these passing infatuations had not made
any deep impression, to the tremendous chagrin of many an
ambitious Viennese mother. This was probably the result of a
combination of circumstances, not the least of which was the
endless round of work which left him hardly an idle moment.

Vienna was no St. Petersburg; Johann Strauss, the "un-
crowned Emperor of Austria/ 5 could have had at will his
choice of any of the marriageable young ladies of Vienna's
social world. Thus it was all the more confounding when
Vienna learned that Strauss had suddenly married Jetty
Treffs, a woman ten years his senior; a woman, moreover,
who (according to the conventions of the day) lived on the
fringe of respectable Viennese society.

Henrietta Treff? was born in Vienna. A beautiful voice and
a profound love of music led her to study singing; in this she
was assisted by grants of money from the Court of Saxony.
At fifteen, she made her debut in the Dresden Opera. She
later traveled widely, winning great success in such antipodal
capitals as light-hearted Vienna and Victorian London. A cer
tain consonance between the names of Jenny Lind and Jetty
Treffs caused her to be not infrequently compared to the

JETTY TREFFZ

Swedish Nightingale, and, to the credit of her voice and
musicianship, it can be said that Kammersangerin TrefFz did
not fare badly by these comparisons.

At forty, she retired from the stage to settle in the home
of Baron Morits Tedesco. They would have married, but
Tedesco had promised at his father's deathbed to remain a
Jew, and to refrain from marriage outside his religion. There
fore, making the best of a bad situation, and in defiance of
moral codes, Jetty became the mistress of the man she loved,
presiding over his home. She bore him two children; she was
in fact, if not in name, his wife.

From the meager accounts existing, the meeting of Johann
and Jetty was an instance of that rare thing, love at first sight.
When longer acquaintance corroborated and strengthened
their first emotions, they were frank to tell Tedesco what the
change meant. Strauss told the Baron honestly that he wanted
to marry Jetty, and the Baron, a man of honor, not only felt
that he could not interfere with Jetty's finally obtaining the
honor and position due her, but made her a settlement of such
proportions that it seemed the dowry of a princess.

The marriage of Jetty and Johann in the Stef anskirche, the
ancient cathedral of Vienna, was an extremely quiet one, with
only a few friends, among them Haslinger, attending. Follow
ing the ceremony, Anna Strauss called the couple aside and
told Johann she had a special wedding gift for them, a wedding
gift which, she said, Johann himself had made. Strauss was
completely mystified as his mother drew out a large box, which
she unlocked, disclosing a small hoard of gold coins. Unknown
to him, during his first Russian trip, his aunt (who had ac-
companied him) worried about his extravagance; she had
taken a part of his pay each week and deposited it in a Vien
nese bank. The little scene was not lost on Jetty, who realised

Three'Quarter Time

that henceforth she would have to be the brake on Schani's
generosity.

The newly married couple settled first in an apartment with
in the city, and then moved to a villa in Hiet2;ing, close to
Schonbrunn and not far from the Dommayerbau where
Strauss had begun his public life.

That perfect mirror of his life, the catalogue of his works,
makes the first mention of Jetty Treffs in his Opus 271, which
is dedicated to her.

THE last of the important compositions of this early period
of Schani's career came shortly afterwards: the Morgenbldtter
Waltzes, Op. 279. Like the later Feuilleton Waltzes, Op. 293,
this was dedicated to the "Concordia," an association of Vien
nese journalists, and was written for one of their balls. Mor-
genbldtter may be translated as either Morning Leaves or
Morning Papers. The latter title (in view of the group for
whom it was written) would seem to be correct, but the cover
of the original piano edition, showing leaves glinting under a
morning sun, allows a double meaning.

Morgenbldtter was played at a Concordia ball in an informal
competition with the Abendbldtter Waltzes of the visiting
Frenchman, Jacques Offenbach, whose appearance in the Aus**
trian capital was causing a minor sensation. It is a matter of
record that it was Offenbach's waltses which were more high'
ly praised, the inspired spontaneity of Strauss's offering pass'
ing comparatively unnoticed. Strauss returned home that eve'
ning feeling a deep hurt, a hurt which rankled for years. Cer
tainly, it was a bitter blow to find that his beloved Viennese
preferred, to his own superlative set of waltses, a composition
which time has proven markedly inferior. For, in all of the
Strauss output, there is no other work to match MorgenUdt'

i 100 }>

JETTY TREPPZ

ter for sheer elfin lightness of step, ingenuous youthfulness
and dewy freshness.

Morgenbldtter is probably the most volatile of Johann's
waits compositions it fairly skips along, with a jauntiness
that is unique. But Strauss was also full master of the sensuous;
he well knew when to convert that light skip into a silky glide.
This was never better instanced than in the fourth waltz,
where four measures of coquettish pizzicato chords are sud'
denly' contrasted with four extraordinarily sensuous measures
for bowed strings.

pizz.

r

This waltz is, regardless of period, one of Strauss's best. If
it lacks the majesty and the descriptive power of the great
waltzes, it owns instead a freshness and a youthfulness which
place it beside the later works.

ALTHOUGH few are heard today, the marches of the two Jo"
harms are endowed with a charm and a musical worth that
make them cherishable. They are typical of their day and their
people, their mincing rhythms so opposed to the long, free
stride of the American soldier, so perfectly delineated in the
music of John Philip Sousa, Of the Johann II marches, the
Persischer, Op. 289, is a splendid specimen. Commemorating
a visit to Vienna of the Shah of Persia, it is dedicated to that
potentate. The rhythm recalls the rolling gait of camel cafa'
vans crossing the Iranian sands. Another popular march is
the Egyptischer, Op. 335, which, if its orientalism is more
synthetic, nonetheless makes a good mate for the Pefsischer.

i 101 K

Time

Yet neither of these equals the father's great Radetz\y, which
remains the ideal of the Austrian march.

Four opus numbers after the Persicher appear the Aus dem
Bergen Waltzes, dedicated to that fearless (and fearsome)
Viennese music critic, Eduard Hanslick, of whom it might be
said that he played Boswell to Johannes Brahms' Dr. Johnson.
Hanslick made no secret of a great admiration for Strauss's
unique genius, an admiration which he shared with Brahms.
Indeed, Johann Strauss was one of the few friends who was
spared the gruff, sarcastic side of Brahms' nature; it was
Brahms who wrote on Alice Strauss's autograph fan the first
few bars of the Blue Danube, and beneath them the words,
"unfortunately not by Johannes Brahms!" Hanslick often
claimed that he had been the first to say that the later waltzes
could no longer be measured as dance music; he called them
variously waits-poems and waits-requiems.

The students of the Wiener Hoch-Schule were at this time
honored by two new polkas, the Prozesspol\a, Op. 294,
which was dedicated to the law students, and first played at
their ball in the Sofiensaal on January 31st, 1865, and the
Electrophor Pol\a, Op. 297, dedicated to the technical stu
dents, whose Jball was held in the Dianasaal on February 14th.

It is not difficult to trace a resemblance in Electrophor to
the earlier Telegrafische Depeschen Waltzes, which is not
surprising when one considers that both works concern them
selves with electrical energy. The whirling tune that whiles
through the fiddles is clearly akin to that which dashes along
in the first waits; of the earlier work.

Only nine published works separate this polka from the
Wiener Bonbons Waltzes, Op. 307, the composition which is
the best point of demarcation between Strauss's formative
years and those which established him as one of the world's
musical masters.

4 102 >

THE GREAT WALTZES

WHAT, precisely, was it that provoked this broadening and
deepening of Johann Strauss's creative talents? Several causes
contributed, of which the most important was his marriage to
Jetty Treflfe. Possessing extremely good business sense, she
took over the management of his affairs, and at once insisted
that the harassed composer-conductor devote more time to
composition, less to conducting. It was under her influence
that Strauss henceforth gave up leading his orchestra at
dances, with the sole exception of Imperial functions, and ap
peared before his musicians only in concert performances.

Freed from the bondage of having to conduct pure dance
music on an almost nightly basis, Strauss was able to relax.
Composing at a slower rate, taking greater pains, and giving
more thought to each composition, he shows consistently from
this point on that apparently effortless spontaneity which re-
suits only from careful planning and revision. It would be do-
ing Strauss an injustice to insist that all his compositions
even all the major works are inspired. No man, however
gifted, could compose a new work as regularly as Strauss was
often compelled to do without occasionally straining his re
sources.

As he found more time for composition, Strauss began to
conceive his works more in terms of absolute music^ less m
terms of the dancers. Thus occurred the last phenomenon of

103

Three-quarter Time

the development of the waits; in the hands of the Strausses;
the great waltzes are not dance music they are the apothe
osis of the Viennese Waltz;, in concert garb, and into them
Strauss has distilled the essence of everything that is Vienna.

The introductions and the codas now grew longer; they
developed in form, in complexity and imagination, until the
waltzes proper came to assume a role hardly greater than that
of their preludes and postludes. Thus, in Tales from the Vien
na Woods, the introduction and coda together are almost as
long as the waltzes, when these are played with the conven
tionally observed repeats. In Wine, Women and Song, the
outer sections assume an importance greater than that of the
waltzes, which are themselves not among Strauss's most in
spired moments. In these "great waltzes," the couples find
themselves in the awkward situation of having to stand and
listen, but not dance! Writers of the period have noted that
when the waits itself began, they actually forgot to dance!
However, the "great waltzes" were written for the concert
hall, not the dance floor.

Here lies a point deserving of more stress. Many of these
waltzes possess two conclusions, one short and in waits time,
for the dance hall, the other a return to the slow introduction
as a means of rounding out the work for concert performan
ces. When conductors, even such famous ones as Leopold Sto-
kowski, today play these waltses in concert, beginning with
the opening tempo di vals (which follows the proper intro
duction) and concluding with the dance ending, they are not
only doing an injustice to Strauss, but they are demonstrating
a complete lack of understanding, not only of Strauss's intent
and content, but of simple musical form.

It was perhaps Strauss's misfortune that his early steps in
music, and the demands of a dancing public, gave him no op
portunity to write anything that was not dance music. Even

4 UN.}.

THE GREAT WALTZES

the Perpetuum Mobile was no exception. Yet Strauss had
-within him the power to write music which belongs exclusively
in the concert hall. It is unlikely that he could have poured his
art into the rigid molds of the sonata, the symphony or the
concerto. His path would more probably have lain along the
freer lines which Frans Lisst developed in his tone poems,
and which Debussy later brought to fruition in his great im
pressionist works. Strauss, working in a stereotyped and cir
cumscribed medium, nonetheless managed to flirt with the
style of the symphonic poem. There are moments in the open
ing of the Wiener WdZd when one senses the coming of the
faun; there are glimpses in the swirling, swelling currents of
the introduction to the Blue Danube which could lead to the
later aquatints of the French impressionist master.

\

IN 1856, Johann Herbeck became Director of the newly
founded Wiener Mannergesangverein. The establishment of
this choral group was an important event in Vienna, for the
Viennese have always been passionately fond of vocal music.
Possessed, as a nation, of natural singing voices surpassed
only by the Italians, the Austrians needed an organisation
which would provide a natural outlet for their love of song.
Herbeck, director of a choir of superb male voices, found
himself constantly at a loss for worthwhile choral material of
popular appeal. There were, of course, the great oratorios of
Handel and the great choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach,
but these he could use only sparingly; the lade of enthusiasm
and appreciation with which Vienna received .performances
of the Passions by a choir conducted by Brahms was proof of
this. There were, also, the choral wcrtks of Mendelssohn, Beet
hoven and many others, but Herbeck wanted not only light
er music as a foil to this heavy diet, but music which was in
tike bloo4 of every Viennese. It was only natural, 'then, that

1 toy).

Three-quarter Time

he should turn to Johann Strauss, the arch melodist of the
day. He asked Strauss to write the music for a choral waits;;
he had the poet to set it to words. It was to be produced at a
gala concert celebrating the signing of the peace treaty be
tween Austria and Prussia which ended the short but disas
trous war in which the Austrians had suffered utter defeat
and humiliation, culminating in the rout of the Imperial
forces at Koniggrats. The Viennese had no desire to linger
over these unpleasant memories; they wanted gaiety and for-
getfulness. Herbeck knew that the man to fill this prescrip
tion was Johann Strauss.

Strauss accepted the commission. He was rather intrigued
by it, in fact. For one thing, Jetty had been urging him to
write an operetta. He did not think himself ready for so ex
acting a form as yet, and saw in this request of Herbeck's a
chance to try his hand at vocal music. He had lately read a
poem which had piqued his fancy. As a literary effort, it was
of no consequence, but he was fascinated by the mental pic
ture conjured by the last line of the stanza:

Und ich sati dich reich an Schmerzen
Und ich sok' dich jung* und hold\

Wo die Treue tuachst im Herzen
Wie im Schacht das edle Gold,

An der Donau, an der schonen, blauen Donau.

An der schonen, blauen Donau by the beautiful, blue
Danube. The words lingered with Strauss. Good son of
Vienna that he was, he knew that the Danube is often
green, sometimes slate grey, but never blue. Did it matter?
The words somehow identified themselves with all that was
Viennese, all that was Austrian. After the war with Prussia,
more devastating to Austrian honor than to Austrian lands,'

106

THE GREAT WALTZES

there came a reaction which took the form of increased na
tional fervor.

The words identified themselves in Strauss's mind with a
liquidly rotating melody, based on the D major triad the
notes D, F# and A a theme which is recognised immedi-
ately the world over, whether played by symphony orchestra,
hurdy-gurdy or harmonica. How can one describe the loveli-
ness of the many waltzes? Our hearing has been blunted by
indifferent performances, but an intelligent and sensitive read
ing (unfortunately all too rare) can bring one again to an
appreciation of its strange enchantment. In few other compo
sitions is Strauss's power of suggestion as evident as in the in
troduction to the Blue Danube.

Here is the river itself, that moving fluid roadway, calm
and broadly-flowing, imprisoned forever in terms of sound.
High in the violins, in a pianissimo tremolo, a breezy drifts
across the face of the open stream in ripplets, silvered in the
sun. Underneath, the current flows on inflexibly in the horns
and violoncellos. Suddenly, forte, a gust of wind sends a
jagged blur-of ripples billowing across the surface of the wa
ter. Little whirlpools appear in the opening tempo di vals.
Then, three pizzicato notes descending in the contrabasses re
store the calm and set the stage for the waltzes to begin.

7 f r T' " * l "-^ r " f-^Pr r k

In the waltzes themselves, Strauss made no attempt to
parallel Smetana's 'Moldau, and depict the Danube wander
ing from its source to the Black Sea. The formal structure of
the waits forbade this. Instead, he allowed each section to

107

Three* Quarter Time

suggest a different mood or setting, and what these may be
each listener must decide for himself. These waltses, almost
a series of aquarelles, are too largely absolute music to possess
any fixed image. Through them all runs only one common
thread, suggestive perhaps of the eddies and currents which
swirl around piles and shoals, . and along banks and quays.
Walts follows waits, in a pattern which leaves the listener
unconscious of transition; modulations occur with a natural"
ness which seems inevitable; bridge passages appear to be an
integral part of the musical thought, and not merely a means
of sewing seams. The reprise rounds out the formal structure,
satisfying structural demands, but it does more than that
it constitutes almost a development in sonata form. In no
other single composition, save perhaps Wiener W#Zd and the
Kaiserwalzer, did Strauss exhibit such consummate mastery
of form. Here is no simple restatement of themes, but a sec
tion which almost amounts to an enlarging of the original
statements, with embellishments and connecting passages as
yet unheard. Now the coda, harking back to the hasy atmos
phere of the introduction, and then a final surge to the clos
ing measures. Listening to these last measures, and to those
which form the introduction, one cannot contend that Strauss
was master only of lightness and gayety. There are few com
positions which contain more nostalgia; there is an endless
depth of melancholy in the coda. It is again the "sorrow with
out pain" which characterised so much of Schubert's music,
and which later became even more marked in Josef Strauss's
works.

Herbeck engaged a poetaster of most questionable talents
to write the words to the waits. This doubtful genius penned
stansas so pathetically inane that they almost dragged the
music to oblivion with them. The intent was to allude ob
liquely to the ever-tense political atmosphere, and the words

4 109 >

THE GREAT WAI/TZES

were set in dialogue form between the upper and lower voices
of the choir:

Wiener, seid froh!

Oho, wicso?
Bin Schimmer dcs Lichts. . . .

WtY $eh'n noch nichts. . . -
Der Fasching ist da. . . .

Ach so, na ja!
Was hilft das Trauern
Und das Bedauern?
lyrum froh und heiter seid!

Vienna, be gay!

And why, pray?
A glimmer of light. . . .

With us, it's night!
Carnival's here. . . .

O dear, O dear. . . .
Well, why seek sorrow?
There's still tomorrow,
So laugh and be gay!

When the singers were given their parts, they rebelled,
and it took all of Herbeck's persuasion to forestall an abso'
lute refusal on the part of his chorus to perform the waltz;.
Herbeck, convinced of its effectiveness, instilled enough of
his own confidence into the chorus to cause tKem to devote
some effort to it. The concert took place in the hall of the
Imperial Riding School on February 13th, 1867. The waits;
was sung, and failed. Even Strauss's inspired music coulcJ not
overcome the nonsense of the poetaster; the stupid* verses,
for the moment, completely blinded the audience to the grace
of a work which was, in little time, to become Austria's un"
official national anthem. It is true that it obtained one en'

109

Time

core, but for a man whose Opus 1 had occasioned nineteen,
this was abysmal failure.

An der sclnonen, lolauen Donau did not remain a failure for
long, but it was not Vienna which first acclaimed it; another
city owns that honor. That city is Paris.

In the summer of 1867, Paris had become the Mecca of the
social world. The Second Empire was then at the height of
its glittering, extravagant and transient glory; three years
later this house of cards was to collapse of its own folly, in
the midst of the Franco-Prussian war. But little of the grow
ing tension was noticed by those who visited Paris in "67 to
attend the International Exposition.

Paris was then a true City of Light. Gas jets flared from
pipe lines stretched along the edges of the roofs, outlining the
buildings with a million spots of flame; the tree-lined boule
vards were thronged with strolling visitors and Parisians.
Celebrities were everywhere the Prince of Wales, later
King Edward VII; the Duke and Duchess of Manchester;
Alexandre Dumas, fils; Hortense Schneider, then the rage
of Paris in the title role of Offenbach's La Grande'Duchesse
de Gerolstein; Henri de Rochef ort, and Henri Murger, author
of the anecdotes of Bohemian student life which Puccini later
put to music; Prince Metternich, the Austrian Ambassador,
and his fascinating wife, the Princess Pauline Metternich,
confidante of the Empress Eugenie, and a host of others.
Through this imposing assemblage moved Henri de Villemes-
sant, owner and publisher of Figaro, the leading newspaper
of Paris, one of the most enterprising journalists in history.

It was no wonder, then, that Strauss, famous though he
was, was sucked into this furioqs maelstrom and ignored. His
concerts at the Exposition were well attended, but so many
other attractions competed that they did not raise him to the
omnipotent position he held in Vienna.

THE GREAT WALTZES

^ His first success came when Princess Metternich engaged
liim and his orchestra to play for a mammoth ball in her Pari
sian palace. His triumph again seemed assured the guests
barely danced at all, they preferred to listen to Herr Strauss.
But Paris, spoiled beyond belief, the most coquettish mistress
man has ever known, was accustomed to sensations, and
Strauss was no exception. The next day matters stood as
before.

What he needed in that competitive field was a publicity
manager. He found one in the likeliest man of all Villemes-
sant. The newspaperman chanced into the Cercle Internation
ale one day when Strauss was conducting. It did not take two
numbers for him to perceive that here was a unique genius.

He sent for Strauss the next day, and the Waltz; King did
not delay in paying his respects. Thereupon began a cam
paign which might have made a Hollywood publicity man
envious. Figaro ran articles daily on '"Monsieur Strauss, qui
a Ze diable au corps/' It was not long before other papers had
taken up the fashion; it suddenly became the latest and most
imperious vogue in Paris to have heard Strauss and danced
to his music.

And with Strauss the Parisians associated one waits which
he played constantly An der schonen, blauen Donau. Thus
the waits; which had begun its career as a near-failure became
the tune that was on everybody's lips, in everybody's ears.

Villemessant arranged a series of suppers for Strauss, dur
ing the course of which Schani found opportunity to meet
and know the most important people in Paris. In return,
Strauss insisted upon giving a supper for Villemessant, his
editorial staff and a number of guests. The publish^; con
sented only on condition that Strauss allow him to furnish
the wines from his own famous cellar. Following the supper,
Strauss led his orchestra in a new polka, the Figaropol\a, Op.

Three'Quarter Time

320. Villemessant was as delighted as a child; the following
day, a piano edition of the polka was printed and distributed
as a special supplement to Figaro.

Another ball was held at the palace of the Princess Met'
ternich; this time, Strauss was not only the artist, but the
guest of honor as well. A typically Parisian company was
gathered, ranging from His Royal Highness, the Prince of
Wales, to Her Grace, the "Grand Duchess of Gerolstein,"
Hortense Schneider.

Strauss was a succes feu, and nothing would do for Prince
Edward but that the Walts; King voyage on to England with
his orchestra. They arrived in London late in 1867, and ap
peared in a series of concerts at Covent Garden which ran
from August 16th to October 25th; Jetty Treffs appeared
at several of these concerts as soloist.

Morgenbldtter, that walu which Vienna had passed by in
favor of Offenbach's less consequential Abendblatter, was re'
vived to prove a particular favorite at these concerts. Other
works which Strauss conducted during this series included his
father's TanZ'Signale Waltzes, Op, 218, the Blue Danube in
a new choral dress, to English text, and the Erinnerung
an Covent Garden Waltzes, Op. J29. This last is particularly
apt for an English audience, since it is based on popular Eng'
Ksh airs, including that hardy perennial, The Man on the Fly*
ing Trapeze. Thinking again to compliment the British, he
wrote the Festival ^uadrille^ Op. 341, and by mischance in"
duded an American Civil War song of the Union Army,
Just Before the Battle, Mother.

BEFORE starting out for Paris, Strauss wrote yet another

choral waltz; for Herbeck's men the lilting Kunstlerleben

'( Artist's Life) Waltzes, Op. 316. This was only one of a

-tiiimber of waltzes which Strauss in time wrote for the Vien-

THE GREAT WALTZES

na Men's Choral Association, including Tales from the View
na Woods and Wine, Women and Song. Kunstlerleben is to-
day known solely as an orchestral waltz;, the choral form hav
ing long been forgotten. It was first heard as an orchestral
work at the Hesperusballtans on February 18th, 1867, in the
Dianasaal, five days after the fiasco of An der schonen, blauen
Donau. Apparently Strauss must have been working on the
two waltzes at once; it is scarcely conceivable that this mas'
terwork, completely orchestrated, could have been done in
five days, even admitting Strauss's unusual facility. For the
work is clearly the product of Strauss's pen alone, even to
the kst of the orchestration. Strauss had on his staff a num-
her of arrangers, and many of the minor works were com
pleted and orchestrated by them, but it is highly improbable
that any of the "great waltzes" fall into this category.

It is by no means unfortunate that the vocal parts have
been eliminated from the waltzes. The truth is that melodicai-
ly they are unsuited to voice; orchestrally they are complete
in themselves, whether Strauss desired it or not. In conse
quence, a text often makes the waltzes sound like a tour de
force.

While the programmatic implications of the Strauss waltz
es are limited, one constantly encounters among the great
er waltzes a perfect correlation of title to music. If there is in
Kunstlerleben no attempt to portray the life of an artist, the
title is nonetheless perfectly suited to this sans'gene music.
One could never imagine this title applied to the rich-blood^
ed, exotic music of Wiener Blut. And just as the titles brijag
to mind two widely varied images* so do these two sets of
waiters occasion entirely different emotional reactions in the
listener. Despite the common Straussian resemblance, there is
nothing to relate the impassioned, buoyant Kunstlerleben to

Three-quarter Time

the lush strains of Wiener Blut or the intoxicated melodies
of Wein, Weib und Gesang.

As in the Blue Danube, Strauss has taken the theme of the
first waits as subject matter for the introduction to Artist's
Life, thereby achieving a sense of unity in composition which
had previously not been found in the waltz;. With these two
works, the Viennese Walts reached its third and final phase
of growth. The first step had been brought about by Johann,
Senior, and Josef Lanner; the second took place when the
compositions of Johann II began to display a smoother phras
ing of thought and construction, when the rhythms stretched
out and became perfectly free. The last step was the fusion of
introduction, waltzes and coda into a single work which was
not the accidental assembling of parts which fitted well to'
gether, but the creation of a single musical thought, carried
out from start to finish. Since the "great waltzes," of which
Kaiserwalzer was the last, the form has remained static. This
is exemplified in the Rosen\avalier waltses of Richard Strauss
and La Valse of Ravel.

LITTLE more than a year after Strauss first introduced the
Blue Danube, he gave the Viennese another great waits, the
only one (except the Kaiserwalzer) which has been able to
rival successfully the waltses which have become Austria's un'
official anthem. This new set of waltses he named G'schichten
aus dem 'Wiener Wald (Tales from the Vienna Woods),
Ogus 325. Words by Hans Miiller were set to it, and like
its great predecessor, it was sung by the Wiener Mannerge'
sangverein, this time with marked success.

The Wiener Wold was dedicated to the Princess Con'
stanse von und su Hohenlohe^Schillingfikst, and was given its
first "performance on June 9th, 1868. Although he inscribed
these waltzes to a member of one of Austria's greatest f ami-

THE GREAT WALTZES

lies, Strauss must have had the average Viennese Burger in
mind when writing them. They are really dedicated to each
and every member of that vast army of city dwellers who,
weary of a molelike grind in dusty offices throughout the
week, seeks escape on Sunday from the all-confining city to
the restful green and coolness of the adjacent woods.

If the Blue Danube is evocative of the river from which it
takes its name, Strauss's Wiener Wald is an even more
graphic description of the verdant woods which lie beyond
Vienna. This is truest in the introduction, where Strauss has
virtually written a tone poem. With the opening notes of
the horns and clarinets, reminiscent of the pipings of shep
herds amid their flocks, a cool, leafy greenness steals through
the orchestra. It is like a page from Beethoven's Pastoral Sym
phony. It reaches a climax, and then follows a statement of
what will later be an important waits theme. As in the Blue
Danube, there is a sentimental nostalgia here, but it is more
pastoral and less emphatic than the emotion of the earlier
work. A few notes in the horns open a wide vista of spread
ing landscape, over which the flute trills bird songs. Then,
abruptly, appear the wild, barbaric and untamed tones of a
solo Cither, playing the waits; theme in its introductory guise,
almost as an improvisation. The mood brightens and changes,
and gives way suddenly to the full orchestra in the open
ing 3/4 measures which precede the first wait?.

The sweeping, upsurging beat of this waits is irresistible.
There is no need to analyse the waltses at length; they are
as well known as those of the Blue Danube. But it is interest
ing to note that the theme which Strauss had made Ms prin^
cipal motif in the introduction to the Wiener Wdd and which
recurs in the waltses proper is a frank and admitted plagiar
ism and development of one of the waltses by Johann, Senior,
Die Schwdlben.

Three-quarter Time

Vienna Woods:

Die Schwalben:

The coda is beautifully wrought. Especially charming is
the short dialogue for strings and harp which precedes the
Cither solo. Here the pastoral mood is resumed, until a final
sweep of the orchestra, interrupting the Cither's soliloquy,
brings the work to a close.

Wein, Weib und Gesang (Wine, Women and Song), Op.
333, was another of the waltzes which Strauss wrote for the
Wiener Mannergesangverein. Unlike the Blue Danube and
the Wiener Wald, it proved a well-knit work in choral
dress, whereas both of the earlier waltzes were built upon
melodies whose long, legato lines were unsuited to the human
voice and its limitations.

Strauss dedicated the waltzes to Herbeck, and gave them
their first performance on February 2nd, 1869, in the Diana-
saal.

The introduction proved Strauss's greatest venture into
nota-danceable music, insofar as his waltzes were concerned.
It was only a short time after this that he interested himself
in the field of operetta and opera. It may be for this reason
that the waltzes which followed this composition are provided
with less ambitious introductions, again with the exception of
the Kaiserwalzer.

There is no denying that, for dancers, the introduction is
9. case of the tail wagging the dog. Together with the few final

4 116 }

THE GREAT WALTZES

measures, it forms better than half the playing time for this
composition when only a normal number of repeats are ob'
served. For this reason, the work is most effective when
heard in concert, for its charm lies entirely in the introduc"
tion; the waltzes themselves are second-rate Strauss.

Andante quasi rdigioso, the introduction begins. A call to
attention in horns and wood winds, and then the strings in'
troduce a falling cadence which leads to an exquisite theme
for the violoncellos and violas:

There is a Mendelssohnian touch to this phrase; it is a
true flower of the Romantic School. A passage reminiscent of
an old German march style appears, and then the proclama'
tion, maestoso:

Wer liebt nicht Wein, Weib und Gesang,
Bleibt ein T^arr sein Lebcn lang!

Who does not love wine, women and song,
Remains a fool his whole life long?

Only then may the wafcses begin. A variation on what has
gone before, the first opens hesitantly, slowly gaining strength
until, in the twenty-seventh measure, it suddenly leaps wildly,
and all the festival spirits of gayety are released. L

The second waits finds Strauss quoting once more, witli

H7

Three'Quarter Time

considerable modification, his father's Die Schwalben. Sud
denly the waits; modulates into A-flat major, setting in waits
time the descending cadence which opened the introduction.
Then, to deny the gentleness and sentiment of this passage,
staccato thirds appear in the strings and wood winds, and a
strongly accented bass appears to guide the dancers through
the mase.

The fourth walte varies the close of the introduction to
form yet another link unifying the whole. This may not be
Strauss's most inspired waits;, but it affords a revealing in-
sight into his formal development as a composer.

And then the orgy. Forte, the full orchestra reels out the
final crude and drunken measures. . . .

JOHAKN Strauss had been interested for a long time in the
music of Richard Wagner. Strangely enough, it was Anna
Strauss who was" responsible for this. She was indeed a wo-
man of unusual and unsuspected qualities. Completely un
tutored in music, save for what had come her way as the wife
of one musician and the mother of three others, she nonethe
less had unusual perception. She was among the first in Vien
na to sense the significance of Wagner's music, and it was
largely because of her enthusiasm that Johann II was attracted
to the works of this new Prometheus. It was Johann Strauss
who first performed some of the music to Tristan und Isolde
in the Austrian capital. Wagner had wanted to stage the
music drama there, but the concerted efforts of Hanslick and
other rabid anti-Wagnerians had succeeded in drumming the
music out of the city. Then Strauss, during a Volksgarten
concert, began without introduction or announcement the
prelude to Tristan, and the applause which greeted the dose
of its first Viennese performance testified to the appeal of
the music.

THE GREAT WALTZES

Wagner, in turn, paid tribute to Strauss at the close of
the first Bayreuth season, in 1876. Anton Seidl was conduct
ing; Wagner was in the audience. Unexpectedly, Wagner
mounted the stage, took the baton from Seidl, and conducted
Wein, Weib tmd Gesang.

IT WAS a year later that death came to Frau Strauss. With
her sons and daughters married, she had felt alone and neg-
lected. She had taken to remaining in her room in the Hir-
schenhaus, that same room where her children had been born,
and there, one day, they found her, seated in her favorite
chair by the window, sleeping her last, final sleep. She had
passed away quietly, with neither illness nor pain. Johann
was grief -stricken, but even his sorrow lacked the depth of
that which the morbidly sensitive Josef felt. Frau Strauss
had idolised her Schani; Josef had worshiped his mother. He
did not outlive her long; Anna Strauss died on February
13th, 1870, and Josef's death occurred a little over five
months later.

Apprised of his mother's passing, Johann hurried to the
Hirschenhaus. There, before her inert corpse, the horror
which he had always felt for death and its mysteries over
whelmed him, and he rushed from the house and from Vien
na, neither knowing nor caring where his flight led him, nor
did he return until after the funeral was past. . . .

ALTHOUGH Johann Strauss wrote many waltzes and other
dance pieces after his Tsjeu Wien, one may say that it was at
this moment that he exchanged his career as composer of
dance music for that of composer of operas and operettas. It
is true that some magnificent waltzes were written during
this latter period, notably the Kaiserwalzer, Fruhlingstirwmen,
Wiener Blut and Wo die Zitronen Huk'n. The Kaiserwalzer

Time

and Wiener Bint, however, were from their inception con
cert works and not for the dance hall. Fruhlingstimmen is also
a concert waits; for piano solo, later orchestrated by Strauss.
Wo die Zitronen Uuh'n is closest to the dance waits, yet even
this was written principally -with the concert hall in mind.

Strauss's origin as a composer for the lyric stage may be
traced to Offenbach's earlier visit to Vienna, and the com
petitive performance of his Abendblatter with Strauss's Mor-
genbldtter. Wishing to pay Strauss a compliment, Offenbach
suggested that he try the lyric stage. Offenbach apparently
was merely being complimentary certainly his professed
admiration for Strauss while in Vienna seeems to have
been merely political, for in his own luxurious Paris home,
as well as at his summer estate near Boulogne, the music of
the Walts King was said to be strictly forbidden.

If the suggestion failed to strike a responsive chord in
Strauss, it was not wasted upon Jetty. With tact, but with
inflexible perserverance, she gradually steered her husband
through the preliminaries leading to the stage itself. As an
old familiar of the stage, herself an opera singer, it was only
natural that she should encourage her husband to attempt his
hand at a lyric production. Indeed, it had been mainly at her
suggestion that Strauss had given his attention to the writing
of Herbeck's choral waltzes.

Finally, when she thought the moment right, Jetty paid
a visit to Johann's study. Examining the manuscripts stacked
in piles, she selected several which showed lyric possibilities.
These she took to Maximilian Steiner, Director of the Thea-
ter'an-der-Wien. Like Jetty, he had long urged Strauss to
write operetta. He received the manuscripts and her ideas
with open arms. The Hausdichter (staff poet) was called in,
a hasty plot patched together, and the librettist set to writing
a book for the music.

THE GREAT WALTZES

When completed, it was put into rehearsal. When the re
hearsals were completely at an end, Jetty brought Johann to
the theater, where he was treated to the novel, thrilling and
delightful surprise of a private performance of an operetta
for which he had unwittingly written the music.

He was thoroughly impressed. He saw at once the suit
ability of his music to stage production. From choral-waits; to
waits-operetta, he realised, was a short step indeed. He con
sented to write an operetta for Steiner. With typical dynamic
energy, he threw himself into the task, and composed Die
Lustigen Weiber von Wicn (The Merry Wives of Vienna).
Steiner prepared to put the work into rehearsal, with Marie
Geistinger, diva of the Theater-an-der-Wien, in the leading
role. But here plans suddenly came to grief. It seemed that
Johann Strauss had another actress in mind when writing the
work. She was Josefine Gallmeyer. But this actress was under
contract to the Carl Theater, which naturally would not con
sent to her leaving to bring forth the first stage work of Jo
hann Strauss in another theater. Steiner was in despair; he
begged, pleaded, cajoled and even threatened Strauss to no
avail. Strauss withdrew the operetta; it was never performed.

Only a genius as prodigal as Strauss could permit so large
a work to be scrapped. Only a man who could never put to
paper all the melodies which surged within him, so fast was
their flow, could afford to throw away a three-hour musical
production. At his wit's end, Steiner called together his staff
and ordered a new libretto without delay. This was Indigo,
oder die Vierzig Rduber (Indigo, or the Forty Thieves). For
years, a stock Viennese joke was whether Strauss's forty
thieves were not more reasonably forty librettists. A more baf
fling, disjointed, patchwork quilt of a libretto it would indeed
have been hard to find. How Steiner, experienced in stage<
craft as he was, allowed such nonsense to be set to Strauss's

4 121 h

Time

delicate music, no one will ever understand. Perhaps, so con'
fident was he of Strauss, he believed that the music would
support the libretto.

In a sense, it did. The premiere was held on February 10th,
1871. A year had passed since the composition of T^eu Wien.
Everyone who could beg, borrow or steal a ticket was there,
and, despite the obvious defects of the libretto, the play was
a success. However, Strauss and Steiner were aware of its
weaknesses, and the play was reworked again and again. For
the Berlin production, the editor of Kladderadatsch wrote a
completely new story, of greater humor and merit. In Paris,
further changes were made, one of which was the inclusion
of the ever-demanded Blue Danube.

Eventually it was retitled Tausend und Eine Wacht (Thou-
sand and One Wights). A better story, it is still rarely per
formed, and only a few scattered selections are generally
known. Outstanding are the lovely and rhapsodic intermes-
zo, the interpolated song, Launisches Gluc\, and the delight
ful set of waltzes collected from themes of this operetta.

4 122

A KING FOR AMERICA

IN THE summer of 1872, some three thousand miles across the
Atlantic, the city of Boston was staging a gigantic World's
Peace Jubilee. The moving spirit of this Jubilee was Patrick
Sarsfield Gilmore, a bandmaster who subscribed three hun
dred per cent to the American philosophy of '^Bigger and Bet
ter." In earlier years he had staged other musical festivals, but
nothing the sise of this behemoth. John Tasker Howard, in his
book, Our American Music, comments, "Five days were de
voted to programs of colossal dimensions. Besides Gilmore,
conductors of genuine ability, Zerrahn and others, helped in
leading the musical forces. It proved too much for John S.
Dwight, who left town to spend the week at his summer home
at Nahant, where he hoped he could not hear the cannon used
to mark the rhythm of the national airs. . . Besides the cannon,
which were fired by electric buttons on a table in front of the
conductor, one hundred real firemen in red shirts helped in
the proceedings by pounding real anvils in the Anvil Chorus
from Trovatore"

Among the conductors of genuine ability who had been
invited were Giuseppe Verdi, Frans Abt and Johann Strauss.

Strauss, by nature almost allergic to travel, would have
flatly refused to consider a voyage of such length, had it not
been for the concerted efforts of his intimates, led by Jetty,

123

Three-quarter Time

and the promise of so great a fee that to refuse would have
been sheer lunacy.

Having finally agreed to the journey, Strauss traveled north
through Germany to Bremerhaven, where he embarked, in
company with Jetty and Abt, on one of the vessels of the
North German Lloyd Line, sailing on the first of June, 1872.
This was a small ship of some five thousand tons gross, equip
ped with auxiliary sails and powered by a none-too-powerful
but fairly dependable steam engine. In its interior furnishings,
it was a far cry from the spacious liners of our day. The passes
ger accomodations were located in the stern, where the mo
tion of the vessel took greatest toll of the passengers' spirits
and stomachs, and the entire recreation quarters consisted of
nothing more elaborate than a large central hall, which served
the combined offices of lounge, smoking room and dining hall.
Around this focal point were grouped the passengers' cabins,
little niches hardly large enough to hold an upper and lower
berth, a wash stand (without running water) and a clothes
rack. Lighting was by means of oil lamps set in gimbals; to
minimise the fire hazard, these were required to be extin-
guished by ten-thirty every evening. Heating systems in the
cabins did not exist. Social life was, consequently, at a mini
mum.

