A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Strauss, Johann
STRAUSS, Johann, composer of dance-music of world-wide celebrity, born in Vienna, March 14, 1804. As a child he showed talent for music, and a love for the violin, but his parents, small innkeepers, apprenticed him to a bookbinder, from whom he ran away. A friend met him, took him back, and persuaded the parents to entrust him with the boy's education as a musician. With the son of this benefactor the little Strauss learnt the violin from Polyschansky, afterwards studying harmony and instrumentation with Seyfried. He soon played the viola in string-quartets at private houses, and at fifteen entered Pamer's orchestra at the 'Sperl,' a favourite place of amusement in the Leopoldstadt. At that time the excellent playing of Lanner and the brothers Drahanek was exciting attention; Strauss offered himself, and was accepted as fourth in the little band. Soon, however, their numbers had to be increased to meet their numerous engagements, and Strauss acted as deputy-conductor till 1825, when he and Lanner parted. In the Carnival of 1826 Strauss and his little orchestra of fourteen performers appeared in the hall of the 'Swan' in the Rossau suburb, and took the hearts of the people by storm. His op. 1, the 'Tauberl-Walzer' (Haslinger), was speedily followed by others, the most successful being the 'Kettenbrücken-Walzer,' called after the Hall of that name. Strauss was next invited to return with his now enlarged orchestra to the Sperl, and to induce the proprietor, Scherzer, to engage him for six years, which virtually founded the reputation of the 'Sperl,' and its orchestral conductor. Meantime Strauss was appointed Capellmeister of the 1st Bürger-regiment, and entrusted with the music at the court fêtes and balls. As his band was daily in request at several places at once, he increased the number to over 200, from which he formed a select body for playing at concerts, in music of the highest class. He now began to make tours in the provinces and abroad, visiting Pesth in 1833; Berlin, Leipzig, and Dresden in 1834; West Germany in 1835; and North Germany, Holland, Belgium, and the Rhine, in 1836. His next tour began in October 1837, and embraced Strassburg, Paris, Rouen, Havre, Belgium, London, and the larger towns of Great Britain; he then returned to Belgium, and back to England and Scotland, and finally returned over the Continent by Strassburg, reaching Vienna in December 1838 in very bad health. His success in Paris was unprecedented, notwithstanding the formidable rivalry of Musard and Dufresne, with the former of whom he wisely joined for a series of thirty concerts. A disagreeable intrigue nearly made him throw up the journey to England, but it was only there that his profits at all remunerated him for his enormous expenses. In London he played at seventy-two concerts, and at innumerable balls and fetes given in honour of the Queen's coronation (June 28, 1838). On his second visit he had great difficulty in keeping his band from dispersing, so weary were they of continual travelling. He managed, however, to go again to Birmingham, Liverpool, and Dublin, besides visiting Reading, Cheltenham, Worcester, Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, and Sheffield. At Sheffield his receipts were small, and at Halifax still less, but when the amateurs of both places discovered the kind of musician they had been neglecting, a deputation was sent with post-horses to Leeds to bring him back again. He was taken ill at Derby, and only reached Vienna with great difficulty. His first reappearance at the Sperl was quite a popular fête. On May 5, 1840, he conducted for the first time in the Imperial Volksgarten, which was crowded whenever his band performed, Strauss now introduced the quadrille, which he had studied in Paris, in place of the galop. His first work of the kind was the 'Wiener Carneval-Quadrille' (op. 124). Henceforward, except waltzes—among which the 'Donau-lieder' (op. 127) are still played he composed only quadrilles, polkas, and marches, including the favourite 'Radetzky-March.' On April 16, 1843, he and the band of his old Bürger-regiment accompanied the body of his old colleague Lanner to the grave. An excursion to Olmütz, Troppau, etc., in the autumn of 1844, was succeeded in the next autumn by one to Dresden, Magdeburg, and Berlin, where he was immensely fêted. The king appeared in person at Kroll's Garden, and invited Strauss to play at the palace. The Prince of Prussia, the present Emperor of Germany, ordered a performance at Kroll's by more than 200 bandsmen, conducted by the Capellmeister General Wipprecht, before Strauss and his orchestra, when the royal princes, the generals, and the pick of the nobility, attended. On his departure a grand torchlight procession and serenade were given in his honour. On his return to Vienna he was made conductor of the court-balls. In the autumn of 1846 he went to Silesia, and the year following again to Berlin and Hamburg, where he revenged himself for some slights caused by professional jealousy by giving a concert for the poor. He returned to Vienna by Hanover, Magdeburg, and Berlin. During the stormy days of March 1848 he did homage to the spirit of the times in the titles of his pieces, but Strauss was at heart a Viennese of the olden time, a fact which caused him much unpleasantness on his next tour, in 1849, by Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfort, and the Rhine, Brussels, and England. He stayed in London and the provinces from April to July. After a brilliant farewell-concert he was accompanied down the Thames by a fleet of boats, one of which contained a band playing the popular air, 'So leb' denn wohl du stilles Haus,' from Raimund's 'Verschwender.' In the midst of this gay scene poor Strauss was oppressed with a presentiment that he should never revisit London. Shortly after his return to Vienna he was taken ill with scarlet fever, to which he succumbed on the fourth day, Sept. 25, 1849. With him departed a feature of Viennese life, and that the people themselves felt this was shown by the vast concourse at his funeral. A Requiem was performed in his honour on October 11 by his own band, and the Männergesangverein of Vienna, the solos being sung by Mesdames Hasselt and Ernst, Aloys Ander and Staudigl, all from the court opera. Strauss married, in 1824, Anna Streim, daughter of an innkeeper, who bore him five children, Johann, Joseph, Eduard, Anna, and Therese. They separated after eighteen years, on the ground of incompatibility of temper. There are numerous portraits from which an idea can be gathered of Strauss's personal appearance. Though small he was well made and distinguished-looking, with a singularly formed head. His dress was always neat and well chosen. Though lively in company he was naturally rather silent. From the moment he took his violin in his hand he became another man, his whole being seeming to expand with the sounds he drew from it.
