Eduard, the youngest, born on Feb. 14, 1835, has proved the least talented
of the three. His compositions, numbering over two hundred, though often
piquant in harmony and cleverly orchestrated, are deficient in melodic
spontaneity and originality and often a mere echo of his brother Johann's
genius. (There are melodious exceptions, the Doctrinen Walzer, opus 79,
e. g.) He is a good conductor of dance music, and since the death of his
brother Josef, in 1870, and the retirement of Johann from executive music
in the same year, he has been sole conductor of the Strauss orchestra at
court balls and in the Volksgarten.
Josef, the second of the brothers, had more talent for composition than
Eduard. He was of delicate constitution and lived only forty-three years
(Aug. 22, 1827, to July 22, 1870), yet the number of his original pieces
is two hundred and eighty-three, to which must be added about three
hundred arrangements. Some of his waltzes and polkas--like the "Village
Swallows" and "Woman's Heart"--have become great favorites, and deservedly
so, but I cannot agree with the opinion, which has been held, that he was
the superior--or even the equal--of his brother Johann. He was a good
pianist, and for a number of years divided with his brothers the task of
conducting the Strauss orchestra in Vienna.
We now come to Johann Strauss, the oldest of the brothers, born Oct. 25,
1825, and still living. It is not often that a man of genius has a son
who attains even greater eminence than himself, but in this case the palm
must be awarded to Johann Strauss, Jr., whose creative power was not only
greater than that of his brothers, but soared into regions of which even
his father never dreamed.
His talent for music was manifested at a very early age, but his father
did not encourage it--forgetting how much he himself had suffered in his
childhood from parental opposition to his natural inclinations. It was
Horace who remarked, almost two thousand years ago, that no man is quite
satisfied with his occupation, and everyone fancies he would have been
happier had he chosen some other career. This may have been the reason why
the elder Strauss, in the midst of his honors and remarkable popularity,
decided that none of his sons should become musicians. Johann was to be
a merchant, Josef an engineer, and for Eduard, too, some non-musical
employment would have been selected had not his father died before he was
fourteen.
Fortunately for Johann, his mother secretly encouraged his fondness for
music, allowing him to take lessons on the violin and in composition. His
first waltz was written when he was only six years old, and called his
'First Thought.' That was sixty years ago, and every one of these years
has added several waltzes to his list. As a conductor he made his first
venture at the age of nineteen, with a band of his own; and when his
father died, five years later, he took his place and remained at the head
of his orchestra for ten years. As an "orchestral traveller" he was even
more enterprising than his father had been, for he extended his journeys
as far as America and St. Petersburg, being heard at Gilmore's Jubilee at
Boston in 1869, while in St. Petersburg he gave a series of concerts every
summer, from 1856 to 1866, always returning to Vienna in winter to furnish
the music for the court festivities and the numerous other balls given in
that gay city during the carnival.
The eminent Viennese critic, Dr. Hanslick, a personal friend of Strauss,
says of this early period of his career: "The incessant dispenser of joys
to all Vienna, Father Strauss, was a tyrant at home. The sons grew up
amid the embittering and demoralizing impressions of an unhappy family
life. Finally Johann emancipated himself, trusting in his talent, of
which he felt certain, and on that Dommayer-evening suddenly came forth
as a musical rival of his father. The first three works, with which he
made his début, were the waltzes, 'Gunstwerber,' 'Sinngedichte' and the
'Herzenslust' Polka.... The young man's animal spirits, so long repressed,
now began to foam over; favored by his talent, intoxicated by his early
successes, petted by the women, Johann Strauss passed his youth in wild
enjoyment, always productive, always fresh and enterprising, at the same
time frivolous to the point of adventurousness. As in appearance he
resembles his father, handsomer, however, more refined and modern, so also
his waltzes had the unmistakable Strauss family physiognomy, not without
a tendency to originality. Our Viennese, the most expert judges in such
matters, at once recognized the budding talent of the young Strauss, who
promised soon to overtake his famous parent."
[Illustration: JOSEPH STRAUSS.