On the westward voyage, conviviality was not improved
by heavy seas, which kept a good number of passengers in
their berths; Yet Strauss, for some perverse reason, remained
perfectly steady on his feet the man who loathed travel of
any sort was enjoying himself wholeheartedly. For he had
found aboard ship the Band of the First Prussian Guards,
also on their way to Boston. Every evening was a Strauss-
abend; his melodies filled the social hall from right after the
supper hour until curfew, to the delight of the passengers,
and be it added, to his own not inconsiderable pleasure.

A KING FOR AMERICA

The voyage took almost seventeen days, the ship entering
New York Harbor on June 16th. Strauss's arrival, for all his
fame, was completely inconspicuous; in part this was due
to the intense jealousy which New York City felt for Bos
ton's Jubilee. The travelers set out for Boston without delay,
arriving there the following day.

Whatever the neglect shown him in New York, Boston gave
him a real reception. Strauss was led on a triumphal proces
sion through the streets. On billboards, on the walls of the
old Boston Music-Hall, on the Tremont Temple itself, on
house fronts along Washington and Boylston Streets, he
saw everywhere enormous posters, lurid with color showing
him crowned and with scepter in hand, astride the world.

The posters embarrassed him. They appeared to him in the
worst possible taste; they were only one of the details which
made it impossible for him to understand America, then ex
periencing its most violent growing pains. Unable to perceive
the sincere admiration behind this gaudy demonstration, be
cause he had never encountered the like in his own world
and was completely unprepared for the vigorous life into
which he had suddenly been plunged, he returned to Europe
retaining only the impression of a noisy, hysterical populace;
of a country where the quality of everything was measured
by its sise and cost. To some extent, of course, he was right,
The importunate demands of thousands of feminine admirers
who flocked after him for locks of his hair, a demand which
was satisfied only at the sacrifice of the curly, black pdt of
his favorite Newfoundland, caused htm to conceive of Amer-
ican womanhood " in terms of a flighty, shalow^minded fe'
male.

The grandeur of America, its high ideals and aspirations,
all went unnoticed. It could not have been otherwise; he was
given no opportunity to glimpse its future, and he did not

Three-quarter Time

remain long enough to understand its past. But Strauss was
not alone in his misunderstanding of America in a day when
even voluntary ignorance of its sise, content and nature was
the rule, rather than the exception, in well-informed Eu
ropean circles.

The possible effects of unwelcome adulation upon the Eu
ropean visitors did not pass unnoticed among American jour
nalists. The Boston Post had this to say: "If the enthusiastic
girl gatherers of musical autographs could hear the amused
comments on their energy and enterprise, which do overstep
the bounds of maidenly modesty, they would certainly abate
their enthusiasm and put away the fans and autograph al
bums and blank cards which they now flourish so wildly in
the face of every member of the foreign bands. The poor fel
lows never feel safe they are attacked on all sides by an
army of feminine besiegers, and only turn in desperation from
one do2;en pairs of supplicating hands holding aloft the in
evitable album, the pleading hand and clamorous lips, to en
counter another dosen, and they finally have to surrender
to Fate and American girls, wearily scribbling their names on
page after page of blank paper/ 5

Basing itself on the axiom, so popular then, and not un
popular today, that the bigger an object, the better it is, the
city of Boston had erected a gigantic concert hall, capable of
seating over one hundred thousand people. Built as a long
rectangle, its roof supported by four parallel rows of slender
pillars which soared from floor to ceiling, it can be imagined
how impossible this hall proved from the standpoint of acous
tics. Depending on where the listener sat,* a note played on
the stage would either be inaudible, or resound in echo ad
infinitum.

When confronted with this enormous battleground, ap
propriately and waggishly named the Coliseum, Strauss was

126

JOHANN STRAUSS II

Photograph by Gurney & Son, taken in New York in 1872, after com
pletion of his engagement at the World's Peace Jubilee.

127 !

The Memorial to Johann Strauss II in the Stadtpark in Vienna.

128

A KING FOR AMERICA

struck dumb. When informed of the sise and disposition of
the orchestra which he was to conduct, he became panic'
stricken. Small wonder! For here, extracted from the Direc
tory of the World's Peace Jubilee, is the manner in which the
orchestra was composed:

400 First Violins
200 Second Violins
100 Violas
100 Violoncelli
100 Contrabasses
24 Flutes
24 Oboes
24 Clarinets
24 Bassoons
24 Trumpets
24 Trombones
24 French Horns
4 Tubas

6 Pair of Tympani
4 Side Drums
2 Bass Drums

1 Monster Bass Drum (18 ft. in diameter)

2 Triangles

1,087 Total Number of Instruments

Such a gargantuan array of instruments would have given
pause to a Berlioz;; it is hardly surprising that it struck terror
into the heart of a conductor accustomed to leading an or'
chestra of seventyfive players.

The worst was yet to come. It developed that a high plat"
form had been built for him, from which vantage point he
was to direct the orchestra through the medium of twenty

129

Time

assistant conductors! Further, for certain choral works, no
fewer than twenty thousand men and women had been pro'
vided! The last straw was the announcement that the entire
audience, numbering one hundred thousand lusty throats, was
to sing a final stanza with the chorus and orchestra.

Musically, such a concert is ludicrous, but it was not out
of character with its day. Absurd though it was, it was one
expression of an entire world not merely America in a
period of transition. It was a world of dreams, of globe'gird-
ling in eighty days, of traveling incredible distances beneath
the sea, of voyages to the moon. It was the world of Jules
Verne. Let us not mock it, for world of dreamers though it
was, these dreamers were practical men, and they produced
the way of life we know today.

Strauss was no visionary. The world of Jules Verne held
no significance for him. He would have turned tail and bolted
had he not actually feared for his life should he refuse to con'
duct. Somehow he nerved himself to the ghastly task (he
never would have succeeded without Jetty and Abt) and
mounted the stand.

Let Strauss himself tell the story:

"On the musicians' tribune there were twenty thousand
singers; in front of them the members of the orchestra and
these were the people I was to conduct! Twenty assistant con"
ductors had been placed at my disposal to control those gi"
gantic masses, but I was only able to recognise those nearest
to me, and although we had rehearsals, there was no possi"
bility of giving an artistic performance, a proper produc'
tion. . . .

"Now just conceive of my position, face to face with a
public of one hundred thousand Americans. There I stood at
the raised desk, high above all the others. How would the
business start, how would it end? Suddenly a cannon shot

A KING FOR AMERICA

rang out, a gentle hint for us twenty-thousand^odd to begin
playing the Blue Danube. I gave the signal, my twenty assis
tant conductors followed as quickly and as well as they could,
and then there broke out an unholy row such as I shall never
forget. As we had begun more or less simultaneously, I con"
centrated my entire attention on seeing that we should finish
together too! Thank Heaven I managed even that! It was
all that was humanly possible. The hundred thousand mouths
in the audience roared applause and I breathed a sigh of re
lief when I found myself in fresh air again and felt the firm
ground beneath my feet/'

Hilarious though the description is and it is an accurate
and unexaggerated report there can be no doubt but that
this performance was the foundation upon which Strauss
built in America an undying popularity.

Perfect in its delineation of those hilarious days are the
headlines from the June 19th edition of the Boston Post, re
viewing the proceedings on "German Day/'

THE PEACE JUBILEE

THE MAMMOTH COLISEUM OPENED
FOR THE THIRD SERIES OF HUB'BUBl!

GREAT DAY FOR GERMANY

HOCH LEBEN DIE KdNIGIN EUTERPE
U>JD DER KONIG GAMERDJPSH

Teutonia Wild With Delight!

THE BAND OF THE KAISER FRANZ GRENADIERS
ENCORED TO DEATH 1 .!!

ABT & STRAUSS AS LEADERS

Blending of Universal Discords Music, Lager 8? Gibberish
ALLES! HOCH! HOGH!

Time

Among the many paragraphs given to Jubilee activities on
that day, there appears the following review of Johann
Strauss's conducting:

"Strauss conducted his Morning Leaves waits; with the
characteristic fire and elan which made him such a favorite at
his first appearance. He is a remarkable little man, nervous,
quick, excitable, and he throws himself heart and soul into his
music. The orchestra becomes inflamed with his enthusiasm
and the tone becomes warmer, the ensemble more perceptible,
and the tempo quicker when each player sees that nimble
bow, waving arms and flushed face of the great monarch of
the ballroom."

Three days later, on the 22nd, the following paragraph
appeared:

"The chorus received a generous amount of well-deserved
applause, and was followed by the ELECTRIC STRAUSS and
one of his waltzes, entitled T^eu Wien, which set every head
moving sidewise in response to the swinging of his baton, and
every fan swinging as though guided by his hand and assisting
him in leading the measures of his music. Strauss himself was
conductor, performer and enthused listener all at once, using
bow, fiddle, feet, every facial muscle, elbows, hips and head
in conveying his wishes to the musicians. He got an encore,
and gave a little light composition entitled the Sdngerslust

The following day, the papers carried an advertisement for
an "International Grand Jubilee Ball, at the Coliseum, Bos'
ton, Wednesday evening, June 26th, on which occasion the
Grand Orchestra will be led by the celebrated Walts' Writer,
Johann Strauss, of Vienna."

The success of this mammoth ball was enormous, and the
occasion was repeated again some days afterwards. Mean"
while, on the regular scheduled series of concerts, Strauss led

4 132 Y

A KING FOR AMERICA

the Jubilee Orchestra, now reduced to a reasonable number
so as to permit performances of quality, on the afternoon of
the 27th in his Wine,, Women and Song,, the fifth number on
a program conducted by several musicians, including Abt,
and featuring the music of several nations, the Jubilee Or'
chestra and Chorus, the Kaiser Franz Grenadier Band, as well
as one number played by the combined bands of various regi
ments of militia, National Guard and fire brigades stationed
in or around Boston. This super'band was led by Gflmore
himself.

The concert held on the afternoon of the 28th featured
Horace Greeley as speaker and special guest of the city of
Boston. On this occasion, Strauss took the stand twice, first
to conduct his J^ew Vienna, which apparently had something
of a special success in the Hub, and later to direct the ubiqui'
tous Blue Danube.

Two days later he led the first performance of a "new
Grand Concert Walts, entitled Jubilee WtfZte, and dedicated
to Mr. P. S. Gilmore." This composition does not appear in
the catalogue of published works; presumably Strauss consid
ered it a mere piece d'occasion. Neither is there a trace of
another waltz which was actually published in America at
this time (without opus number, and not included in his cata'
logue), the Klange aus dem Boston, a copy of the piano edi'
tion of which was once seen by the author. This latter work
bears traces of some of the finer moments of the great waltzes,
but resembles more a potpourri of these great ideas than a
work which has homogeneity.

It was now time for Strauss to head home. He had directed
thirteen concerts in a single series at the Coliseum, as well
as two superballs; his name was now immortal in America
as it was in Europe. Still, he tarried in New York to direct
one concert before sailing. It was here that he introduced the

Time

Manhattan Waltzes, which have also been omitted from the
catalogue. It is amusing and typical of one aspect of Strauss's
creative nature that this waits closes with a remarkably sans-
gene arrangement in waltS'time of Foster's Old Fol^s at
Howe!

It has often been said of Strauss that "he was the first king
America was ever willing to crown/' His success was with
out doubt unequalled by any other visiting musician until the
advent of the great Paderewski. Offers of concerts came from
all over the country, but Strauss said he would not accept
any further offer for all the gold in the hills of California.

It is small wonder, and it was certainly not conceit on
Strauss's part, that he should have made such a statement.
Compared to European standards for fees, he certainly must
have felt himself a Croesus. 'He was already a millionaire
more than once over. He returned to Europe on July 13th, an
extraordinarily rich man, richer than any musician of his day,
wealthier than many of the families of the Austrian nobility.
Between the prodigal fees received from his Russian tours
and his American expedition, he had laid by a sizable fortune.
Before he left Vienna for Boston, a guarantee of one hundred
thousand dollars had been deposited in his name with a Euro'
pean bank; when he returned he brought with him an even
larger sum to add to that respectable amount. . . .

RETURN OF THE NATIVE

HE DID NOT return at once to Vienna, There was an epidemic
of cholera, and he prudently remained away. Instead, he ac
cepted an invitation to journey to Baden-Baden, where several
of the crowned heads of Europe impatiently awaited his music.
Strauss accepted the invitation, and then petulantly decided
to do something else. He was tired, he said; he must rest. He
would not go to Baden-Baden at once; he would visit Bad
Schwalbach first, where he meant to take the cure. Back and
forth from the Baden spa to the little town near Wiesbaden,
in Hessen, flew frantic emissaries. There was no moving
Strauss.

Someone finally hit upon the right argument. The Hof-
musikdirektor of the Court of Baden said only a fool would
let an offer of two thousand francs an evening slip through
his fingers! Strauss quickly admitted the logic of this; Amer
ica's fabulous fees had not so turned his head that he had for
gotten Europe's more sober scale.

The party set off the following day, and proceeded as far
as Heidelberg. Here Strauss, enchanted with the atmosphere
of the picturesque old town, with its ruined, red stone castle
glowering above it, again became obdurate. King or no King,
Grand Duke or no Grand Duke, he was adamant. He had
reached the Grand Duchy of Baden, hadn't he? That ought
to suffice His Grace for a bit. Jetty needed all her tact and

4 135 Y

Time

powers of persuasion; it was she who finally prevailed upon
him to complete the journey, and the party then reached
Baden-Baden without further delays.

Strauss had not been in the resort long before visitors saw
him strolling in the parks, arm-in-arm with either the Grand
Duke, or his other admirer, Kaiser Wilhelm I. He was feted
by royalty, and took with him, when he left Baden, their best
wishes and two colorful and imposing Orders.

But if the decorations weighted down his coat somewhat,
we may be sure that this added burden was compensated by
a corresponding lightness in his wallet. Like many another
tourist, he had succumbed to the temptation of the spinning
wheel, and laid before it a good many of his American dol
lars, the sacrifice of an impassioned slave to the great god
Rouge-et-?sjoir. . .

STRAUSS then paid another of his summer visits to the Vaux-
hall in Pavlovsfc, composing there the two Russischen
Marsch'Fantasien, Op. 352 and 353, and the Im Russtschen
Dorfe Fantasie, Op. 355, which he dedicated to the Baroness
Stackelberg. Returning to Vienna, he introduced one of his
most famous waltzes, the seductively sensuous Wiener BZut,
Op. 354.

Wiener Blut is a title which defies direct translation. It is
derived from the famous Viennese quotation, "Stdr\t Wiener
Blut den Mut?" (Does Vienna blood strengthen one's cour
age?) . More properly, it can be translated as Vienna Spirits
or Vienruz Moods.

Those who would insist that the titles of the Strauss con
cert waltzes were chosen haphazardly and without thought to
their relationship to the music would do well to consider this
waits, whose pulsing beat is not unlike the steady throb of a
great, central artery. Indeed, it is, in musical terms, the very

4 136 Y

RETURN O* THE NATIVE

pulse of Vienna itself, Vienna, great and Iuxury4oving, a
Burgerlich Big Town, not yet caught up in the harrying rush
of the industrial metropolis.

The Boston Jubilee Waltzes were described by Strauss as
"Grand Conceit Waltzes." This is far truer of Wiener Blut;
while it may be danced if played in strict and rigid tempo
(which is unnatural to its character), it is primarily a work
written for the concert hall, and falls, as such, into the clas
sification of those works which include Ravel's La Valse and
the ballet waltzes of Tchaikovsky.

The work opens (clarinets and horns) with a call to atten"
tion, heralding a jubilant allegro moderato (mainly strings)
which concludes with a typical Straussian flourish in wood
winds. Then comes an andante in which the violins, legato,
lead imperceptibly to one of the main waltz motifs, here
sounded more broadly than it is in the waits proper.

Following the tempo di vals comes the first waltz the
one forecast in the introduction:

.

etc.

The second half of this waltz is typically Straussian the
strong beat in the measure constantly recurring elsewhere, so
as to give a momentary f eeling of 2/4, rather than 3/4. It is
healthy, virile music, almost denying the languor of the pre'
ceding passage. Waltz II is almost a development or vanV
tion of the opening waltz theme, and again the second half
of this waltz grows out of the first. The third .waltz certainly
does not belong in the dance hall, but on the ballet stage, with
its graceful leaps which suggest the tutus of a Degas painting

Time

more than the whirl of the ballroom floor, and this lack of
relationship to the dance floor is soon emphasized by a sud
den ritard and jermata, followed by a gradual, non-danceable
acceleration of tempo, required by Strauss in his markings.

QUITE some time had passed since the writing of Indigo,
and Strauss, newly returned to Vienna, was sought out by
Steiner, who suggested another operetta. Strauss agreed, and
Steiner sent him a number of librettos for examination. None
of them suited Strauss. In music, his taste was instinctive and
infallible, but in the selection of the books for his lyric pro
ductions, he showed lamentable judgment. He lacked the
critical faculty to be able to select a good book. His poor
judgment misled him on every occasion; he was still follow
ing this ill-starred intuition years later, when he turned down
the wonderful libretto to Der Bettelstudent in favor of a book
of obvious failings.

Almost despairing of finding a librettist to suit Strauss's
uncertain desires, Steiner sent him Josef Braun, a medical
student turned journalist. Braun had good theatrical leanings
and could no doubt, had he put himself to it, have produced
a book of real merit. But he allowed himself to be influenced
by French oera-bcmj(fe, a field which had been exploited
by Offenbach until it was well-nigh barren. Its brittle, cyn
ical style was, in any case, ill-suited to the Viennese vein of
sentiment in Strauss's music.

The libretto which Braun presented to Strauss shows that
he was strongly influenced by Sardou's Piccolino, for it is a
blatant and none-too'careful reworking of that material. The
story is overly naive:

Arthur Bryk, a young painter, encounters a peasant maid,
Marie, and falls in love with her. He paints her picture posed
in prayer, promises to marry her, and travels on to Rome,

RETURN OP THE NATIVE

where he promptly forgets her in the pleasures of the city. But
Marie, who has apparently taken a course in 'liow to get
your man/' assumes the garb of a Savoyard youth, and sets
out after her truant lover. Finding him in Rome, she becomes
a student in his class and,, after the usual operetta-formula
misunderstandings, succeeds in leading him to the altar*

If Strauss had been theater-wise, he would not have al-
lowed Braun to make the hero a painter, for few characters
are less romantic on the stage.

Nonetheless, when Karneval in Rom was first produced on
March 1st, 1873, at the Theater-an'der'Wien, its success was
immediate, and this lasted throughout the whole Exhibition
Year. Time, however, has shown its weaknesses for what
they are, and only a little of the music is known today.

1873 was an important year for Vienna, for it was then that
the great International Exhibition opened. By comparison,
the Paris Exposition was a puny affair; in size alone, the
Vienna Exhibition covered an area five times greater.

The International Exhibition was held in the Prater. It was
located mainly in one enormous building, built in the shape
of a long rectangle, from the sides of which smaller rec
tangles projected. In the center was a dome, approximately
as large as that which surmounts the Capitol in Washington.
This was the so-called Industrial Palace, and about it were
situated the smaller, less imposing bjufldings of the exhibition.

The formal opening was held on the first of May, 1873,
a gusty, squally day. Despite the inclement weather, the turn
out of royalty was imposing. Foremast among diem in die m>
augural proceedings, of course, were Their Imperial Majes^
ties, Frans-Josef and Elisabeth of Austria, accompanied by
the young Archduke Rudolf.

Hotels wore packed, and rooms were at a premium. Giant

189 >

Three'Quarter Time

civic balls vied nightly with small, super-elite dances. There
had not been so much gaiety and glamor in old Vienna since
the days of the Congress.

There was Strauss at the Theater'an'der'Wien, Strauss in
the Volksgarten, Strauss at the Sperl, Strauss at the Diana'
saal and the Sofiensaal, Strauss at the Exhibition.

In fact, it might well have been Strauss's Exhibition; it was
certainly Strauss's Vienna.

It was at this time that the first serious rift occurred be'
tween Johann and Eduard. The younger man had counted on
having the Strauss Orchestra, of which he was by then of'
ficially Conductor, pressed into service for the Exhibition's
regular concerts. To his chagrin, the Strauss Orchestra was
not chosen; instead the Langenbach Orchestra was engaged,
and Johann shared the direction of it jointly with Langen'
bach.

This was a bitter pill for Eduard, and one which did not
alleviate the envy he had always felt for his more talented
brother. To keep peace in the family, Johann arranged to
have the Strauss Orchestra engaged to play alternately with
the Langenbach Orchestra.

And then the banks failed!

A week after the Exhibition opened, the shaky supports of
Vienna's financial structure gave way, engulfing many pros'
perous Viennese citizens, and bringing about bankruptcy
after bankruptcy. Those who recall the days of the Wall
Street crash of 1929 can imagine the same sequence of events
set fiftysix years earlier. There was one principal difference;
the suicides were not jumping from skyscrapers they were
leaping into the Blue Danube.

The corridors of the Exhibition emptied of Viennese as
though by magic, and only lonely foreign visitors wandered
about the empty halls. Fortunately, conditions took a marked

i 140 f

RETURN OF THE NATIVE

change for the better within a few weeks, as the government
intervened and brought some semblance of order out of the
chaos of the Vienna Bourse, and soon the festivities were
again in full swing.

Strauss composed a set of waltzes especially to commemor'
ate the Exhibition; this was appropriately named Bei uns
zfHaus, Op. 361. Indeed, Vienna was At Home to the world,
and Strauss was her major-domo.

Bei uns zfHaus is a gay little waltz;, light and graceful, not
too consequential. Originally composed as a choral waltz;, the
vocal parts have since been dropped.

It was at this time that Fortune extended to one of her
favorite sons the great triumph of a long and glorious career.
Steiner brought him a new libretto.

Its name was Die Fledermaus. . . .

4 HI

8

THE CULMINATION
OF AN ART

IN 1873, Steiner bought the rights to a popular French play,
Le Reveillon. After careful examination of the piece, he re'
gretted his hasty purchase, and sought to dispose of it to the
directors of the Carl Theater, but these gentlemen would have
none of it. The work was too typically French, and would
not suit the Viennese stage.

A reveillon is a gala all-night party held on Christmas Eve,
no doubt a delightful French custom, but repugnant to the
strict Catholicism of the Viennese, indulgent though they
otherwise are.

Steiner felt that the play contained possibilities for Strauss's
music, and called in Richard Genee, playwright and oper
etta composer, and Karl Haffner, a hack writer from the Carl
Theater. A truly talented writer, Haffner's gift had been
atrophied by the steady stream of banal pieces which he was
required to turn out on a yearty'contract basis. It took a re'
juvenation in the form of an association with Genee to let
him draw from the delicate subject matter of Le Reveillon
that mad concoction of confused identities and glorious nan'
sense which Steiner laid before Strauss.

When Johann Strauss wrote Die fflederrnaus, he reached
the pinnacle of his career, scaling artistic heights which he
was not to duplicate for many years, until he composed The
Gypsy Baron. Even this opera, for all its musical worth and

THE CULMINATION OF AN ART

fine libretto, fails to capture the magic aura of Die Fleder*
maus. This comic opera takes its place among the greatest of
all time; only the comic operas of Mosart, Rossini's Barber
of Seville, Verdi's Falstafi, Wagner's Die Meistersinger von
J^urnberg and Richard Strauss's Der Rosen\avalier are of
like standard. The Mosart operas are the finest; it is equally
certain that Die Fledermaus is, in its way, not inferior to Der
Rosenf(avalier. For Richard Strauss's opera is derivative.
That is to say, it depends for many of its themes upon the
waits style developed hy Johann Strauss. It is significant
that little else duplicates the style and mood of Der Rosen*
\avalier, and this HI a composer whose other major works bear
a distinct stylistic resemblance to one another. It is not exag'
gerating to say that without the precedent of Die Fledermaus,
Der Rosen\avalier would not be the opera we know. As it is,
it contains many dull pages which a superb libretto cannot
conceal. For all its great charm, it lacks the effortless spon*
taneity which flows like freshly uncorked champagne in Die
Fledermaus.

Throughout the seventy years of its history, Die Fleeter'
maus has achieved only occasional success in the Anglo"
Saxon nations. This is not due to any defect in the music, or
even to die superficial nature of the book, but to the blunder^
ing translations which have exaggerated its existing flaws.
Typical was the UngerAnderson script, choked with banal
rhymes, which was first presented in London's Lyric Theater
in December, 1911, under the title Wight Birds. Here in
America, in addition to authentic presentations at the Metro"
politan during the fir* decade of the Twentieth Century, it
has been given many second-rate performances under a va^
riety of new titles, among the latest of which was Champagne
Sec, in 1932.

It took the brilliantly staged 1942 New York produdabn

i 143 Y

Three-quarter Time

by the late Max Reinhardt, paralleling, in an English libretto
of great charm and wit, his 1929 production in Berlin, finally
to reveal the beauty of Die Fledermaus to American audi
ences. This was Rosalinda, perhaps the happiest possible
choice of title for English-speaking audiences, more under
standable than the cryptic The Bat. This production, which
ran to full houses for more than two years, proved conclu
sively to Americans the beauty of Die Fledermaus when prop
erly produced. It was brought to London in 1945 as Gay
Rosalinda, where it enjoyed a long run at the Palace Theater
under the baton of Richard Tauber, who, in more youthful
days, had been the toast of the Continent in the opera's lead
ing male role of Eisenstein.

Strauss read the libretto, and was turned to fire. Never be
fore or after in all his life did he experience the violent emo
tional reactions which this book produced in him. He secluded
himself in the Hietsjing villa, avoiding everyone except Steiner
and Genee, almost refusing to eat or drink, snatching only an
occasional hour of sleep, giving himself up only to the im
passioned music which this intoxicating story had roused in
him. In little more than a month of nights, the score was com
pleted. Nights is indeed the word; Strauss noted down his
melodies whenever and wherever they came to him, day or
night, on a menu, an envelope, or the cuff of his nightshirt;
but he did the actual writing and orchestrating only at night.

Die Fledermaus had its premiere on April ?th, 1874, at the
Theater-an-der-Wien. It met with a cool reception, and Stein
er retired it from the repertory after only sixteen perform
ances,, for at best Die Fledermaus only half -filled the house,
whereas Madame Patti was available and would fill the theater
every night that she could be induced to appear.

The lapse of time now allows us to see what Strauss and
Steiner could not. There could have been no more inappropri-

i 144 >

THE CULMINATION OF AN ART

ate moment in which to produce a comic opera on such a
theme. Vienna was frightfully close to total bankruptcy.
Whatever the value of the measures of reconstruction under"
taken after the fateful Black Friday, they had done nothing
to reestablish those thousands of fortunes, large and small,
which had been engulfed in the abyss. Even among those who
had suffered least, the gloomy caution caused by the calami'
tous day still hung heavy in the air.

Vienna was in no mood for a reveillon. A musical play
which showed riotous extravagance and high living must, per
force, have appeared in poor taste. Vienna would have none of
it, despite its inescapable melodic appeal. The time simply was
not right for an opera of this character.

Die Fledermaus went to Berlin, and Berlin went to Die
Fledermaus. The play became the thing; it was a social neces
sity for every Berliner to have seen it. In Paris, even though
presented in a garbled version called La Tzigane, it was highly
successful.*

Steiner was aghast. He could not understand this success;
he knew that every step had been taken to insure its accept
ance in Vienna, that no expense had been spared. Almost a
year later, he reluctantly decided to give it another trial. The
reaction left him speechless. Vienna went again and again to
see Die Fledermavis.

It is still going, . . .

Die Fledermaus is a kaleidoscopic assemblage of perfect
numbers, fitted together with consummate artistry and spon
taneous yet cunning timing. From the magnificent overture,
one number of matchless charm and gaiety follows another un-

* Fledermaus did 'not appear in Paris in the original Kbretto imtfl
1904, when it was produced at the Thedtre des Vaii6t6s as La Chauve-
souris, because of an injunction obtained in 1875 by Meilhac and
HaUvy.

145

Three'Quarter Time

til the mind is whirling. For variety and prodigality of melody,
only The Marriage of Figaro can match the rapid flow of Die
Fledermaiis.

The Overture, of itself, is a f idly-formed and complete work.
Strauss meant to write, as prelude, the conventional potpourri
of tunes from the piece. So catholic was his taste, however,
and so unerring his musical sense, that, although the overture
claims nothing more than the potpourri style, it nonetheless
suggests the formal structure of the sonata form. And this
firm foundation is one of the foremost reasons for its undying
popularity.

THE first act opens in the living room of Gabriel von Eisen"
stein, a Viennese financier. Off stage, the lilting tones of a
high tenor voice are heard in a serenade to Rosalinde, Gabriel's
wife. The voice belongs to Alfred, a member of the Vienna
Opera, and a former suitor of Rosalinde. It seems that he pro
poses to reenter the lady's life. In order to set Alfred apart
from all the other characters of an opera in which everyone,
perforce, sings, Strauss wrote his part in an unusually high
register; this has regrettably reacted in lending him a purity of
character which his words thoroughly belie.

> Ttt-.l

k <_!.._

1~~. -^J. .tfl-4. L S-i. ~J.il

1-

Adde, the chambermaid, appears at the dose of Alfred's ser
enade, holding a letter from her sister, a member of the Ballet,
asking her to attend a ball to be given that evening by a young
Russian, Prince Orlovsky, and suggesting that she "borrow"

THE CULMINATION OF AN ART

from her mistress a gown suitable to the occasion. From her
first notes, we have a clear picture of Adele's sunny and light-
hearted nature, for she enters upon a rippling cadenza of
laughter, and then sings:

Allegro moderate

'Jrhfl P ^ JT B P I P P P .

-isfc namlich "beim Bal-let

Rosalinde enters. Adele begs to have the evening free, on
the pretense that she has received word that a dear old Aunt
is ill and needs her. The request is denied, to the measures of
a charming duet that is reminiscent, in its sophistication, of
some of the duets of The "Marriage of Figaro. Enter now Gab"
riel von Eisenstein and Dr. Blinde, a lawyer. Eisenstein, hav
ing committed a minor offense, has been sentenced to prison
for five days. In appealing the case, Dr. Blinde, who stutters
wretchedly (another parallel with Figaro!), has only made
matters worse, increasing the penalty to eight days, as Eisen
stein explains in the Trio which follows. Eisenstein's choleric
character is vividly set forth in the explosive passage which
he sings here:

HdD,nit Sol-chenAavo-ka-tsenistver-kauft man \ra<l veiv a-ten/

Blinde is ejected by the outraged Eisenstein, who instructs
Adele to lay out his oldest clothes for his prison stay. Adele
meanwhile announces Dr. Falke, a close friend of Eisenstein's.

Three'Quarter Time

It is around Falke that the central idea of Die Fledermaus re
volves indeed, he is the Fledermaus. The incident dates back
two years to the night of a masked ball which Falke and Ei-
senstein attended together. Falke was dressed as a bat, Eisen-
stein as a butterfly. During the course of the evening, FaJke
drank not wisely but too well, and fell asleep while Eisenstein
was wheeling him home in a wheelbarrow. As a joke, Eisen
stein left him, in costume, beneath a tree in the central square,
where he awakened the next morning to find himself sur
rounded by the townspeople, who followed him home, laugh
ing at his discomfiture. For months, the neighboring children
had called him "Dr. Fledermaus." Falke is determined to per
petrate a practical joke on Eisenstein which will square ac
counts. With this in mind, he now invites Eisenstein to the
Orlovsky supper; it was he, and not her sister Ida, who sent
Adele her invitation. Eisenstein's acceptance is given to a de
lightful, insouciant 2/4<time melody:

yi a * * tr-pT^ JTJ- I p |/ p *' I p p

Bin Scnt-per uns ieu-te -wrolL-t, wie noch^ar Items <la-

Rosalinde recalls that Alfred, the tenor, will be calling
shortly. Earlier, he had forced his way into her salon for a
moment to say that he knew of Gabriel's forthcoming impris
onment, and would appear to keep her from being too lonely
in her husband's absence. So Rosalinde gives Adele the eve
ning free to visit her "sick Aunt." Eisenstein reappears in full
evening dress, explaining away this odd sight by remarking
that the prison governor has invited him to dine. Rosalinde
bids Eisenstein auf wiederseh'n in a song that will be irecog-

148

THE CULMINATION OF AN ART

as the oboe solo of the overture, in which she laments
the loneliness of the coming eight days, describing with mock
anguish how the sight of his empty coffee cup at breakfast
will make her own drink taste bitter:

.Moclerato espressivo

miss

icli 'blei-'bez^aeh.t Ta-e cih-ne Dich/

Then, to the words, '"Oh! how this grieves me!" husband
and wife sing a coda so brazen in its deception that one biog"
rapher suggested it should bring blushes to the faces of the
audience. But Strauss's music is above simple immodesty; seen
through the prism of his music, the situation is only amusing,
a prank in the Carnival spirit:

Allegro moderate

*

je r o je, "wie riflat jmch. 3ies, o Je, o je,vne riibift unch dies, o

Husband departs, and Rosalinde admits Alfred s who en"
ters wearing the husband's slippers and dressing gown. Rosa'
linde is horrified: **What are you doing in my husband's dress
ing gown? Do you wish to ruin me?" "Not at all, no thought
of it!" Alfred begins to sing. "Oh! no, don't sing," cries Rosa
linde, "you know I can't resist that high A!" But Alfred will
not stop; he knows his advantage, and so he gaily carols the
immortal drinking song:

4 149

Three-quarter Time

"Drink, my sweetheart, drink with me,
Wine will make your heart feel free.
When your heart beats strong and true,
All things will seem clear to you."

Then follow, borne on a melody so lazily dreaming, so sen'
suous that it is like a caress, the words which have since be"
come a Viennese proverb, "... .Happy he who forgets what
can't be changed."

&>2ce

) I |fl r f I |f r . r .

i ^och. -alcht ZB an-dem iii/

Now the tete-a-tete is interrupted; Frank, the prison gover
nor enters. Here is a situation! The lover found en deshabille
in the wife's boudoir. The inevitable confusion occurs. Rosa
linda cannot very well say that her husband is already on his
way to the prison. Frank mistakes Alfred for Eisenstein, and
though Alfred would at first deny it, Rosalinde quickly in
terposes, singing her famous couplet song, in which she points
but, with dubious logic, that he can only be Eisenstein, since
he wears his dressing gown and finds himself in so intimate
a position:

4 150 >

THE CULMINATION OF AN ART

Allegro

a *p IP *'*' p ** I J* J ; P *tM j P J y iy p r

Hert^was dach-ten. ie vonamr, sag* '

and then:

g trao-l

What Frank thinks of this situation is not made dear. Per
haps a cynicism evolved as prison governor leaves him unable
to be surprised by anything new. However, the facts being as
presented, Alfred must go to prison. Here Strauss introduces
one of his best marches, as Frank invites Alfred to reside for
a while in his "beautiful, airy bird cage,"

sdbo-nesy^fro-sses Vo-^el-haus, es 1st ^anz m-be tier.

Thus ends the first act, with Alfred being marched off to
prison, while Rosalinde falls fainting into a convenient chair
as the curtain descends.

ACT H is set in the great ballroom erf the home of Prince Or-
lovsky. The room is bathed in die yellow glow of candled
chandeliers. The guests are already assembled; their opening

Three-quarter Time

chorus describes their anticipated pleasures of the evening.
The eighteen-year-old host appears with Dr. Falke, who out'
lines his plan for settling accounts with Eisenstein, calling it
facetiously "The Revenge of the Bat/ 5 At that moment, Ei-
senstein enters, and is introduced by Falke to the guests and
to his host under the pseudonym of Marquis Renard. The
Prince is, of course, in on the secret and aware of Eisenstein's
true identity. Orlovsky tells Eisenstein that he trusts he will en-
joy himself, explaining that, as host, he alone retains the right
to be bored at his own parties, and will toss empty bottles at
the heads of any who would also enjoy this prerogative:

AHegfro gon-fapoppo

I H. L

Ich la <3e ^ernxmr Ga- ste ein, man lett "bei mir recht feiiL

This melody resolves itself into the insouciant polka in
which the young roue explains his peculiar pleasure; chacun
a son gout:

mal "bei mir so Sit-te^ clxa- can a son

Tlie role of Orlovsky was formerly played by a
prano; Strauss scored the part for this voice because he wanted
an agile voice, able to reach wide intervals in order to suggest
the not'yet-fuUy'changed voice of an adolescent. It is easier

THE CULMINATION OF AN ART

for a woman to sing this role than a man, but the modern
theater demands that the role today be sung by a male.*

Following Orlovsky's song, Adele enters, and is introduced
to Eisenstein as Mile. Olga, a young Russian lately arrived in
Vienna. Eisenstein recognizes her as Adele, but becomes con'
fused when she professes to be highly insulted at being mis'
taken for a chambermaid. This is Adele's famous "laughing
song/'

JJJegcetto

i hi h r

=* K ^ l -p 1~ i-rp- ^i ly i i .^ j i '

Mein Herr fiar-quis, ein bjra wte Sie solli' Wser ivs

"My dear Marquis, a man such as you should really be
more discerning!" Finally she breaks into the laugh cascades:

Ja sehr io-miscix, lialaa ia,ist aie Sa-che, lia ba lia,

,

{ y fr i 1 i 1 p 'f f i i " fl ii iT^^i' 1 i'

drum ver-zeilm 5ie, ha lia La, wcim ich la-che, ta,l,l2a,]ha,lia,'ba.

The prison governor is announced. He, too, is incognito,
and poses as the Chevalier Chagrin. The two pseudo^French'
men experience some awkward moments as they try to con'

* Casting a mans role -for a woman is a weakness commonly shared
also by Marriage of Figaro (Cherubino) and Roseiifcavalier (Oct&*
vian), but the delicate musical fabric of these two works would be so
damaged by revising them for male voices that no change is ever
made. Rarely is it, however, that a woman can be found to play these
roles who con successfully portray them,.

Three-quarter Time

verse in French: Orlovsky comes to the rescue, insisting that
both "Frenchmen" converse in German, so that all may un
derstand. Meanwhile, Adele has "forgiven" Eisenstein, and
they go for a stroll in the garden adjoining the ballroom.

Falke has sent a note to Rosalinde, asking her to come at
once to the ball. Falke meets her and points out Eisenstein
strolling in the garden with a lady on his arm. Rosalinde is
furious, finding insult added to injury when she recognises
his companion as Adele, dressed in one of her mistress's
gowns. ("Ill give her a prescription for her sick Aunt!") Ros
alinde has come masked; she is introduced as an Hungarian
countess. Eisenstein is entranced by the charming new guest,
and at once abandons "Mile. Olga." The varied reactions of
Gabriel and Rosalinde during the first few moments of con
versation are vividly etched. Eisenstein begins it with the
words, "This posture so graceful, this waist so fine and
slender!"

Unpoco moderate

J ] J>

An- stand so ma-nier-lkli, <lifi-s* TaiL-le feinund Zkr-licb.

