The name of Strauss bids fair to become as numerously represented in the
annals of Nineteenth Century music as was that of Bach in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries; with this difference, however, that while the
Bachs were all of one family, three of the Strausses who have become
sufficiently famous to win a place in the musical dictionaries are not
related to the other three or four. It is with those that _are_ related,
the family of Johann Strauss, the Viennese "Waltz-King," that this article
is concerned.
A few years ago (1887) the famous Leipsic publishing house of Breitkopf
and Härtel commenced the issue of a complete collection of the waltzes,
polkas, and other dance pieces of the elder Johann Strauss. The first
volume has an interesting though brief biographic sketch by Johann
Strauss, Jr., who relates some of his personal reminiscences of his
father, besides other facts previously known to the public. "My father,"
he says in the opening paragraph, "was a musician by the grace of God. Had
he not been guided by an inner, irresistible impulse, the difficulties
which confronted him in his youth would have pushed him into another path."
It is interesting to note how this "impulse" would have its own way, as in
the case of other famous musicians, notwithstanding parental opposition.
Strauss was born at Vienna on March 14, 1804. When he was a mere child
he used to amuse himself (as Haydn had done in his childhood) by taking
two sticks and imitating the movements of a fiddler. Great was his joy
when his father, having discovered this instinctive trait, made him a
present of a small violin and allowed him to take lessons on it in the
primary school. But this was as far as parental encouragement went. Little
Johann's desire to become a professional musician was not countenanced,
and at the age of fourteen he was sent to a book-binder to learn his
trade; but he soon tired of this work and when his master added insult
to injury by forbidding him to play the violin, he packed up his beloved
instrument and his few other possessions and ran away. In a suburb of
Vienna he came across a friend who induced him to return to his parents,
whom he persuaded at the same time to give up opposing his musical
inclinations. So he received regular lessons and was soon able to play in
a small local orchestra.
As luck would have it, another musician, who was destined to be Strauss's
colleague and rival, Joseph Lanner, was at that time beginning his
brilliant career in Vienna. He was four years older than Strauss, and had
associated himself with two other musicians for the purpose of playing in
the cafés which abounded in that city. Strauss begged permission to join
this club, and was accepted as viola player, one of his duties being the
passing around of the plate for collections. There was so much animation
and true musical feeling in the performances of this club that it became
immensely popular and soon Lanner found it impossible to accept all the
engagements that were offered. This led him to engage more musicians and
ultimately to divide his orchestra into two smaller ones, over one of
which he himself presided, while Strauss was placed at the head of the
other.
But Strauss was an ambitious man, and after this companionship had lasted
six years (1819-1825) he made his "declaration of independence" of Lanner
and conducted an orchestra of his own, which soon became "all the rage"
in Vienna. His son has sketched this important episode so eloquently that
I cannot do better than translate his words: "The public now learned
to know him as an independent conductor, and as such he soon became so
popular that the dance-loving Viennese were divided into two parties--the
_Lannerianer_ and the _Straussianer_--each of which championed its
idol with ardor. It redounds to the credit of the good old times that
this partisanship could not cloud the personal relations between Lanner
and Strauss, who continued to remain good friends. Their professional
separation at this time was brought about by another circumstance: my
father accidentally discovered his talent for composition. Composing was
obviously at that time an easier matter than it is to-day. To produce a
polka, contemporary musicians study the whole literature of music and
perhaps a few philosophical systems too. Formerly, only one thing was
needed to compose: One had to have a happy thought, as the popular saying
is (_es musste Einem was einfallen_). And strange to say, these happy
thoughts always came. Self-confidence in this respect was so great that we
of the old school (_wir Alten_) frequently announced for a certain evening
a new waltz of which on the morning of the same day not a single note
was written. In such a case the orchestra usually went to the composer's
house, and as soon as the latter had finished a part it was immediately
copied for the orchestra. Meantime, the miracle of the 'happy thought'
repeated itself for the other parts of the waltz; in a few hours the piece
was completed, whereupon it was rehearsed, and in the evening it was
played before a usually enthusiastic public.
"Lanner--light-hearted and careless--hardly ever composed any other way.
One morning it happened that he felt ill and unable to work, while a new
set of waltzes had been promised for the evening, and of course not a
bar was on paper. He sent my father the simple message: 'Strauss, see if
you can think of something' (in the quaint Viennese dialect: _Strauss,
schauen's dass Ihnen was einfällt_.)--In the evening the new waltz was
played--as Lanner's, of course--and was received with extraordinary favor.
This circumstance, combined with his marriage in the same year, induced my
father to secure his independence. He organized at first a quintet, but
after barely a year his orchestra already numbered fourteen men. At what
rate his fame and his popularity both as composer and conductor grew, is
a thing of which we, in these prosaic days, can hardly have a conception.
The years 1830 to 1836, during which my father presided over the music at
the Sperl, will always remain memorable in the history of music at Vienna.
The audiences were enormous, the enthusiasm unbounded, and as my father
was persuaded to accept engagements for other amusement places too, he
had at his disposal, during the carnival, about two hundred musicians.
From this he selected a corps of _élites_--his _Stammorchester_--which he
succeeded by unceasing rehearsals in bringing to a point of perfection
such as no other private orchestra had ever reached. Visitors to Vienna
carried the fame of these musicians to other parts of the world, and
invitations soon came to him to play in other cities."
The rest of Johann Strauss's life is simply a record of his triumphs in
the cities of Germany, Holland, France, Belgium and England, as well as in
Vienna, where he was appointed director of the Court balls in 1835. From
1833 to 1849, the year of his death, he made a tour almost every year,
and he was the first musician, so far as the records show, who undertook
to travel with a whole orchestra. In 1837-38 his tour extended as far as
Paris and London. In evidence of his great success in Paris it is related
that when he gave a series of thirty concerts in conjunction with the
popular Musard, whose orchestra played after Strauss's, one half of the
audience usually left the hall after Strauss had finished his part of the
program. In London he arrived most opportunely about the time of Queen
Victoria's coronation, when merry music was in great demand, and here he
gave no fewer than seventy-two concerts, besides playing at many balls.
London, however, did not agree with his health. At his first visit he fell
ill there, and his second visit, in 1849, proved fatal, for he brought
with him the germs of disease (scarlet fever) to which he succumbed
shortly after his return to Vienna. He died on Sept. 25, aged 45. All the
Viennese joined in doing him homage, and a vast concourse--his son says
one hundred thousand--accompanied his coffin to the grave.
Regarding his personal appearance, Herr C. F. Pohl, the Viennese librarian
says, that "though small he was well made and distinguished looking, with
a singularly formed head. His dress was always neat and well chosen.
Though lively in company, he was naturally rather silent. From the moment
he took his violin in his hand he became another man, whose whole being
seemed to expand with the sounds he drew from it." In his own home the
"Waltz-King," who contributed so much to ball-room merriment, appears to
have been unhappy. His father had been the keeper of a beer house, and
he himself married the daughter of an innkeeper, Anna Streim, from whom he
was divorced on the ground of incompatibility of temper, after eighteen
years. They had five children--two daughters and three sons, Johann,
Joseph and Eduard, all three of whom have became famous in the annals of
dance music.
[Illustration: FROM A PORTRAIT OF THE ELDER JOHANN STRAUSS IN EARLY
MANHOOD.