Johann Strauss II
Composer

A Banker in the Making, Or So My Father Hoped

I was born on 25 October 1825 in St Ulrich, a district just outside Vienna, into a house where my father, Johann Strauss I, was already a well-known composer. You'd expect him to hand me a violin straight away, but he wanted me to become a banker and wanted nothing to do with a musical career for me. I studied counterpoint and harmony with Joachim Hoffmann, which is the rulebook for how melodies fit together, and I had violin lessons from Anton Kollmann. The story goes that my father was furious when he caught me practising in secret, though nobody has ever been able to confirm it.

Hello, Hietzing

In October 1844 I stepped up at Dommayer's Casino in Hietzing and conducted my own early pieces, my Opp. 1, 3 and 4. A casino in those days was a place for dancing and refreshments, so the audience had come to enjoy an evening out and not to study a young man's career. That suited me well, because I wanted my music to make people want to get up and move. From that evening on I was a composer and conductor with my own orchestra, and my father's banking plans for me were finished.

Vienna, With a Side Trip to Russia

Vienna was my home and my workplace, a city that loved to dance and always had room for one more waltz. In 1863 I became k.k. Hofballmusikdirektor, which means I was in charge of the music at the emperor's court balls. My brothers Josef and Eduard became composers too, so our family business was well supplied with notes. Beginning in 1856 I also spent summers at the Vauxhall in Pavlovsk, in Russia, and I kept going back until 1865.

The Danube Turns Blue

The Blue Danube is the piece most people know me for, and it did not start out the way you might think. I first wrote it as a choral work for the Wiener Männergesang-Verein, and when it was performed on 15 February 1867 it was only a mild success. So I rewrote it as a purely orchestral piece for the 1867 World's Fair in Paris, and there the audience loved it. In 1872 I conducted it in Boston at the World's Peace Jubilee with more than 1,000 performers, which was a lot of people to keep together on one waltz.

Three Weddings and a Change of Religion

My private life was a good deal more complicated than my waltzes. I married three times: Henriette "Jetty" Treffz in 1862, Angelika Dittrich in 1878, and Adele Deutsch in 1887. Jetty died in 1878, and my marriage to Angelika ended in divorce in 1882, but the Catholic Church would not annul it. So I changed religion and in January 1887 became a citizen of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, all so that I could marry again.

A Friend Named Brahms

In my later years I had a close friend in Johannes Brahms, who was a very different kind of composer from me. I dedicated my waltz Seid umschlungen, Millionen! (Op. 443) to him, which was my way of saying thank you. I died in Vienna on 3 June 1899 of pleuropneumonia, at the age of 73. I was buried in the Zentralfriedhof, the Vienna Central Cemetery.

The Waltz King Leaves the Room

During my lifetime people called me the "Waltz King," and I admit the title was a pleasure to carry. I took a dance that people already knew and made it a piece of music worth sitting down and listening to. My waltzes are still played and loved long after the ballrooms I wrote them for have changed. A tune written for a Viennese evening has travelled a long way, and it still does what I meant it to do.

What I Hope You Take Home

I'd like you to hear The Blue Danube and notice how gently it begins, with a quiet shimmer before the melody arrives. Then let the waltz rhythm carry you, one, two, three, one, two, three, whether you're standing up or sitting down. You don't need to know anything about classical music to enjoy it, because I wrote it for people who simply wanted a good evening. If it makes you smile or sway a little, then I've done my job.