His masked wife (forgetting her episode with Alfred)
tuously remarks, "Oh! how vain was all my anguishf He,
whom I saw in prison languish, now smiles before me, would
adore me!"

But Rosalinde has not quite forgotten her own precarious
position witi* Alfred deputising for Eisenstein in the prison;
the moment of reckoning is not many hours away, and she
must find something as a hold on her husband when lie learns
of her own perfidy. Gabriel has long boasted of the Dqany con-

THE CULMINATION O* AN ART

quests which he has made with a watch of unusual design. If
she can obtain this from him, she will have the evidence to
make him forgive her own folly. Eisenstein, true to form, plays
into her hands by producing the watch. Thus begins the
'Watch'Duet," in which she pretends palpitations of the
heart, suggesting as a cure that she count her heartbeats while
he counts the seconds with his watch. Then, she asks to hold
the watch while he listens to her heart. Once possessed of the
watch, she pops it into the bosom of her dress, and Eisenstein
is outwitted.

Rosalinde is asked to sing for the guests, and begins a song
of her "homeland," the Hungarian countryside, leading into
the well known Csardas:

KlSn-ge <lerHei-maihr wecktimraasdcli-nen^ ru-fetdieTfara-nenia's

This is a true Czardas, containing all the pulsing rhythm of
the dance, from its languorous opening to its conclusion in a
whirling blur of tempo.

At this point someone asks Eisenstein to recount the affair
of die "Fledennaus episode," which he does with obvious de"
light. Falke comments darkly, "he who laughs last, laughs
best/'

Now bqjins the great Finale to the Second Act, in itself
the greatest single lyric achievement of the Walts King, a
true Bacchanalia that owns far more intoxicating spirit and
infectious gayety than can be found in a dosen Venusbergs,

Three-quarter Time

All are invited to drink to "His Majesty, King Champagne
the First." Jacob observes that the allegory is not casual, that
"as other tonal works may be said to be governed, some by
air (Weber's Oberon for example), others by water (Der
Fliegende Hollander, Das Rheingold), so the governing medi"
um of Die Fledermaus is champagne."

Alleggo con brio

Im Feu- er- strom 3er .Re-ben^ tra la la la la la la la,

Then, as the guests have already divided themselves into
couples, Orlovsky urges them to form "one great brother'
hood of love."

Allegretto moclepato

Aba Ji

Bru ^er lein, Bru- der-lein. un3. clrwe- ster- le

continuing:

^ d i rf r r T ' r IT r : F : ^

lasst das txau te ^Du" uns schen ken

Orlovsky instructs them, "Erst ein \us$, dann ein Du"
(First a kiss, then a "thou"), and all at once, overborne by
an irresistible tide, we are swept along in a flood of Du%
which soon extend themselves into a rich, coined word, Duidu,

{ 156 J.

THE CULMINATION OF AN ART

whose meaningless but liquid syllables express the ultimate in
sensuousness and affection:

piu animato

4^

7^ *

-s* ^

=y^*=

p" -J.

!..__

-r_ .

1 i 1 M 1

dn i du, du i du, la la la 'la la.

A ballet troupe enters to divert the guests. But the sated
host soon tires of this sport: "Enough, there, enough! Let
these dancers be stilled."

Tempo djValse

B^

*r r IP

Die-s ISnzer zno-^ea ru~h*ii/

No one with any knowledge of Strauss's music can fail to
recognise this passage. There is no other waits like it, save
for a few bars of Fruhlingstimmen. It is not a dance for one
couple, it is a dance for a huge ballroom swimming with cou x
pies.* Beginning slowly, gathering pace, momentum and

* Here lies the major flaw in many productions of Die Fledermaus.
Properly executed, this one scene demands a stage as large as that of
the Metropolitan or Covent Garden, and at least one hundred extras
waltzing in the background. No operetta company can hope to pre
sent tins mtA seem effectively.

Three-quarter Time

weight as it progresses, at last it seems as though everyone,
even the audience, must join in the mad revel. One cannot be
a mere onlooker in this scene; even in an indifferent produc
tion one is picked up, transported and carried along by the
impetuous will of the music.

Eisenstein does his best to persuade Rosalinda to unmask,
without success, nor does he retrieve his watch. The clock
strikes six; Eisenstein must be off for prison at once. So must
Frank. Both depart together, while the knowing principals
chortle over the thought of their forthcoming encounter at
the jail. The curtain comes down on Act II.

ACT III takes place in the central room of the prison. Frosch
the warden, is seated at a table drinking applejack, an occu
pation in which he has been assiduously engaged for some
time, if one is to judge by the color of his nose. 'From off-stage
comes the voice of the supposed Eisenstein (Alfred) singing
yet another serenade in praise of his Rosalinde. Frosch shouts
to him to be quiet. The door leading to the street yawns
slowly open, and Frank enters unsteadily. In his bemused
state, he imagines himself still at the ball, and after accom^
panying his entrance to the tune of his Bird Gage March, the
orchestra dreamily recalls the melodies of the second act
Finale, as Frank calls for Ida, "Olga," and the other ladies
of the gathering. He waltzes tipsfly about the room, his coat
off, his hat askew, while the orchestra accompanies him in a
reeling parody of the Fledermaus waits, with a heavy empha
sis on grinding contrabasses.

At this point, the Reinhardt production introduces a su
perb ballet, in which Frank's bemused mind evokes the pres
ence of some of Orlovsky's guests, mimed by a classical bal
let group, who dance about him in the room, only to fly out
of the doors and the windows and the wings at the end. He

4 m ^

THE CULMINATION Q3* AN ART

subsides into a chair, smoking a cigar, holding an opened
newspaper before him. He drowses, the paper sinks onto his
face, the cigar burns through, and nothing is heard but a
resonant snore

This opening scene is one of the finest bits of pantomime
ever introduced to the opera stage, and it is in no small measure
responsible for sustaining the movement of the opera through
this act, which is the weakest part of the opera. Yet Strauss
was almost induced by his leading lady, Marie Geistinger
(who had nothing to do in this scene), to cut the sequence;
only the intervention of Girardi, who was to play the role,
prevented htm from scrapping this extraordinarily droll bit
of business.

Frosch wakes Frank, for someone is at the gate. Frosch,
befogged by drink, cannot make out whether there are one or
two ladies. "Fm all mixed up!" he moans. But there are in'
deed two ladies Olga (Adele) and Ida. Frank is delighted
to see the girls, especially Olga, to whom he has taken a par'
ticular fancy. They explain that they have come to seek his
help; Adele confesses that she is only a chambermaid, but
tells Frank that she hopes he will help her to get a start on
the stage. Frank, in turn, confesses his deception of the eve'
rung foe is not a director of a Paris theater, as they had sup-
posed, but governor of this prison, No matter; to prove her
ability, Adele sings an aria in which she demonstrates her
talent for playing, turn by turn, a simple country maid, a
regal queen, or a Parisian lady involved in a compromising
situation:

Three-quarter Time

Frank promises whatever help he can give. A knock is
heard, and Frosch bundles the girls into a cell until he knows
who the newcomer is. It is Eisenstein. Each is equally sur
prised to find the other here; confusion results. Frank iden
tifies himself as the prison governor; Eisenstein considers this
a howling joke, and in turn identifies himself as Frank's un
willing guest for the coming eight days. This strikes Frank as
a superb joke, for, he says, he had already arrested Herr von
Eisenstein the preceding evening in his own home, as he was
supping with his wife in dressing gown and slippers. "Dress
ing gown? What color dressing gown?" "A red one/' Frank
recalls. The real Eisenstein is stunned. "Oh! This Eisenstein
I really must see!"

Meanwhile, Alfred has sent for Dr. Blinde, the lawyer, to
get him out of jail. Blinde arrives, is intercepted by Eisen
stein, who takes from him his wig, lawyer's robe and glasses,
and sends him off. Rosalinde enters. Disguised as Blinde, Ei
senstein then confronts his wife and Alfred. They ask his
help in outwitting Eisenstein, He is furious, and they are of"
fended by their lawyer's lack of sympathy for them. To ex
plain how she has been wronged, Rosalinde complains of her
husband's faithlessness, ending with the words, "I shall
scratch his eyes out, and then I shall divorce him!" Alfred
adds, "Yes, tell us how we may tweak his nose and get out
of this scrape."

Livid with rage, Eisenstein unmasks himself in a manner,
and to music, recalling the melodramatic Verdi-Donizetti
school; this is a refreshing parody that is surprisingly effec
tive. For although it is parody, Eisenstein readies a certain

grandeur as the angered and betrayed husband: " Yes, it

is I, whom you betrayed!"

160 >

EDUARD STRAUSS,

photographed in the uniform of a military bandleader.

161

A scene from the Philadelphia Opera Company's production in English

of Die Fledermaus.

162 }*

THE CULMINATION OF AN ART

Ja, icb. bin's, den UUP be tro

Rosalinda counterattacks she reveals herself as his masked
inamorata, and produces the watch. "Oh! ____ You! ____ My
Hungarian Countess!" Gabriel is speechless; coaxed back to
good humor by the damning evidence of the watch, he laughs
and, perforce, forgives. Falke arrives at this point with Or'
lovsky and the guests of the ball, to explain that the entire
series of events was part of a prearranged plan. Adele and
Ida are liberated from the cell in which they were hidden,
and young Orlovsky promises Adele to get her on the stage.
Thus, all confusions are swept away, as Rosalinde sings, to
the melody of the Act II Champagne Song, the words, "Cham
pagne is the one who is to blame, tra4a4a4a'k4a'k'k/" and
the curtain descends with regret on this insane and lovable
reveillon, which has swept us with it to heights of delight
which no other comic opera has ever readied.

The appeal of Die Fledermaus is immediate. It offers no
riddles, it flows steadily along on a succession of exquisite
tunes which well up one after the other. It is the crowning
jewel in the Golden Age of Light Opera.

Strauss was not habitually an analytical composer. He
never consciously sought to make arias reflect the personal"
ities of his various characters. Yet, unintentionally, he did so
here. Hardly a note of the music given Rosalinde feminine,
flirtatious, and yet elegant dame du monde could have been
sung by Olga, Ida or any other lady of die play. Certainly
Adele's impish laughing music suits only her sunny disposi
tion. Nor could the choleric music given Eisenstein in his
opening scene fit the character of any other player. But

4 163 >

Time

Strauss's finest delineation was the accompaniment which
lovsky receives in his opening song, based on rhythms and
melodies which spring directly from the liturgical music of
the Russian Orthodox Church.

SUCCESSES AND FAILURES

FOR the waltzes which he titled Wo die Zitronen bluh'n,
Johann Strauss turned to Goethe and his dramatic poem Wit-
helm Meister, which contains verses which have attracted the
attention of many another musician, notably Hugo Wolf and
Ambroise Thomas. It begins with the words "Kennst Du das
Land, wo die Zitronen bluh'n?"

This is one of the loveliest as well as one of the most un
usual of Johann Strauss's waltzes. In mood, it fits more
easily into the catalogue of his brother Josef, whose works
frequently reflect, in their minor tones, his somber tempera/-
ment. The introduction is especially delicate and expressive.
It is entirely relaxed, effortless, the mood sustained with the
falling cadence of the first waits. An uprushing phrase in the
strings, given once and then immediately repeated an octave
lower, will be identified as a reminiscence of the elder
, Strauss's string dialogues from the Donaulieder. Later, a
brighter atmosphere is felt, only to give place once more at
the dose to the first waits of the falling cadences.

Hie Zitronen Waltzes are almost unknown; the only plaus
ible reason for this would seem to be that their strange mood,
so alien in spirit to that which one commonly expects from
Strauss, does not reveal their inner beauty at first hearing, so
that the casual listener is likely to pass them by without be*
coining aware of their rewarding grace.

165

Three'guarter Time

In 1875, Strauss began work on a new operetta, Cagliostro
in Wien. Here was a fine story for his music; one to which
it seemed he might do ample justice. But again, Strauss failed
to find a Gilbert for his Sullivan, and what might have re
sulted in a compact play of charm and wit developed instead
into a book which begins brilliantly, only to ramble and peter
out miserably.

The locale of the story was colorful enough in itself. In
1874, Vienna was celebrating the hundredth anniversary of
its deliverance from the Turks. Into this atmosphere of fiesta
arrive an Italian charlatan and professed alchemist, Caglio
stro, and his beautiful wife. Here the festival spirit gave
Strauss the chance to use a brilliant palette, an opportunity
which he did not waste and which has resulted in the best
moment of the play. But the plot labors in the scenes which
follow: Cagliostro and his wife become involved in amorous
intrigues which are confusing to the audience; he is exposed in
a confidence game, and alchemist and wife, with entourage,
are lucky to escape the city a few steps ahead of the police.
None of this amounts to anything in terms of dramatic in
terest, and there is no climax. Even so, Strauss's music, and
the excellent performance of a cast headed by Alexander
Girardi as Blasoni, Friese as Cagliostro, and Maria Geisting-
er as Loren^a Feliciana, the wife, saved the operetta from
failure and insured it a successful run.

No biography of Strauss could be complete without a par
allel mention of Alexander Girardi, one of the most spectac
ular and phenomenal figures to grace the Viennese stage. By
trade a locksmith from Gras, he made his way into the Vien
nese theater, where he scored triumph after triumph. Only
twenty-five when he appeared in Cagliostro, he was com
pletely untutored in music, which he could not read, being
obliged to learn his roles by aural memorisation., This was

3-

SUCCESSES AND FAILURES

understandably a task which tried the patience of his coaches
and conductors. Yet when he had finally mastered a role, his
personification of the character was so vivid and exciting, his
singing so delightful, that the effort was thoroughly repaid.
Girardi's voice was neither tenor nor baritone, but possessed
many of the qualities of both. His parts, at first, were small
but important; later longer roles came his way, until, in Der
Zigeunerbaron, Strauss devised for him the remarkable role
of Zsupan, with its tremendous potentialities for burlesque
characterisation.

Not even Strauss's music and the wealth of talent assem
bled to perform it could make of Cagliostro a work of endur
ing appeal. Today none of it is generally known save its lilt
ing individual waltzes.

Prinz Methwsalem followed Cagliostro in short order.
Strauss had found his natural style in Die Fledermaus; there
was no reason to abandon it in Prinz Methusalem for the
hard, cynical manner of the French operetta stage, as exem
plified by Offenbach. Because he did, the work failed in his
native city, where it opened at the Carl Theater on January
3rd, 1877. In America, among a people unaware of the in
consistencies of French farce and Viennese sentiment, it has
had a considerable success. It was first shown in New York
City in 1883, where it scored a run of 102 performances.

Despite the Italian locale, the book is typically French, and
should have been set to music by an Offenbach or a Lecocq.
The setting is "somewhere in Italy/' and deals with the
realms of two petty sovereigns, Sigismond and Cyprian. Sigis-
mond's army is small, his finances smaller. He therefore en
gages his daughter, PulcineJla, to the neighboring ruler's son,
Methusalem. There then begins a libretto of cynical over
tones and implications, completely lacking either in French
wit and finesse or Viennese sentiment. There are many good

i 167}.

Three'Quarter Time

opportunities for musical writing: the leading romantic roles
are given suitably prominent positions; there is an abundance
of arias and concerted numbers, but these opportunities were
for a man who could write in the piquant style of French
opera^oufe.

Johann Strauss was not that man.

Nor the least dismayed by the failure of his latest operetta,
Strauss took his orchestra on a tour through Germany in the
summer of 1877, visiting Leipzig, Hamburg, Dresden, Baden"
Baden and Berlin. In that capital city, he gave a concert at
the Kroll Opera House, where he was scheduled to conduct a
program of ten numbers. He was obliged to lead well over
twenty before the enraptured audience permitted him to leave
the hall. He was deeply touched; in later years he frequently
spoke of that reception, and never forgot it.

From Berlin, Strauss took the orchestra to Paris. The
Drench capital had its own Strauss in Olivier Metra, the sue"
cessor to Musard. Metra was no match for the great waits-
master, and Strauss was soon drawing the larger audiences.
Certain Parisian musical circles became enraged, and a per
nicious whispering campaign was begun. The newspapers
played up .the incident; they reported "authoritatively" that
Strauss had spoken slightingly of French music. Strauss's
reply was characteristic: he devoted an entire program to the
works of French composers, and donated the proceeds of the
concert to a French charity. This had, as aftermath, the pres^
entation of the ubiquitous Croix de la Legion d'Honneur,
which was promptly packed away among an imposing array
of more resplendent orders.

THE idyllic peace that blessed the lives of Johann and Jetty
outlived itself ; Jetty began to reap the bitter harvest of past

168

SUCCESSES AND FAILURES

indiscretions and marriage to a man so many years her junior.

Johann was still a young man, the beau ideal of woman"
hood throughout Europe; Jetty, on the other hand, middle-
aged, was now fast reaching that time of life when the gap
between their years was to be most strongly f dt. She found her'
self obliged to sit quietly by while Strauss passed from flirta-
tion to flirtation, and sometimes to something less pardonable.
That many women went out of their way to be attractive
and interesting to him, seeking his company, did not lessen
Jetty's anger. There were scenes in the villa at Hietsing and
in the new Strauss palace on the Igelgasse. Even then, the
matter might have adjusted itself had not something more
startling occurred.

A son of Jetty's appeared. He was no child of the Baron
Tedesco, but of a liaison concerning which Strauss had been
totally ignorant. Even so, he had known the manner of Jetty's
life before their marriage; he knew he had no cause for
reproach. As it happened, this son of Jetty's was a thorough
rascal. He importuned her for money, and she gave him what
she had, begging only that he should not trouble Johann. But
the man would not be satisfied with what was a pittance in
comparison with the great Strauss fortune, and he made the
fatal error of approaching Johann himself.

Strauss sent him packing, and, paradoxically, the discovery
of Jetty's own indiscretion temporarily reunited the couple.
And then, Strauss returned home one day to find the house
hold in turmoil. Jetty had had a severe stroke and was uncon'
scious. She had received a letter from her son, threatening to
expose her past to public scrutiny if she did not persuade Jo"
harm to part at once with a considerable fortune. Jetty's heart
gave way under this last agonising strain. Every effort was
made to effect her recovery, to no avail. The will to live had
left the body of Jetty Treff*.

Three-quarter Time

Jetty died on April 7th, 1878. In death, her face assumed
a tranquflity which it had not known in life those last, tragic
months. She seemed younger, even beautiful. Heartbroken,
grief- and conscience-stricken, Strauss lifted her hand to leave
upon it one final kiss. As he touched her already icy fingers,
the old revulsion for death and its unknown secrets swept
over him, and he fled to his sisters at the Hirschenhaus. Eduard
was hurriedly sent for, and it was he who made all the ar"
rangements for the funeral.

Strauss would not even remain in the city. Utterly beside
himself, he took the first train from Vienna, and rode crouched
upon the floor of his compartment, fleeing from he knew not
what, bound he knew not where and he stayed away until
Jetty had been laid to rest

A few weeks later, he married again!

Never could there have been a worse match. Had Jetty ever
wished to be revenged for the heartaches which were hers
those last months, when Johann made love to other, more at"
tractive women, she would certainly have found her wish ful
filled in this union.

Angelika Diettrich was a young singer, of minor talent in
all things save the art of love-making, wherein she excelled.
She had recently come to Vienna from Cologne, and had made
the acquaintance of Proch, Director of Music to the Imperial
Court. Through him, she was introduced to Johann Strauss,
then living at the Hotel Viktoria, since he could neither bring
himself to occupy the new Igelgasse palace nor return to the
too-familiar locale of the villa on the Hiet^ingerstrasse.

Angelika, just past her twentieth birthday, met Johann
Strauss, then fifty-two, sang for him, flattered him, and mar
ried him. There then began a tragi-comedy to exceed anything
Strauss -ever staged. Angelika (she might better have been
named Diabolica) humiliated Strauss, reviled him, mocked

* 4 170 >

SUCCESSES AND FAILURES

him, deceived him and made him feel old. She made her affairs
with other men a public scandal; she let everyone know that
Strauss was not young enough for her. Vienna watched these
goings-on with amazement and a soft, ironical chuckle, in
which was mixed no little compassion for Strauss. The Walts
King himself seemed to appear older, and his music lost some
of the sparkle it had known. The intolerable affair lasted five
years, during which the anything-but-pure Lilli passed from
one flaming flirtation to another. To Strauss, the climax of his
horrors came about when one of Angelika's lovers proved to
be none other than Steiner himself. In the end, it was Angelika
who brought the incident to a dose. One fine September eve
ning she ran away from Schonau with her lover of the mom
ent.

It was a nightmarish libretto, one that was best ended soon.

The toll Angelika exacted of Strauss's creative powers is
evidenced in the dismal failure of his comic opera Blinde\uh.
An impossible libretto shares the blame, but this is the one
Strauss score which can be called vapid and devoid of true in
spiration. Never before had Strauss written such trite, banal,
unworthy music. There was not one tune in the entire work
which the public could take away whistling. Opening at the
Theater-an-der-Wien on December 18th, 1878, Blmde\uh
played just three performances!

Then came a period of stagnation, of inactivity. For the
first time in his life, Strauss was unable to compose. The foun
tain of melody which had always sprung effortlessly and over-
abundantly within him simply dried up. He no longer knew
a moment's peace or contentment. Gone were the sheltered,
restful years which Jetty had carefully wrapped about him.
Now his life was a distillation of bitter hours. It was impos
sible, in such an atmosphere, to write the gay music which
Vienna awaited from him. It took Kttn almost two years to re-

Three-Sorter Time

gain his footing; two years during which he had to teach him'
self to be wilfully blind to Angelika's promiscuity,

It was not until the first of October, 1880, that he produced
at the Theater-an-der'Wien a comic opera with which to re
deem himself. This was Das Spitzentuch der Konigin. Al
though it did not have the success of Die Fledermaus, this new
work was a favorite from its first performance in Vienna until
long after its appearance in New York, on October 22nd,
1882, when it opened the newly-built Casino Theater with a
run of 234 performances. It was again presented in 1885, and
on occasions thereafter. In Vienna, and other German-speak
ing cities, it is still occasionally presented with success to this
day.

The story is, in its basic elements, one of the best ever given
Strauss. The locale is Portugal during the days of Philip II of
Spain, who was then trying to gain dominion over the entire
Iberian peninsula. The Portuguese prime minister, in the pay
of the Spanish monarch, finds little difficulty in swaying the
weak young King of Portugal, whose fondness for truffles
leads him to pay too little attention to affairs of State.

Unhappy over his neglect of the country and herself, his
Queen embroiders upon one of her handkerchiefs the -words,
"A Queen loves you, though you are no King/' This she
thoughtlessly leaves as a bookmark in a copy* of Cervantes'
Don Quixote. Cervantes, in exile from Spain, is Reader to the
Queen, and in love with Irene, one of her kdies-in-waiting.
The Prime Minister convinces the King that a liaison exists
between the Queen and Cervantes. The latter succeeds in
making his escape with his servant, Sancho Pansa, while the
Queen is sent to a convent. With the aid of bandits, Cer
vantes and Sancho Pansa kidnap the Queen and Irene. The
ladies then masquerade as servant maids at an inn which die
King visits on a hunting trip. They serve bis favorite dishes,

SUCCESSES AND FAILURES

coax him into a mellow mood, succeed in exposing the duplic'
ity of his minister, and finally reveal themselves, with a satis-
factory explanation of the true significance of the embroidery.
And, as it should, all ends happily.

The story possessed dramatic interest, and afforded many
opportunities for Strauss to make his music an integral part of
the action, as in the dancing lesson of the King, or in the scene
where a learned commission attempts, without success, to cer'
tify Cervantes as insane. But in practical showmanship the
book had too many weak spots. If painting lacks drama, so
does eating. Gourmet or gourmand, it is all the same on the
stage. Food lacks romance. Where Strauss writes music sug'
gestive of the Queen's lace handkerchief, his music lives;
where it seeks to picture the King's epicurean delights, it fails.

BOUND to a home life of reproaches, recriminations and infi'
delities, Johann Strauss barricaded himself within his study
and began work on a new operetta. The book had been pro"
vided by Zell and Genee, who named it Der Lustige Krieg. In
writing it, Strauss found temporary solace and surcease from
domestic turmoil. The play abounds in delicious, carefree
moments. The wonderful walte'song, J^ur fur Tsfcxtwr, proved
such a success that its triumph was a foretaste of the furor
which the Merry Widow waltzes were to occasion years later.
The theme of this song is the recurring one which predomi'
nates in the Kiss Waltzes, a compilation of themes from the
operetta. Yet the song, quite unrelated to the action of the
pky, owes its accidental presence in the score to the insistence
of Girardi, who appeared as the Marquis Filippo Sebastiam,
nephew of the Prince of Massa e Carrara. The music to this
pky is outrageously giddy and carefree almost suspiciously
so. One can easily imagine Johann Slraass finding momentary
forgetfdbess in fts cxmpositiQe.

Three-quarter Time

Der Lustige Krieg opened at the Theater-an-der-Wien on
November 25th, 1881, with instantaneous success, and trav
eled on from city to city. In New York, it was produced at
both the Thalia and Casino Theaters in 1885. At the Casino,
it had a run of 69 performances. It was also presented in
Stockholm, Budapest, Chicago, Detroit, Cologne, Berlin,
Munich, Moscow and Philadelphia during the years of 1885
and 1886.

That Der Lustige Krieg should have known any success at
all in Vienna was, in itself, a real tribute to Strauss. Only
two weeks after the opening of the new operetta, the famous
Ringtheater caught fire and burned to the ground. Charred
corpses were carried from the gutted building by the hun
dreds. Tragedy struck so many homes that night that the en
tire city went into mourning. It was a painful subject of con
versation in the city for months. This was on the night of the
Viennese opening of Les Contes d'Hoffmm; the tragedy
started a "jinx" superstition which, for a long time, kept Of
fenbach's opera off the boards of many an opera house. No
one went to any theater in Vienna save one the Theater-
an-der-Wien, and Strauss's operetta.

Der Lustige Krieg is one of the maddest hodgepodges of
confused identities ever set to music. At the start, the story is
reasonably clear; the Doge of Genoa and the Prince of Massa
e Carrara have a set-to over a dancer. War is declared. Here
the confusion begins; all the officers in the army of the Prince
are women, under command of the Countess Violetta Lomel-
lini. What ensues when the two armies confront each other
may be imagined. Enter here a Spanish Grandee, who marries
la Lomellini as proxy for someone else enter also Balthazar
Groot, a tulip grower from Holland, and his wife Else, who
is jealous of Violetta. For her part, the Countess, apparently

i 174 y

SUCCESSES AND FAILURES

disgusted with an intrigue which even she cannot understand,
proceeds to fall in love with the man she married.

It would be difficult to conjure up less plausible nonsense.
In Die Fledermaus, less idiotic confusions are rendered cred'
ible by the befuddled state of the leading characters, but the
champagne atmosphere is lacking here.

The operetta's success was the result of a good score rather
than an acceptable story, for much of the music is truly in
spired. Jacob wrote that "when the D major quintet, Kornm'n
und Geh'n, set like a majestic cannon, resounded at the first
performance, one enthusiastic musician fell on his knees/'

IT WAS at this time that Strauss turned for a moment from
the operetta stage to write one of his most popular sets of
waltzes. These were the Fruhlingstimmen (Voices of Spring)
Waltzes, Op. 410, which he dedicated to the piano virtuoso
Alfred Griinfeld. Indeed, these waltzes were composed for
piano solo, and were orchestrated at a later date. Despite the
quick acceptance of this music throughout the world, and the
appreciation expressed by Verdi, Reger, Puccini and Brahms,
the Viennese long remained cold to it. Not without reason;
in the first (and principal) waits, at least, the melodic styk
is quite alien to Strauss. There is an insincere brilliance to
these uprushing eighth-note phrases; they recall more readily
the perfumed rose and poisoned dagger of the Italian Renais"
sance than the Gemutlich^eit of the Viennese. The waltzes
are excellent Strauss, but they are not Viennese Strauss.

STRAUSS acquired the book to his ninth operetta through a
series of amusing circumstances which might have supplied 1
material for a Gilbert and Sullivan libretto.

Walse! and Genee had in readiness two new books, one of
which was Der Bettektudent, and the other, Eine Wackt in

Three-quarter Time

Venedig, They had rashly permitted Karl Millocker to be the
first to examine the books. Although Millocker had done well
with his Diibarry, he was no Strauss, and Genee was aware
that it was Strauss who should have been given first choice.
But he also knew that Bine Tsfczcht in Venedig was, at best,
a patchwork quilt. He felt that if anyone could make it a suc-
cess Strauss could. Nor did he want to cross Millocker in be-
latedly giving Bettelstudent to Strauss.

As he feared, the latter showed strong preference for Bet
telstudent. Genee realised that to save his face he must act
quickly. He let it be understood that he hoped Strauss would
select Bettelstudent; since Millocker had expressed some in
terest in the other libretto. As he shrewdly anticipated, this
suggestion was enough to swing Strauss's opinion. Without
troubling to read the book, he haughtily informed the authors
that he preferred Eine Wacht in Venedig, and expected them
to put this story at his disposal. He seemed to care nothing
for whatever code of ethics may have been involved. For their
part, Genee and Wal^el exhibited no stricken conscience over
their own deception.

Millocker's music, coupled with this excellent story, made
of Der Bettelstudent a work which has lasted in the reper
tory, but it does not take much searching to find many places
where Strauss would have done better. The action occurs in
medieval Poland, "where the Saxon Prince, August the Strong,
has elected himself King. The opposite worlds of Slav and
Teuton are depicted here. Had Strauss written this music in
the light, rococo style of which he was capable, it might have
surpassed Die Fledermaus. What an opportunity lay here for
his touch! Polonaises, polkas and mazurkas would have de"
lineated with finesse the Slavic atmosphere, against which his
tripping waltzes and marches would have played a counter
point as the charact^rition of the Teuton spirit.

SUCCESSES AND FAILURES

But Strauss did not take Bettelstudent. As ever unwilling
to trust his own literary good sense, he took instead a shoddy
libretto which he had not examined. True, it did place its
action in Italy, a country in which he had always felt spirit
ually at home, and there were some fair situations and an oc'
casional interesting character. Of these, the cook Papacoda
is perhaps the best a culinary genius who measures mankind
from the standpoint of macaroni. There are all the trappings
of a Latin romance and imbroglio: masks, gondolas, the Car
nival of Venice, handsome cavaliers and beautiful signorinas.
It seemed that one needed but to tie the story together with
the thread of Straussian music, and the thing was done.

The public thought otherwise. Eine J^aclat in Venedig was
finished shortly after Angelika left the Schonau villa for"
ever. She left behind a man grateful for his deliverance. Light'
hearted, he took his operetta to Berlin, where it opened at the
Friedrichs<Wi]helm-Theater on October 3rd, 1883.* The
audience quickly sensed that this new work was musically
sound, but dramatically feeble. Papacoda's opening eulogy of
macaroni, and Annina's entry as a vendor of seafood, singing
FruUi di Mare, were auspicious beginnings which served to
relieve the otherwise extraordinary dullness of the first act,
but the intrigue which develops between the Duke, the Sen'
ator and the Senator's wife, Barbara (sister of Annina), and
die complicated abduction of Barbara which is carried out by
Carametto, the Duke's barber, who unwittingly kidnaps and
delivers his own fiancee, Annina, to the Duke, soon assumed
an afl'teo^amfliar pattern and bored the public. Matters

* Note that this is the only Strauss operetta ever premiered outside
of Vienna. Although deUgftfed to he rid of Ange&ka* misculme pride
forbade Strau$s*s gfoting me premifere to one of her former lowers, Max
Stetner, dfaect&r of &e Tkeater-an-der-Wien.

Three'Quarter Time

progressed from bad to worse. Finally, the excellent Lagunen-
walzer appeared, set to utterly moronic words:

"At night of course all cats are gray,
Then tenderly 'miaouw* they say. . . ."

This was too much; the audience took up the catcall, and
the rout started. The operetta momentarily got no further.
The words were ridiculous, and the exquisite music of the
Lagoon Waltzes, the Duke's two charming arias, Treu sein,
das liegt mir nicht and Sei mir gegrusst, du holdes Venetia, the
magnificent finale to Act II, with its 2/4-time chorale work
set against the 3/4-time waits songs of the principals, and the
hauntingly lovely serenade, Komm' in die Gondel, were not
enough to carry the production.

Strauss was entirely to blame. Did he think himself so in
fallible that he could take a book without reading it, set it
to music without proper knowledge of its contents, and hope
to make it a successfully integrated work? One can forgive
him only in view of his domestic problems. Nevertheless,
Richard Specht's accusation is only too just: "To compose a
musical comedy without knowing what mood has inspired
the songs, without knowing the sequence of the scenes that
is really a depth of indolence which cannot be surpassed."

He might as well have said "insolence" and the public
took it as such from Strauss. Yet Eine Tsfccht in Venedig is
not a bad work. Musically, it is well assembled. With many
revisions, A Wight in Venice knew a real success in London
in 1944-45, where it played at the Cambridge Theater for
over a year. In Germany and Austria, it is still frequently
heard and enjoyed; in Germany, it has recently had a con
siderable success in a new revision by Ferdinand Leitner and
Karl Gutheim.

4 178

10

*xx

ADELE STRAUSS

FOR the third time in his life, Strauss fell wholly and un-
reasoningly in love. He could not, by any stretch of chari
table imagination, be called a young man. In 1883, Johann
Strauss was fifty-eight not too old for marriage, but surely
beyond the age of youthfully impetuous ardor. Yet Strauss
fell in love with Adele Deutsch as would a young man. Adele
was no Angelika; although still a young woman, there could
be no suggestion of a May-September romance. The differ
ence in ages was sufficiently commonplace.

The story of this romance is one of strange coincidence.
Years before, when Frau Strauss was still alive, she had had
for neighbors in the Hirschenhaus a banker and his son. Al
though the two families were of the same name, there were
no blood ties between the Jewish family of Albert Strauss
and the Catholic family of Johann Strauss.

Albert Strauss was a man of unusual culture and taste.
As a banker, he possessed a strong sense of material values,
yet in the manner of so many of his faith, he also knew how
to assess the true, intangible riches of life. He was especially
fond of poetry, and admitted a particular preference for Grill-
parser, epic bard of the Viennese, and lifelong friend of Frans
Schubert. Albert Strauss also loved music. It was therefore
to be expected that he should develop a strong friendship
with the music-making Strausses.

*{ 179 Y

Three-quarter Tims

His son married an extremely attractive and charming
young woman, Adele Deutsch. Indeed, to judge by the pho'
tographs which still exist, Adele Strauss could, by modern
standards, put the overblown beauty of Angelika Diettrich
to shame. The marriage of Emil Strauss and Adele was
blessed with one child, a daughter, Alice. The father died
shortly after her birth, leaving a young widow to face a life
filled with little more than the memories of an alkoo'brief
span of happiness.

The years which Adele spent in the Hirschenhaus as a
neighbor of Anna Strauss taught her to understand the
whims and eccentricities and the needs of Johann Strauss.
The years of sorrow through which she had passed had fur'
ther equipped her for the delicate role of his third wife. How
ever blind he may have been to the failings of his Angelika,
he did show excellent judgment when he determined to marry
Adele Strauss despite all the obstacles which were set in his
path.

He had first to rid himself of Angelika. In view of her in'
fidelities, there was no difficulty in obtaining a divorce. But
Johann was Catholic, Adele Jewish. In the Holy Roman Em'
pire their union was forbidden. Strauss refused to allow any
thing to stand in his path. He left Vienna and established
residence in Coburg, capital of the Duchy of SaxonyCoburg'
Gotha, and there forswore his Austrian allegiance to become
a subject of the Duke. Frans- Josef found it hard indeed to
forgive ooe of his foremost subjects this traitorous transgres"
sion. Devout Catholic that he was, he found it even harder
to forgive Strauss his conversion to Protestantism.

Johann and Adele were married in Coburg, and soon re*
turned to the Igelgasse palace, where Strauss resumed his
work. His marriage to Adele broujght him not only a wife,
but also a daughter, for Alfeg Straiiiss, then still a yotmg gM,

f0

ADELE STRAUSS

became a member of his household. Strauss lavished affection
upon her, and it was wholeheartedly returned. He found that
his palace and villas ceased to be houses; they became homes.
The diabolical Angelika, who had flaunted her infidelities
for five years before all Vienna, now assumed the role of the
martyred wife, parading up and down the Igelgasse before
the Strauss palace and the door of the villa at Schonau,
whence she followed the Walts King and his family. She
fooled no one. An injunction was granted Strauss by the
courts, and the second Frau Strauss was soon dissuaded by
the police from pursuing her ridiculous picketing.

IT HAD taken the years of shelter, care and loving attention
showered upon Johann by Jetty to produce the iridescent
music of Die Fledermaus. The cankerous years with Angelika
had only produced shriveled deformities which had done
much to hurt his prestige as an operettist. It took all the un'
derstanding, consideration and loving kindness of which
Adele was capable to rehabilitate die drooping spirits of this
man, and make him again fed his powers. Angelika had, by
his own confession, made Kim feel old. Yet after his death,
Adele said, "I never felt that I had married an old man/* It
was true. She never thought of Strauss in terms of actual
years; she measured him by the eternal youthfulness of his
music. And if his music had been threatened by a few crow's-
feet and a double chin during the tyrannical reign of An
gelika, it flowered once more and regained its youth under
the benign sun of Adele's cheerful personality.

Jetty had given him Die Fledermaus. It was Adele who
gave frfrn Der Zigeunerfearon.

While on a visit to Budapest, where Strauss was to co&'
duct the first performance of his Lustige Krieg, he and Adele,
at her suggestion paid a visit to the great Hungarian novet'

Three-quarter Time

fet, Maurus Jokai. Jokai was the Homer of his people; in
novels and short stories, he told of the old days and the new.
His tales dealt with the simple rustic and the sophisticated
city dweller, the happy and the downcast, the great and the
small all Hungarians.

Jokai told them the story of his newest book, a novel
Saffi. It enchanted Strauss; he felt that he had at last found
a book equal to his music. He sensed, too, the timeliness of
the story. Although the action occurs in the middle 1700's,
the atmosphere was of Strauss's present. It had not been long
since confiscation of Hungarian estates by the Austrian Em
peror, banishment, return from exile, cached treasure and
wasted lands had been the topics of the day.

The establishment of the Dual Monarchy, whereby Franv
Josef ruled Hungary not as Emperor of Austria, but as King
of Hungary, had focused attention upon this colorful coun
try. In the realm of music, the Hungarians had been publi
cised by Fran* Lisst, with his Hungarian Rhapsodies, by Hec
tor Berlioz, with his orchestration of the Ra\ocsy March, and
by Johannes Brahms, with his Hungarian Dances. Josef Joa
chim, perhaps the leading violinist of the day, was himself an
Hungarian. The fiery compulsion of gypsy music had spread
through European cafe-concerts, from Vienna to Paris, Lon
don and Berlin wherever the Zigeuner had carried his
magic fiddle and cymbalom.

