2025-26 Program Book - Other - Page 23
Tales from the Vienna Woods, Op. 325 (1868)
JOHANN BAPTIST STRAUSS, JR.
(October 25, 1825-June 3, 1899)
Johann Baptist Strauss, Jr.’s father, Johann Baptist
Strauss, Sr. (1804-1849) became interested in music
at a young age, studying violin and working his way
into the social circles of Vienna. Scholars identify him
as one of the first conductors to take dance music
on tour, beginning in the mid-1830s, to enhance his
reputation. He was immediately successful and in
1846 he was given the honorary title of HofballmusikDirektor for Austria.
Johann Sr. was also an astute businessman and an
excellent showman, equally adept at composing
appealing waltzes, compiling delightful programs,
and putting on a show that was attractive to various
social circles. He passed these abilities on to three
of his sons, Johann Jr., Josef, and Eduard, each of
whom eventually led their own dance orchestras.
Though his father really wanted him to have a career in banking, Johann Jr. (also
known as Johann II, Johann the Son, and Johann the Younger) decided in the
early 1840s that he would follow in the family business. He studied violin and
composition with members of his father’s orchestra and other Vienna musicians,
and absorbed all he could from his father. Johann Jr.’s first important compositions
appear in the early 1850s, and by the mid-1860s, he had established himself as
Europe’s leading composer of dance music.
The waltz originated in the peasant dances of southern Germany. Composers
would normally chain together seven or eight unrelated waltzes without
introduction or coda. Johann Jr. used this foundation to extend the forms,
orchestrating almost symphonically and expanding the waltz themes melodically
and harmonically to produce a more organic musical composition.
Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald [Tales from the Vienna Woods] is one of six
Viennese waltzes that feature the zither, a folk instrument with a series of tuned
strings stretched across a hollow wooden box. Some have fretted fingerboards,
like a guitar, and can be strummed or plucked to play melodies or accompany.
Strauss’s introduction opens with pastoral calls in the winds contrasted with
heavier dance rhythms in the brass.
CLASSICAL SERIES BEETHOVEN'S SIXTH SYMPHONY 23