As an artist he furnished many pleasant hours to thousands, and high and low combined to do him honour, while great masters like Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, and Cherubini, acknowledged his talent. He raised dance-music to a higher level than it had ever reached before, and invested his copious melodies with all the charm of brilliant instrumentation. Full of fire, life, and boisterous merriment, they contrasted well with Lanner's softer and more sentimental airs, and must be judged by a totally different standard from that of mere dance-music. As a conductor it was his constant endeavour to mingle classical names in his programmes, and thus to exercise an elevating influence on the masses. His works, published almost entirely by Haslinger, number 251, and comprise 152 waltzes, 24 galops, 6 cotillons and contredanses, 32 quadrilles, 13 polkas, and 18 marches, including some without opus-numbers. The bulk of these have made, so to speak, the tour of the world; each new waltz was in its way an event, not only in Vienna, but wherever the first printed copies penetrated. Innumerable pens, including those of poets, celebrated his works, and the stage itself took part in the general homage, 'Strauss and Lanner' being the title of a one-act comedy by Töpfer, and a three-act piece by Anton Langer.
Of his three sons, the eldest, Johann, scarcely less gifted than his father, was born in Vienna, October 25, 1825. In accordance with the father's wish that none of his sons should adopt his own line of life, Johann, after finishing his education at the Gymnasium and Polytechnic Institute, became a clerk in the savings' bank, although he had, with his mother's help, long taken lessons in secret on the violin, and even studied composition with Drechsler. When only six he composed, at Salmannsdorf near Vienna, where the family used to spend the summer, his first waltz, which was performed on his fiftieth birthday as 'Erster Gedanke.' The constraint put upon him became at length unbearable, and on October 15, 1844, he first appeared as a conductor at Dommayer's, at Hietzing, playing compositions of his own, and his father's 'Loreley Walzer.' His success on that occasion decided his future career. After his father's death he incorporated the two bands, and made a tour to the country towns of Austria, Warsaw, and the more important towns of Germany. He also undertook for ten years the direction of the summer concerts in the Petropaulowski Park at St. Petersburg. In 1862 he married the popular singer Henriette ('Jetty') Treffz, and in 1863 became conductor of the court balls. This post he resigned after his brilliant success on the stage, but he had in the meantime composed nearly 400 waltzes, of as high a type as those of his father. His music is penetrated with Viennese gaiety and spirit, and has made its way into all countries. The waltz, 'An der schonen blauen Donau' (op. 314), became a kind of musical watchword in Vienna, and was played on all festive occasions. Besides Russia, Strauss visited Paris (during the Exhibition of 1867), London, New York, Boston, and the larger towns of Italy. The theatre An der Wien was the scene of his triumphs as a composer of operettas, which rapidly spread to all the theatres, large and small. 'Indigo und die vierzig Räuber' (his first, 1871), 'Der Karneval in Rom,' 'Die Fledermaus,' 'Prinz Methusalem,' 'Cagliostro,' 'Das Spitzentuch der Königin,' and 'Die lustige Krieg,' all published by Spina, were soon known all over the world, and were sung everywhere. After the death of his wife on April 8, 1878, he married another dramatic singer, Angelica Dittrich. His pen is still busy (1883), and we may hope for more of its lively productions. [App. p.797 "Add to list of operas, 'Blindekuh' (1878), 'Das Spitzentuch der Königin' (1880), 'Eine Nacht in Venedig' (1883), 'Der Zigeunerbaron' (1885), 'Simplicius' (1887)."]
His next brother, Joseph, born August 22, 1827, in Vienna, was also obliged to accommodate himself to his father's wishes, and became an architect. He had, however, studied music in secret, and during an illness of his brother's in 1853 he conducted for him with a baton, as he did not learn the violin till later. He next collected a band, began to compose, and published in rapid succession 283 works (Haslinger and Spina) not less popular than those of his brother—indeed ranked by some even higher. He had always been delicate, and the excitement incidental to his calling increased the mischief year by year. A visit to Warsaw in 1870, against the wish of his friends, was very disastrous. Some Russian officers, having sent for him in the middle of the night to play for them, so shamefully ill-treated him for his refusal that he had to take to his bed. Under the devoted nursing of his wife (married in 1857) he rallied sufficiently to return to Vienna, but sank a few days afterwards, July 22, 1870.
The youngest of his brothers, Eduard, was born at Vienna, Feb. 14, 1835, and educated at the Schotten and Akademien Gymnasiums. His father having died before he grew up he devoted himself entirely to music, learnt the harp, and studied composition with Preyer. In 1862 he made his first appearance as a conductor in the Dianasaal, and was well received for his father's sake. In 1865 he took his brother Johann's place at the concerts in St. Petersburg, and in 1870 became conductor of the court balls. He and his band have made repeated tours to Dresden, Leipzig, Breslau, Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfort, etc. He still appears regularly in Vienna on fixed days at the Volksgarten, and in the winter in the large hall of the Musikverein, when his programmes are always attractive. Up to this time he has composed over 200 pieces of dance-music, published by Haslinger, and latterly, with few exceptions, by Spina (Schreiber). Eduard Strauss married in 1863. [App. p.797 "Add that Eduard Strauss brought his orchestra to the Inventions Exhibition in 1885, when the daily concerts created a furore in London."]