Strauss insisted- that he must have Saffi for an opera. Jokai
consented, with reservations. He would not, he said, write
the libretto he knew too little about stage technique but
he would select a man whom they could both trust to handle
the book carefully. This man was an Hungarian journalist,
Ignafc Schnitser.

Schnitser was a godsend. He went further than either Jo-
fcai or Strauss had dared to hope. He seemed to have been

4 ite y

ADELE STRAUSS

born with an intuitive knowledge of what makes "good thea
ter." He pruned Jokai's book of every unnecessary trace of
the fantasy-atmosphere of Hungarian fairy-tales with which
it had been surcharged. As for Strauss, Schnitzer was em'
phatic in advising him not to make too early a use of Hun-
garian musical forms. For the initial appearance of Sandor
Barinkay, returning from Austria to claim his ancestral lands,
Strauss intended to use the Hungarian csardas; it was Schnit'
zer who pointed out the error of this, and suggested that it
would be more appropriate to substitute the international
waltz;. It is to Schnitzer, therefore, that we are indebted for
Barinkay's entrance song, Ak fatter Geist, with its accom
panying waltz refrain, ]a, das dies <tuf Ehr 1 .

Selst

ALs f loi-ter elst doch fruh ver-woisi Lab icK die gan-ze

;f'i.ii- | if r i \\-~~

i* i^

-jf-H

itora icfa. un8 nock M^ir.

Strauss was determined to produce this time a comic opera
in which words and music would be properly o>rrelated. He
felt that in Saffi he had found a story of unusual value, worthy
of a great comic opera, and he did net mean to waste hi
opportunity. To aid Strauss, Schnitser suggested that thep
first exhaustively discuss each scene, with an eye to text and
music. Strauss might then write whatever music he wished,
in the mood of the scene. He would then set the lyrics to fit

Time

Strauss's music. Nothing could have been more ideal than
this highly unorthodox system. The result is an opera where
words, music and mood are well fused into a living whole,
rather than a chain of unrelated numbers.

In contrast to the lightning-like manner in which Strauss
penned Die Fledermaus is the slow, painstaking fashion in
which he wrote Der Zigeunerbaron. It was not that the mas
ter was losing his touch; far from it, as the world was soon
to learn. There had simply been too many failures, due, as
Strauss knew all too well, to a carelessness on his part in re
lating music to libretto. Strauss had written to Paul Lindau,
in connection with the failure of Eine J^adit in Venedig, a
confession of the most damning sort:

"The style of the libretto is such that with the sincerest
intentions in the world I could find no inspiration in it. It
is a scatterbrained affair, without the least trace of action. I
never saw the libretto dialogue, but only the words of the
songs. Consequently, I put too much nobility into some parts
of it, and that did not suit the work as a whole. There is no
part of this book where a noble interpretation will fit. At
the final rehearsal, when I learnt the complete story in its
correct sequence, I was utterly horrified."

It is impossible to fathom why Strauss could have been
so foolish and imprudent. "Down with dialogue," Rossini
once said. Was Strauss of a like mind? Hardly; the lyric
stage had progressed too far since the days of Rossini, and
comic opera is of necessity too dependent upon the contents
of its libretto.

Determined not to repeat his earlier follies, Strauss took
two years to write Der Zfgennerfearow. It was not until Octo
ber 24th, 1885, that it was given its first performance at the
Theater-an-der-Wien, despite die appeals of Steiner for an
earlier date. Adele never forgot the night which preceded

ADELE STRAUSS

that opening, when Strauss, in an agony of nerves, paced
back and forth across their bedroom, drenched in nervous
perspiration.

Strauss had reason to be anxious. The fiasco of Bine J^acht
in Venedig was still fresh. The Viennese were shaking their
heads dubiously: Could Strauss write another Die Fleder-
mausl Had he not burnt himself out? There was a sense of
anxiety and uncertainty as Strauss entered the pit to lead the
orchestra in the Overture. The opening section, dark and
richly colored, with its traces of Zigeunerlied, excited and de"
lighted the audience. It was at once apparent that here was
a deeper, more musicianly Strauss than Vienna had hitherto
known. Yet still the audience seemed to wait for something.
Then came the Tempo di Vds, the unforgettable fragment
of the Schatzwalzer. There was a stir and a sigh throughout the
hall. God's in his Heaven, all's well with the world. . . .

THE story of Der Zigeunerbaron remains fresh today, after
a lapse of over half a century, as satisfying a play as it was
on the evening when it was introduced to Vienna. Eschewed
were the mistaken identities of conventional comic opera;
there is nothing to this tale which requires the cooperative
imagination of the audience. The action opens before the
ruined ancestral home of the Barinkays, in the Hungary of
the middle Eighteenth Century. The family was exiled from
Hungary, after participating in an unsuccessful revolution
against the domination of Austria, and the lands are now a
Zigeuner encampment. Upon this scene arrives Sandor Bar*
inkay to claim his paternal estate. The order of banishment
has been lifted, and Sandor, son of the lord who was driven
from his home, has been allowed to return. His entrance song
is a brilliant recitation of his past life and travels. In this,
words set a Viepaese parallel for the type of

Three-quarter Time

ter song in which Gilbert excelled. Sandor meets his neigh
bor, the hog-breeder Zsupan, and his lovely daughter Arsena.
Sandor falls in love with her and asks for her hand. Arsena
refuses him she will not, she says haughtily, marry anyone
who is not at least a Baron. Actually, she is in love with
Ottokar, the son of her governess.

Incensed, Sandor joins the gypsies who have made his
ruined home their camp, and is chosen their leader a Gypsy
Baron. He returns to Arsena and proposes once more, re
marking that she may now wed a "Baron." Then, as Arsena
still appears reluctant, he takes the gypsy girl Saffi, daughter
of old C^ipra, and leaves with her, while a spurned Arsena
vows revenge.

The second act opens with Csipra, Saffi and Sandor stand
ing, the following morning, before the ruins of the old Bar-
inkay Castle on the banks of the Temes River. Saffi says she
has dreamt that the cached fortune of the Barinkays, hidden
when they fled, may be found under a certain stone in the
wall of the castle. Sandor is inclined to laugh the dream away,
but he is persuaded by Csipra to make a search. Behold! there
lies the treasure! This is the Treasure Waltz, a Trio as spark
ling as the gems themselves:

Ha/ sefcfc es wintt, es "bliukt, es Tslix^fc aclj, tiu-serffli
Blic fcen welch ein Ent- zuc ken.

! see, it winks,
It sings, it rings!
Feel how it tingles!
Hear how it jingles I"

ADELB STRAUSS

Upon this scene arrive Ottokar, Zsupan, Ottokar's mother,
Mirabella, and Arsena, followed by Homonay, who is seek'
ing recruits for the Austrian Army in its war with Spain.
He presses Ottokar and Zsupan into service, much against
their will. They complain of Sandor's affront to Arsena, and
insist that he be drafted, too. Homonay laughs and compli"
ments Sandor on his excellent choice. He inquires who mar'
ried them. The reply startles everyone, for it seems they were
married most informally by "that cathedral priest, the bull'
finch wise," while the nightingale sang her song and the storks
looked on as witnesses. This duet, fr Who tied the \not?", is
one of the most exquisite moments in the entire book. The
music is high among Strauss's most sensuous and caressing
melodies, the voices floating warmly over a liquid arpeggio
accompaniment. When Strauss sent the music to Schnit2^r,
he wrote, "Please give me a great many Fs and A's; I have
noticed that singers are very fond of these vowels." Schnit"
zer took him at his word, and returned the music with this
text to the refrain:

Und miia saag die NftcVti-gall iLr Lied-chea in die

"Und mild sang die TsfachtigdZJ ihr Liedchen in die l<(ac\it:
die Liebe, die Liebe, ist eine Himrnelsmacht"

"And gently sang the nightingale her tune through the night,
Our love, our love, is blessed with Heaven's might."

187

Time

Now trouble develops. It seems that the cache was illegal,
and the pardon may be withdrawn. Temporary settlement is
reached when Sandor gives Homonay the treasure in trust,
and joins the army to fight the war in Spain.

The third act opens in a public square in Vienna, as the
conquering army makes its triumphant return. Zsupan en
ters, bedecked with loot, and wearing a girdle of stolen
watches. Amusing as this is, it is based on fact; watches were
prise loot during the wars of the Eighteenth Century, and
still are today. Russian veterans of World War II wore wrist
watches up to their elbows. Augereau, a Napoleonic general,
came back to Paris from an Italian campaign so bedecked
with watches that even calloused Bonaparte was scandalised.

Yet for all his Falstaffian gusto, Zsupan cut a poor figure
during the campaign, while Sandor returns covered not with
loot, but with glory. He is now, in truth, a Baron, for the
Emperor has ennobled htm in reward for his valor. Homonay
has returned him the treasure; he now possesses riches and
honors. Only Saffi is lacking, and she, too, appears. Here
another surprise awaits; Csipra admits that Saffi is not her
child, but the abducted daughter of the last Turkish Pasha to
rule Hungary. Sandor and Saffi are wedded in proper style,
and the curtain falls.

THE night of the opening was the evening before Strauss's
sixtieth birthday. Der Zigeunerbaron was a magnificent birth
day gift, which the Viennese finished off in grand style. They
sobbed and cheered throughout the production; the timeli"
ness of the story and the charm of the music had them bor
dering on hysteria. Every number had to be repeated. Never
in Vienna had there been such a furor over a lyric work.
What Franz'Josef had tried to do for forty years* Strauss
achieved that night he made the Dual Monarchy one.

^ 188

AD2LB STRAUSS

With the success of Der Zigeunerbaron came renewed con"
fidence and vigor. In a rush, Strauss published the Wiener
Frauen Waltzes, Op. 425, and the Adelen Waltzes, Op. 424,
dedicated to his wife. These were followed by three works
inspired by his last Russian tour: the An der Wolga Pol\a-
Mazur\a, Op. 425, the Russischer Marsch, Op. 426, and the
Reiter Marsch, Op. 428.

4 189

11

THE LAST YEARS

As WITH every other important composer of light opera, it
was perhaps inevitable that Strauss should eventually at
tempt something of a more serious nature. Jacques Offen"
bach, having built a life's reputation on such effervescent
works as Orphee aux Enfers, La Belle Helene, and La Vie
Parisienne, felt, in his declining years, the need to leave be'
hind him something of a more ambitious nature, and he wrote
The Tales of Hoffman.

So did Strauss eventually turn to serious opera. Had he
spent a lifetime in the search, he could hardly have found a
subject less suited to his talents. He turned to a work of the
Seventeenth Century writer, von Grimmelshausen, Simplizius
Simplidssvmus, which antedates Faust as the most lugubrious
work in German literature. It was young Viktor Leon who
made the stage adaptation, the same Viktor Leon who was,
years later, to write the delightful book for Lehar's The
Merry Widow, and who was destined, still many more years
in the future, to die miserably in abject poverty in a Vienna
crushed beneath the weight of anti-Semitic Na?i ideologies.

Grimmelshausen's story, the point of departure from which
Leon expanded his libretto, is of medieval simplicity. A young
boy, Simplizius, is brought up in the depths of a forest by an
old hermit. Because mankind is motivated by malice and greed
which engender wars, the hepnit rears the lad as a simple

THE LAST YEARS

animal, knowing none of his own kind. During the Thirty
Years' War, troops reach the hermitage and chance upon the
boy, who, never having known any man save the hermit,
takes them for devils. Despite the old man's pleas and the
terrible fright of the boy, they take Simplisius along to guide
them through the forest and back to "civili^tion." Once in
the outer world, his innocence stripped from him, there is
nothing left for him to do but to join his fellowmen and be"
come man and murderer like his brothers.

Such was Grimmelshausen's story, a fable and a parable,
with its proper place in literature. Such a story was not even
remotely suited for the lyric stage, and Leon knew it. He
planned to alter the plot to fit, without realising that no
amount of alteration would do. Nor do his changes and ad
ditions show that he possessed the ability to handle that
world of half "fantasy, half -reality which had made Grim-
melshausen's tale so enduring. In Leon's libretto, the original
story forms the basis for the first act only (or, as Strauss des
cribed it, the Prologue) . In the two acts which follow, Sim-
plisjius's life and adventures take him through the old, hack
neyed routine of the operetta stage: war, confusion of iden
tities, the usual love intrigues with a vivandiere's daughter,
whom he eventually marries, and the rest of the conventional
folderol.

Strauss came by the libretto to Simplizius through odd cir
cumstances. Unable to trust his own judgment in such mat
ters, he must always follow another's lead. When he heard
that Viktor Leon had written Simplisms for Zamara, he must,
perforce, command hnr> to withdraw that book from Zamara
and give it to him. It mattered not at all to Strauss that Za
mara had almost completed his version of the play, and that
a tentative date for the first performance had already been
set. Strauss was the Walts King.

4 191 >

Three-quarter Time

The manner in which he took over a book which another
composer had in work was not without precedent. Some years
before, Offenbach had set his heart upon obtaining the rights
to Les Contes d'Hoffman. Almost destitute after years of
the greatest luxury, forgotten in the city that had once
rocked with laughter to his great offenbachiades, he be*-
lieved that at last he had found the book which would place
him among the immortals. Years before, he had set his heart
upon breaking into the sacrosanct purlieus of the Opera-
Comique; always this stronghold of conservatism had resisted
his assaults. Because of this, he turned to and perfected the
opera'bouffe, which he presented in his own little theater, the
Bouffes-Parisiens. This style of operetta, based on the Italian
bujffd, had satire for its keynote; its existence depended upon
caricaturing some aspect of contemporary life. Offenbach had
mocked the Opera'Comique itself; in La Grande'Duchesse
de Gerolstein he had satirized the theatrical and unsound
life of the court of the Second Empire nothing was safe from
his scalpel pen. Then, with the debacle of the Second Empire,
Offenbach's rule passed; the public associated him too closely
with the political regime which had just been overthrown,
and considered him no longer in tune with the times. He des'
perately wanted Les Contes d'Hoffman to recoup his for"
tunes. Another composer had done considerable work on a
version of his own, but with great generosity he consented
to abandon all rights to the story and turned it over to Offen--
bach, who was finally able to invade the Opera'Comique with
this work. He did not live to see this triumph, but he was
able to attend the rehearsals, finding satisfaction in the knowl
edge that he had fulfilled a lifelong ambition. Yet, ironically,
his best music is still that of the offenbachiades.

Any chronicler of Strauss's life must perforce make obei-
saxice to the French master for the debt which Strauss owes

192

THE LAST YBAKS

him in the field of light opera. Without Offenbach's La Vie
Parisienne, Strauss's Die Fledermaus might not have been
written. It does not matter which comic opera or which com'
poser is greater (they took different lines and are, in many
respects, not to be compared); the pioneering of Offenbach
was aH'important, and his music does not deserve the com'
parative oblivion which today is its fate in Anglo-Saxon
lands.

Strauss, then, was only following Offenbach's lead when
he demanded that Leon withdraw Simplizius from Zamara
in order to give it to him. He set to work at once on what
was to be "grand opera/ 3 Like Offenbach, Strauss hoped to
achieve one triumph in that field. He was to fail; he did not
realise that to be supreme in one field of art, whether light or
serious, popular or recondite, is in itself the greatest assurance
of immortality. And Strauss lacked Offenbach's pressing tea'
son; he was at the pinnade of his fame those last years when
he was feted at one jubilee after another.

He was not unaware that he had blundered, only the mat-
tar had gone too far for him to be able to withdraw. During
the rehearsals at the Theater'an'der'Wien, and up to the mo"
ment when the curtain went up on December 17th, 1887, he
resisted Steiner's requests to have him designate the new work
as anything but a Prologue and Two Acts. At least, ix this
designation, he was completely honest, for there is no po^
sibk relation between the sober first act and the nonsensical
two which follow. Small wonder that instead of enjoying a
long run, as had been hoped, Simplisms was withdrawn after
only thirty performances. Although it had been accepted for
St. Petersburg and for Munich, Strauss himself asked that
the productions be canceEed. He did net wish to injure a
prestige reestablished with Der Zigeunerlwoflt A! that re*
mams today are the Donoutueibchen Wtjkzes. Op, 427,

Three-quarter Time

IN 1888, Frans-Josef was fifty-eight. Forty years had elapsed
since the day when, at eighteen, he had mounted the throne
left vacant by the abdication of Ferdinand. There were
still many years to pass before he became that legendary
figure which haunted the Hofburg during the tragic days of
World War I, yet already he had become Austria's beloved
der alter Kaiser. Gone were the days of bad blood provoked
by the Revolution of 1848, and laid to rest were most of the
spectres of internal strife. Hungary had autonomy; even Bo
hemia was on the verge of being granted some measure of
self "government. What if the minor provinces were dissatis-
fied? The death of Frans-Ferdinand at Sarajevo was still in
the nebulous future.

In the place of the young and impulsive Emperor whose
unbending, autocratic measures had at first made htm un
popular with his people, Austria now knew an Emperor sad
dened and softened by innumerable blows of Fate. He had
found himself, despite intensive schooling, an unsuccessful
militarist who had lost, on the fields of Sadowa, Austria's
age-old domination over the Teutonic peoples to the rapidly
growing power of Prussia. He had seen an idyllic love curdled
by court intrigue, to the point where his beautiful Empress,
now a stranger to him, was more frequently to be f ound at
Capri or in Hungary, in the company of Count Andrassy,
than in the Hofburg which she found so hostile. He had lost
his only son, the Archduke Rudolf, whose death at Mayerling,
instead of causing a rapprochement, had only served to es
trange even further the Imperial couple. He said of himself
in confidence, to certain of his aides, "Gentlemen, my hand
is unlucky. . . "

Forty years of rule by a man who had become an honored
and admired figure was ample cause for Austria to indulge
m one of die many jubilees which she was to tender through-

ADELE STRAUSS

Autographed to Professor Fritz Lange, eminent Viennese musicologist,
who collaborated with her on a book on her husband, Johann II.

-I 195

FRANZ LEHAR

Photograph presented to the author's mother on the occasion of the
first performance of his musical comedy Fruhling.

196

THE LAST YEARS

out these years with impartiality to Frans-Josef and Johann
Strauss.

As befitted the man who was Koniglich und Kaiserlich
Hofballmusikdirektor, Strauss wrote the music for his Em
peror's jubilee. He did not content .himself with one compo
sition; he wrote two. The Kaiser-Jubildum Wdtzes, Op. 434, '
were written expressly for the ceremonies, but it was with
another composition, three opus numbers later, that Schani
paid heartfelt tribute to his sovereign, when he produced the
Kaiserwalzer.

The Kaiserwalzer is Strauss's most symphonic waits;
danceable though it may be, this is but an adjunct to its pri
mary purpose as concert music. The French writer Guillaume
Ritter said that "it was the most beautiful flower that the in
credible tree of Strauss music had produced in seventy-five

years."

A 4/4 rhythm, in rapid Austrian march tempo, establishes
the mood, piano. Then appears the march proper, fifty meas
ures long/ It is writing that might have come directly from
Mozart; it possesses all his style and spirit, the characteristics
of his orchestration, even to the placement of the trills. Mas
terly stroke of craftsmanship that it is, it is perhaps die most
vivid proof of Strauss's affinity to the genius of SaJbburg, It
creates the scene; this is indubitably Austrian. Crisp and
clean, it is also discreet:

Otx+Clar.

Another antique episode follows. Exdtmg by virtue of
its simple style, it is kin to the f ainouis Rondo aHa twrca of
the Piano Sonata in A "Major*

4 197 V

Three-quarter Time

Vns.

j

A swell in the orchestra presages the presence of the prin
cipal waits; theme, but this is overwhelmed by a forte reappear
ance of the march. And then, at the moment when the forte
threatens to develop into a fortissimo, it vanishes, and the
oboe enters, piano, hesitantly. It is a moment of awe and rev
erence. The violins take flight, soaring with Mendelssohnian
grace. Then, gently, an unexpected Wagnerian chord in
trudes. Thus the years have flown; what began with Mozart
concludes with Wagner:

k

3E*

It is only after these preliminaries that Strauss allows his
waits; to appear. It is a waits of tenderness, respect, friendli
ness and love an open, unabashed declaration of loyalty. Its
reiterated notes on the lower G give it solidity and strength;
it is an affection that is fundamental and deep-rooted:

The inevitable landler makes its appearajace. Indeed, why
not? The waits is cosmopolitan, the Landler, Austrian:

THE LAST YEARS

etc.

The military must have its moment as well, for it might be
said of the Emperor that he was born with his spurs on. Yet
this is also the people themselves, with its lack of subtlety and
its accent on the first beat:

tr\
i- h

Finally, when the tumult and the shouting, the pomp and
circumstance, the pageantry and parades have had their say,
there remains still the steady current of affection, in this
Schubertian phrase:

It sounds in the supremely masculine voice of the violon
cello, through which threads a recollection of the first waltz;
in the light tones of the flute. At the last, everything is
brought to a brilliant conclusion by a flourish of trumpets
and a few final chords.

AFTER the Jubilee came another opera, Ritter Posmavij pro"
duced at the Hofoperntibeater on New Year's Day, 1892.
At last Jofeann Strauss invaded the holy precincts of the Ini'

Time

perial Opera, and this with a serious opera written on a ro-
coco theme of almost medieval gallantry. The story is weak
and undramatic, and although Strauss wove about it one of
his most cunning scores, the work of an experienced hand,
it met with a lukewarm reception. It was Strauss whom the
audience applauded, not Ritter Pasman.

If this opera did not establish him in the Hof operntheater,
his ultimate goal, Die Fledermaus eventually did. This came
about during the spectacular tenure of Gustav Mahler as
Generalintendant of the Court Opera. This magnificent con
ductor and composer recognised in Strauss's finer works not
only the essence of what is truly Viennese, and therefore de
serving of recognition by Vienna's greatest musical theater,
but also something more important a quality of genius wor
thy of measure against other operas presented in the Imper
ial Opera. Mahler's production of Die Fledermaus, so history
tells us, set a standard for the performance of this work ap
proximated only by such masters of the musical stage as
Bruno Walter and Max Reinhardt.

Of Ritter Pasman, only a few ballet sequences caught the
public's fancy; even these are forgotten today.

IT WAS during these years that a deep friendship grew and
strengthened between Strauss and Brahms, brought about to
some extent by the homelike atmosphere which Adele infused
into the Igelgasse pakce and the country villas which Strauss
possessed. Between the Hamburg and Vienna musician (the
former himself virtually a Viennese in his later years) there
existed the greatest possible respect. The story of Brahms and
the autograph fan of Alice Strauss, related elsewhere in
these pages, is a classic. Less known is Brahms' comment to
a friend recently arrived from Hamburg. "First of all," he
said, "you must go to the Volfcsgarten on Friday evening,

THE I*AST YEARS

where Johann Strauss will conduct ids waltzes. There is a
master of the orchestra; such a master that one never loses
a single tone of whatever instrument!" His admiration was
such that Geiringer states, in his biography of Brahms, that
the master never missed a performance of Die Fledermaus if
he could help it.

Brahms, conscious of the occasionally opaque pages in his
orchestral works, could not fail to be impressed by the lucid'
ity of the Strauss pen. A true classicist among the Romantics,
especially in his adherence to form and the traditional or'
chestra, Brahms revered Mozart among composers, a rever"
ence shared by Strauss. Brahms felt that he had found a
counterpart to Mozart's limpid orchestral technique in the
writing of the Walts King. Those who have exhaustively
compared Die Fledermaus with Figaro will appreciate the
reasons for Brahms 5 belief.

Photographs exist of Brahms and Strauss in the garden of
the Bad Isdbl villa. Here are two old men, each a great mas'
ter of music, the one the antithesis of the other, each deeply
respectful of the other's worth. One is now no longer stocky;
he is definitely paunchy, with a patriarchal beard halfway
down his chest. One can almost visualise the music in the
man solid, real, and with an epic quality; gruff and brusque,
yet full of warmth and overflowing with inner sentiment.

The other had not greatly changed; indeed, he resembles
more the Strauss of the late '40*s than he does the Strauss of
the *70*s. Gone are the Dundreary whiskers that flamed in
profusion from his cheeks; all that remains is a well-waxed
and groomed mustache, not unlike that which lie sported in
his early years before the public. Neither in the mustache
nor in the generous mane of hair can one find a single strand
of silver Strauss would never have been so untrue to his
music and to his Vienna, They wished him to remain young,

Three-quarter Time

and remain young he did. During his Golden Jubilee, in 1894,
the correspondent of an English newspaper wrote home, "The
pains he takes to remain the Johann Strauss of yore, with jet-
black hair and faultlessly black mustache, is not vanity but
a compliment to the Viennese. "

The deep friendship between the two composers resulted
in a waits dedicated to Brahms, a tribute from the butterfly
to the bear. Thoroughly mature Strauss, expertly contrived,
it nonetheless lacks that intangible catalyst which makes his
great works immortal. This is the Seid Umschlungen, Million-
en!, Op. 443. The title is derived from the text to Schiller's
Ode to Joy, which Beethoven made immortal in his 7\[inth
Symphony. It was, therefore, a compliment to the man whose
First Symphony had been lightly, inappropriately, and yet
not uncomplimentary, called "Beethoven's Tenth."

A waits; more in the usual vein is the next opus, Marchen
aiis dem Orient, dedicated to the Sultan Abdul Hamid of
Persia. Here is the familiar style, perhaps more pleasing to
an oriental potentate with limited knowledge of occidental
music. It is an amazing page, breathing again the spirit of
the young Strauss of yesteryear, enamored of Olga SmirnitskL
It hardly seems the product of a septuagenarian. It has
youth, passion, abandon. It is another Serail'Tdnze, written
for a Sultan, with the finesse of maturity added to the en
thusiasm and imagination of youth.

Age had not altered Strauss's awareness of the life about
him. As in years past he had brought forth the Telegrafische
Depeschen, so did he now write a Durchs Telethon Pol\a,
Op. 439. Acknowledegment of Vienna's new position as a
leading commercial and industrial city appears in his Gross
Wien Waltzes, Op. 440. Another significant title occurs in
Op. 449 the Neue Pizzicato Pol\a. The first 'and more
widely known Pizzicato Pol\a stemmed from a happier pe*

THE LAST YEARS

riod. For this composition, without opus number, was the
joint product of collaboration between Schani and his brother
Pepi. Whatever the difficulties and misunderstandings be"
tween Johann and Eduard and they were legion there was
never anything but the closest communion between Johann
and Josef. This composition, one of four which these two
brothers wrote jointly, is the only one which is generally
known. Its piquant melody and intriguing rhythms are so
delicious, and yet so distinguished, that the work is perhaps
the finest example of the polka form. It is, of course, dance-
able, but is still properly a concert work:

The three compositions by the two brothers which followed
Pizzicato consist of two quadrilles and a Vaterldndischer
'March. There are also two works which resulted from the
joint efforts of all three brothers: Schutzen Qviadrille, and
Trifolien Waltzes. This last title is an allusion to the trium
virate of composers.

Ritter Pasrrutn was succeeded by Furstin T^mitfo, as poor
a story as anything Strauss had previously misguidedly at'
tempted. Yet it had its success, which was enhanced at the
first performance at tie Theateran^ler'Wien on January
10th, 1893, by the attendance of so august a personage as the
Emperor himself. The stage mistress presented herself at tlie
Imperial Box, and in a most distracted manner inquired
wfeedier His Imperial Majesty proposed to stay for any length

Time

of time, and did he prefer to have her send for Strauss imme"
diately? Frans-Josef replied that he had no intention of leav
ing, nor did he; he remained through to the end. When
Strauss came to pay his respects after the performance, the
old monarch said, "Really, I did not wish to leave I have
enjoyed myself tremendously. It is strange your music ages
as little as you do. You have not changed at all, although it
is many years now that I have known you. I must felicitate
you on your opera." Layman though the Emperor was, he
had placed his finger unerringly upon the reason for the oper*
etta's even seasonal success when he said, "Your music ages
as little as you do/' Strauss's operettas have disappeared only
because of lack of substance in the libretti.

]abu\a followed Fiirstin Winetta at the Theater^an^der-
Wien, opening October 12th, 1894. It gained momentary
prominence because the date of its opening coincided with
the Strauss Jubilee. It was during the course of this famous
celebration that Frans-Josef is reputed to have said to Strauss,
"It is you who are the true Emperor of Austria'Hungary!"
Flattering words, tailored for the occasion, they may also
have sprung spontaneously from a heart embittered by a half-
century of internal strife, national and personal.

OCTOBER 12th, 1894. As Strauss looked down the long cor
ridor of the years to that day, exactly fifty years before,
when posters announcing his first concert were displayed, he
must have felt aged and sad indeed. When age looks back'
ward on its youth, it must do so with regret. When the old
age of Strauss looked back on the youth of Strauss, it was
sadder still. For Strauss was, of necessity, the personification
of youth his music vibrates with it and he must have bit"
terly resented the "whips and scorns of Time" which left his

204

THE LAST YEARS

eternally youthful spirit clothed in the febrile framework of
age.

Strauss's day was, however, not yet done. ]dbu\a had its
moment, and gave way to his sixteenth and penultimate stage
work, Waldmeister. Weaker in story, if possible, than even
its immediate predecessors, it was an unsuitable choice. Es"
sentially a petit-bourgeois plot, its locale a small village whose
inhabitants become mysteriously inebriated, it fitted Strauss's
patrician melodies poorly. A Leo Fall, or another composer
of humbler style, might have done better with it, for this very
reason. It is probable that Strauss was attracted to the plot
by his success with the intoxication scenes from Die Fleder*
mans. What he did not consider was that the intoxication of
Die Fledermaus is that of the haut monde on an Elysian
plane, whereas that of Waldmeister is little more than the
common drunkeness of a village brawl. Waldmeister opened
on December 14th, 1895, at the Theater^an-der-Wien. Like
the operettas which immediately preceded it, and the final
operetta which followed, it had a seasonal success. It was the
success of novelty, not that of merit. Yet one could hardly
ask for lovelier music, and were the score to be adapted by
competent hands to a book of merit today, Waldmeister could
still know the acclaim it never had.

Die Gottin der Vernunft was Strauss's last bow on die
lyric stage. It would be pleasant to record that with his id"
timate stage work he produced another great comic opera;
unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. If
anyt&ing, this was the weakest link in the entire chain. The
tunes were still young, stffl fresh, still spontaneously ^ay. But
youth and gaiety do not suit a story of tombrils, guittotmes,
and the other paraphernalia erf the French Revolution, It was
ooce more the old story of music mismated to plot.

Tliis is indeed tiie one great artistic failing of Strauss the

Three-quarter Time

great flaw in a musician whose taste was otherwise impec-
cable. One can excuse it by saying that such haphazard selec
tion of libretti was commonplace in that day (as indeed it
was). But such an excuse places Strauss on a level with all
his contemporaries Lort^ing, von Suppe, Millocker and the
others whereas an analysis of his stage works shows, on the
musical side, a sense of balance, a craftsmanship, which raises
him to heights to which his colleagues and imitators never
even aspired. Indeed, in the matter of scoring alone, it is not
heresy to compare his dear-toned scores to the elegant Eight
eenth Century school of Mozart.

Die Gottin der Verniin/t was first heard on March 13th,
1897, at the Theater-an-der-Wien. Much has been made of
the fact that Johannes Brahms, gravely ill, attended a con
cert by the Vienna Philharmonic on March 7th of that year.
Those who were present describe Brahms as shrunken, feeble,
and suffering acutely from the cancer which was rapidly end
ing his life. That concert has often been described as the last
public appearance which he made, but this is not correct. He
made still another, for he was in a box throughout the entire
opening performance of Strauss's last operetta. His atten
dants tried to persuade him to leave, but nothing would in
duce him to do so until the last curtain had fallen, Strauss
had taken his bows on the stage, and had then paid him a visit
in his box. It was, so far as is known, the last meeting of the
two old friends. Brahms died three weeks later, on April
3rd, 1897.

Strauss now felt increasingly the weight of his advancing
years. Yet such was the spirit of the man that he would not
retire, but continued to compose. TTie works from this period
which have reached his catalogue are few, and their titles
glance nostalgically towards the past. Typical is the Klange
aus der Raimundzeit, Op. 479.

THE LAST YEARS

It was Hanslick who provided the impetus for Strauss's
final major work. Remembering the ballet sequence of Ritte*
Pasman, he urged Strauss to write a work for the Imperial
Ballet. At once the question of a story arose. Strauss was
wary of approaching a form which would be completely new
to him without a story that would not only be choreograph'
ically suitable, but would also suit his warm, sentimental style.
Finally it was decided to open a public contest for the story,
and a board of judges was selected which included Hanslick,
Strauss and Gustav Mahler. Mahler was equally eager for a
Strauss ballet; perhaps he felt that, freed from tasteless texts
and stupid libretti, Strauss's music -would be even more strik"
ing than in a Die Fledermaus.

When the stories submitted were examined, the prise
went to a piece called Aschenbrodel (Cinderella), a modern
isation of the classic story. It had been anonymously sub"
mitted, and the prize money was collected by an attorney;
rumor at once had it that the story was the work of an Aus"
trian Archduke. Strauss liked the book, and entertained great
hopes for it, but one cannot lay great faith in his opinion.
Significantly, Mahler was considerably less optimistic, and
rightly so, A story similar to that which the Ballet Russe de
Monte Carlo set to his music in Le Beau Danube Bleu would
have been preferable. His music demands a story which scy
tfllates; a saccharine romance of the naive simplicity of
Cinderella was not for him. Strauss set aside an orchestral f an-
tasia on which he had been working, which he had tenta"
tively named TmumMder, and prepared to begin work on
the new ballet.

He never finished it. On May 22nd, 1899, he conducted
tite Overture to an afternoon performance of Die f&der-
maus, and then found himself so baiiied in pa^piration that
Ee had to refequfefa the baton to an assistant and leave the

207

Three-quarter Time

theater. He returned to the Iglegasse, and found awaiting
him Bosendorfer, the famous Viennese piano manufacturer,
and Leschetiteky, the internationally-known piano teacher;
they had come to play cards with him. It was a lovely, warm
afternoon, but Strauss, feeling chilled, insisted on playing in
doors. When his friends had gone, he retired, feeling still
somewhat indisposed, to his study, where he nonetheless in
sisted on orchestrating some scenes of Aschenbrodel until the
early hours of the morning. Two days later, in the Prater, he
was stopped for his autograph by a number of young people,
and stood amongst them, chatting pleasantly, oblivious to the
chill breeze which came flowing down from the mountains.
He was taken with a cold, and the next day he was confined
to his bed. Acute bronchial catarrh set in, and this developed
into double pneumonia. Doctors and specialists were called
in; every expert care was given, but it was obvious that a
crisis must develop. On the night of June 1st, he suddenly
sat up in bed and sang the song which his old teacher, Josef
Drexler, had written for Raimund's Maiden from the Fairy
World:

soon its glory will dissolve in night!
Brother dear, O brother dear!
Our parting is so near, so near!"

On the night of June 3rd, his mind cleared, and he woke
to find Adele at his bedside. She said to him, "Sleep, my
dear/' "Oh, that I shall, whatever happens/' he replied.
Early in the afternoon, his face marked with the faintest
trace of a smile, he passed away.

It was an hour later when Vienna heard the news. Eduard
Kremser was conducting the Strauss Orchestra in the Yolks'
garten. They were playing a lively galop when a messenger
pressed into his hand a note bearing word of the master's

i 208

THE :LAST YEARS

death. Abruptly, he stopped the orchestra, and without an
nouncement began the haunting, nostalgic introduction to
An der schonen, "blauen Donau, muted and pianissimo. Every
one understood all Vienna knew of Strauss's illness. Heads
bowed, the audience paid homage to the Walts Ring with
their tears.

On June 6th, 1899, Johann Strauss was buried in the
Central Cemetery in Vienna. The funeral began early in the
afternoon from the Igelgasse palace. It took a course which
led past all those musical centers over which Strauss had
reigned for years: the Theater-an-der-Wien, the Hofopern-
theater, the Musikvereinsaal, and those great dance halls
which still remained. Thousands of people lined its passage.
Describing the scene, which he witnessed as a child, H. E.
Jacob said, "It was as if the gardens of Vienna were being
carried out to the Central Cemetery."

Aware of it or not, Vienna had double reason to mourn;
it was bidding adieu not only to one of its greatest and most
characteristic geniuses, but to an entire epoch as well. The
Strauss reign was ending. Josef had died; Eduard might be
a gifted conductor, but his talents in composition were in
ferior to those of younger men, led by Brans Lehar. The
younger composers were writing music in the Viennese tra
dition, it is true, but music tinged with cynicism. Gone were
the gay old days of pink champagne, gone was the' era of
Hapsburg brilliance, gone in fact was the Romantic Era. It
was a century that died, not a man.

A few days after the funeral, the Gesellschaft der Musik-
freunde gave a memorial performance of Brahms* Deutsches
Requiem in Strauss's honor.

There was but one discordant note the much-remarfced-
upon absence of the widow of Josef Strauss. Because no the
matic material was found among JosePs effects after his death,

Time

Eduard had foolishly and jealously accused Johann (fortU'
nately in private) of having pilfered his brother's store of
melodies. Did Karoline Strauss believe this? It would have been
most foolish. What could such an accusation mean, leveled
against a man who had proven, long before Josef's death,
that he was a bottomless well of melody, when the accusation
stemmed from a man who had to pilfer regularly from other
composers for his melodic material? Surely it was evident
that this accusation was jealously founded, especially when
one considers that the styles of the two brothers were quite
different.

A few years later, the famous Strauss memorial was erect
ed in the Stadtpark, near the little bandstand which has so
often resounded to his melodies. This was brought about by
the efforts of a committee headed, in Vienna, by Princess
Rosa CroySternberg, Rudolf Ritter von Lewicki, Max Kal-
beck, Siegfried Lowy, and Felix Weingartner, and, in Eng
land, by Professor Granville Bantock, Sir Edward Elgar, and
Sir Alexander Mackenzie. But no memorial of stone and
bronze can compare with his music in perpetuating the world
fame of Johann Strauss, the Walts King.

4 ,210 >

BOOK III

THE END
OF A DYNASTY

JOSEF STRAUSS

IF THE younger Johann Strauss sorely taxed the hairtrigger
patience of his stubborn father in his own stubborn deter
mination to become a professional musician, young Josef was
his father's delight in his ready acquiescence to all that the
elder Johann wished for him.

