Page 180 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

178

AND THE DANCERS

WHIRL AROUND GAILY

IN THE WALTZ’S

GIDDY MAZES

THE BLUE DANUBE (1867), JOHANN STRAUSS II

ne of the most instantly Europe’s ballrooms. Couples held
IN CONTEXT recognizable waltzes ever one another face to face as they
O written, An der schönen, twirled around the floor, in contrast
FOCUS blauen Donau (By the Beautiful to the stately minuets and other
19th-century waltz music
Blue Danube) was first performed in French-style court dances that
BEFORE Vienna in February 1867 as a choral the waltz was starting to replace.
1819 Carl Maria von Weber’s piece, conducted by its Austrian By the early 1800s, the waltz had
Invitation to the Dance is composer, Johann Strauss II. spread throughout Europe, with
the first waltz written for Comprising five interlinked waltz Vienna as its capital. Invigorated
concert performance rather themes, it was designed to lift the first by Johann Strauss I, then his
than dancing. spirit of the Austrian nation after son, it became the signature
its defeat by Prussia in the Seven dance of the 19th century. ■
1823 Schubert writes Valses Weeks’ War. It was, however, the
sentimentales, a collection of purely orchestral version, premiered
34 waltzes for solo piano. in Paris later that year, that took
off. The lilting beauty of Strauss’s
1834 Chopin’s Grande valse melodies made the piece beloved
brillante is the first of his solo the world over.
piano waltzes to be published. Waltzes have their roots in
AFTER the country dances of southern
1877 Tchaikovsky’s Swan Germany, Bohemia, and Austria.
Lake is one of many late From the mid-1700s, more refined
19th-century ballets and versions, with a distinctive triple
beat, started to become popular in
operas that feature waltzes.
1911 Maurice Ravel publishes A statue of “The Waltz King”
a suite of waltzes, Valses playing the violin stands in Stadtpark,
nobles et sentimentales. Vienna. As a child, Strauss practiced
the violin secretly, as his musician
1919–1920 Ravel composes La father wanted him to become a banker.
valse, about the rise and fall of
the waltz as a musical genre. See also: Le bourgeois gentilhomme 70–71 ■ Water Music 84–89 ■ Symphonie
fantastique 162–163 ■ The Nutcracker 190–191

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