Dakota Beacon

Because it’s Sunday we get a break from the politics and news of the day.  We need now more than ever to stay in touch with our past, our culture, our arts.  They are, for us, like a lifeboat after a shipwreck.  We must not let go of these!  This week is significant in several ways, for our culture - obviously it is the weekend just before St. Patrick’s Day.  I hope you will celebrate in some special way - even if you aren’t (usually) Irish.  The Irish have made an enormous contribution to our history, our music, arts, our politics.  They have plenty of their own, so they do have an edge wherever they go.  But today is also special for another reason.  

It is the 207th birthday of a pivotal figure in music - Johann Strauss the Elder, the founder of the incredible Strauss musical dynasty.  Strauss set in motion the great tradition of Viennese music, especially the waltz, although arguably his most famous piece is a march - the Radetzky March, which, if we tune in to the Vienna New Year’s Day concerts, we will hear at the end of each of them as one of three traditional encores.  

Strauss was born in Leopoldstadt, now a part of Vienna, March 14, 1804.  His mother died when he was 7, and when he was 12, his father also died, drowning in the Danube, allegedly by suicide.  He became the ward of a tailor who apprenticed him to a bookbinder.  During this time he also studied music, for which he had passion and talent and became a member of a local orchestra directed by Michael Pamer.  Pamer had another talent on board - Joseph Lanner.  In time, Strauss and Lanner and two other musicians formed a quartet and left Pamer’s orchestra and this grew into a popular dance orchestra.  Lanner and Strauss wrote dance music which caught the fancy of the public and became a sensation in the world of Viennese balls through the celebrations of Fasching, the season of pre-Lenten balls.  He eventually broke with Lanner to form his own orchestra and although popular legend has the two as bitter rivals, they were not, according to other sources, but rather complemented each other and drove competition with each other which, in turn created even greater public interest.  

His romantic waltzes and lively polkas continued to flow from his pen and his popularity in Vienna led to opportunities to tour throughout Europe.  He married Anna Streim in 1825 but his touring caused them to drift apart and created a rift.  Although they had six children, five of which survived to adulthood - Johann (the “Younger”), Joseph, Anna, Therese and Eduard (another son, Ferdinand, died in infancy), the marriage was not a happy one and ended when one of Strauss’s mistresses, Emilie Trampusch, had his child and Anna divorced him.  

Strauss had been determined that none of his children would follow in his profession.  He reasoned that it was not a rewarding career.  Instead he tried to direct Johann II into banking, Joseph into the military and Eduard into the diplomatic corps.  When he was unable to prevent Johann’s incredible talent from taking him into the world of music he maintained a very bitter rivalry with his gifted son, even to the point of refusing ever to play at Dommayer’s Casino again just because they had given Johann II his first gig.  In time, his sons, in particular his eldest son, would eclipse their father’s fame and create a huge catalogue of great music - operettas as well as marches and dance music - “dance music” which became staples of our classical music today.  

Strauss might have given them a run for their money had he not died prematurely.  Following the 1848 revolution, in which he became drawn into the Emperor’s camp (although he was not interested in politics himself), the music world of Vienna took a hit and it took some time to recover.  Strauss had written a composition which ended up dedicated to a General Radetzky.  A year later he was dead, of scarlet fever, at age 45, leaving a heritage of beautiful music and turning Vienna to its own unique path in the history of music.  Today most of us are more familiar with the music of Johann II and his two brothers - Joseph, in particular.  

The composer and musician who tried to reject a musical career for any of his children in fact founded a musical dynasty which survives today.  Although Johann did not have children of his own and Joseph, too, died very young, Eduard’s son Johann III carried on the family’s tradition, fronting an orchestra.  His son, Eduard continued, recording his famous family’s music.  Today the family is represented by the lead guitarist for Alice Cooper - Nita Strauss.  And of course, Strauss’s music lives on.  Despite the fact that his sons’ music eventually became more well known than his own, it was Johann Strauss I who was the fire in the engine of the Viennese musical, waltz tradition.  Without his innovation in conceiving his music as a commodity to be sold to the public, without his vigorous pursuit of his art, his drive and energy, we would not have had the contributions of the many who have followed, from Franz Lehar to Romberg to Friml to Oscar Strauss (not related). We must pause to thank Johann Strauss the Elder for founding one of our most enduring and beautiful musical traditions.  You really cannot hear a Viennese waltz and not smile.

Here are a few of his contributions.  Imagine yourself in a Viennese ballroom c. 1835:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpx6mG1atdU&list=PLiX1X5SfPQM5JeelDSmmuko5hm3eIxz0-

Happy Birthday, Johann!

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