It was not an act of passive submission; Pepi was by nature
shy and retiring. The merciless limelight of public acclaim
which beat upon his father repelled him, and made him saris'
fied to accede to the elder Strauss's wish that he study for
some other profession. Although he never acquired Johann's
proficiency as a violinist, and was always more at ease on a
piano bench, he loved music with equal passion, and was
every bit as fine a musician as his brother. But whereas
Schani spent every waking moment in dreams of his own or'
chestra, Pepi's retiring nature led him to consider music as
an art for home enjoyment. He did not consider the atmos"
phere of the concert hall conducive to true musical enjoy-'
ment, either from the standpoint of the performer or of the
listener. He was known to have made many disparaging re'
marks about conductors in general and dance conductors in
particular, with especial emphasis on the dbb"State of their
mental level

The Revolution of 1848 found Pepi still a student at the
Wiener Hcdi'Sdiule; he left school to Join a student regi'

20 *

Three-quarter Time

ment and shoulder a gun. His uniform, in which he took
great pride, nearly caused the death of his mother, his young"
er brother and his sisters. All were at home when Jellacic's
victorious army of Poles, loaned to the Austrian Emperor by
the Csar, entered Vienna and began to search homes for
rebels. The Hirschenhaus received a visit in due time. Had it
not been for the ingenuity of Anna Strauss, who hid the uni
form and two rifles (one belonged to Johann) out of sight in
the chimney flue, where the search-party failed to look, all of
them would have been summarily shot. When life resumed
its habitual routine under Austria's new Emperor, Josef
doffed his regimental dress for the more pacific uniform of a
Hoch-Schule classman. He received his diploma as engineer
and architect, and was thoroughly happy in his work, finding
in music nothing more than a relaxing avocation.

If he repudiated music as a career for himself, he did take
tremendous pride in Schani's activities. Unlike his elder
brother, who slept soundly through the night preceding his de
but, Pepi tossed and turned, agonised with fears that his be
loved brother would not be well received. Holding little Edi by
the hand, he followed in the wake of those who escorted
Schani home in triumph, with his heart and mind so in the
stars that in later years he could give no coherent account of
how he made the journey from the Dommayerbau to the
Hirschenhaus.

But for chance, he would never have become a profes
sional musician. As with his father before him, Schani fell
prey to the terrific pace which this life demanded of him.
It was inhuman: an afternoon rehearsal, time for a little
work in composition (not merely the tune itself, but the
complete orchestration!), a snatch of supper, the evening's
concert or ball, perhaps a bit more composition before all<too-
few hours of sleep, and, da capo, the whole schedule over

214

JOSEF STRAUSS

again. And into this routine must be found time to squeeze
visits to publishers, interviews with the press, and the myriad
other details which plague all celebrities. The amazing thing
is that he withstood this grueling pace as long as he did. It
finally took its toll; without warning, he suffered a complete
nervous collapse. Further work in any form was out of the
question. Relaxation, a change of scenery, regular meals and
hours, new stimuli; these were the order of the day.

However simple it might be for a doctor to make this
sane prescription, there could be no cure until Schani knew
someone competent could be persuaded to take over the or'
chestra and lead it through the engagements which had been
made for months ahead. There was only Josef to whom he
could turn. Pepi was now a young man of twentyfive, sound"
ly educated in music, and equipped, as Schani realised bet"
ter than Pepi himself, with great talent in composition. Edi
was still too young only seventeen. It was one thing for his
eldest brother to have made his own debut at a mere nine"
teen. Schani had then been directing an unknown orchestra;
the Strauss Orchestra was a different matter. It already knew
twenty-eight years of unbroken existence, nor was it any
longer a small group of less than twenty players, such as that
with which both father and son had made their starts. In 1852,
it counted some fifty regular players and a reserve force four
times that number; as such, it was equal to most symphony
orchestras of the day. In quality, discipline, and proficiency,
it could hold its own with any contemporary group. Such an
orchestra was not to be placed in the hands of a young man
of seventeen, even though he was a Strauss. Johann and his
mother knew this, as did Josef. Yet he persisted in making
difficulties, even though he knew he must finally give in. He
made one condition: as soon as circumstances would per'

Three-quarter Time

mit, Schani was to return to his orchestra, and Pepi to his
draughtsman's board.

Josef was justly proud of his reputation as engineer and
architect. Upon graduation from the Polytechnik School, he
had entered the services of the Municipal Architect. Even'
tually he went into business for himself; the following year
he built, at Trunau, a large waterworks, and he was later ap"
pointed Chief Engineer of a spinning-factory. He was an in"
ventor as well, taking out patents on various mechanical
devices, one of which was a street'cleaning machine which
was put to use by the city of Vienna.

Josef was securely established in his profession. He was
naturally loath to exchange this charted existence for the un"
certainties of a musician's life. Finally, there existed another
genuine difficulty he was not a violinist. Today this would
mean nothing; a dance leader may play any instrument, or
none at all, and the symphonic conductor is expected to use
only a baton. But conducting with a baton was still a novelty
in that day; a practice which was still young in symphonic
performance, it was unknown in the dance world. Josefs ar
gument was that he did not have time to fill the gaps of his
musical education, that he could not give up his work for
six or eight months. Sometimes he would say that he did not
have the talent; then Schani, lying pale against the sheets,
would look up at him and comment, "You are the most tat*
ented of us all!" Human nature being what it is, it was this
argument which finally won Josef over.

Together with his aunt, Josephine Weber, Schani left for
the quiet resort town of Neuhaus-Oilli, and later for livelier
Bad Gastein, while Pepi threw himself into studies in a head"
long effort to prepare himself for his new duties. Never hav
ing attempted composition, he concentrated on this and on
theory, which he studied with Professor Doleschal, one of

4 216 V

JOSEF STRAUSS

Schani's old teachers. He even took violin lessons from old
Amon, yet Pepi never brought himself to conduct with the
violin, and adopted the baton. On the stand, when he made
his debut on July 23rd, 1853, Josef appeared restrained in his
movements, and a little gauche. Yet far from displeasing a
public accustomed to the exuberance of the two Johanns, he
attracted them by contrast. As a conductor, he was most suc-
cessful, and to him must go the credit for first introducing to
the dance orchestra that technique of conducting which hith
erto had been limited to symphonic bodies. Even Schani, in
later years, modeled his manner on the stand after that of
his favorite brother, at the last abandoning the violin entirely
for the baton.

If Josef made the adjustment to the role of conductor
without great trouble, he rebelled for some time against com'
position, which came to him with extreme difficulty. There is
evidence of this in his first published work, which he called
Die Ersten und Letzten (The First and Last). Of the ten com
positions which followed, only one is a waits;; six polkas and
three quadrilles, which he no doubt found simpler to write,
make up the balance. With his Opus 12, a comic hint of weak
ening resistance appears, for this waltz; is called Die Ersten
nach dem Letzten (The First after the Last). By the time
Schani had recovered, Pepi had thrown himself into a life of
music with complete enthusiasm, and gone were all his plans
for becoming a great architect. It was Schani who first per
ceived it. He saw history repeating itself; once more there
would be not one, but two Strausses. This pleased him, for
there would not be the rivalry and coldness which had existed
between father and son, but a warm understanding between
two brothers who, although completely different in character,
had grown up together in the bonds of a deep affection.

What ensued is almost past understanding. Suddenly, from

i 217 f

Three-quarter Time

this diffident man who had complained about the writing of
one composition, there gushed a geyser of music. One after
another the compositions came, as facilely as though Josef's
fecund brother had composed them. Schani had stated only
the bare truth when he said that Josef's talent was great.
With the elder Johann, composition had been the outgrowth
of a determination to succeed .in a chosen field; in the young"
er Johann, composition was a necessary function of life, as
natural and inevitable as eating or sleeping. In Josef, com'
position resulted involuntarily, against the man's own inten
tions. Yet in the comparatively short life granted him, he
wrote as much music as either his father or Eduard, and often
of a quality equal to that of his more illustrious brother Jo
hann. There has been nowhere in the Stauss family such a
confusion of identities as between Johann and Josef; one con
tinually find's Josefs Dorfschwalben, Dynamiden, Delirien,
Flattergeister and Spharerikldnge Waltzes appearing on pro
grams under his brother's name*

The photographs of Josef at this period reveal a young
man bearing a closer resemblance to Lisst than he does to any
member of his own family. Beneath long hair, parted in the
middle and flowing down along the cheeks almost to the neck,
two large and serious eyes gase upon the world with an ex
pression of sorrow that borders on disenchantment. Josef was
the idealist par excellence; the edges of everyday life must
have laid their mark upon him. He was as antisocial as a Vien
nese could be; a strange attitude for one of the leading citizens
of a city noted for its warmth and friendliness. He was an in
trovert, seeking quiet and solitude, in a family of exuberant
extroverts. His character finds voice in a long letter, written
to his father when he was still in his teens, which reveals amas"
ing maturity of thought. The elder Strauss at this time wished
to make an army officer of him. Josef appealed to his father

218

JOSEF STRAUSS

to recognise how unsui ted he was to a military life. Two para"
graphs vividly reveal the introspective nature that was Josef
Strauss.

"Leave me where I am; leave me as I am. Do not seek to
tear me from a life that may bring me joy, a life full of satis-
faction. Do not cast me into that rough, inconstant world
which destroys all feeling for humanity, a world for which I
am not fitted, to which I was not born.

"I do not wish to learn to kill people, do not want to be
honored by high military rank for having hunted human be
ings; I want to be useful to mankind as a human being, and
to the State as a citizen. If I can do this, then I shall give in
nermost thanks and live my days in peace and happiness."*

Josef's service in the student regiment may seem at odd
variance with his words. In fact it was no more than a pro
jection of them into actual practice. Against any encroach
ment on the rights of free speech, thought, or action, within
the bounds of democratic propriety, he was willing and ready
to fight. He was the exemplary citizen, the true democrat,
peaceful in all his ways, but willing to sacrifice life itself in
the protection of those common rights which give life its
meaning.

Josef's melancholy countenance finds its parallel in his

* Lassen Sie mich dock, wo ich bin; lassen Sie mich, was idfo bin. En-
treissen Sie mich nicht einem Leben, das mir mannigfaltige Freuden
bringen kann, einem Leben vott Zufriedenheit, einem Stande, der auch
die Achtung sich gewinnen macht* Stossen Sie mich nicht in fenes tm-
stdte, rauhe, alien Sinn fur MenschLiche zerstorende Treiben hinaus, ztu,
dem ich mcht tauge, zu dem ich nicht geboren bin.

Ich imll nicht Menschen todten lernen > wiU nicht durch Jddgemachen
auf Menschleben ausgezeichnet w&rden mit einem mttitarisch hoheren
Rangy ich wiU den Menschen nutzen ah Mensch und dem Stoat als
Btirger. Kann ich das, dann sagt mir mein Inneres Dank dafiir und ich
werde in Ruhe meine Tage verleben und gliickLich sein.

Time

music. Where his father and brother wrote music of incom
parable lightness and gaiety, shot through and through with
sunlight and laughter, Josef wrote music in a minor key.
There are moments when his music could be as cheerful as
anything by the Johanns, as in Dorfschwalben, but in the main
it reflects his dark and reticent nature.

Josef married in 1857, six years before Schanfs marriage
to Jetty in 1863. His bride was Karoline Pruckmayr, a Vien
nese girl of middle-class family. On March 27th, 1863, their
only child was born a daughter, named Karoline for her
mother. This marriage was blessed with joy throughout its
entire course; simple, forthright, Burgerlich, and filled with a
rich sense of full living. Unlike Johann, who quit the family
circle to establish his own home in a fashionable suburb whose
rarefied air knew nothing of the bonhommic of the Hirschen-
haus, Josef brought his bride to that old building, taking an
apartment next to that which his mother still maintained.

One of the difficulties facing a biographer of Josef Strauss
is the paucity of interesting material dealing with his life. It
has been said that in biography the happiest life is the dullest.
So with Josef Strauss; what remains today is largely the bare
statement of a life lived at an even tenor, and a straightfor
ward chronicle of the music which he composed.

MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

Dorfschwalben aus Osterreich is to Josef what An der schon'
en, blauen Donau is to Johann. Both are atmospheric impres
sions of the Austria the brothers loved so deeply, and each
marks the beginning of the best period in its composer's life,
The introductory measures to Dorfschwalben are of a pas'
toral character, a mise-en'scene. With the first wait?, the
swallows appear, winging their way in a characteristic swoop'
ing flight which the music suggests superbly:

i j i i i p" i j i 1 1 i" [*j i p" i r < * '

Then, as happens when swallows fly low between build'
ings and trees, the flight becomes erratic; the birds turn and
flash in and out through sunlight and shade. Note the
swooping effect of the last three notes of this phrase, marked
"A," and the chirruping effect of the grace notes which be'
gin it:

{ 221

Time

The second half of the first waltz introduces a Landler,
that primitive form of the elegant waltz, as a delineation of
the village itself:

The swallows reappear in the opening of the second waltz,
flitting rapidly up and down in their peculiarly rhythmic
flight:

The third waltz introduces a second Landler, heavily
cented on the first beat. The fourth is a melody in broken
thirds, such as is typical of Tyrolean folk tunes. A fifth waltz
follows, with prominent arpeggios, and then the coda begins,
recapitulating the waltzes and effecting a return to the intro
ductory measures as a means of rounding off the whole.

Another fine waltz appeared shortly after Dorfschwalben.
Although not the equal of its predecessor, it is still insuffi'
ciently known today. This is the Geheimne Anziehungstyrdfte,
more simply known as the Dynamiden Waltzes, Op. 173.
With its tender opening melody, delicate and without the
sensuality that lies in Johannes themes, it is reminiscent of
Schubert indeed, Josef has been termed "the Schubert of
the Waltz." His long, beautifully balanced melodies are

222

MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

like any which his father or Eduard wrote, nor are they of
ten like Johann's; they contain an elegiac strain which is
unique.

One of Josefs most magical scores is that to the Spharen'
tydnge; Op. 235. It is quite unlike any other set of waltzes,
and to its individual tones no better title could have been fit'
ted. It opens with an introduction for harp and tremolo
strings, lento. The harp continues its liquid arpeggios into the
first waltz;, while the strings lead with the theme:

A variation is heard, in the manner of Johann's Morgen-
blatter and Accelerationen:

A lively passage, staccato, and then the second waits ap
pears. In it is this gay moment, as lively as anything by Jo-
hann:

p * i *' f p wp^ r 6 ?

Three-quarter Time

Then the third waltz, a typical Strauss theme, common to
all the family:

The fourth waits offers this amazing and wonderful
thought, almost a variation on the first waltz :

The usual recapitulation completes the work.

THE Aquardlen Waltzes, Op. 258, are yet another of
Josef Strauss's fine waltz sets. The introduction, of filmy tex
ture, and reminiscent of Johann's opening measures to Wo
die Zitronen bluh'n, gives way to an energetic, exuberant
waltz, suggesting the styles of the elder Johann and Eduard;
this, in turn, is replaced by the tender melody whose uptwists
of phrasing cast yet another glance at Johann. But the lan
guorous waltz which follows, with its subtle tinge of melan
choly, could belong only to Josef. Even the succeeding gay
moments are solely his; their style partakes almost of the bal
let. Exclusively Josefs, too, is the handling in waltz-time of
the melody of the introduction. The waltzes close with a final
return of the opening waltz-theme, and an enlarged working
of the introduction.

224

MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

It was at this time that Anna Strauss passed away. Al
though Johann was grief-stricken, it was still Josef who felt
her loss most keenly. Johann had basked in the adulation of
the successful, eldest child; Josef, less glamorous, quiet and
retiring, almost taken for granted by his mother, had loved
her the more deeply, perhaps, in part, because of her calm ac"
ceptance of him, certainly because of the ties which had
bound them together in the Hirschenhaus. Only once had he
been near to leaving the old building; this was when he was
making his last Russian tour. At the height of the tour, Edu'
ard, in a moment of pique because he had never had an op'
portunity to take the orchestra through Russia, suddenly de'
cided to make a tour of his own, leaving unfulfilled the en'
gagements which the Strausses had made in Vienna, and inv
periling Josefs venture by establishing competition against it
from within. It was under these circumstances that Josef
wrote his wife that she was to leave the Hirschenhaus, and
make a home for them elsewhere, unless Eduard immediately
abandoned his plan. Nervous and hypersensitive like his
father, Josef had had enough of the internal strife in which
Eduard had for so long been the principal protagonist. Al'
though he was extremely fond of his younger brother, he felt
he could no longer endure the petty squabbles which Eduard
constantly fostered. At the insistence of Johann and Karoline,
Eduard finally capitulated, and Josefs threatened move never
took place. . . .

ON APRIL 17th, 1870, Josef Strauss gave his final concert
of the season in Vienna in the hall of the Gesellsdhtaft der
Musikfreunde, preparatory to his departure for a tour of
Poland. He gave the following program:

Time

Overture to the Opera Jeanne d'Arc RAI,FE

Pro und Contra, Polka E. STRAUSS

J^ilfluten, Waltzes Jos. STRAUSS
Romance and Chorus from U Africana MEYERBEER

Die Emanzipierte, Polka-Masurka Jos. STRAUSS

Aria from the Missa Solemnis ROSSINI
>Jen Wien, Waltzes JOH. STRAUSS II
Egyptischer Marsch JOH. STRAUSS II

Frauenwurde, Waltzes Jos. STRAUSS

Banditten, Quadrille E. STRAUSS

Moment Musical SCHUBERT

Heitere Mut, Polka'Franaise Jos. STRAUSS

Stempelfrei, Polka-Frangaise E. STRAUSS

Fatigued, Josef bade the enthusiastic audience farewell.
Arrived in Warsaw, difficulties arose at once. A number of
the musicians had been delayed and could not enter Poland
to take part in the concert. Josef wired in haste for replace'
ments, culled from the list of musicians which the Strausses
kept under contract. These men arrived promptly, and with
extra rehearsals it was possible to begin the concerts on the
appointed day. For three days, all went well.

During the rehearsals for the fourth concert, a violinist
failed repeatedly to make his entrance in a certain passage
correctly. After several attempts, during which Josefs nerves
seemed to be roused to an unusual state of tension, it was de
cided to cut the passage and effect an entrance further on.
During the concert, the violinist forgot the change and threw
his section into confusion; some attempted to follow his lead,
others followed instructions and made the later entrance.
Unable to control the growing confusion, and seemingly
without proper control over himself, Josef fainted and, roll
ing across the platform, fell down a short flight of steps into

4 226 V

MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

the hall. Bleeding profusely from nose and mouth, and with
a bad wound in the back of his head, he was pronounced to
be suffering from a severe concussion. Johann immediately
entrained for Warsaw. When he arrived, Josef was fully con
scious, but still in danger, although a gradual improvement
had begun to take place.

Meanwhile a new contract had been drawn up on July
9th, whereby Johann and Josef together leased the Schweizer-
tals from Wlodowsky, the proprietor, until the first of Sep
tember, for the sum of three thousand rubles. There was at
no time any thought that Josef himself would be sufficiently
recovered to conduct; his condition, which had shown marked
improvement after the first shock, -was retrogressing, and the
doctors now feared that some as yet undetermined ailment
was responsible for his prostration.

At first Johann conducted in his brother's stead. But his
anxiety and his other duties made it impossible for him to con
tinue, and he was succeeded first by Gustav Garlberg, and
later by Philip Fahrbach, who directed the concerts until the
close of the Warsaw engagement. Meanwhile, laboring under
great difficulties, for travel in 1870 was not the simple mat
ter of railroad and airline timetables which it is today, JCK
hann and Karoline brought the now-dying Josef back to Vien
na.

When he was examined by a trio of specialists, their con"
certed opinion was that his condition was the result of the
bursting of an old brain tumor. There was nothing they
could do, no hope that they could give. A few days later, on
July 22nd, Josef found relief from his torture, and breathed
his last. He was only forty-three years old two years young
er than his father had been when he died in 1849.

A strange legend grew out of his death. As he lay ill in
Warsaw, it was rumored that he had been brutally beaten by

4 227 }>

Time

Cossack officers for having refused to play a composition
they- had requested. This story, still current today, has per
sisted because it is founded on a half-truth. As Josef was con
ducting in the Schweisertals, four Russian lieutenants, each
with a lively demimondaine on his arm, were attempting to
enter the hall through the adjoining garden. Having no tick
ets, they sought to force an entrance. Since the concert had
already begun, the ticket collector, Strousa, refused them ad
mittance, and warned that he would call the police if they
were not quiet. Incensed, one of the lieutenants struck Strou-
3a over the head with his sword. When the police arrived,
the officers and their friends had escaped, and Strousa was ly
ing in a pool of blood.

The coincidence between the names Strauss and Strou^a,
the similarity between their wounds, and inaccurate news
paper reporting, gave rise to the story which has persisted to
this day. It was lent credence by a population filled with
hatred for their Russian overlords. The Russian nobility, for
years the hosts and staunch friends of the Strausses during
their Russian tours, found themselves in a most embarrassing
situation. The Grand Duke Constantine, the Governor of
Poland, was most distressed of all a noted amateur musi
cian, he had even, on occasion, played in the Strauss Orches
tra at Pavlovsk under Johann's baton. At the express request
of the Grand Duke and Johann, the Austrian Consul Gen
eral in Warsaw officially denied the veracity of the rumors,
but they would not die. The temper of oppressed peoples,
Polish and Russian, saw to that.

228

EDUARD STRAUSS

LIKE Johann, Eduard had been drawn to music from his ear'
liest days, but whereas Johann was impelled by an irresistible
creative urge, Eduard was attracted by the fame and glamor
attached to the position of conductor of so famous an orches'
tra as that of his illustrious brother. Again, whereas Johann, at
the first opportunity, withdrew from regular direction of the
orchestra in order to compose, Eduard took to writing with
little grace. He wrote because he had to; because original com'
positions were demanded of a dance orchestra leader by the
waltzing world of the day, as a measure of his ability. Mel'
ody was not native to him, and although he wrote some
music of genuine loveliness, such as his Doctrinen V/altzes,
he was often compelled to resort to the timeworn device of
drawing upon other men's works for melodic material When
we raise a hue and cry today because our dance music is pil
fered from Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Grieg or Schubert, we for'
get that a precedent had been set well over a century ago.
Walts composers before Lanner were adapting the tunes of
Mosart, Haydn, and even Lully and Rameau, to waits rhythm.
Of the first twenty-five of Eduard's published works, no
fewer than six are based upon the melodies of other com'
posers. Typical are the Lieder\ranz Quadrille, Op. 23, on
melodies from Schubert's songs, and the Vie Parisienne
Quadrille, Op. 24, on themes from Offenbach's operetta.

i 229 >

Three-quarter Time

In the years of their youth, Josefs influence upon Eduard
is not to be underestimated. Josef, firm in his distaste for the
adulation given waits conductors, was able to persuade his
young brother to set aside all thought of a musical career. It
was at first decided, therefore, that Edi would train for the
diplomatic service. There could hardly have been a better
choice for him, and, had he chosen this field, he would surely
have been most successful. Tactful, suave, gifted with that
rare ability to smooth over the most difficult moments, and
persuasive to an unusual degree, he would have made a mark
in the world of international diplomacy. As it was, these
traits stood him in good stead when he came to direct the
Strauss Orchestra, for he was able to draw more from the
men than his brothers or his father before him.

At the Gymnasium and later at the Hodi-Schule, he fol
lowed a course of study which was designed to prepare him
for his chosen career. As with Josef, whose ideas he slavishly
copied, music became for him an important avocation. He
developed into an excellent pianist, and even studied harp
with Zamara.

Two events diverted him from the diplomatic service. The
first was Schani's illness, which occasioned a complete change
in Josef's attitude towards music. As a result, the love of
music which Eduard felt in common with his whole family,
no longer repressed, led him to devote himself exclusively to
the art. The second event was Schanf s retirement from the
orchestra in favor of Josef. This meant that someone else
would have to share the duties of direction, which were now
too arduous for one man. Eduard prepared himself for this
by studying composition with Gottfried von Preyer.

His training completed, Eduard made his debut as conduc
tor of one of the Strauss orchestras on February 5th, 1859,
appearing for the first time in the Dianasaal. Two other or'

EDUARB STRAUSS

:hestras played in the same hall that night, alternating with
me another, one under Johann, the other under Josef. As the
inal work of the evening, all three orchestras joined in play
ng a galop, simultaneously.

It was apparent from the first that in Eduard the orchestra
lad found its natural leader. Had Johann tried, he might
lave achieved more than his young brother, for the men
worshiped his genius and perceived the lack of it in Eduard.
Fhe younger man, conscious of the limitations of his creative
rifts, bent his energies to conducting. With Johann, the or'
rhestra was of importance only because of its earning power,
tfhich had made it, for a long time, the main support of the
amily, and because it was the medium whereby the world
night hear his compositions. With Eduard, the orchestra was
e tout pour tout; all began and ended with it, and compost
:ions were merely the means of allowing it to be heard.

Eduard's popularity with the Viennese rivaled that of Jo'
lann, and even surpassed that of the somber Josef before his
Jeath. Indeed, his popularity grew to such proportions that
[ohann repeatedly introduced himself to strangers by saying,
'I am Edi's brother." As Johann withdrew from public appear"
mces, the burden of directing the orchestra after Josefs
leath rested exclusively with Eduard. It was he whom the
Viennese knew best as conductor in the last three decades of
iie Nineteenth Century, but their deepest affection was still
reserved for their never-paging Johann. It was this unvoiced*
preference for Johann, the ten-year difference in age between
he brothers, and the galling knowledge that in the last anal"
psis it was Schani who was the greatest, that made Eduard
jo unnaturally envious.

Josef's death brought Eduard yet another honor, for the
post of KomgBch und Kaiserlich Hofballmusikdirefctor again
3ecame vacant. In one sense, it carried a special honor, for

i 231 >

TTiree-^uarter Time

Eduard was the fourth Strauss to be given this mark of dis-
tinction. Since Lanner's death, it had passed directly from
one member of the Strauss family to the next. No wonder
that the Viennese said that the Strausses ruled Austria-Hun
gary jointly with the Hapsburgs!

Under Eduard's persuasive but inexorable training, the
orchestra reached a level of proficiency which it had never
previously known. Composers and critics of the time com-
mented on its amazing virtuosity. The music critic of the
Berliner BoYse-Kurrier compared the Berlin Philharmonic to
the Strauss Orchestra, to the latter's advantage. Meyerbeer
was lavish in his praise, as was Richard Wagner. Praise from
Wagner was especially significant, for he was one of the first
of the modern dynasty of conductors; it was he who first es
tablished many of the fundamentals by which the modern
conductor is guided. Whatever his fantastic instructions on
how to conduct some works, there is no question but that,
like Berlioz, he exerted a tremendous influence on the per
formance of symphonic music as we hear it today.

It was in 1873 that the ill will between the two brothers,
engendered solely by Eduard's jealousy, flared for the first
time into open conflict. This was provoked by the question
of what orchestras were to be used in the concerts of the
Vienna International Exhibition. Eduard knew that all musi
cal honors would devolve upon Johann, and he hoped that the
musical directorate of the Exhibition (which included Jo
hann) would engage the Strauss Orchestra for Johann to
conduct. Eduard was enraged that, when the Langenbach
Orchestra was selected, Johann made little or no effort to
influence a change in favor of his own musicians. Eduard's
anger was purely selfish. Of course, the engagement of the
orchestra would have meant an increase in the family's in
come, but this was merely the excuse for Eduard's spleen;

EDUARD STRAUSS

his real motive was that he knew Johann had no intention of
directing all the scheduled concerts. Therefore, if the Strauss
Orchestra were engaged, Eduard would automatically have
a prominent part in the concerts.

Johann constantly fought this ill will. For years he denied
its existence, and it was not until he was an old man that he
finally mentioned it in a letter. "You always look on the
gloomy side of things you are ever thinking that I mean to
harm you. Will you finally stop letting off steam in this fool"
ish way how old must you be before you can understand
that your brother is not your enemy? You are old I am ten
years older; if we live for a thousand years, you will ever
have some cause for complaint. At times our relationship has
been endangered by your personal ambition, and still I have
never denied the fraternal feeling which I have always had
for you. Au fond du coeur, I have always remained the same
to you as I was at the start of your musical career. There
fore, dear Eduard, put an end to these reproaches that I have
acted in an unfraternal manner. If you care to think very far
back, you will change your mind."

If Eduard chewed his fingernails in '72 and *73 because of
Johann's fabulous success on his American tour, and his im'
portant position at the Exhibition, he found an opportunity
to sate his vanity and ambition in 1885, when he brought the
Strauss Orchestra to London to direct the musical activities
at the South Kensington Exposition. During the course of his
duties there, he was introduced to Queen Victoria. Faced
with this handsome, dynamic man, the aging Queen recalled
that distant day when his father had officiated at her Cony
nation festivities. "You remind me of your father/' she said.
"It seems like yesterday that he played at my Coronation
Ball. I remember the pieces; could you pky some of them?"

4 233 )-

Three-quarter Time

Honors and decorations from many lands came to him; he
was Commander, Knight, and Officer of at least a dosen or
ders of the different sovereigns of Europe.

Queen Victoria had not been wrong when she said that
Eduard reminded her of his father. The two were much alike
in temperament; this is reflected in their music. It is typi
fied in the younger man's Doctrinen Waltzes, Op. 79, which
resembles the father's music in a number of respects, notably
in the characteristic rhythm of the first waits. Like the waltzes
of the father, it is jerky and short-breathed, its thematic ma
terial thinly related to that which follows. It is a waits of
charm and considerable grace, but it never aspires to that
integrated homogeneity which elevates the best waltzes of
Johann from the ballroom to the concert hall.

EDUARD'S marriage in 1864 gave him two sons. His first-born
he named Johann, in memory of his father; the second, Josef,
for his brother, then still alive. Johann III, the selfsame Jo
hann who directed the various recordings listed at the end of
this book, was born on February 16th, 1866. His younger
brother, Josef II, who was born two and a half years later,
on September 20th, 1868, took little part in the world of
music.

Eduard's family life was not unlike that of the first Jo
hann, especially with regard to his sons. Differences were fre
quent, and grew more violent with the passing years, as both
sons showed an interest in music'. With the example of his
own father before him, it is strange that Eduard, for the
third time in Strauss history, should have opposed a musical
life for his sons. Alter the course of musical events, he could
not. One son made no name in music, perhaps because of his
father's efforts, but the other had his way, ...

4 234 >

EDUARD STRAUSS

IT SHOULD NOT be assumed that the concerts of the Strauss
Orchestra were devoted only to the compositions of the
Strausses. From the first, long ago in the days of Johann the
Elder, the concerts of the orchestra (a different matter from
dance soirees) were noted for the inclusion of music by von
Weber, Beethoven, Mozart, Gluck even Bach. It should
be remembered that the first performance in Vienna of Wag'
ner's "impossible" music to Tristan und Isolde was at a
Strauss Orchestra Volksgarten concert under Johann II. Un
der Johann II, Josef and Eduard, these concerts retained the
music of the old masters, and added to them many of the
works of the great Romantics. A typical program is this one,
given in Munich under Eduard:

I

Overture to the opera If I Were King ADAM

Doctrinen Waltzes, Op. 79 E. STRAUSS

Suite from the opera Carmen BIZET

Wild/ewer Pol\a J. STRAUSS II

II

Operetta Potpourri SCHMID

On Wings of Song arr. E. Strauss MENDELSSOHN
Serenade SCHUBERT

G'schichten aus dem Wiener \Vald Waltzes

J. STRAUSS II

HI

Les Colombes Entr'Acte GOUNOD

Alpenrose Polka-Masurka Jos. STRAUSS

Goldelse Gavotte arr. E. Strauss FUCHS

Mit Dampf! Schndlpolka E. STRAUSS

Time

It was at this time that the phonograph first entered the
history of the Strausses. During a visit to Europe, in the
course of which he had made a number of recordings on his
new invention, Thomas A. Edison arrived in Vienna. What
took place was recounted by the Vienna correspondent of
the London Daily l^ews.

"It was Mr. Edison's express desire to have some of
Strauss's waltzes, as being among the most characteristic
products of Vienna, recorded on the phonograph. Accord'
ingly, the phonograph was taken to the music hall yester
day, where Herr Eduard and his famous band were wait"
ing. When the enormous funnel had been adjusted, and
everything was waiting, the band struck up By the Beau'
tiful, Blue Danube. Musicians and conductor seemed to be
fully aware that they were playing not only to the world,
but for posterity."

This record, made under primitive conditions and on a
machine totally incapable of capturing the commonest nu'
ances of orchestral tone, would be of little interest in terms
of listening pleasure today; but as an example of how the
Strausses themselves played their own music, it would be of
immense value. *

236 >

AMERICA AGAIN

IT WAS in 1890 that Eduard retraced Johann's path across the
Atlantic to the rich shores of America, a tour which was
brought about through the efforts of 2. Blakely, a former
government official who operated an artists' management
bureau. Blakely had heard Johann conduct in Boston, and his
enthusiasm for the Walts; King's music gave him the idea of
bringing to America not only Eduard Strauss (since Johann
would, under no condition, consent to another such journey),
but the entire Strauss Orchestra as well. Blakely traveled to
Germany in the summer of 1889, to meet Eduard and discuss
arrangements for the tour.

It was not until Blakely had returned to America and it
was almost time for the orchestra to set sail that obstacles
appeared. The New York Musicians' Union invoked the
Alien Contract Labor Law in order to keep out an orchestra
which they knew to be superior to all save two or three
American symphony orchestras.

The Alien Contract Labor Law had been enacted in order
to keep within bounds the influx of unskilled workers; it was
a fantastic insult to invoke it against the Strauss Orchestra.
Fortunately, a number of prominent Americans vouched for
the quality of the orchestra, and their recommendations later
had a large part in voiding the claims of the Musicians* Union.
Among those who wrote the State Department in this

i 237 > '

Three'Quarter Time

ter were Chauncey M. Depew, General William M. Sher-
man, the impresario P. S. Gilmore, and William Steinway.
Henri Watterman, editor of the Louisville Journal, pub
lished some biting editorial comment on this subject:

"The question properly is this: Are the musicians who
have been trained for years by the most celebrated conduc
tors in the world sufficiently skilled in their art to entitle
them to rank with actors and lecturers of indifferent abil
ity, who are included in the favorite class and exempt from
the law? Strauss's Orchestra is world famous, and has been
for more than half a century. What possible construction
of the Alien Contract Labor Law could be used against
such an organisation?"

The State Department eventually reached the only logical
conclusion, but its hemming and hawing was mainly respon
sible for Eduard's decision to employ a makeshift orchestra
when he made his final visit to the United States some ten
years later. The first tour began in New York in May, 1890.
It led a merry chase through no less than seventy-three cities,
until the exhausted players and conductor embarked for the
relative sanity of Europe's shores.

During the tour, in a strange land where he would be ex
pected to feature not only the Strauss Orchestra, but also
the famous Strauss compositions, Eduard's programs contain
more Strauss music than was customary in Europe. The open
ing Boston concert is typical:

I

Der Lustige Krieg Overture J. STRAUSS II

Duet from Der Fliegende Hollander RICHARD WAGNER
Life in America Waltzes

(1st Performance; Dedicated to the people of America)

E. STRAUSS

AMERICA AGAIN

Chromatique Galop FRANZ LISZT

The Phonograph Polka-Fran^aise E. STRAUSS

Suite from the opera Carmen GEORGES BIZET

II

Overture to the comic opera Die Fledermaus

]. STRAUSS II

Kaiserwalzer J. STRAUSS II

Barcarolle Orientate E. STRAUSS

Aus dem schlesischen Bergen Waltees E. STRAUSS
Evening Prayer from Maiden Songs REINECKE

In the Whirl Schnellpolka J. STRAUSS

Four thousand miles is admittedly a considerable distance,
yet it is surprising that the Americans could have been so
completely confused as to the proper identity and chronology
of the Strausses. Only eighteen years after Johann had vis
ited America, Blakely issued the following muddled state
ment in his announcement of the Strauss Orchestra's Amer"
ican tour: ". . . . the peerless Strauss Orchestra of Vienna,
which has been under the leadership of the famous Strauss
family of walts-composers; Joseph the father, and Joseph, Jo"
harm and Eduard, the sons, for more than forty years."
Among the other errors, the Strauss Orchestra was at this
time sixty-six years old, making it older than any American
orchestra.

When Eduard returned to Vienna with pockets stuffed
with American dollars, he was interviewed by the leading
Viennese journalists. Their articles were edited and wired
to America by certain corresponds^ of American newspa"
pers, who in doing so distotted Eduard's original statements
to such an extent that they conveyed a meaning not at all
complimentary f lb the United States. The resultant furor

219

Three-quarter Time

placed him in an awkward position. He certainly never made
the tactless remarks of which he was accused; trained for a
diplomatic career, he would never have given vent to opin
ions of this sort in a public interview, whether he held them
or not. The tempest in a teapot became so annoying that he
wrote a long letter to the Wiener Tdgeblatt, recounting his
impressions of the United States. This was published on Feb-
ruary 3rd, 1891, and was widely circulated throughout
America, where it quieted the indignation. Although some
of his comments sting, their barbs are tipped with painful
honesty, and not with malice, as the following extracts show:
"North America can boast of many good symphony or
chestras, especially that of the Philharmonic-Society under
Walter Damrosch; of the Metropolitan Opera House un
der Anton Seidl; and also the Boston Symphony Orches
tra under Nikisch.

"The middle-class throng the concert hall, where the
workingmen are also represented, particularly on a Sun
day, when they express their appreciation of Beethoven, as
well as the taking rhythms of the waits. In Europe this is,
sad to say, not always the case. , . .

"But what would the European traveler say if our rail
way servants behaved as they do in America? Their meth
od is peculiar. They are likely to ask for your ticket by a
dap on the shoulder, walk with hands on their hips, hustle
through the train, and even seat themselves familiarly be
side the passenger.

"One cannot advise travel in Europe too strongly for
Mr. Vanderbilt!

"The temperance towns are highly surprising to a for
eigner. ... the whole place seems to die out at seven
o'clock, after the closing of the stores. The teetotaler visits

240

AMERICA AGAIN

neither the theater nor concerts, and 'twere a sin for one
of his children to learn to dance.

"In some cities, such as Springfield, Ohio (not a tem
perance locality), the Lutheran and Calvinist ministers
preached against such concerts, and the congregation lis
tened and allowed this tyranny. . . .

"And now I have perhaps given the readers as good an
idea of American life, its customs and manners, as is pos
sible in the small space allotted me. I can only add that
America is a land blest by the Almighty; full of natural
beauty, and rich in its soil and commerce/*
Written at a time when every returning traveler was
pleased to describe America as a nation of savages, this is an
analysis which is reasonably just and penetrating.

THE fast-flying years were quickly altering the scene about
Eduard. He continued to compose, but it was still the end of
an era. Nor were these last years happy ones. His family life
had gone from bad to worse. At the insistence of his sons, his
wife had invested a large part of his fortune in an enterprise
which went bankrupt, almost wiping out the savings of a life
time. Litigation followed recrimination as Eduard brought
suit against his sons it was a most tragic business.

