Strauss Johann Free Sheet Music, Program Notes, Recordings and Biography

Detailed Biography

The Waltz King: The Man Who Set Vienna's Pulse to a Three-Four Time

When the celebrated composer Johann Strauss I discovered his son secretly practicing the violin, he was furious. He had the instrument confiscated, declaring that the boy would be a banker, not a musician. The elder Strauss, a titan of Vienna's dance music scene, saw his own profession as grueling and financially precarious, and he wanted a more stable life for his child. He could not have known that this act of fatherly concern would ignite a rebellion that would not only eclipse his own monumental fame but would also create the single most enduring musical dynasty in history. The boy, Johann Strauss II, would not be a banker; he would be a king.

Early Life and a Father's Decree

Born in 1825 into a home pulsating with music, Johann Strauss II, affectionately known as "Schani," was seemingly destined for the stage. His father was the most famous composer and conductor in Vienna, a city obsessed with dancing. The Strauss Orchestra was an institution, and the elder Strauss's waltzes and marches were the soundtrack to Viennese life. Yet, despite this environment, Johann Strauss I was adamant that none of his sons—Johann, Josef, or Eduard—would follow in his footsteps. Young Johann was enrolled in business school, his future seemingly set in ledgers and accounts.

But the musical pull was too strong. With the covert support of his mother, Anna, Johann II took secret violin lessons from Franz Amon, the leader of his father's orchestra. He studied composition with Joseph Drechsler, who famously remarked, "He has a great gift... It is a pity that he is not yet able to do anything with it." This clandestine education continued until his father discovered the violin and put a temporary end to it. The conflict was exacerbated by his father's long-standing affair, which led to Anna Strauss leaving him in 1842. Now free from her husband's direct control, Anna fully supported her son's ambitions. At seventeen, Johann II devoted himself entirely to becoming a professional musician.

The Rival Son

By the age of nineteen, Johann Strauss II was ready to make his debut. He assembled his own small orchestra and secured a booking at Dommayer's Casino in Hietzing, a popular Viennese establishment. The debut on October 15, 1844, was the talk of the town. The press billed it as a David-and-Goliath showdown: "Rejoice, Viennese—Your Strauss is Back!" vs. "Strauss Father vs. Strauss Son." The elder Strauss, furious at the challenge, used his influence to blacklist his son from many of the city's premier venues. But the public was captivated by the rivalry and flocked to hear the younger composer. His music was perceived as fresher, more harmonically complex, and more rhythmically vibrant than his father's. The evening was a resounding triumph, with his works being encored multiple times.

For the next few years, father and son were direct competitors. Their rivalry played out against the backdrop of political turmoil. During the Revolutions of 1848, the conservative Johann Strauss I remained loyal to the Habsburg monarchy, composing the famous Radetzky March. The younger, more rebellious Johann II sided with the revolutionaries, a decision that temporarily hindered his career after the monarchy crushed the uprising. Fate intervened tragically in 1849 when Johann Strauss I died suddenly from scarlet fever. At just twenty-three, his son was faced with a momentous decision. In a brilliant move of reconciliation and business acumen, he merged his orchestra with his father's, creating a single, unparalleled musical force.

King of the Dance Halls

With his competition gone and Vienna's finest musicians under his baton, Johann Strauss II's reign truly began. The 1850s and 1860s were a period of tireless work and meteoric success. He and his brothers, Josef Strauss (a reluctant but brilliant composer) and Eduard Strauss, shared conducting duties, allowing the Strauss Orchestra to fulfill multiple engagements on the same night. Johann II's fame spread across Europe. He undertook grueling tours to Russia, where he commanded enormous fees and became a celebrated figure in St. Petersburg society. He toured England and France, and in 1872, he accepted a lucrative invitation to the World's Peace Jubilee in Boston, where he famously conducted a colossal orchestra of 2,000 musicians and a choir of 20,000 singers in a performance of The Blue Danube.

His compositional output during this era was astonishing. He perfected the waltz form, transforming it from a simple dance tune into a sophisticated tone poem with an extended introduction, a series of contrasting waltz sections, and a grand coda that reprised the main themes. Works like Tales from the Vienna Woods, Vienna Blood, and Emperor Waltz became international sensations. He also penned dozens of polkas, quadrilles, and marches that sparkled with wit and invention, such as the Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka and the dramatic Thunder and Lightning Polka. He was the undisputed "Waltz King," a global celebrity whose melodies were known from the ballrooms of Vienna to the salons of Paris and the concert halls of America.

A New Stage: The World of Operetta

By the late 1860s, the waltz craze was beginning to plateau, and Strauss was looking for a new challenge. The light, satirical operettas of Parisian composer Jacques Offenbach were wildly popular in Vienna, and Strauss's first wife, the savvy former singer Henrietta Treffz, urged him to try his hand at the stage. Though initially hesitant, Strauss eventually found his footing in the genre. After a couple of modest successes, he produced his crowning theatrical achievement in 1874: Die Fledermaus (The Bat). This masterpiece of sparkling melodies, intricate ensembles, and comedic genius became the quintessential Viennese operetta, a staple of opera houses around the world to this day.

He followed this triumph with other successful operettas, most notably The Gypsy Baron in 1885, a work that blended Viennese charm with Hungarian folk idioms. While not all his stage works were hits, his best operettas demonstrated his supreme gift for melody and orchestration. He proved he was more than just a dance composer; he was a complete man of the theater. His work in this field deeply influenced later composers of operetta like Franz Lehár. His friend and admirer, the great symphonist Johannes Brahms, famously scrawled "Unfortunately, not by me!" under the main theme of The Blue Danube on a fan's autograph. Brahms recognized the perfect, effortless genius of Strauss's melodies, a sentiment shared by other musical titans like Richard Wagner, who, despite their vastly different styles, admired Strauss's rhythmic vitality.

Legacy of the Waltz King

Johann Strauss II died of pneumonia in 1899, just before the dawn of the 20th century. He was mourned as a national icon. His legacy is far more profound than simply being a writer of popular dance tunes. He captured the soul of 19th-century Vienna—its elegance, its joy, its nostalgia, and its "schmaltz"—and broadcast it to the world. He elevated the waltz to an art form, creating music that is equally at home in a grand ballroom or a symphony hall.

Today, his music is most famously celebrated at the annual Vienna New Year's Concert, an event televised globally that reaffirms his status as the city's most beloved musical son. From the first notes of The Blue Danube that welcome the new year to the final, rousing clap-along of his father's Radetzky March, the music of the Strauss dynasty endures. The boy who was forbidden from playing the violin ultimately gave the world a timeless soundtrack for celebration, a legacy of pure, unadulterated joy set to a perfect three-four time.

Section 4: References and Further Reading

• Fantel, Hans. The Waltz Kings: Johann Strauss, Father & Son, and Their Romantic Age. William Morrow & Company, 1972.

• Gartenberg, Egon. Johann Strauss: The End of an Era. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1974.

• Jacob, Heinrich Eduard. Johann Strauss, Father and Son: A Century of Light Music. The Greystone Press, 1940.

• Kemp, Peter. "Strauss, Johann (ii)." Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press, 2001.

• Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Routledge, 2003.