Anxious to forget this sad affair, and in an attempt to re
coup his fortune, Eduard sailed for New York on another
tour, less than a year after Johann's death in June, 1899. His
second tour lacked the glory of the first. He was now an old
man, no longer the living embodiment of the virile music which
he still conducted so expertly. He did not bring the Strauss
Orchestra with him, but only a few of the leading players, re
cruiting the balance upon his arrival in New York. His group
may have succeeded in pleasing a large part of his audience,
but it failed to deceive the keen ear of Philip Hale, the famous

4241 Y

Time

Boston music critic. His comments on the orchestra not its
leader were few but caustic:

"I wonder how many of his band saw Vienna. I wonder
how many of the players ever followed his beat in that gay and
lighthearted city? I do not say that any of them were snatched
suddenly by the manager from the garden-lif e of Weehawken
or Hoboken, but surely the orchestra was one of the species
known as 'scratch/ "

In spite of this, Eduard's tour had more than a succes d'e$'
time. He was feted and cheered, and returned to Europe tired
but gladdened that the New World still remembered the
Strauss Walts despite its own ragtime. But the strain of regu"
lar concerts and the inner strife of the orchestra was too much
for him to bear alone. On the return voyage, his leading players
had quarreled with him, and he no longer had the strength to
maintain the old discipline. It was with infinite sorrow that he
disbanded the Strauss Orchestra in 1901, after seventyseven
years of uninterrupted success.

Whatever their differences in life, after Schani's death
Eduard paid him a gracious and touching compliment when he
published, as the fourth'from4ast of his compositions, a "Bou x
quet of Strauss Waltzes in Chronological Order from 1844 to
the Present." They were his final tribute to his great brother
and his swan song to Vienna. Shortly thereafter he retired
completely, a sad figure of vanished glory. He emerged from
time to time through the medium of newsprint to flail anyone
who made a misstatement concerning the activities or compO'
sitions of the members of his family. He lived wholly in the
past, yet he refused to recognise the absolute truths of that
past. He denied categorically that Johann I had ever tried to
prevent his sons from becoming musicians; he even dared deny
that liis father had deserted his mother, although a record of
the divorce proceedings was still on file in the City Hall.

242

AMERICA AGAIN

Before his death, Josef had obliged Eduard to agree that
whoever outlived the other would, before his own death, de-
stroy the library of the Strauss Orchestra. The seriousness of
-his promise can be understood only when it is remembered
ihat the Strauss works were generally published as piano solos,
die orchestral versions in almost every instance existing only
in manuscript form. This promise had been preying on Ed"
uard's mind for a long time; feeling himself at the end of his
pears, he believed that he must fulfill the promise he had made
his brother. In September of 1907, Eduard asked a manu
facturer of stoves for permission to burn a quantity of "waste
paper/' A date was set for October 22nd. Precisely at two in
the afternoon, the ever-dapper Eduard appeared at the factory
with a moving van containing a vast quantity of bundles. It
was then that the manufacturer realized, to his dismay, that
he was in the presence of the combined orchestral libraries,
scores and parts, of Johann I, Johann II, Josef and Eduard.
The man did his utmost to dissuade Eduard from what he
rightly termed criminal folly, but the utter futility of his efforts
was soon apparent. Josef had laid his command on Eduard,
and Eduard, in his dotage, would obey. He heard the man's
entreaties, pondered vacantly for some moments, and replied,
"Das \ann ich nicht" He seated himself in an armchair, his ser-
vant at his elbow. The factory workers then pitched the pack
ages one by one into the flames, waiting only until one lot had
been consumed before tossing in the next. Eduard trembled
from time to time as he recognized the writing of father or
brother upon the -yellowed sheets. Occasionally, he would
stretch out a hand as though to halt the destruction; then it
would fall away again and the holocaust would continue. Still
he sat there, until the last sheet, a grey ash, sailed up the flue
out of sight. What destruction was there we can realize only
when we remember that this cremation of an era lasted a full

Three-quarter Time

five hours! Imagine the loss to the world if all the orchestral
music of Mozart were to be destroyed, leaving only piano edi
tions of works which were orchestrally conceived. What a
loss to posterity! In a like sense, the destruction of the orches
tral editions of the writings of Johann I, Josef, and Eduard,
together with some of Johann II, is no less great; in robbing us
of the heritage and the perspective of a century of light music,
this was an act of musical vandalism without par.

It is with this fire that interest in Eduard ends. A lonely fig
ure, he lived on into the era of the languorous but passionate
tango, that logical emotional successor to the waltz. Eduard
Strauss died three days after Christmas 1916 the Great
Waltz had ended. . . .

244

FRANZ LEHAR

IN POINT of musical importance, the succession to the Strauss
throne fell not to Johann III, but to Franz; Lehar. Victor Her
bert, who himself might have laid claim to the crown, said of
Lehar that "he is the sole heir to the Waltz King's throne/'

Fran? Lehar was born on April 30th, 1870, in the Hun
garian town of Komarom. He showed strong musical aptitude
at so early an age that his father, a well-known military band
master, began his musical instruction himself. He became pro-*
ficient on several instruments, learning, in this practical manner,
a great deal about instrumental possibilities and combina
tions which was to serve him in good stead in later years. In
deed, one of the most typical traits of Lehar's orchestration is
its rich, sensuous appeal, and its similarity in this sense to the
orchestral style of Richard Strauss.

In 1882, Lehar entered the Conservatory at Prague, where
he studied violin under Bennewits and theory under Forster.
Three years later, he had the good fortune to attract the atten
tion of Zdenko Fibich, today remembered almost exclusively
for his sentimental Poeme; with Fibich he studied composition
after Conservatory hours, while continuing his courses at the
school. Two years later, in 1887, Fibich was instrumental in
introducing Lehar to Dvorak. The young man submitted two
piano sonatas to the famous Bohemian composer, one in G
~ Major, and the other in D Minor. DVofak was impressed by

4 245 Y

Three* Quarter Time

the promise shown in these early works, and urged Lehar to
devote himself exclusively to composition.

In 1888, Lehar left the Conservatory to become first violin'
ist in the Elberfeld theater orchestra. He held this chair for a
year, obtaining at first hand experience in the intricacies of
operetta technique, but he was unhappy there, finding the
work musical drudgery, for the position allowed him little
time to compose. He left Elberfeld for Vienna, where he be"
came Assistant Conductor of the Band of the 50th Infantry
the same band of which his father had been Conductor. Two
years were spent here, and then Lehar took over the conductor'
ship of another band, retaining the position until 1902. In the
meantime, he was busily composing, and in 1896, he com
pleted his first operetta, KuT{u$hJ{a, which was given in Leip
zig that same year, with little success. Undismayed, he revised
it some years later, and again presented it in 190? as Tatjana.

Early in 1902, Lehar became conductor at the Theater-an"
der'Wien, that theater which had figured so prominently in
the life of the Waits; King, Here, between fine performances
of Vienna's greatest light music, given in the tradition of the
original performances under the composers' own batons, he
completed his first successful operetta, Wiener Frauen, which
opened in that theater in November, 1902. It created enough
of a stir for Lehar to resign from conducting in order to devote
himself fully to composition. Wiener Frauen traveled to Ber*
lin; the change in locale also brought about a change in name,
and in the Prussian capital it was known as Die Klavier*
stimme. Possibly it was feared that the arrogant northern capi"
tal would not take kindly to ati operetta whose title paid
homage to the easygoing rival of the south. Later, to add to the
confusion, it was rewritten and presented as Der Schlussel
zum Parodies. This is typical of the involved history of many
of the LeMr operettas.

246

FRANZ LEHAR

Other stage works followed in rapid succession. In 1903,
Vienna heard Der Rastelbinder. The next year saw the pro"
duction of two new operettas: Die Juxheirat and Der Cotter*-
gatte. None of these has survived, although isolated arias from
Der Rastelbinder are sometimes heard on records and radio.

But these early works were merely practice flights for a
triumph which came in 1905, when Lehar gave the world Die
Lustige Wittue. Not since Die Fledermaus had any stage work
known such a success, nor has any new operetta since produced
equaled the world-wide success which it achieved. From its
opening in Vienna, on December 30th, 1905, it flashed quick"
ly into other cities on the continent and in England, and then
made its way to the New World. Even the Far East fell be"
neath its spell. In Rome, Naples and Milan, it was heard as
La Vedova Allegra; in Madrid, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Val'
paraiso, Santiago and Havana, as La Viude Alegre; in London,
New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Sydney and Melbourne,
it thrilled audiences to the title of The Merry Widow. In
Buenos Aires, it had the unusual distinction of playing at seven
theaters at the same time, in five languages!

Ask almost any American what he best remembers musi
cally in connection with the first decade of the Twentieth Cen
tury, and he will surely say, "Donald Brian and Ethel Jackson
in The 'Merry Widow;/' It invaded every nook and cranny of
daily living. Women's clothes were patterned after the styles
set by the Merry Widow. The music was to be heard in every
cafe, in every restaurant; the famous waits even succeeded in
sweeping native dances from the floor, and this at a time when
dancing the waltz; was beginning to be considered old'fash'
ioned. (Fortunately, we are today past that stage!) It was
more than a success, it was a conquest. Lehar and his publisher
became miTlicmaires almost overnight. The mantle of the Walts;
King fell fast upon the^new monarch's

Time

There is more than a coincidental resemblance between
Viktor Leon's book and that which Genee and Haffner wrote
for Die Fledermaus. In essence, the two stories have much in
common. The locale of one is Vienna, the other, Paris. The
two cities are alike in their nocturnal gaiety, their effervescent
mode of living, their love of elegant and beautiful women.
Both are glamour-cities. The setting, then, was substantially
the same. In Die Fledermaus, everything builds up to the in-
toxicated bacchanalia of the second-act finale, and thence to
the denouement of the third act. In The Merry Widow, we
have again the second-act ball scenes, floating on a froth of
champagne bubbles, and the third-act untangling of the Gor-
dian knot. However, it would be incorrect to suggest that, con
sciously or otherwise, Leon patterned his book upon the Meil-
hac-Halevy-Genee-Haffner story which Strauss used.

The story of The Merry Wtdou; is much more straight
forward, much less involved in the old tradition of confused
identities in operetta, than is any of the Strauss repertory.*
The setting is the Paris of the early 1900's. Baron Popoff,
the Ambassador of the mythical Kingdom of Marsovia, is
in a state of near-apoplexy. He has just received word that
Sonia, the richest and most beautiful woman in Marsovia, is
arriving in Paris on a visit. If she marries a foreigner, her
money will pass out of the country and Marsovia will be bank
rupt. PopofPs career indeed, his fortune depends upon his
seeing that, if this lively widow, on her first visit to the en
chanting French capital, does marry anyone, that man will be
a Marsovian. The Ambassador sends for Prince Danilo, a
former fiance of Sonia, and instructs him to escort her during

* The edition quoted here is one which postdates the original ver
sion still in^se in German lands; it varies the story in some details, re-
naxri&s*a character or two, and is more international in tone than the
somewhat naive 1905 libretto.

248

FRANZ LEHAR

her stay in Paris, and to take care that she engage in no flirta
tions with anyone who is not a Marsovian. Danilo wishes to
refuse; he has not the courage to see Sonia again, for he rudely
broke his engagement with her at his family's request, because
they were opposed to his marriage to a girl who was then only
a shopkeeper's daughter.

A secondary intrigue is developed between Natalie, the
wife of the Ambassador, and his French secretary, Raoul de St.
Brioche, for the dramatic purpose of keeping the action going
constantly. The Ambassadress, young and beautiful, finds life
more appealing with Raoul than with the aging and admittedly
senile Ambassador.

A ball is held in Sonia's honor. Danilo, entering when the
party is well under way, is asked where he has been, and sings
his delight with the pleasures and the girls of Maxime's* Son-
ia's arrival creates a furor, as all the men in the room flock to
her, drawn by her beauty and her wealth. Danilo quickly extri
cates her from the throng. They dance together, and find that
they are still in love. Here occurs the first of the famous waltz;
passages:

Meanwhile Raoul and Natalie have met in the garden and
have gained the privacy of the summerhouse:

* The Caf6 Maxime, on the rue Royale, is to this day one of
finest, most famous and most elegant dimng places in Paris*

249

Time

Sonia discovers Baron Popoff, suspicious of the identity of
the occupants of the pavilion, trying to learn who is inside. To
save Natalie's honor, Sonia enters the little house through the
rear door, and changes places with her. Danilo comes upon
the scene just as the Baron, now convinced that his wife is
within the locked building, pounds upon the door. Danilo sees
Sonia appear with Raoul, and departs in a rage, without allow
ing anyone time to make an explanation:

fiirnr r i

"Fm going to Maxime's, and you may go to ... ."
As in all operettas, it is the third act which sweeps away
the clouds and makes everything serene once more. Danilo by
now understands what actually happened in the pavilion, but
still he will not marry Sonia, for he does not wish to be accused
of marrying for money.

Sonia tells him that her husband's Will provides that if she
remarries, she loses her money, and Danilo then wastes no
time in. proposing, whereupon Sonia gleefully explains that of
course she will lose her money, since under Marsovi^n law its
ititite will pass to her husband! Here appears the delightful
Girls, Girls, Girls! ^

LEHAH

II . M

"You may study her ways as you can,
But a woman's too much for a man "

A slender story, to be sure, without the breath of intoxica'
tion which lends its special touch of credibility to Die Fleder-
maws. It is operetta; Die Fledermaus is comics-opera, and this
distinction should not be forgotten. We tend today to confuse
the two forms; actually, they are not alike.

The Merry Widow is full of melodious, appealing songs.
Vilia and the Ballsirenen Waltzes are known the world over,
but the rest of the music is equally fine. The delightful can
can, Ritantou'Ritantourelle, suggests Offenbach at his best.
The song of the Ambassadress, For I am a Dutiful Wife., is al
most as piquant and shameless as the first-act duet of Rosa-
linde and Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus. The Merry Widow;
is Frans Lehar's masterwork, full of grace, full of charm, full
of good breeding. The Merry Widow is always a lady

DURING the seasons which followed, Lehar tried to duplicate
the success of his first triumph, but the magic touch ajways
seemed to dude him. In 1906, there were two productions:
one, the Leipsiger revision of his Wiener Frauen of 1902, un
der the title Der Schlussel zum Parodies; the other, Peter und
Paul reisen ins Schlaraffenland. The success of this last was
hardly as long as the name. In 1907, he introduced Mitislav,
der Maderne, and also a private production of Edelweiss und
Kosenstocl^ which does not appear ever to have been given a
public performance. A year later, Vienna saw Der Mann mit
den Drei Frauen, and, some few months later, the osiderably
more popular Das FtirctenlpwL

Three-quarter Time

These operettas were the stepping stones to a second great
success, which came in 1909. They did not seem to impair
Lehar's reputation one could even say that they bridged the
gap between his first triumph and that of Der Graf von Lux
embourg, four years later. Vienna exulted over this new oper'
etta, many theatergoers rashly predicting that it would be more
popular than The Merry Widow;. They were wrong, but it is
true that The Count of Luxembourg holds second place in the
popular appraisal of Lehar's stage works.

However, it is significant, both for an evaluation of this
work in particular, and all his operettas in general, that Lehar
evidences no technical or musical advance over The Merry
Widow. Indeed, as will later be seen, it can be said that his
style never developed, but rather degenerated under impure in'
fluences.

The story of The Count of Luxembourg has no literary qual"
ity; it is the conventional fabric of operetta, and the real merit
of the work lies in its excellent music. Armand Brissard, an
impecunious painter, shares his quarters, his clothes and his
last copper with his equally impecunious friend, Rene, Count
of Luxembourg. (Luxembourg being, in fact, a Grand Duchy,
the character remains within the bounds of fiction.) Armand
loves Juliette Vermont, and Rene her friend, Angele Didier,
an opera singer. An old roue, a Grand Duke, who wishes to
many Angele, not caring to wed a commoner, offers Rene
twenty thousand pounds to wed her first and then divorce his
"Countess," so that the Grand Duke may maintain the febrile
fantasy of marrying a noblewoman. Then, in what is virtually
an operetta tradition, identities are confused, and the story
bogs down in a mire of minor intrigues. The score contains
many excellent numbers: Day Dreams; the duet, Love Brea\s
Every Bond; the topical songs, I am in Love and Rootsie-Poof
de; the old Grand Duke>> faltering polka-duet, I was a Lion

if 252 >

FIUVN2 3UEHAR

in the Salon; and the delightful quintet, A Cheque on the Ban\
of England. The most effective moment of all is the waits
scene, where Rene and Angele dance down a broad flight of
steps, a novel idea in those days (before Ziegfeld made stairs
a scenic necessity!), and still used today. Reminiscent of the
famous waits scene of The Merry Wtclott;, it counted for much
in the success of the operetta.

The Count of Luxembourg opened in Vienna in 1909; less
than two years later it captivated London, where it began a
run of 340 performances at Daly's Theater on May 20th,
1911; this did not equal the phenomenal record of 778 per
formances of The Merry Widow; at the same house, but it
established it as a permanent repertory work.

Degrees, honors, and decorations continued to shower upon
Lehar, as they once had upon Strauss. King Alfonso XIII of
Spain conferred upon him Knighthood in the Order of Isa x
bella, while the Shah of Persia made him a Knight of the Sun
and the Lion. France made him Officer of the Legion of Honor
and Officier de Tlnstruction Publique.

One year after The Count of Luxembourg, Lehar wrote
Zigeunerlieke. Although unknown today in England and
America, it is still sometimes performed on the continent be*
cause, as McSpadden remarks, "the original book is superior
to the American version, which had been cheapened by local
quips." The music in some respects recalls that of Der Zigeun*
erbaron, with its free use of the intoxicating czardas and the
sensuous and languorous lassan of Lehar's native Hungary. It
almost enters into the realm of light opera.

Not many months later, a new stage work was produced.
This was Eva, which is still remembered for its waltzes, fre'
quently heard on light concert programs. Eva was followed
by Die Ideate Gattin in 1913; by Endlich Allein in 1914;
Der Sterngudjer in 1917; and Wo die Lerche singt in 1918,

4 253 >

Three-quarter Time

which was given its premiere in Budapest. With the excep-
tion of the last named, nothing remains of these operettas,
born of the war years. In 1920, Paris was given the first per
formance of La Mazur\a bleu. Probably the French capital
was the only city on the Continent where such an operetta
could have been produced. Certainly Vienna in the 1920's,
undergoing the death agonies of the Hapsburg dynasty and
the birth pangs of a republican government, was no place for
mazurkas, blue or otherwise. Die Tango\onigin failed when
it was produced in Vienna, in 1921. But anything would
have failed in that dismal city in the early aftermath of the
war. The currency had been inflated beyond all conceivable
values, to the point where one American dollar was worth
ten thousand kronen. It was a city of destitute, despairing
people.

It has always remained true that while a nation endures its
blackest moments, it must be cheered and entertained. The
boom in entertainment in America and England during the
war, and in Germany and Austria after the war, are cases in
point. For close to a century, the Strausses had played their
enchanting fiddles to ease minds worried by Prussia's rising
militarism and Austria's dwindling influence in the Teutonic
family of nations. Now it was Lehar's turn to play the Pied
Piper. He outdid himself in 1922, in point of numbers. Four
new numbers came from his pen that year: a musical com
edy, Fruhling; an operetta in Italian which was produced in
Milan as La Danza delle Libellule; and two operettas intro
duced in Vienna, Frasquita and Schon ist die Welt (The
World Is Beautiful). It must have taken a sort of courage to
bring an operetta so named into an Austria burdened with
poverty and sorrow. Perhaps nowhere save in Vienna could
such a play have l>een produced without affronting the audi
ence. But the desire of the human species to escape is strong,

FRANZ LEHAR

and that of the Viennese is among the strongest. As a matter of
fact, the operetta is still frequently performed in Germanic
countries, and is considered a repertory work. Two unsuc'
cessful works followed: Die gelbe Jac\e in 1923, and Cloclo
the year after.

These minor plays were succeeded by the last four of Le'
har's stage works: Paganini in 1925, Fnederic\e in 1928,
Das Land des Ldchelns in 1929, and Giuditta in 1934. The
Land of Smiles is another example of Lehar's husbandry with
his musical material. Aware that he was not possessed of
Strauss's endless melodic fertility, he rarely allowed material
which had proved unsuccessful to go so carelessly to its
d6om. The unsuccessful Die gelbe ]ac\e was reworked, had
some numbers changed, and was endowed with a new song
which has become world-famous, and so turned into the
highly successful Land of Smiles. The hit song is none other
than Dein ist mein gauzes Herz (Yours is my heart alone) .

Although none of these last four operettas has ever
achieved the international popularity of Lehar's two leading
productions, they contain many pages of his finest music. In
these works he shows himself, at times, as a serious com"
poser, for some scenes tend more to the style of comic opera
than operetta. Hie best of the four is Dds Land des Ldchelns.
Although this score lacks the infectiously gay quality of The
Merry Widou; indeed, it has no happy ending it has
depth, and has earned the approbation of many a fine musi"
cian. It is still a standard work, frequently played throughout
German-speaking lands.

A comparison between the musical styles evidenced in
The Merry Widow (1905) and these last four works leads
to interesting revelations. One notes a constantly clouding
style from the crystal instrumentation of the early great sue"
cesses, which are suggestive of the influence of Johann

4 255 >

Three-quarter Time

Strauss, to the overladen and cluttered instrumentation of
the last four works, which betray the unhealthy influence of
Richard Strauss.

Also, it must be confessed, Lehar's standards of taste did
not uphold themselves under the onslaught of 4/4-time fox-
trot rhythm in the operetta. The relatively high level of mu
sical taste shown in the waits-duets of The Merry Widow;
are not to be classed together with the pitiful standards evi
denced in, for example, the duet, J^iemand liebt dich so ivie
ich, from Paganini.

No biography of Frans Lehar would be complete without
a parallel mention of Richard Tauber, .for he was to Lehar
all and more than Girardi was to Johann Strauss, creating
many of the leading roles in Lehar operettas. It is also true
that, as the finest tenor in Viennese light opera in the Twen
tieth Century, he earned a reputation as interpreter of many
of the roles in Strauss operas, notably Eisenstein in Die Fled'
ermaus, and Barinkay in Der Zigeunerbaron. It would, how
ever, be doing Tauber an injustice to draw the parallel too
closely, for he was a far more finished musician than Girardi.
In addition to his stature as a singer (and he was famous also
for opera 'and German Lieder), he was also a composer of
light symphonic compositions, and conductor of his own mu
sic. When, in later years, age betrayed him and his golden
voice no longer held its former glory, he continued to utilise
his extensive knowledge of the Strauss scores as permanent
conductor of the 1945 London production of Gay Rosalinda
(Die Fledermaus).

Tauber's caressing and sensuous voice did not alone ac
count for the respect accorded him. No other singer seemed
so completely to understand the technique of Viennese light
opera; no other singer had such a sensitive feeling for this
music. His death in London on January 8th, 1948, robbed

4 256 >

FRANZ LEHAR.

us of the last great vocal link with the original Strauss tra'
dition. . . .

The chronology of the stage works of Lehar by no means
exhausts the list of his compositions, which range beyond the
confines of that medium. There is an Ungarische Fantasie,
Op. 45, for violin and small orchestra. There are also the
Huldigungsouverture; the symphonic poem, Fieber, dating
from 1916; H Guado, another symphonic poem, scored for
piano and orchestra; the Vision Overture; and the "Marchen
aus dem Tausend und Eine l^acht.

Lehar also composed a song-cycle, Roman "Musical, set to
poems of Pierre Benoit, and published in Paris in 1937, as
well as a large number of other songs, marches and dance
compositions. Of these last, the best known are the Gold und
Silber Waltzes, Op. 79.

IN 1938, the armies of Nazji Germany invaded Austria,
and Vienna fell from its once^proud position as cultural ruler
of the Teutonic world to that of a minor vassal. The magnif
icent Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, at the time one of the
few great in the world, was "purged," and its high quality
has, to this day, not been recaptured. On January 16th of
that year, it had given a performance of Mahler's ?$nth
Symphony, under the baton of his great disciple, Bruno
Walter; it was only fitting that it should be to Mahler's Welt"
schmerz music that the orchestra sing its swan song. A few
days later, so many of its leading spirits among them its
fine concertmaster, Professor Arnold Rose had been sum"
marfly dismissed that it existed in name only. Together with
several of its members, its guiding genius, Bruno Walter, had
fled his beloved Austria and had settled in France, where
honorary citizenship was conferred upon him.

In this world of insanity and disaster, Frans Lehar re'

4 257 Y

Three-quarter Time

mained, old and weary, clinging to the shreds of the Vienna
which he so dearly loved. Of pure Hungarian stock, no Nasi
could hope to call him aught but "Aryan," yet he was
obliged to make enormous payments to "certain influential
parties," that his "Aryan blood" might be certified. Cow
ardly? It might have been for a young man, but who can
blame a man of seventy for seeking to retain the roots which
grew solidly in his native soil? Strauss at twenty fought for
liberty, but who can say what Strauss at seventy would have
done?

Soon after the fall of France in 1940, Lehar conducted a
performance of Das Land des Ldchelns in Paris for an audi
ence in Wehrmacht field-gray. It would be interesting to
know what Land of Smiles Lehar had in mind as his baton
rose and fell in this unhappy Parisian theater. This was early
(and yet how late!) in the Nasi conquest of Europe, marked
at Hitler's personal request by a special performance of this
operetta. Later, the same work served to underscore the Nasi
regime's ignominious end and the ensuing misery of the
German people, for Land Acs Ldchelns was, ironically,
the first lyric stage work to be produced by the Frankfurt
Civic Theater after the end of World War II. Almost at
the same time, it appeared on many other stages through
out the country, as though the nation were invoking the jeal
ous gods of their Valhalla through its title.

The final incident of Lehar's death at his home in Bad
Ischl, on October 24th, 1948, seemed almost an anticlimax,
for even before World War II began, even before World
War I had ended, the period which created him had passed.
The Golden Ajge of Vienna is no more, and with it has
passed forever that ebullient atmosphere which excited the
talents of the?gpreat Viennese school of light music. Just as
the endiantiilg; wiltz mdbdses of Ravel's La Valse finally

FRANZ LEHAR

dissolve into a rude and relentless cacophony, so has the
Viennese Walts;, and the era which it represents, vanished be'
yond recall into the holocaust of two world wars.

REFERENCE
SECTION

Time

RECORDINGS

This section is designed, first, to serve as a catalogue for .both the
interested record collector and the student of S'traussiana, and, second,
to indicate certain recordings which the author considers superlative
examples of performance in authentic Strauss tradition.

The following abbreviations are used to identify the various manu
facturers and their trade labels:

B. Brunswick

C. Columbia

D. Decca
DP. Decca

Q. Grammophon

Or. Gramophone

HMV. His Master's Voice

H. Homophon

L. London

O. Odeon

P. Parlophone

PD. Polydor

IK. Imperial-Kristall

S. Siemens

T. Telefunken

U. Ultraphon

V. Victor

United States

United States, unless otherwise in
dicated

United States

British, or German Polydor reissued
in Great Britain through Decca

Germany

European affiliates of British HMV
and US Victor, i.e.:
"La Voix de son Maitre** - France
"La Voce del Padrone" - Italy
"Electrola" - Germany

Great Britain (Victor affiliate)

Germany

U. S. (English Decca subsidiary)

Europe

Europe

Europe

Germany

Germany (Grammophon associate)

Germany

Germany

United States

REFERENCE SECTION

No attempt has been made to make these lists complete. Their pur-
pose is merely to supply the best recordings of each Strauss composition,
and not necessarily all recordings.

Many records listed have been discontinued. They have been retained
here either because no other version is known, or because the perform
ance is of sufficient quality and importance to make the recording of
value to the student if not to the collector.

Recordings marked with an asterisk (*) are recommended as superior
performances, demonstrative of the true Strauss tradition. New long-
playing records (SS^rpm) are indicated by the letters LP after the
catalogue numbers; these are usually also available in the older 78
rpm discs as well as in 45 rpm.

RECORDINGS OF THE MUSIC OF
JOHANN STRAUSS I

DONAULIEDER WALTZES, Op. 127

*V. 13597 Alwin, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.

HMV. C.2338 Krauss, Vienna Philhannonic Oich.

LORELEI-RHEIN-KLANGE WALTZES, Op. 154

PD. 22439 Melichar, Symphony Orch.

RADETZKY MARCH, Op. 228

C. 12543-D Leinsdorf, Cleveland Orch.

C.(Br) CX-9289 Johann Strauss m and Orchestra
V. 4127 Blech, Berlin State Opera Orch.

RECORDINGS OF THE MUSIC OF
JOHANN STRAUSS II

ORCHESTRAL WORKS

(For waltzes and other music from stage works* see OPERAS)

ACCELERATIONEN WALTZES, Op. 234

V. 8653 Onnandy, Minneapolis Symphony Orch*

T, E1156 Klefber, Berlin Pldliairoonic OreL

L. LLP-10 LP Krips* New Symphony OrdL

263

Three'Quarter Time

AN DER SCHONEN, BLAUEN DONAU WALTZES, Op. 314
*V. 13691 Szell, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.

*T. SK.3150 Krauss, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.

C. ML-2041LP Ormandy, Philadelphia Orch.

V. 11-8580 Toscanini, NBC Symphony Orch.

L. LLP-10 LP Krips, New Symphony Orch.

V. 15425 Stokowski, Philadelphia Orcih.

For overall performance, Szell excells all other readings save
the stiff competition of Krauss, whose beautifully blurred pastel
has the slow tempi demanded by Strauss himself. Both enjoy the
direction of the finest orchestra possible for this music. Toscaninf s
introduction and coda are unmatched, but his waltz beat is un
yielding and un-Viennese, his orchestra inferior. Krips, though
Viennese in his reading, leans more to the dance- than the concert-
hall in his tempi, which are monotonously uniform, and 'his British
orchestra cannot, of itself, supply the missing impulse. The Sto
kowski atrocity is to be avoided at all costs.

ANNEN POLKA, Op. 117

*HMV. B.3149 Krauss, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.

V. 10-1207 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

BALLG'SCHICHTEN WALTZES, Op. 150

C. 71028-D Barlow, CBS Symphony Orch,
BEI UNS Z'HAUS WALTZES, Op. 361

D. 20302 Knappertsbusch, Berlin Symphony Orch.
CHAMPAGNER POLKA, Op. 211

C. 71029-D Barlow, CBS Symphony Orch.

EGYPTISCHER MARCH, Op. 335

*V. 10-1019 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

ELECTROPHOR POLKA, Op. 297

C. 69756-D Barlow, CBS Symphony Orch.

EXPLOSIONS POLKA, Op, 43

C. 69756-D Barlow, CBS Symphony Orch.

FRUHLINGSTIMMEN WALTZES, Op. 410

*V. 13597 Szell, Vienna Philharaionic Orch.

V. 4387 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

C. 70388-D Beecham, London Philharmonic Orch.

V. 18060 Ormandy, Philadelphia Orch.

SzelTs faster tempo avoids the heavy-handed feeling from which
the others suffer, and is more in keeping with the virtuoso piano

REFERENCE SECTION

piece which this originally was* Beecham and Ormandy, in different
ways, lack here all feeling for Viennese waltz rhythm. The Fiedler
version is good.

FESTIVAL QUADRILLE, Op. 341

CL 69756-D Barlow, CBS Symphony Orch.

FREUT EUCH DES LERENS! WALTZES, Op. 340

Gr. EH.119 Knappertsbusch, Berlin State Opera Orch.

C. 9226 Johann Strauss m and Orchestra

G'SOHICHTEN AUS DEM WIENER WALD WALTZES, Op. 325
C. ML-2041 LP Ormandy, Philadelphia Orch.

*DP. LY 6129/30 Melichar, Berlin Philharmonic Orch.

C. 69562-D Walter, Symphony Orch.

C.(Br) DX.1503 Krips, Philharmonic Orch.
V. 15425 Stokowski, Philadelphia Orch.

Only Melichar gives the complete waltz with the solo zither in
troduction (although English Decca, alias London, plans to have
Krips record it). Musically, Walter's recording stands mountain-
high above all others, but the solo zither passage is given to the
strings (an alternative authorized by Strauss) and the recording is
prehistoric. The Krips disc is mellifluously recorded and well-
played, but hardly exciting. Stokowskfs anguished variations on a
Strauss theme ought not to be inflicted on one's worst enemyl

IDYLLEN WALTZES, Op. 95

Gr EG.2464 Marek Weber and Orchestra

KAISERWALZER, Op. 437

*V. 13690 Walter, Vienna Philhannonic Orch.

C. 11854-D Walter, New York Philharmonic

Symphony Orch.

C.(Br) LX.1021 von Karajan, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.

L. LLP-10 LP Krips, New Symphony Orch.

V. 12195 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

Asked to name the finest performance of a Strauss waltz on
American records, I would unhesitatingly choose the Walter-
Vienna Philharmonic version of this waltz. By contrast, the one* he
has made with the New York Philharmonic is a poor imitation,
partly due to inferior recording, partly due to a basic lack of
Viennese feeling in the orchestra. In the Victor disc, conductor and
orchestra give this waits the loving care they would bestow on a
Beethoven symphony, and the results ace to be heard. Von Karajan
is too angular to understand the Gemutlichkeit of Vienna, but the

Time

orchestra helps Hm along; Fiedler's reading is a bit militant; that
of Krips lacks character, although the actual playing is delightful.

KtTNSTLERLEBEN WALTZES, Op. 316

C.(Br) LX.1Q13 von Karajan, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.
*V. 9992 Kleiber, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.

V. 12194 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

By process of elimination, Karajan gets the palm here, for it is
hard to vote against the superb recording and orchestral perform
ance, but his feeling for Strauss's music is variable, never great.
Kleiber's exquisite reading, airy and delicate, unfortunately suffers
from over-age recording. Fiedler is somewhat heavy-handed here,
a fact which is exaggerated and accentuated by ihe coarse-grained
recording accorded him.

LEICHTES BLUT, SCHNELLPOLKA, Op. 319

*Gr. EG.1780 Krauss, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.
V. 10-1026 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

LIEBESLIEDER WALTZES, Op. 114

V. (in) DM-907 Krauss, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.

PD. 15077 Priiwer, Berlin Philharmonic Orch.

MAN LEBT NUR EINMAL WALTZES, Op. 167

C. 4270-M Ania Dorfman, piano (arr. Tausig)

MARGHEN AUS DEM ORIENT WALTZES, Op. 444
V. 36181 Marek Weber and Orchestra

MORGENBLATTER WALTZES, Op. 279

V. 11-8217 Krauss, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.

MOTOREN WALTZES, Op. 265

C. 71027-D Barlow, CBS Symphony Orch.

NEU WIEN WALTZES, Op. 342

V. 4478 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

PAROXYSMEN WALTZES, Op. 189

C. 69757-D Barlow, CBS Symphony Orch.

PERPETUUM MOBILE, SCHERZO-GALOPP, Op, 257
*G. 15359-EM Ludwig, Berlin State Opera Orch,

*HMV. B.3149 Krauss, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.

V. 4435 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

C. 12543 Leinsdorf, Cleveland Orch.

PERSBCHER MARCH, Op. 289

*-Vk ; 10-1019 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

+ 266Y

REFERENCE SECTION

SANGERLUST POLKA, Op. 328

C. 9371 Johann Strauss ra and Orchestra

SANS-SOUCI POLKA, Op. 178

V. 10-1205 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

SCHNELLPOST POLKA, Op. 159

C. 71029-D Barlow, CBS Symphony Orch.
SEID UMSCHLUNGEN, MILLIONEN! WALTZES, Op. 443

G. 11563-E German Radio Orch.

U. EP.520 Grosz, Berlin Philharmonic Orch.

D. 5765 Dajos Bela Orch.
SERAIL-TANZE WALTZES, Op. 5

C. 69755-D Barlow, CBS Symphony Orch.

TELEGRAFISCHE DEPESCHEN WALTZES, Op. 195

C. 71029-D Barlow, CBS Symphony Orch.

THERMEN WALTZES, Op. 245

D. 25765 Dajos Bela Orch.

TRTTSCH-TRATSCH POLKA, Op. 214

*V. 11-9188 Toscanini, NBC Symphony Orch.

*HMV. C.2687 SzeU, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.

V.. 10-1058 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

C. ML-4118 LP Carnegie Pops Orch.
C. 386-M Orchestre Raymonde, G. Walter

(alias W. Goehr, London Symphony Orch.)
UBER DONNER UND BLITZ, SCHNELLPOLKA, Op. 324
*V. 4319 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

C. 12543 Leinsdorf, Cleveland Orch.

WEIN, WEIB UND GESANG WALTZES, Op. 333
V. 12192 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orct.

C. 71210-D Weingartner, Paris Conservatory Orch.
T. E.1206 Kleiber, Berlin Philharmonic Orch.

C. ML-2017 Ormandy, Philadelphia Orch.

Of all these, the best performance of the introduction is by
Fiedler; the best performance of the waltzes, by Weingartner.

WIENER BLUT WALTZES, Op. 354

*C. 11579-D Remer, Pittsburgh Symphony Orch.
V. 12193 Fiedler, Boston Pops Oroh.

C.(Br) L.2270 Walter, Berlin State Opera Orch.

V. 18060 Ormandy, Philadelphia Orcfc.

Reiner's performance far outclasses aH others, RecflerY disc

Three* Quarter Time

is a poor second-best, Walter's very old, and Ormandy's incom
plete and insentient.

WIENER BONBONS WALTZES, Op. 307

PD. 15030 Melichar and Symphony Orch.

V. 26514 Marek Weber and Orchestra

D. 25063 Dajos Bela Orch.

WO DIE ZITRONEN BLtttTN WALTZES, Op. 364
*V. 11894 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

HMV. C.2338 Alwin, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.

An example of what a superb Strauss conductor Fiedler can
be when the spirit moves him.

OPERAS and OPERETTAS

(This section contains only the original Strauss operas and oper
ettas. No attempt has been made to catalogue recordings of the
many operettas which, since Strauss's death, have been concoct
ed from his tunes, with the sole exception of Wiener Blut, for
which Strauss personally selected the music to the individual
numbers from his old dance tunes, and which was prepared un
der his supervision. The premiere occurred shortly after his
death, in the Carl Theater on October 25th, 1899.)

INDIGO (1871)
INTERMEZZO

DP. LY.6130 Melichar, Berlin Philharmonic Orch.
V. 11910 Blech, Berlin State Opera Orch.

LAUNISCHES GLtrCK

C.(Br) DF.1477 Charles Kulhnan, tenor
D. 20331 Josef Schmidt, tenor

V. 4411 Miliza Korjus, soprano

The Korjus disc, entitled There'll Come a Time, gives an Eng
lish version of this song as sung by her in the film The Great
Waltz, The other two are the authentic Strauss song.

INDIGO MARCH, Op. 439

*V. 10-1020 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

TAUSEND UND EINE NACHT WALTZES, Op. 346
V. 9990 Krauss, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.

T. EJ233 Kleiber, Berlin Philharmonic Orch.

C. 69588-D Weingartner, British Symphony Orck

4 268 Y

REFERENCE SECTION

DIE FLEDERMAUS (1874)

OVERTURE

*V. 13688 Walter, Paris Conservatory Orch.

V. 12-0189 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

T. SK.S161 Krauss, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.

C. ML-2Q41 LP Ormandy, Philadelphia Orch.
PD. 68043 von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orch.

"COMPLETE" PERFORMANCE Casti Hilde Giiden, Wilma Lipp,

L. LLP-281/2 LP

"COMPLETE" PERFORMANCE
V. LM-1114 LP

or
DM-1457 (78)

or
WDM-1457 (45)

Julius Patzak, Anton Dermota, oth
er soloists and chorus of the Vien
na State Opera, with the Vienna
Philharmonic Orchestra under Cle
mens Kraoiss.

Cast : Rise Stevens, Patrice Munsel,
Regina Resnik, James Melton, Jan
Peerce, Robert Merrill, Hugh
Thompson, Robert Shaw Chorale,
RCA Victor Orchestra under Fritz
Reiner.

"COMPLETE" PERFORMANCE Cast: Ljuba Welitch, Lily Pons,
C. SL-108 LP Richard Tucker, Charles Kull-

man, John Brownlee, chorus and
orchestra of the Metropolitan Op
era, conducted by Eugene Or
mandy.

"ABRIDGED" PERFORMANCE Cast: Adele Kern, Else Ruziska,
DP. CA.8118/22 Margaret Pfahl, Hertha Klust,

Franz Volker, Willi Domgraf-Fass-
bander, Waldemar Henke, Edu-
ard Kandle, Leonard Kern, Berlin
State Opera Chorus and Orchestra
under H. Weigert

A few months ago, it was almost impossible to find a record-
of Die Fledermaus in the United States, for the Decca-Poly-
dor set is imported (and of 1929 vintage). Today one is faced
by an embarrassing choice. Musically, the London set is one
hundred per cent complete, and an excellent performance but
-there is no dialogue! Musical number follows on musical num~

269

Time

her with scarcely a break, and this in German, so that despite
an admirable libretto and excellent program notes, it is over
powering to listen to this, score straight through. The music is
simply too much without at least some of the intervening dia
logue (as included in the old Decca-Polydor set); this dialogue
is as important to the balance of the whole as the dialogue in
Zaubeflote and tfidelio.

The Victor set also has excellent voices, and is sung in under
standable English all it needs, it would seem, to make it perfect.
But alas! it is not echt Wienerisch! One must forgive Melton for
lacking Wiener Schmiss; indeed, his voice is far too impregnated
with the lilt of the typical Irish tenor for one to believe for a mo
ment that he is Eisenstein, boulevardier and man of the world.
Rise Stevens is a superb Orlovsky, Munsel a charming Adele, and
Mr. Merrill's work likewise deserves only praise. But there is no
excuse for an old Austro-Hungarian like Reiner turning in so man
nered, so distorted and un-Viennese a performance. I'm sadly
afraid it's based on champagne which has gone, very flat, a matter
which is made clear in the overture -alone. And the Victor set also
lacks dialogue.

Columbia's newer set, which can also claim to be an authentic
Metropolitan version, since Ormaaady prepared and conducted the
production which now graces that opera house's boards, is several
notches better. Ormandy has a distinct flair for everything which is
alt Wien; as a pure matter of individual taste and preference, I can
sometimes question some of his tempi and phrasing, but I can
never say that he is at fault in using them. Welitch is a magnifi
cent Rosalinde the best, I think, on records. Pons makes Adele a
distinctly Parisian creation, which Strauss did not mean her to be,
but the results are not displeasing, although at moments her intona
tion is. Tucker is certainly a better Eisenstein than Melton, al
though also imperfectneither sounds masculine or choleric enough.
And again, there is no dialogue.

The old English Deoca-Polydor set, surprisingly good despite
its years, is probably unobtainable, and is in German but it
does combine effectively the musical numbers with an intelli
gent amount of dialogue. It remains my favorite, but in view of
its inaccessibility, a choice will probably have to be made among
the other sets.

4 270 )-

REFERENCE SECTION

(In view of the above recordings, only the more important
vocal numbers are listed below.)
TRINKE, LIEBCHEN, TRINKE SCHNELL (Drinking Song)

DP. PO-5002 Else Kodbmann, soprano; Franz Vdlker, tenor

MEIN HERR, WAS DACHTEN S1E VON MIR?
HMV. D.1733 Lotte Schone, soprano
D. 20280 Lotte Lehmann, soprano

MEIN HERR MARQUIS (Laughing Song)

*HMV. E.545 Elisabeth Schumann; AlwinVienna Philharmonic
T. E.2571 Erna Sack, soprano
V. 11-8579 Miliza Korjus, soprano
PD. 10169 Erna Berger, soprano

CZARDAS: KLANGE DER HEIMAT

C. 3-568 LP Ljuba Welitch, soprano; Reiner-Metr. Opera

FINALE, ACT II: IM FEUERSTROM DER REBEN

*D 29015 Lotte Lehmann, Richard Tauber,

Karin Branzell, Crete Merrem-Nik-
isch, Waldemar Stagemann, Berlin
State Opera and Chorus, conduc
tor Frieder Weissmann.

Actually begins some bars later at Herr Chevalier, teh grusse
Sie, but is otherwise complete. It is one of *he finest vocal rec
ords of Strauss music, despite poor surfaces and old recording.

TIK-TAK POLKA, Op. 365

V. 10-1205 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch,

DU UND DU WALTZES, Op. 367

V.(in)DM-907 Kleiber, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.
V. 10-1310 StokowsH, Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orch.

The latter is in a new orchestration by Stokowski, which is
as untrue to Strauss as is his distorted phrasing.

CAGLIOSTRO IN WIEN (1875)

CAGLIOSTRO WALTZES, Op. 370

V. 4479 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

PRINZ METHUSALEM (1877)

ORCHESTRAL SELECTIONS

Gr. EG.2487 Marek Weber and Orchestra

O SCHONER MAI WALTZES, Op. 375

PD. 24364 Melicbar, RerBfci Philharmonic Orch,

271

Time

O KOMM, O KOMM, HERZLJEBCHEN MEIN

D. 20308 Vera Schwarz, soprano; Wiessmann and Orch.

DER LUSTIGE KRIEG (1881)

ORCHESTRAL SELECTIONS

Gr. EH.334 Marek Weber and Orchestra

OVERTURE

PD. 47424 Melichar, Berlin State Opera Orch.
Gr. EG.463 Viebig, Berlin State Opera Orch.

NUR FUR NATUR

Gr. EG.3385 Marcel Wittrisch, tenor
PD. 90061 Julius Patzak, tenor

KUSS WALTZES, Op. 400

D. 20304 Knappertsbusch, Berlin Symphony Orch.

C. 9224 Johann Strauss m and Orchestra

DAS SPITZENTUCH DER KONIGIN (1880)
OVERTURE

V. 36138 Dol Dauber Salon Orch.
DU MARCHENSTADT IM DONAUTHAL

H. 4122 Hans-Heinz Bollmann, tenor

ICH BIN JA EIN REITER

H. 4122 Hans-Heinz Bollmann, tenor

ROSEN AUS DEM SUDEN WALTZES, Op. 388
V. 11-8986 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

C. ML-4116LP Reiner, Pittsburgh Symphony Orch.

C. 69561-D Walter, Berlin State Opera Orch.
L. LLP-10 LP Krips, New Symphony Orch.
V. 6647 Stock, Chicago Symphony Orch.

EINE NACHT IN VENEDIG (1883)

ORCHESTRAL SELECTIONS

V. 36093 Marek Weber and Orchestra

OVERTURE

*PD. 57314 Leitner, Nollendorfplatz Theater Orch.

HMV. B.2547 Viebig, Berlin State Opera Orch.

Ferdinand Ledtner, in 1949 Music Director of the Wurttem-
berg State Orchestra, and the arranger of a new version of this

272 >

REFERENCE SECTION

operetta, made this recording when he first conducted the oper
etta at the Nollendorfplatz Theater in Berlin. The reading is ex
cellent; the score, the original.

HOR MICH, ANNINA! and KOM3VT IN DIE GONDEL

Gr. EH.2166 Marcel Wittrisch, tenor; Lotte Schone, soprano

Gr. EG.2545 Marcel Wittrisch, tenor

V. 16184 John Charles Thomas, baritone

All listings save the first give only Komm in die Gondel. Thomas
sings an English version titled Love Can Be Dreamed, as inter
polated in an American production of Gypsy Baron.

VERSAUME NIGHT DIE STUNDE

Gr. AM.2330 Wanda Achsel, soprano

TREU SEIN, DAS LIEGT MIR NIGHT

O. 8069 Richard Tauber, tenor

Gr. EG.2167 Marcel Wittrisch, tenor
PD. 21043 Franz Volker, tenor

SEI MIR GEGRttSST, DU HOLDES VENETIA!
O. $069 Richard Tauber, tenor

Gr. EG.2167 Marcel Wittrisch, tenor

PD. 21043 Franz Volker, tenor

LAGUNEN WALTZES, Op. 411

V. 4480 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

DIE ZIGEUNERBARON (1885)

OVERTURE

C. ML-2041LF Ormandy, Philadelphia Orch,
*V. 13689 Walter, London Symphony Orch.

C.(Br) LX.1009 von Karajan, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.

V. 12-0188 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

ALS FLOTTER GEIST and JA, DAS ALLES AUF EHR'l

D. 20394 Richard Tauber, tenor

V. 16184 John Charles Thomas, baritone

C.(Ger) DF.1477 Charles Kullman, tenor

Tauber's performance is superlatively Viennese, but an ex
tremely old recording. Thomas has no understanding of the
proper style, and he indulges in extraneous vocal tricks which
are pure virtuoso nonsense. He sings in English.

SO ELEND UND SO TREU

*C. 3-568 LP Ljuba Welitch, soprano; Reiner Metr. Opera

<{ 273 Y

Time

ACT I: ER 1ST BARON!

D, 29013 Lotte Lehmann, Karin Branzell, Rich

ard Tauber, Crete Merrem-Nikisch,
Waldemar Stagemann, Berlin State
Opera Chorus and Orchestra, conduc
tor Frieder Weissmann.

In effect a heavily abridged version of the Finale, with many
cuts.
MEIN AUG' BEWACHT - Trio

PD. 27072 E. Kochmann, E. Bassth, F. Volker

HA SEHT, ES WINKT! - Trio

DP. PO.5002 E. Kochmann, E. Bassth, F. Volker
WER UNS GETRAUT? - Duet

*D. 25775 Richard Tauber, Carlotta Vanconti-Tauber.

*P. R.1257 Emmy Bettendorf, H. E. Groh-<Berlin State

Opera Orch. and Chorus.
V. 4411 Miliza Korjus, soprano

The Korjus disc is titled One Day When We Were 'Young, set
ting the refrain of this duet to English lyrics from the film The
Great Waltz.
WERBELIED-CZARDAS: Hier die HandWir die wollen lustig sein.

PD. 27072 Franz Volker, chorus and orchestra
FINALE, ACT III: EIN FttRSTENKIND

*D. 29013 Lotte Lehmann, Karin Branzell, Crete

Merrem-Nikisch, Waldemar Stage
mann, Richard Tauber, H. Lange,
Berlin State Opera Chorus and Or
chestra, conductor Frieder Weiss
mann.

Although they both provide superlative singing (despite sand
paper surfaces), these records do not have the high quality of
the Finale to Die Fledermaus, recorded by the same artists, for
both of the Zigeunerbaron finales have been heavily cut.
ACT III: ENTRANCE MARCH: Hurrah! der Schlacht mit gemacht!
*V. 10-1020 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

Incomplete in that the choral parts are omitted, this is none
theless a crackerjack performance.
SCHATZ WALTZES, Op. 418

V. 9991 Blech, Berlin State Opera Orch.

C 11800-D Reiner, Pfttsbtirgh Symphony Orch.

REFERENCE SECTION

SIMPLEZIUS (1887)
DONAUWEIBCHEN WALTZES, Op. 427

P. R.1804 Knappertsbusch, Berlin Symphony Orch.

RITTER PASMAN (1892)
CZARDAS

G. 15359-EM Ludwig, Berlin State Opera Orch.

DER WALDMEISTER (1895)
OVERTURE

G. 15373-EM Melichar, Berlin State Opera Orch.
*V. 86391 Viennese Waltz Orch.

The Viennese Waltz Orchestra disc is not, strictly speaking,
the overture, for a number of other Strauss tunes have been in
terpolated as a middle section. It is, however, a superlative per
formance by one of the best-known symphony orchestras in
Europe.

WIENER BLUT (Posth.: 1899)
GRUSS GOTT - Duet

D. 25296 Adele Kern, soprano; Alfred Strauss, tenor

ENTRANCE ARIA OF THE DUCHESS

G. 27144-EM E. Kodhmann, soprano

WIENER BLUT (Du susses Zuckertauberl mein)
Gr. EG.2545 Marcel Wittrisch, tenor.

MISCELLANEOUS WORKS

LE BEAU DANUBE - Ballet Suite (arr. D&onntere)

V. M-414 Dorati, London Philharmonic Orch.

D&sormiere arranged this ballet suite for Serge Diaghilev's Bal
let Russe from scraps of tunes by more than one of the Strausses
and even Lanner, although the music of the Waltz King pre
dominates, climaxed, of course, by the Blue Danube itself. Many
fragments can be identified; there is a trace of Lanner's Schorr
ferunnen as well as Johann*s CagUostro, Neu Wien, and MOT-
genbldUer Waltzes. Most of t3be excerpts, however, are from the
many now-forgotten dance pieces. D6sormiere re-orchestrated
many of these to fit a symphony orchestra, but always tastefully,
and Strauss would have been the last to complain. The perform
ance is sparkling, the recording very good

275

Time

GRADUATION BALL - Ballet Suite (arr. Dorati)

V. DM.-1180 Dorati, Dallas Symphony Ordbu

Like the suite above, this was also originally prepared for the
Ballet Russe in 1940 from little-known Strauss fragments. The
comment above holds basically true here, in all respects.

RECORDINGS OF THE MUSIC OF
JOHANN II and JOSEF STRAUSS

PIZZICATO POLKA (no opus no,)

*HMV. C.2687 Szell, Vienna Philharmonic Orch,
V. 1757 Ormandy, Minneapolis Symphony Orch.

V. 10-1206 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

The Fiedler disc, in every other sense a fine performance, gets
my veto for using an orchestration (possibly from Strauss for
dance orchestras?) which clouds the pizzicatl with other instru
ments.

A 276

REFERENCE SECTION

RECORDINGS OF THE MUSIC OF
JOSEF STRAUSS

AQUARELLEN WALTZES, Op. 258

V. 8867 Onnandy, Minneapolis Symphony Orch.

DELIRIEN WALTZES, Op. 212

DP. LY.6023 Meliehar, Berlin State Opera Orch.

DORFSCHWALBEN AUS OSTERREICH WALTZES, Op. 164
*V. 9993 Kleiber, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.
*T. E.1422 Kleiber, Berlin Philharmonic Orch.

PD. 15204 Melichar, Berlin Philharmonic Orch.

V. 11-9189 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

DYNAMIDEN (Geheimne Anziehungskrafte) WALTZES, Op. 173
D. 25766 Dajos B61a Orch.

FEUERFEST POLKA, Op. 269

D. 20243 Johann Strauss m and Orchestra

FLATTERGEISTER WALTZES, Op. 62
D. 25766 Dajos Bela Orch.

FRAUENHERZ POLKA, Op. 166

G. 11563-E Deutschlandsenders Orch.

DIE GUTEN, ALTEN ZEITEN WALTZES, Op. 26
PD. 27174 Ilja Livsohakoff Orch.

JOCKEY GALOP, Op. 278

P. R.298 Edith Lorand Orch.

DIE LIBELLE POLKA, Op. 204

V. 22513 Bourdon, Victor Concert Orch.

MARIENKLANGE WALTZES, O

V. 24370 Marek Weber and Orchestra
D. 25063 Dajos Bek Orch.

MEIN LEBENSLAUF 1ST LEgB UND LUST! WALTZES, O|>. 235
Gr. EH.696 Marek Weber and Orchestra
D. 20303 Odeon Orchestra

277

Time

SPHARENKLANGE WALTZES, Op. 235

*DP. K.1924 Kleiber, London Philharmonic Orch.

C. 12579-D Leinsdorf, Cleveland Orch.
V. 12-0068 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.
HMV. C.2195 Krauss, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.

Most Kleiber recordings of Strauss are old; this is a new record
ing of 1948, apparently part of a series being made competitively
in England by Deoca and HMV. Unfortunately, most in the series
have been recorded by Krips or Karajan, neither an ideal Strauss
interpreter. Kleiber definitely is. Leinsdorf may be Austrian, but
he is still not at home in this music. Fiedler is somewhat heavy-
handed, and the resonance of his orchestra in Symphony Hall a
bit weighty for this music. Neither he nor Leinsdorf senses the
elegiac strain perceived by Kleiber, and, to some extent, by
Krauss, whose recording is, however, rather old.

TRANSAKTIONEN WALTZES, Op. 184

Gr. EH.687 Marek Weber and Orchestra

WIENER KINDER WALTZES, Op. 61

D. 20303 Dajos B61a Orch.

RECORDINGS OF THE MUSIC OF
EDUARD STRAUSS

BAHN FREI GALOPP, Op. 45

*V. 10-1207 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

C. 12543 Leinsdorf, Cleveland Orch.

D. 20245 Johann Strauss m and Orchestra

The history of the Fiedler disc is amusing; he heard the Strauss
recording at my home and expressed a wish to get the parts so as
to do it in a Pops concert. By good chance, I was able to find a
piano edition of the piece in a secondhand bookstore from this
and the record, Frank Bodge made the orchestration, an excellent
one. The sole variant seems the conception of this as a race-track

i 27S }-

REFERENCE SECTION

number (gallop?) as indicated by the opening trumpet solo, a
Bodge addition. Piccolo overtones in the original Strauss indicate
that the conductor's father considered "Free Track" to have rail
way significance.

DOCTRINEN WALTZES, Op. 79

V. 12428 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

LEUCHTKAFERI/N WALTZES, Op. 161

Gr. EG.2464 Marek Weber and Orchestra

RECORDINGS OF THE MUSIC OF
JOHANN STRAUSS III

DICHTERLIEBE WALTZES, Op. 38

V. 4477 Fiedler, Boston Pops Orch.

Time

A CATALOGUE BY OPUS NUMBERS OF
THE COMPOSITIONS OF

JOHANN STRAUSS I
JOHANN STRAUSS II

JOSEF STRAUSS
EDUARD STRAUSS

JOHANN STRAUSS I

1 Tauberlin Walzer

2 Doblinger Reunion
Walzer

3 Wiener Karneval Walzer

4 Kettenbriicke Walzer
No. 1

5 Gesellschafts - Walzer

6 Wiener Launen Walzer

7 Alpenkonig Galopp

8 Champagner Polka

9 Seufzer Galopp

10 Tempe'te Polstertanze
und Galoppade

11 Walzer a la Paganini

12 Krapfen-Waldl - Walzer

13 Trompeten Walzer

14 Champagner Walzer

15 Erinnerungs Walzer

16 Fort nach einander!
Walzer

17 Gesellschafts Galopp

18 Lusdager Walzer

19 Kettenbriicke - Walzer
No. 2

20 Chinesen Galopp

21 Karolinen und Kettenbriicke

Galopp

22 Es ist nur ein Wein!
Walzer

23 Josefstadter Tanze

24 Hietzinger Reunion
Walzer

25 Der unzusammenhangende
Zusammenhang Potpourri

26 Frohsinn im Gebirge
Walzer

27 Erinnerungs Galopp

28 Hirten Galopp

29 Wettrennen-und Wilhelm-
Tell Galopp

30 Sperlsfest Walzer

31 Des Verfassers beste Laune

Charmant Walzer

32 Cotillion on La Muette de
Portfci by Auber

33 Benefiz Walzer

34 Gute Meinung fiir die
Tanzlust Walzer

35 Einzugs Galopp

36 Ungarische Galopp

4 280 }

REFERENCE SECTION

37 Wiener Tags Belustigung
Potpourri

38 Souvenir de Baden
Walzer

39 Wiener Tivoli-Rutsch
Walzer

40 Wiener Damen Walzer

41 Fra Diavolo Cotillion

42 Sperl Galopp

43 Der Raub der Sabinerinnen
Walzer

44 Contre-Tanze

45 Tivoli-Freudenfest
Walzer

46 Musflcalisches Ragout
Potpourri

47 Vive la Danse! Walzer

48 Heiter a/uch in ernster Zeit!
- Walzer

49 Das Leben ein Tanz, der
Tanz ein JJeben Walzer

50 Cotillion on Die Unbe-
kannte

51 Hofball-Tanze

52 Bajaderen Galopp

53 Bajaderen Walzer

54 Contre-Tanze

55 Ein Strauss von Strauss
Potpourri

56 Alexandra Walzer

57 Zampa Walzer

58 Mein schonster Tag in
Baden Walzer

59 Die vier Temperamente
Walzer

60 Karnevals-Spende
Walzer

61 Tausendsappennent
Walzer

62 Zampa-und Montecehi
Galopp

63 Frohsinn mein Ziel
Walzer

64 Robert Tanze (from Robert
le Diable)

65 Mittel gegen den Schlaf
Walzer

66 Erinnerung an Pest
Walzer

67 Erste Walzer-Guirlande

68 Gabriellen Walzer

69 Fortuna Galopp

70 Pfennig Walzer

71 Elisabethen Walzer

72 Cotillion on Der Zwei-
kampf t

73 Original Parademarsch

74 Venetianer Galopp

75 Iris - Walzer

76 Rosa Walzer

77 Zweite Walzer-Guirlande

78 Erinnerung an Berlin
Walzer

79 Gedankenstriche Walzer

80 Huldigungs Walzer

81 Grazien Tanze

82 Philomelen Walzer

83 Merkurs-Fliigel Walzer

84 Heimafldange Walzer

85 Reise Galopp

86 Ballnacht Galopp

87 Erinnerung an Deutsch-
land Walzer

88 Die Nachtwandler
Walzer

89 Eisenbahn-Dust Walzer

90 Jugendf euer Galopp

91 Kromjngs Wafeer

92 Cotillions on Les Huguenots

93 Galopp on Les Huguenots

94 KunstferbaH Tanze

95 Brassier Spitzen - Walzer

4 281

Time

96 Ball-Raketen - Walzer

97 Cachuciha Galopp

98 Pilger am Rhein - Walzer

99 Bankett - Tanze

100 Der Karneval in Paris
Walzer

101 Paris - Waker

102 Original Parademarscli

103 Huldigung der Konigin
Viktoria Walzer

104 Boulogner Galopp

105 Freudengriisse Walzer

106 Musikalischer Telegraf -
Potpourri

107 Versaifler - Galopp

108 Sitana Galopp

109 Exotiscbe Pflanzen
Walzer

110 TagUoni - Walzer

111 Indianer Galopp

112 Londoner Saison Walzer

113 Die Bergmeister Walzer

114 Furioso Galopp

115 Rosenblatter - Walzer

116 Wiener Gemiits - Walzer

117 Ghibellinen - Waker

118 Myrthen - Waker

119 Tanz-Rezepte - Waker

120 Cacilien - Waker

121 Dritte Waker-Guirlande

122 Palmzweige Waker

123 Amors-Pfeile - Waker

124 Wiener Karnevals Quad-
rille

125 Elektrische Funken -
Waker

126 Erinnerung an Ernst, oder
Der Karneval von Venedig

127 Deutsche Lust, oder Donau-
lieder ohne Texle Waker

128 Apollo - Walzer

129 Adelaiden - Waker

130 Jubel-Quadrille - Walzer

131 Die Wettrennen - Waker

132 Die Debutanten Waker

133 Sperl - Polka

134 Egerien-Tanze Waker

135 Die Tanzmeister - Walzer

136 Stadt-und Landleben
Waker

137 Annen Polka

138 Mode - Quadrille

139 Die Fantasten Waker

140 Musikverein-Tanze
Waker

141 Die Minnesanger Waker

142 Haute-Vol6e - Quadrille

143 Latonen Waker

144 Parademarscli

145 Minos-Klange Waker

146 Die Lustwandler Waker

147 Walhalla-Toaste Waker

148 Saison Quadrille

149 Die Damonen - Walzer

150 Kiinstlerball-Tanze
Waker

151 Quadrille zur Namensfeier
Kaiser Ferdinands

152 Tanz-Caprizen - Waker

153 Quadrille zur Namensfeier
der Kaiserin Maria Anna

154 Lorelei-Rhein-Klange -
Waker

155 Bruder Lustig - Waker

156 Astraa Tanze

157 Volksgarten Quadrille

158 Redoute - Quadrille

159 Nur Leben! - Walzer

160 Waldfraulein Hochzeits -
Tanze

161 Salon Polka

162 Orpbeus Quadrille

REFERENCE SECTION

163 Frohsinns-Salven Walzer

164 Aurora-Fest-Klange
Waker

165 Fest - Quadrille

166 Rosen ohne Dornen
Walzer

167 Wiener Fruchteln Waker

168 Willkommen-Rufe
Walzer

169 Haimonsldnder Quadrille

170 Masken-Lieder Walzer

171 Eunomien-Tanze Walzer

172 Odeon-Tanze Walzer

173 Marianka Polka

174 Musen Quadrille

175 Faschings-Possen Walzer

176 Geheimnisse aus der Wiener
Tanzwelt Walzer

177 Flora Quadrille

178 Stradella Quadrille

179 Osterreichische Jubel-
klange Waker

180 Sommernachtstraume
Waker

181 Heitere Lebensfoilder
Waker

182 Der Landjunker Walzer

183 Amoretten Quadrille

184 Concordia Tanze

185 Sofien Tanze

186 Moldauldange Waker

187 Konzert Souvenir Quad
rille

188 Osterreichischer Festmarseh

189 Die Vortanzer - Waker

190 Epigonen Tanze

191 Zigeuner Quadrille

192 Esmerakla Marsch

193 Festlieder - Waker

194 Eldorado - Quadrille

195 Die TTnbedeutenden
Waker

196 Cliarivari Quadrille

197 Bouquets Waker

198 Landlich, sitdich
Waker

199 Neujahrs - Polka

200 Souvenir de Carnaval 1847

Quadrille

201 ThemisHange - Waker

202 Eisele-und Beisele-Spriinge

Polka

203 Herztone Waker

204 Helenen Waker

205 Triumph Quadrille

206 Najaden Quadrille

207 Schwedische Lieder
Waker

208 Die Schwalben Waker

209 Osterreichischer Defilier-
marsch

210 Kathinka - Polka

211 Quadrille on Des Teufels
Anteil

212 Marien - Waker

213 Feldbleameln Waker

214 Nador-K6r Paktinal-
Tanz

215 Martha - Quadrifle

216 Die Adepten Walzer

217 Schafer - Quadrille

218 Tanz-Signale Walzer

219 Fortuna Polka

220 Wiener Kreuzen Polka

221 Nafionalgarde Marsdh

222 Aciden Waker

223 Marsch der Studenten-
legion

224 AmphionMange Walzer

225 Ather-Traume -Walzer

226 Freiheits - Marsch

4 285

Threc^uarter Time

227 Marsch des einigens
Deutschlands Militarmarsch

228 Radetzky - Marsch

229 Quadrille im Militarischen
Stfl

230 Sorgenbrecher Walzer

231 Briinner Nationalgarde
Marsch

232 Landesfarben Walzer

233 Huldigungs Quadrille

234 Louisen Quadrille

235 Piefke-und Purfke - Polka

236 Damen-Souvenir Polka

237 Des Wanderers Lebewohl
Walzer

238 Alice - Polka

239 Frederica Polka

240 Two Marches for the
Spanish Noble Guard

241 Die Friedensboten
Walzer

242 Soldatenlieder Walzer

243 Almacks Quadrille

244 Jellacic Marsch

245 Wiener Juibelmarsch

246 Wiener Stadt Garde-
marsch

247 Deutsche Jufeellaute
Walzer

248 Quadrille without title

249 Exeter Polka

250 Fliegende Blatter - Pot
pourri

251 Melodische Tandeleien
Fantasy on Willmer's Pompa
di Festa

JOHANN STRAUSS II

1 Sinngedichte Walzer

2 D6but Quadrille

3 Herzenslust Polka

4 Gunstwerber Walzer

5 Serail-Tanze Walzer

6 Entheren Quadrille

7 Die jungen Wiener
Walzer

8 Patriotenmarsch

9 Amazonen Quadrille

10 Liebesbrunnen Quadrille

11 Faschingslieder Walzer

12 Jugendtraume Walzer

13 Czechenpolka

14 Serben Quadrille

15 Strausschen Walzer

16 Elfen Quadrille

17 Jux - Polka

18 Berglieder Walzer

19 Damonen Quadrille

20 Austria Marsch

21 Lindgesange Walzer

22 Die Osterreicher Walzer

23 Pester Czardas

24 Zigeunerin QuadriUe

25 Zeitgeister Quadrille

26 Fiedler Polka

27 Die Sanguiniker Walzer

28 Hopfer Polka

29 Qdeon Quadrille

30 Die ZiUerthaler - Walzer
im Landlerstil

31 Quadrille on motifs from
Balfe's The Siege of RooheUe

4 284}*

REFERENCE SECTION

32 Irenen Walzer

33 Alexander Quadrille

34 Die Jovialen Walzer

35 Architekten-Ball Tanze

36 Industrie Quadrille

37 Wilhelminen - Quadrflle

38 Bachus Polka

39 Slaven Quadrille

40 Quadrille on motifs from
Boisselot's La Reine de Lyons

41 Sangerfahrten Walzer

42 Wildrosen Walzer

43 Explosions Polka

44 Fest - Quadrille

45 Erste Tanze Walzer

46 Martha Quadrille

47 Dorfg'schichten Walzer

48 Seladon Quadrille

49 Fest Marsch

50 Klange aus der Malachei
Walzer

51 Marien Quadrille on
Rumanian Themes

52 Freiheitslieder Walzer

53 Annika Quadrille

54 Revolutions Marsch

55 Burschenlieder Walzer

56 Studenten Marsch

57 Ligourianer-Seuf zer
Scherz-polka

58 Brunner-Nationalgarde
Marsch

59 Quadrille on motifs from
Hatev/s Lightning

60 Seisselheibe Polka

61 Neue Steirischen Tanze

62 Einheitsldange - Walzer

63 Sans-Souci Quadrille
64' Fantasiebilder - Walzer

65 Nikolai Quadrille on Rus
sian Themes

66 D'Woaldbuama Waker
Tm Landlerstil

67 Kaiser Franz-Josef Marsch

68 Aolstane Walzer

69 Triumph Marsch

70 Die Gemiitlichen Walzer

71 Kiinstler Quadrille

72 Scherzo Polka

73 Frohsinnspender Polka

74 Lava-Strome Walzer

75 Soften Quadrille

76 Attaque Quadrille

77 Wiener Garnisons Marsch

78 Heiligenstadter-Rendez-
vous Polka

79 Marien-Tanze Walzer

80 Herski-Holki - Polka

81 Luisen-Sympathie-Klange

Walzer

82 Johanniskaferln Walzer

83 Ottingen Reitennarsch

84 Warschauer Polka

85 Heimatskinder Walzer

86 Bonvivant Quadrille

87 Aurora-Balltanze Walzer

88 Slavenball - Quadrflle

89 Hirtenspiele Walzer

90 Orakelspriiche Walzer

91 Hermann Polka

92 Maskenfest Quadrille

93 Kaiser-Jager Marsch

94 Rhadamantus-Klange

Walzer

95 Idyllen - Walzer

96 Viribus Unitis Walzer

97 Sambrirm Tanze

98 Promenade Quadrille

99 Fteraenkaf erfn - Walzer

285 ^

Time

100 Boslauer - Polka

101 Mephistos Hollenrafe
Walzer

102 Albion - Polka

103 Vivat - Quadrille

104 Windsor-Zlange Walzer

105 5 Paragraphen aus der
Walzer-Bodex

106 Harmonie Polka

107 Grossfiksten Marsch

108 Die Unzerfrennlichen

- Walzer

109 Tte-i-Tte - Quadrille

1 10 Electro-Magnetische

- Polka

111 Blumen - Polka

112 Melodie Quadrille nach
Verdi

113 Sachsen-Kurassier Marsch

114 Liebeslieder Walzer

115 Wiener-Jubelgriisse Marsch

116 Hofball - Quadrffle

117 Annen Polka

118 Lockvogel Walzer

119 Volkssanger Waltzer

120 Nocturne Quadrille

121 Zehner Polka

122 Indra - Quadrille

123 SataneUa - Quadrffle

124 Satanella Polka

125 Phoenix-Schwingen Walzer

126 Jubel Marsch

127 Freudengriisse Polka

128 Solpnspriiche Walzer

129 Motor - Quadrffle

130 Asoulap Polka *

131 Wiener-Punsch-Oeder

- Walzer

132 Veflchen Polka

133 Kanissel Marsch
1S4 Tanzi-Bai Polka

135 Bouquet Quadrffle

136 Vermahlungs-Toaste
- Walzer

137 Neuhauser Polka

138 Pepita Polka

139 Kron Marsch

140 Knallkiigeln - Walzer

141 Wellen und Wogen -
Walzer

142 Wiedersehen - Polka

143 Schneeglockchen Walzer

144 La Viennoise Polka-
Mazurka

145 BiirgerbaU - Polka

146 Novellen Walzer

147 Musen Polka

148 Schallwellen - Walzer

149 Erzherzog Wilhelm-Gene-
soiiigsmarsch

150 BaUg'sdhichten - Walzer

151 Elisen Polka

152 Karnevals-Spektakel
Quadrille

153 Nordstem Quadrille

154 Myrthen-Kranze - Walzer

155 Haute-Votee Polka

156 Napoleon Marsch

157 Nachtfalter Walzer

158 Alliance Marsch

159 Schnellpost - PoDca

160 EUa - Polka

161 Panacea-Klange - Walzer

162 Souvenir Polka

163 Glossen - Walzer

164 Sireneii Walzer

165 Aurora (Polka
166-HandelsrElite - Quadrffle

167 Man I>bt Nur Eiwial
-r- Walzer

168 Leopoldstadter Polka,

169 B^otiterie - Quadrille *

REFERENCE SECTION

170 Nachtveilchen Polka-
Mazurka

171 Freuden-Salven Walzer
172^-Gedanken auf den Alpen

- Walzer

173 Marie Taglioni Polka

174 Le Papillon Polka-
Mazurka

175 Erhohte Pulse Waker

176 Armenball Polka

177 Juristenball Tanze

178 Sans-Souci Polka

179 Abschiedsrufe Walzer

180 Libellen - Walzer

181 Grossfiirstin Alexandra
Walzer

182 L'lnoonnue Polka-
Mazurka

183 Kronungsmarsch

184 Kronungslieder Walzer

185 Strellna-Terrassen
Quadrille

186 Demi Fortune Polka-
Frangaise

187 Une Bagatelle Polka-
Frangaise

188 Herzel Polka

189 Paroxysniens Walzer

190 Etwas Kleines Polka-
Frangaise

191 Controversen Walzer

192 Wien, mein Sinn Walzer

193 Phanomene Walzer

194 La Berceuse Quadrille

195 Tdegrafische Depesdien
-Walzer

196 Olga - Polka-Frangaise

197 Spleen Polka-Mazurka

198 Alexandrinen Polka-
Frangaise

199 Le Beau Monde Quadrille

200 Souvenir de Nice Walzer

201 Kiinstler Quadrille

202 LTEnfantiMge Polka-
Frangaise

203 Helenen - Polka

204 Vibrationen Walzer

205 Die Extravaganten
Walzer

206 Concordia Polka-Mazurka

207 Cycloden Walzer

208 Juxbriider Walzer

209 Spiralen Waker

210 Abschied von St. Petersburg
- Walzer

211 Champagner Polka

212 Fiirst Bariatinsky Marsch

213 Bonbons Polka-Frangaise

214 Tritsch-Tratsch Polka

215 Gedankenflug Walzer

216 Hell und Voll Walzer

217 La Favorita - Polka-
Frangaise

218 Irrlidbter Walzer

219 Auroraball Polka-
Frangaise

220 Deutsche Walzer

221 Promotionen Walzer

222 Naohtigall PoBca

223 Schwungrader Walzer

224 Dinorah Quadrifle

225 Griisse an Wien Polka-
Frangaise

226 Der Kobold PoHca-
Mazurka

227 Reise-Abenteiier Walzer

228 Niko - Polka

229 Jager - Polka-Ftengaise

230 Kammerball Polka-

231 Droferije

232 Lebenswecker Waker

Three-quarter Time

233 Sentenzen Walzer

234 Accelerationen Walzer

235 Immer heiterer Walzer

236 Orpheus Quadrille

237 Taubenpost Polka-
Frangaise

238 Die Pariserin Polka-
Frangaise

239 Polka-Mazurka champtre

240 Maskenzug - Polka-
Frangaise

241 Fantasiebliimchen Polka
Frangaise

242 Bijoux Polka-Frangaise

243 -Romanze

244 Diabolin Polka-Frangaise

245 Thermen Walzer

246 Rokonhangok-Sympatiiie
Polka-Frangaise

247 Grillenbanner Walzer

248 Camelien Polka

249 Hesperus Polka-Frangaise

250 Wahlstimmer Walzer

251 Klangfiguren Walzer

252 Dividenden Walzer

253 Schwarmereien Walzer

254 Neue Melodien Quadrille

255 St. Petersburg - Quadrille

256 Veilchen - Walzer

257 Perpetuum Mobile Scher-
zo-Galopp

258 Secunden Polka-Frangaise

259 Chansonetten Quadrille

260 Furioso Polka quasi
Galopp

261 Die ersten Kuren Walzer

262 Kolonnen Walzer

263 Studenten - Polka-Fran
gaise

264 Patronessen Walzer

265 Motoren Walzer

266 Luzifer Polka

267 Konkurenzen Walzer

268 Wiener Chronik Walzer

269 Demolierer Polka-
Frangaise

270 Karnevals-Botschafter
- Walzer

271 Bluette Polka-Frangaise

272 Quadrille on motifs from
Verdf s Un Batto in Maschera

273 Leitartikel - Walzer

274 Patrioten Polka

275 Lieder Quadrille

276 Bauern Polka-Frangaise

277 Invitation a la Polka-
Mazurka

278 Neues Leben Polka-
Frangaise

279 Morgenblatter - Walzer

280 Juristenball Schnellpolka

281 Vergniigungszug Schnell
polka

282 Gut Biirgerlich Polka-
Frangaise

283 Saison Quadrille

284 Deutsche Krieger Marsch

285 Studentenlust Walzer

286 Patronessen Polka-
Frangaise

287 Verbruderungsmarsch

288 Neva Polka-Frangaise

289 Persischer Marsch

290 Quadrille sur des airs
frangais

291 'S giebt nur a Kaiserstadt,
*s giebt nur a Wien Schnell
polka

292 Aus den Bergen Walzer

293 FeuiUeton - Walzer

294 Prozesspolka Schnellpolka

295 Biirgersinn Walzer

4 28S

REFERENCE SECTION

296 Episode Polka-Frangaise

297 Electrophor Schnellpolka

298 Hofballtanze - Walzer

299 Quadrille on motifs from
Meyerbeer's L'Africaine

300 Flugschriften Walzer

301 Kreuzfidel - Polka-
Frangaise

302 Der Zeitlose - Polka-
Frangaise

303 Bal Champtre Quadrille

304 Kinderspiele - Polka-
Frangaise

305 Damenspende Polka-
Frangaise

306 Bikgerweisen Walzer

307 Wiener Bonbons - Walzer

308 Par Force Schnellpolka

309 Sylphen Polka-Frangaise

310 Tandelei - Polka-Mazurka

311 Express Schnellpolka

312 Feen-Marchen - Walzer

313 Wildfeuer - Polka-
Frangaise

314 An der schonen, blauen
Donau Walzer

315 Lob der Frauen Polka-
Mazurka

316 Kiinsderleben - Walzer

317 Postilion d'Amour Polka-
Frangaise

318 Telegramme - Walzer

319 Leichtes Blut Schnell
polka

320 Figarqpolfca - Polka-
Frangaise

321 Die Publicisten Walzer

322 Stadt und Land Polka-
Mazurka

323 Ein Herz, ein Sinn Polka-
Mazairka

324 Ober Donner und Blitz

Schnellpolka

325 G'Schichten aus dem
Wiener Wald - Walzer

326 Freikugeln Schnellpolka

327 Quadrille on themes from
Auber's Le Premier jour de
Boriheur

328 Sangerlust Polka

329 Erinnerungen an Covent
Garden Walzer on English
motifs

330 Fata Morgana - Polka-
Mazurka

331 Illustrationen Walzer

332 Eiljen a Magyar Schnell
polka

333 Wein, Weib und Gesang

Walzer

334 Konigslieder - Walzer

335 Egyptischer Marsch

336 Im Krapfenwald Polka-
Frangaise

337 Von der Borse - Polka-
Frangaise

338 Slovakiana Polka on
Russian melodies

339 Louischen Polka-
Frangaise

340 Freut euch des LebensI

Walzer

341 Festival Quadrille
on English motifs

342 Neu-WIen - Walzer

343 Shawl Polka-Frangaise
(Indigo)

344 Indigo - Quadrille (Indigo)

345 Auf freiem Fusse
Mazurka (Indigo)

346 Tausend und Erne Nacht
~ Walzer

289

Time

347 Aus dei Heimat - Polka-
Mazurka

348 Ixn Stunnschritt - Sdmell-
polka

349 Indigo Marsch (Indigo)

350 Lusttger Rath Polka-
Fran$aise

351 Die Bajadere Schnell-
polka

352 Russische Marsch-Fantasie

353 Russische Marsch-Fantasie

354 Wienerblut - Walzer

355 Im Russischen Dorfe
Fantasie

356 Vom Donaustrande
Schnellpolka

357 Karnevalsbilder Walzer

358 Nimm sie ihin Polka-
Frangaise

359 Griisse aus Osterreich
Polka-Fran$aise

360 Rotunde Quadrille

361 Bei uns z'Haus Walzer

362 Die Fledeimaus Overture
(Fledermaus)

363 Fledermaus - Quadrille
(Fledeimaus)

364 Wo die Zitronen bliih'n

Walzer

365 Tik-Tak - SchneUpolka
(Fledermaus)

366 An der Moldau Polka-
Fran^aise (Fledermaus)

367 Du und Du - Walzer
(Fledermaus)

368 Gliicklich ist, wer vergisst

Polka-Frangaise (Fleder*.
maus)

369 Cagliostro Quadrille
(Cagliostro in Wien)

370 Cagliostro Walzer
(Cagliostro in Wien)

371 Hoch Osterreich! Marsch
(Cagliostro in Wien)

372 Bitte schon Polka-
Frangaise (Cagliostro in
Wien)

373 Auf der Jagd - SchneU
polka (Cagliostro in Wien)

374 Licit und Schatten
Polka-Mazurka (Cagliostro in
Wien)

375 O schoner Mai Waker
(Prinz Methusalem)

376 Methusalem Quadrille
(Prinz Methusalem)

377 I-Tipferl - Polka-
Frangaise (Prinz Methusalem)

378 Bareditter Galopp

379 Kriegers Liebchen
Polka-Mazurka (Prinz Methu
salem)

380 Ballstrausschen Schnell
polka (Prinz Methusalem)

381 Kennst Du mioh?
Waker (Prinz Methusalem)

382 Pariser Polka-Fran9aise
(Prinz Methusalem)

383 Nur fort! - Schnellpolka
(Prinz Methusalem)

384 Opem-Maskenball
Quadrille (Prinz Methusalem)

385 Waldine - Polka-Mazurka

386 Frisch heran Schnellpolka

387 In's Centrum Waker

388 Rosen aus dem Siiden
Waker (Spitzentuch der
Konigin) ,

389 Biirschenwanderung
Polka-Fran^aise (Spitzentuch
der Konigin)

4 290 >

REFERENCE SECTION

390 Nordseebilder - Walzer
(Spitzentuch der Konigin)

391 Gavotte der Konigin
(Spitzentuch der Konigin)

392 Spitzentuch Quadrille
(Spitzentuch der Konigin)

393 Stiirmisch in Lieb* und
Tanz Schnellpolka
(Spitzentuch der Konigin)

394 Liebchen, schwing Dich

Polka-Mazurka
(Spitzentuch der Konigin)

395 Myithenbliiten Walzer

396 Jubelfest Marsch

397 Der Lustige Krieg
Marsch (Der Lustige Krieg)

398 Frisch ins Feld Marsch
(Der Lustige Krieg)

399 Was sich liebt, neckt sich

Polka-Frangaise (Der Lus
tige Krieg)

400 Zuss Walzer (Der Lustige
Krieg)

401 Der Kliigere gibt nach
Polka-Mazurka (Der Lustige
Krieg)

402 Quadrille (Der Lustige
Krieg)

403 Entweder, oder! Schnell
polka (Der Lustige Krieg)

404 Violetta Polka-Fran$aise
(Der Lustige Krieg)

405 Nord und Slid - Polka-
Mazurka (Der Lustige Krieg)

406 Matador - Marsch
(Das Spitzentuch der Komgin)

407 Italienischer March
(Der Lustige Krieg)

408 Habsburg Hoch! Marsch
(Der Lustige Kfieg)

409 Rasch in der That -
Schnellpolka

410 Fruhlingstimmen Walzer

411 Lagunen Walzer (Eine
Nacht in Venedig)

412 Papacoda Polka-Fran-
$aise (Eine Nacht in Venedig)

413 So angstiich sind wir nicht

Galopp (Eine Nacht in
Venedig)

414 Die Tauben von San Marco

Polka-Frangaise (Eine Nacht
in Venedig)

415 Annina Polka-Mazurka
(Eine Nacht in Venedig)

416 Quadrille (Eine Nacht in
Venedig)

417 Bratschau Polka (Eine
Nacht in Venedig)

418 Schatz Walzer (Der
Zigeunerbaron)

419 Kriegs-Abenteuer Galopp
(Der Zigeunerbaron)

420 Die Wahrsagerin Polka
Mazurka (Der Zigeunerbaron)

421 Husaren Polka (Der
Zigeunerbaron)

422 Zigeunerbaron Quadrille
(Der Zigeunerbaron)

423 Wiener Frauen Walzer

424 Adelen Walzer

425 An der Wolga Polka-
Mazurka

426 Russischer Marsch

427 Donauweibchen Walzer
(Simplfaws)

428 Reatennarsch

429 Quadrille (Simplizius)

430 Soldatenspiel Polka-
Fran^aise (Simplizius)

4 291

Time

431 Lagerlust Polka-
Frangaise ( Simplizius)

432 Mutig voran! Schnell-
polka (Simplizius)

433 Spanischer Marsch

434 Kaiser-Jubilaum Jubel-
Walzer

435 Sinnen und Minnen
Walzer

436 Auf zum Tanze Schnell-
polka

437 Kaiserwalzer

438 Rathausball-Tanze
Walzer

439 Durchs Telephon Polka

440 Gross-Wien - Walzer

441 Hitter Pasman Piano
Arrangement

442 Unparteiische Kritiken
Polka-Mazurka

443 Seid Umschlungen, Million-
en! Walzer

444 Marchen aus dem Orient
Walzer

445 Ninetta Walzer

and

Herzenkonigin Polka-
Frangaise (Furstin Ninetta)

446 Ninetta Quadrille
(Furstin Ninetta)

447 Ninetta - Marsch (Furstin
Ninetta)

448 Diplomaten Polka

449 Neue Pizzicato Polka

450 Ninetta Galopp
(Furstin Ninetta)

451 Ubersprungen

452 Festmarsch

453 Hochzeitsreigen Walzer

454 Auf dem Tanzboden

455 Ich bin dir gut - Walzer
(Jabuka)

456 Zivio! Marsch (Jabuka)

457 Hoh'I - Schnellpolka
(Jabuka)

458 Tanze mit dem Besenstiel

Polka-Frangaise (Jabuka)

459 Sonnenblume Polka-
Mazurka (Jabuka)

460 Jabuka Quadrille (Jabuka)

461 Gartenlaube Walzer

462 Klug Gretelein Walzer

463 Trau, schau, weml
Walzer

464 Herjemineh Polka-
Frangaise (Waldmeister)

465 Liebe und Ehe Polka-
Mazurka (Waldmeister)

466 Klipp-Klapp Galopp
(Waldmeister)

467 Es war so wunderbar

Marsch (Waldmeister)

468 Waldmeister Quadrille
(Waldmeister)

469 Hochzeits Praeludium

470 Deutschmeisterjubilaums-
marsch

471 Heut' ist Heut' - Walzer
(Die Gottin der Vernunft)

472 Nur nicht mucken Polka-
Frangaise (Die Gottin der
Vernunft)

473 Wo unsere Fahne weht
Marsch (Die Gottin der
Vernunft)

474 Husarenlied (Die Gottin
der Vernunft)

475 Solowalzer (Die Gdttin der
Vernunft)

476 Potpourri on motifs from
Die Gottin der Vernunft

292

REFERENCE SECTION

477 An der Elbe - Walzer

478 Aufs Korn! Bundesschiit-
zenmarscli

479 Klange aus der Raimund-
szeit

UNPUBLISHED WORKS
(Incomplete)

Aschenbrodel Ballet
Traumbilder Orchestral

Fantasia
Overture Comique

Josefinen-Tanze (Piano 4-hands)
Graduale

Romulus, Operetta
(Act 1 complete)

OPERAS AND OPERETTAS BY JOHANN STRAUSS II

Die Lustigen Weiber von Wien
Indigo February 10th, 1871

Karneval in Rom March 1st, 1873

Die Fledennaus April 5th, 1874

Cagliostro in Wien February 27th, 1875

Prinz Methusalem January 3rd, 1877

Blindekuh December 18th, 1878

Das Spitzentuch der Konigin October 1st, 1880
Der Lustige Krieg November 25th, 1881

Eine Nacht in Venedig October 3rd, 1883

Der Zigeunertbaron
Simplizius
Ritter Pasman

Fiirstin Ninetta

Jabuka

Waldmeister

Die Gottin der Vernunft

Wiener iBlut

October 24th, 1885
December 17th, 1887
January 1st, 1892

January 10th, 1893
October 12th, 1894
December 4th, 1895
March 13th, 1897
October 25th, 1899

Never Produced

Theater-an-der-Wien

Theater-an-der-Wien

Theater-an-der-Wien

Theater-an-der-Wien

Carl Theater

Theater-an-der-Wien

Theater-an-der-Wien

Theater-an-der-Wien

Friedrich-Wilhem-

strasse Theater,

Berlin

Theater-an-der-Wien
Theater-an-der-Wien
Hofoperntheater,

Wien

Theater-an-der-Wien
Theater-an-der-Wien
Theater-an-der-Wien
Theater-an-der-Wien
Carl Theater

Posthumous Revisions of Unsuccessful Strauss Operettas:

Grafin Pepi (combination: Simplizius, Blindekuh)

.4* "~ ** "~
1001 'Nights (Indigo)

July 5th, 1902
June, 1906

Vienna
Vienna

4 293

Three'Quarter Time

JOSEF STRAUSS

1 Die Ersten und Letzten
- Walzer

2 Vergiss mein nicht
Polka-Mazurka

3 Sturmquadrille

4 Mille fleurs Polka

5 Flinserln Walzer

6 Tarantel Polka

7 Vielliebchen Polka-
Mazurka

8 Bacchanten Quadrille

9 Punsch Polka

10 Bauern Polka-Mazurka

11 Rendezvous Quadrille

12 Die Ersten nach dem
Letzten Walzer

13 Wiener Polka

14 Avantgarde Marsch

15 Titi - Polka

16 Die Vorgeiger Walzer

17 Maiblumchen Polka-
Mazurka

18 Wiegenlieder Walzer

19 Lustlager Polfca

20 Schottischer Tanz

21 Policinello Quadrille

22 Sehnsuchts - Polka-
Mazurka

23 Joujou - Polka

24 Armee Marsch

25 Kadi - Quadrille

26 Die guten, alten Zeiten
Walzer

27 Jucker Pdlfe /

28 Sylphide Polka-Frangaise

29 Die Veteranen Walzer

30 Ball-Silhouetten - Walzer

31 Herzbleaineln - Polka-
Mazurka

32 Dioscuren Quadrille

33 Masken Polka

34 Mairosen Walzer

35 Une Pense Polka-
Mazurka

86 Lichtenstein Marsch

37 Psikos - Quadrille

38 Gedenke mein Polka

39 Perlen der Liebe Walzer

40 La Simplicit6 Polka-
Frangaise

41 Wallonen Marsch

42 La Chevalrdsque Polka-
Mazurka

43 Steeple-Ghase - Ptilka

44 Fiinf Kleebladln - Walzer

45 Parade Quadrille

46 Musen Quadrille

47 Frauenblatter - Walzer

48 Harlekin Polka

49 Die Amazone Polka-
Mazurka

50 Nymphen Polka-
Frangaise

51 Zdltbilder - Walzer

52 Matrosen Polka

53 Defilier Marsch

54 Flora - Polka-Mazurka

55 Bonbon Polka-Mazurka

294

REFERENCE SECTION

56 Liebesgriisse Walzer

57 Moullinet Polka-Frangaise

58 Bivouac Quadrille

59 Kronpiinzen Marsch

60 Laxenburger Polka

61 Wiener Kinder Walzer

62 Flattergeister Walzer

63 Waldroslein - Polka-
Mazurka

64 Lanciers Quadrille

65 Caprice Quadrille

66 Wintermarchen Walzer

67 Minerva Polka-Mazurka

68 Soil und Haben - Walzer

69 Saus und Braus Polka

70 Die Kokette Polka-
Frangaise

71 Schwert und Leier
Walzer

72 Amanda Polka-Mazurka

73 Sympathie Polka-Mazurka

74 Elfen - Polka

75 Sturm Polka

76 Adamira Polka

77 Die Naive Polka-
Frangaise

78 Gurli - Polka

79 Waldbleameln - Landler
80- Stegreif Quadrille

81 Cupide Polka-Frangaise

82 Euterpe Polka-Frangaise

83 Figaro PoBca-Frangaise

84 Cydopen Polka

85 Die Zufaffigen Walzer

86 Erzherzog Karl Marsdb

87 Heldengedichte Walzer

88 Immergriin Polka-
Mazurka

89 Mignon Polka-Frangaise

90 Griisse an Mimchen
Polka-Frangaise

91 Lustschwarmer Walzer

92 Turner Quadrille

93 Tag und Nacht Polka

94 Bellona Polka

95 Diana Polka-Frangaise

96 Sternschnuppen Walzer

97 Debardeurs Quadrille

98 Schabernak Schnellpolka

99 Zephir Polka-Frangaise

100 Die Kosende Polka-
Mazurka

101 Flammen Walzer

102 Maskengeheimnisse
Waker

103 Fortunio-Magellone-
Daphnis Quadrille

104 Aus dem Wiener Wald
Polka-Mazurka

105 Phonix Marsch

106 Blitz Schnellpolka

107 Dornbacher Rendezvous
Polka-Frangaise

108 Wiener Bonmots Waker

109 Die Sodbrette Schnell
polka

110 Die Schwebende Polka-
Mazurka

111 Die Sonderlinge Walzer

112 Faust Quadrille

113 Irenen Polka-Frangaise

114 Zeisserln Walzer

115 Folidion Quadrille

116 Hesperus-Ball Tanze

117 Die Laditaube Polka-
Mazurka

118 Amazonen

119 Ainaianth
Frangaise

120 Tanzrnterpellantes/

121

4 29?

Three'ljttarter Time

122 Lieb' und Wein - Polka-
Frangaise

123 Angelika Polka-Frangaise

124 Gliickskinder - Walzer

125 Seraphinen Polka-
Frangaise

126 Neue Weltbiirger Walzer

127 Vorwarts! Schnellpolka

128 Freudengriiss Walzer

129 Brennende Liebe Polka-
Mazurka

130 Touristen Quadrille

131 Musenklange Walzer

132 Giinstige Prognosen
Walzer

133 Auf Ferienreisen! Schnell
polka

134 Patti Polfca-Frangaise

135 Kiinstler-Caprice Polka-
Frangaise

136 Stuimlauf-Turaer -
Schnellpolka

137 Sofien Quadrille

138 Erzherzog Viktor Marsch

139 Nonnen Walzer

140 Souvenir Polka-Frangaise

141 Streichmagnete Walzer

142 Ausstellungs Festmarsch

143 Associationen Walzer

144 Die Schiwatzerin Polka-
Mazurka

145 Capriole Schnellpolka

146 Deutscher Unions Marsoh

147 Amouretten Polka-
Frangaise

148 Edelweiss Polka-Mazurka

149 Deutsche Sympathien
Walzer

150 Wiener Couplets Walzer

151 Fantasiebadei: - Walzer

152 Rudolfsheimer Schnell-
polka

153 Petttionen - Walzer

154 Lebensgeister Polka-
Frangaise

155 Die Gazelle Polka-
Mazurka

156 Die Clienten Walzer

157 Heroldquadrille

158 Die Industriellen Walzer

159 Gablenz Marsch

160 Abendstern Polka-
Frangaise

161 Pele-mle - Schnellpolka

162 Die Zeitgenossen Walzer

163 Idylle - Polka-Mazurka

164 Dorfschwalben aus Oster-
reich Walzer

165 Fashion Polka

166 Frauenherz Polka-
Mazurka

167 Arabella - Polka

168 Les G6orgiennes, Offenbach
Operetta Quadrille

169 Turner Quadrille

170 Sport Polka

171 Einzugsmarsch

172 Herztone - Walzer

173 Geheimne Anziehungskrafte
(Dynamiden) Walzer

174 Actionen Walzer

175 Colosseum Quadrille

176 Combinations Walzer

177 Frisch auf! Polka-
Mazurka

178 Gedenkblatter - Walzer

179 Schlaraffen - Polka-
Frangaise

180 Causerie Polka-
Frangaise

J ocwc "L

REFERENCE SECTION

181 Springinsfeld Schnell-
polka

182 Mailust Polka-Frangaise

183 Stiefariitterchen Polka-
Mazurka

184 Transaktionen Walzer

185 Verliebte Augen Polka-
Frangaise

186 Prinz Eugen Marsoh

187 Flick und Flock - Quadrille
on themes from Hertel Ballets

188 Bouquet Schnellpolka

189 Heilmethoden Walzer

190 Pauline Polka-Mazurka

191 Deutsche Griisse Walzer

192 Die Spinnerin Polka-
Frangaise

193 Forever Schnellpolka

194 Expens-Noten Walzer

195 Thalia Polka-Mazurka

196 Les Bergers Quadrille on
Offenbach themes

197 Helenen Walzer

198 Vereinslieder Walzer

199 Benedik - Walzer

200 Carriere Sdmellpolfca

201 Wilde Rosen - Polka-
Mazurka

202 Die Marketenderin
Polka-Frangaise

203 Schwalbenpost Schnell
polka

204 Die Libelle Polka-
Mazurka

205 Genien Polka-Frangaise

206 Blaubart Quadrille on
Offenbach operettas

207 Friedenspalmen Walzer

208 Etiquette - Polka
Frangaise

209 Pariser Quadrille

210 Schwarzenberg Monument
Marsch

211 Farewell Schnellpolka

212 Delirien Walzer

213 Theater Quadrille

214 Marienldange Walzer

215 Arm in Arm Polka-
Mazurka

216 Jocus Polka

217 Gnomen Polka-Frangaise

218 Wiener Leben - Polka-
Frangaise

219 Allerlei Schnellpolfca

220 Hesperus Landler '

221 Die Windsbraut Schnell
polka

222 Studententraume Walzer

223 Quadrille on themes from
La Grande-D&chesse de Gerol-
stein, Offenbach

224 Quadrille on themes from
Crispino e la Comare, Ricci

225 Ungarischer Krdnungs-
marsch

226 Kronungslieder

227 Die Tanzerin PoBca-
Fran^aise

228 Viktoria Polka-Frangaise

229 Nachtschatten Polka-
Mazurka

230 Im Fluge Schnellpolka

231 In der Heimat Polka-
Mazurka

232 Herbstrosen Walza:

233 Lock PdQca-Frangaise

234 Tanzadressen Walzer

235 SpharenHange - Walzer

236 Ditihyrambe Polka-
Mazurka

237 Qallopin Schnellpolka

4 297

Time

238 Tanzregulator Polka-
Frangaise

239 Wiener Stimmen - Walzer

240 Eingesendet Schnellpolka

241 Extempore Polka-Fran-
gaise

242 Hochzeitsklange Walzer

243 Disputationen Walzer

244 Margherita Polka-Fran-
gaise

245 Plappermaulchen Schnell-
polka

246 Quadrille on themes from
Genoveva, Offenbach

247 Eile mit Weile Schnell
polka

248 Die Sirene Polka-
Mazurka

249 Wiener Fresken Walzer

250 Schiitzenmarsch

251 Die Galante Polka-
Mazurka

252 Buchstaben Polka-Fran-
gaise

253 Freigeister - Schnellpolka

254 Ernst und Humor Walzer

255 Ungarischer Kronungs-
marsch

256 P6richole Quadrille

257 Concordia Polka

258 Aquarellen Walzer

259 Vdocipfede - Schnell
polka

260 Consortien Walzer

261 Eislauf Schnellpolka

262 Neckerei Polka-Mazurka

263 Mein Lebenslauf ist Lieb*
und Lust! Walzer

264 Frohsinn Schnellpolka

265 Toto Quadrille on Offen
bach operettas

266 Die tanzende Muse Polka-
Mazurka

267 Die Nasswalderin Polka-
Mazurka

268 Andrassy Marsch

269 Feuerfest Schnellpolka

270 Aus der Feme Polka-
Mazurka

271 Ohne Sorgen Schnell
polka

272 Frohes Leben Walzer

273 En Passant Polka

274 Kiinstlergriisse Polka

275 Nilfluthen - Walzer

276 Kakadu - Quadrille

277 Frauenwiirde Walzer

278 Jockey Galopp

279 Hesperusbahnen Walzer

280 Tanzprioritaten Walzer

281 Heiterer Muth Polka

282 Die Emancipierte Polka-
Mazurka

283 Rudolf sUange - Walzer

4 298

REFERENCE SECTION

EDUARD STRAUSS

1 Ideal Polka-Frangaise

2 Die Kandidaten Walzer

3 Sonette Polka-Fran$aise

4 Gut heill Tumermarsch

5 Eldorado Polka-Fran-

6 ?

7 Mannschaft an Bord
Quadrille on operetta by Zaytz

8 Karnevalsgrusse PoBca-
Mazurka

9 Iris Polka-Frangaise

10 Fitzliputzli Quadrille on
operetta by Zaytz

11 Lebenslust Schnellpolka

12 Maskenfavorite - Polka-
Frangaise

13 Die Evolvirende Polka-
Fran$aise

14 Quadrille on Offenbach's
La Belle HeUne

15 Quadrille on Offenbach's
Gascoletto

16 Paragraphen PoBca-
Frangaise

17 Griisse an die Heimat
Polba-Frangaise f

18 Die Hesperiden - Walza:

19 Dornrdschen Polka*-
Mazurka

20 Die Gazelle Schnell
polka

21 CoKbri Polka-Frangaise

22 Piroutte Polfca-Frangaise

23 Liederkranz Quadrille on
Schubert songs

24 Quadrille on Offenbach's
La Vie Parisienne

25 Apollo Polka-Frangaise

26 Memoiren einer Ballnacht
Walzer

27 Herz an Herz Polka-
Mazurka

28 Kreuz und Quer SchneU-
polka

29 Fleurette Polka

30 Tanz-Parole Polka

31 Wiener Stereoscopen
Walzer

32 Karnevals-Blume Polka-
Mazurka

33 Studentenliebchen
Polka-Mazurka

34 Die Ballkonigin Polka-
Frangaise

35 Naditrag - Polfca-Fran-
gaise

36 Harmonie PoDca-Fran-
gaise

37 WundeAlumchen Polka
Frangaise

S8 Jugendhist PoQca-Fran-,
Qaise

39 Fareie ^ G^danken W^Izer

40 Devise
41

42 ,

299

Time

43 Froh durch die ganze
Welt! SchneUpolka

44 Lanciermarsch

45 Bahn frei! Schnellpolka-
Galopp

46 Vom Tage Polka-
Mazurka

47 In Kiinstierkreisen Polka-
Frangaise

48 Studentenstreiche Polka-
Frangaise

49 Sardanapal-Ballet Quad-
riUe

50 Sangerliebchen Polka-
Frangaise

51 Pegasusspriinger Polka-
Frangaise

52 Fllichtige SkLzzen
Walzer

53 Uber Stock und Stein
Schnellpolka

54 Die Viene Polka-Fran-
gaise

55 Eisblume Polka-Mazurka

56 Stempelfrei Polka-Fran-
gaise

57 Banditenquadiille Quad
rille on themes by Offenbach

58 Pro und Contra Polka-
Frangaise

59 Echo aus unseren 'Bergen
Folka-Frangaise

60 Con amore Polka-Fran-
caise

61 Lilienkranze - Walzer

62 Schattenquadrille Quad
rille on themes by Offenbach

63 La Gloire du Bresil -
Marche Triomphale

64 Flott - Schnellpolka

65 Deutsche Herzen Walzer

66 Serenade Polka-Mazurka

67 Von der Aula Polka-
Frangaise

68 Academische Bikger
Walzer

69 Mit der Feder! Polka-
Mazurka

70 Mit Dampf I - SchneU
polka

71 Trapezuntquadrille Quad
rille on themes by Offenbach

72 Hypothesenwalzer

73 Auf und davon! Schnell
polka

74 Fusionen Waker

75 Fesche Geister Walzer

76 Herzblattchen - Polka-
Frangaise

77 Goldfischlein - Polka-
Mazurka

78 Bruder Studio Polka-
Frangaise

79 Doctrinen Walzer

80 Ehret die Frauen Walzer

81 Weicht aus! Schnellpolka

82 Ballpromessen Walzer

83 Amors Griisse Polka-
Fran$aise

84 Liebeszauber Polka-
Frangaise

85 Soldatengriisse Polka-
Frangaise

86 Eine neue Welt! - Schnell
polka

87 Myrthenstrausschen
Walzer

88 Huldigungen Walzer

89 Colombine - Polka-
Mazurka

90 Manuscripte Walzer

300

REFERENCE SECTION

91 Pilger Quadrille on The
Pilgrims by M. Wolf

92 Quadrille on themes from
Le Corsair Noir by Offenbach

93 Lustig im Kreise Schnell-
polka

94 Javotte Quadrille from
the operetta Javotte by fimile
Jonas

95 Unter eigenem Dache
Polka-Frangaise

96 Pest-Ofener Eissport -
Galopp

97 Interpretationen Walzer

98 Ein Stuck Wien - Polka-
Frangaise

99 Madchenlaune Polka-
Mazurka

100 Nach kurzer Rast Schnell-

4t

polka

101 Studentenball-Tanze -
Walzer

102 Ein Jahr freiwillig Polka-
Frangaise

103 Expositionen Walzer

104 Stinimen aus dem Publikum
- Walzer

105 Goldchignon Quadrille
from the Jonas operetta

106 Laut und traut - Polka-
Mazurka

107 Wiener Weltausstellungs-
marsch

108 Wo man lacht und lebt
Schnellpolka

109 Kaiser Franz-Josefs
Jubilaum Marsch

110 Angot Quadrille from
Mtfmsette Angot, Lecocq

111 Theorien Walzer

112 Ohne Aufenthalt Schnell
polka

113 Aulalieder - Walzer

114 Die Hochquelle - Polka-
Mazurka

115 Flottes Leben - Polka-
Frangaise

116 Die Abonnenten Polka-
Frangaise

117 Der Konig hat's gesagt -
Quadrille on Le Roi I'a dit,
Delibes

118 In Lieb' entbrannt
Polka-Frangaise

119 Augensprache Polka-
Frangaise

120 Weyprecht-Payer Marsch

121 Unter der Enns Schnell
polka

122 Girofl< - Quadrille on
themes from Lecocq operettas

123 Girofl<-Girofla - Walzer on
themes from Lecocq operettas

124 Fidele Burschen - Walzer

125 Tour und retour Polka-
Frangaise

126 Aus dem Rechtsleben
Walzer

127 Alpenrose Polka-
Mazurka

128 Kleine Chronik - Schnell
polka

129 Marzvdlchen - PoJka-
Frangaise

130 Bssere Zeiten Walzer

131 Herz und Welt - Polka-
Mazurka

132 Knall und Fall - Schuell-
polka

133 Fantasia fiber neuare
Deutsche Ueder

4 301

Three-quarter Time

134 Carmen Quadrille on
themes from Bizet's opera

135 Aus Lieb* zu ihr! - Polka-
Frangaise

136 Fatinitza Quadrille on
themes from von Supp#s
operetta

137 Verdichte Walzer

138 tJber Feld und Wiese -
Schnellpolka

139 Bliimchen-Tausendschon
Polka

140 Von Land zu Land
Polka-Frangaise

141 Aus der Studienzeit
Walzer

142 Aus der Visur Polka-
Frangaise

143 Consequenzen Walzer

144 Gruss an Prag Polka-
Frangaise

145 Schon Rotraut Polka-
Mazurka

146 Souvenir de Bade
Schnellpolka

147 Fatinitza Walzer on
themes from von Supp6*s
operetta

148 Graziella Quadrille on
themes from Lecocq's opera

149 Dr. Piccolo Quadrille on
themes from Lecocq's operetta

150 Das Lehen ist doch schon
Walzer

151 Seekadett - Quadrille on
theme's from Genre's operetta

152 Treuliebchen Polka-
Frangaise

153 Mit frohem Muth und
faeiter'm Sinn Walzer

154 Brausteufelchen Galopp

155 Marchen aus der Heimat
Walzer

156 Ballade Polka-Mazurka

157 Schneesternchen Polka-
Frangaise

158 Gefliigelte Worte - Walzer

159 Saat und Ernte Schnell
polka

160 Liebesbotschaft Polka-
Mazurka

161 Leuchikaferln Walzer

162 Opern-Soir<e Polka-
Frangaise j

163 Teufels Quadrille on
themes from von Supp6*s Der
Teufel aus Erden

164 Nuetzt das freie Leben!

Walzer

165 Telephon Polka-Frangaise

166 Reiselust Polka-Frangaise

167 BaU-Chronik - Waker

168 Ausser Rand und Band

Schnellpolka

169 Mossroschen Polka-
Frangaise

170 Traumgebilde Walzer

171 Gruss an Stockholm
Polka-Frangaise

172 Wien iiber AUes - Schnell
polka

173 Herzblattchen - Quadrille
on themes from von Supp6*s
operettas

174 Mit der Stromung
Polka-Mazurka

175 Boccaccio Walzer on
themes from von Supp^'s
operetta

176 Po6sie tind Prosa Polka-
Mazurka

177 Lustf ahrten * Walzer

REFERENCE SECTION

178 Rundgesange Walzer

179 Pfeilschnell - Sohnellpolka

180 Boccaccio Quadrille on
themes from von Supp6*s
operetta

181 En miniature Polka-
Mazurka

182 Souvenir de Dresde Polka-
Frangaise

183 Un petit rien

184 Terpsichore Polka-
Frangaise

185 Feuerfunken Walzer

186 Hectograph Schnellpolka

187 Still und bewegt - Polka-
Frangaise

188 Freie Lieder - Walzer

189 Originalbericht - Polka-
Frangaise

190 Juanita Walzer

191 Juanita - Quadrille

192 Fleur rouniaine Polka-
Frangaise

193 Nisida Walzer on themes
from Genre's operetta

194 HerzenVTelegraf
Polka-Mazurka

195 Bemooste Haupter Walzer

196 Passe partout Sehnell-
polka

197 Je pense a toi PoDca-
Frangalse

198 Glockensignale Walzer

199 Ptobenummer Walzer

200 Krone und Schleier
Wdzer

201 Mit zartem Kolorit -
Polka-Mazurka

202 Wo Lust und Freude
wohnen

203 Faschingsbrief Polka-
Frangais

204 Schneewittchen - Polka-
Mazurka

205 Lebende Blumen Walzer

206 Lustig und durstig
Schnellpolka

207 Heitere Weisen - Walzer

208 Die Traumerin - Poflca-
Mazurka

209 Quadrille on themes from
Der Heine Prmz, by A. Miiller,
Jr.

210 Jugendfeuer Schnellpolka

211 Osterreichs Volker-Treue
Marsch

212 Bettelstudent Quadrille
on themes from Millocker's
operetta

213 Karnevalstudien Walzer

214 Vergniigungsanzeiger
Polka-Frangaise

215 Nixenreigen Polka-
Mazurka

216 Gliihlichter - Walzer

217 Witzblitz - Galopp

218 GemiitsweUe Polka-
Mazurka

219 Quadrille on themes from
Die Afrikareise by von Supp6

220 Jubelfanf aren - Walzer

221 Mit chic - Galopp

222 Quadrille on themes iran
Gasparone by Mffloeker

223 Gh&re amie - Polka-

224 Bei Sing-Sang und Bech-
erldang Walzer

225 Organ fur Tanzlustige

Time

226 Schmeichelkatzchen -
Polka-Mazurka

227 Lustige G'sdhichten
Walzer

228 Mit Vergniigen Galopp

229 Gruss an Budapest
Polka-Frangaise

230 Mein Lieblingsbliimchen
Polka-Mazurka

231 Im Flug mit ihr - Schnell-
polka

232 LandesMnder - Walzer

233 Griisse an der Aula
Walzer

234 Kunstnotiz - Polka-

235 Liebeszeichen Polka-
Mazurka

236 Stelldichein - Polka-
Frangaise

237 Wiener Dialekt - Walzer

238 Ohne Bremse Schnell-
polka

239 ?

240 Don C6sar - Quadrille on
themes from Bellinger's oper
etta

241 Um die Wette - Galopp

242 Widmungsblatter - Walzer

243 Spriihfeuer - SchneUpolka

244 Denkspriiche Walzer

245 Lyra Polka-Frangaise

246 Der Rose Erwachen
Polka-Mazurka

247 Tagesrapport - Polka-
Frangaise

248 ^eitvertreib - Galopp

249 Freudensalven Walzer

250 Centifolie - Polka-Mazurka

251 Wer tanzt mir? - Galopp

252 Heimische Klange - Walzer

253 Karnevals-Bulletin Polka-
Frangaise

254 Blauauglein - Polka-
Frangaise

255 Fur lustige Leut' Walzer

256 In Banden der Leibe
Polka-Mazurka

257 Fliichtiger als Wind und
Welle Galopp

258 Blumensprache Polka-
Mazurka

259 Mit Extrapost Galopp

260 Aus den schlesischen
Bergen Polka-Mazurka

261 Als ich dich sah: Es war'
vor langen Jahren Song with
Piano Accompaniment

262 O schone Jugendzeit
Polka-Frangaise

263 ?

264 ?

265 ?

266 ?

267 ?

268 ?

269 ?

270 ?

271 P

272 Myrthenzauber Walzer

273 ?

274 ?

275 P

276 ?

277 ?

278 ?

279 ?

280 P

281 ?

282 ?

283 ?

284 ?

REFERENCE SECTION

285 ? 292 Bouquet o Strauss Waltzes

286 ? in Chronological Order from

287 ? 1844 to the Present

288 ? 293 Tanz-Gandidaten Walzer

289 ? 294 Aus dem Kunstler-Alburn

290 Hochzeitslieder Walzer Polka Frangaise

291 Wiener Type Polka 295 Die Jubilanten Walzer
Frangaise

WORKS WRITTEN JOINTLY BY JOHANN AND JOSEF .STRAUSS:

Pizzicato Polka

Hinter den Kulissen Quadrille
Vaterlandischer Marsch
Monstre Quadrille

WORKS WRITTEN JOINTLY BY JOHANN, JOSEF AND EDXJARD STRAUSS:

Trif olien Walzer
Schiitzen Quadrille

Time

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS

(In German)
Ludwig Eisenberg
Ernst Decsey
R. F. von Prochaska
Richard Specht
F. Lange
K. Kobald
Siegfried Lowy
Ignaz Schnitzer
H. Siindermann
M. Kronberg
W. Jaspert

Adele Strauss

K. Hushke
A. Witeschnik
Eduard Strauss
Max Herzig

(In English)
H. E. Jacob
Ada B. Alcott
David Ewen
Karl Geiringer
Bertita Harding
$. Kracauer

Jdhann Strauss, em Lebensbfid

Jdhann Strauss, ein Wiener Buck

Johann Strauss

Johann Strauss

Johann Strauss

Johann Strauss

Rund um Johann Strauss

Meister Johann (2 vols.)

Johann Strauss, ein Vollender

Johann Strauss

Johann Strauss, sein Leben,

sein Werk, seine Zeit
Johann Strauss schreibt Briefe

(Letters of Johann Strauss)
Unsere Tonmeister untereinander, Vol. V
Die Di/nastie Strauss
Erinnerungen
Viribus Unitis ; Das Buch vom Kaiser

Johann Strauss, Father and Son

The Waltz Kings of Old Vienna

Musical Vienna

Brahms, his Life and Work

The Golden Fleece

Orpheus in Paris

(The Life and Times of Offenbach)

306

REFERENCE SECTION

ARTICLES

(In German)

As Others See Us, by Eduard Strauss

A Glance at the New World, by E. Strauss

(In English)

Johann Strauss, a Biography

Johann Strauss and his Influence

Eduard Strauss in Boston, clippings of 1890

CATALOGUES, ETC.

Wiener Tagelilatt,
February 3rd, 1891

Musical Times, 1901
Musical Times, 1894
File, Boston Public
Library

(In German)
Chr. Flamme

(In French)
Riemann

(In English)

Baker

J. W. McSpadden

R. D. Darrell

George Leslie
Boston Public Library:

McMillan

Verzeichnis samtlicher Kompositionen von
Johann Strauss (Voter), Johann Strauss (Safen),
Josef Strauss und Eduard Strauss

Dictionnaire de Musique

Biographical Dictionary of Muscians
Light Opera and Musical Comedy
The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia

of Recorded Music 1936 Edition
The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia

of Recorded Music 1942 Edition
Programs World's Peace Jubilee

and International Music Festival,

June 17th - July 4th, 1872.
Jubilee Sheet, June 17th, 1872,

Boston Transcript
Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians

10009