Johann Strauss the Younger (also known as Johann Strauss II) was born in Vienna, Austria, on October 25, 1825. He was the eldest son of Johann Strauss the Elder (March 14, 1804 – September 25, 1849) who was popular in Europe as a conductor and composer.
Young Johann wanted to be a musician from an early age and wrote his first waltz at the age of 6. The elder Strauss insisted, however, that his sons follow other careers and Johann became a bank clerk.
Encouraged by his mother, Johann secretly studied the violin with the first violinist of his father's orchestra, Franz Amon. He was given a severe beating by his father when he found him playing the violin, even those Strauss Snr was a successful composer. He wanted his son to pursue banking as a career.
When Johann was 17, his parents separated. He then openly devoted himself to music. At 19 he formed his own orchestra and gave his own concert which included six of his own waltzes and some of his father’s. It was deemed a great success.
His father died when Johann Strauss was 23 and the young Austrian composer combined their orchestras and gave concerts throughout Europe.
For nearly 100 years the Strauss family, father and sons, dominated the world of European ballroom dance with their music. After Johann Strauss the Elder popularized the waltz, his two younger sons, Josef (1827-70) and Eduard (1835-1916), also became noted composers. However it was Johann the Younger, who won world fame as the "waltz king."
Johann Strauss the Younger wrote over 400 waltzes, notably "An der schönen blauen Donau" (1867, trans "The Blue Danube") and "Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald" (1868, "Tales from the Vienna Woods").
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| Johann Strauss II |
Young Johann wanted to be a musician from an early age and wrote his first waltz at the age of 6. The elder Strauss insisted, however, that his sons follow other careers and Johann became a bank clerk.
Encouraged by his mother, Johann secretly studied the violin with the first violinist of his father's orchestra, Franz Amon. He was given a severe beating by his father when he found him playing the violin, even those Strauss Snr was a successful composer. He wanted his son to pursue banking as a career.
When Johann was 17, his parents separated. He then openly devoted himself to music. At 19 he formed his own orchestra and gave his own concert which included six of his own waltzes and some of his father’s. It was deemed a great success.
His father died when Johann Strauss was 23 and the young Austrian composer combined their orchestras and gave concerts throughout Europe.
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| Johann Strauss in his younger years |
For nearly 100 years the Strauss family, father and sons, dominated the world of European ballroom dance with their music. After Johann Strauss the Elder popularized the waltz, his two younger sons, Josef (1827-70) and Eduard (1835-1916), also became noted composers. However it was Johann the Younger, who won world fame as the "waltz king."
Johann Strauss the Younger wrote over 400 waltzes, notably "An der schönen blauen Donau" (1867, trans "The Blue Danube") and "Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald" (1868, "Tales from the Vienna Woods").
Strauss was actually a terrible dancer. He told a friend: "That's why I have to give a firm 'no' to many tempting invitations to the dance.
The German composer Johannes Brahms was a personal friend of Strauss. Perhaps the greatest tribute that Brahms could pay to his pal was his remark that he would have given anything to have written "The Blue Danube" waltz.
An anecdote dating around the time Brahms became acquainted with Strauss is that the former cheekily inscribed the words "alas, not by Brahms!" on the autograph score of the "Blue Danube" waltz.
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| Strauss and Johannes Brahms photographed in Vienna |
In addition to his waltzes, Johann Strauss the Younger also wrote polkas, marches, sixteen operettas, including "Die Fledermaus" (1874, "The Bat"), and a favorite concert piece, "Perpetuum Mobile."
Strauss had applied for the KK Hofballmusikdirektor Music Director of the Royal Court Balls position, but was denied several times before for his frequent brushes with the local authorities. He eventually attained the position in 1863, after which Johann relinquished leadership of his orchestra to his brothers.
In 1872 Strauss and his orchestra toured the United States, where, at the invitation of bandmaster Patrick Gilmore he was the lead conductor in The World's Peace Jubilee and International Musical Festival in Boston, Massachusetts. The jubilee, which consisted of over 1000 singers and musicians, honored the ending of the Franco-Prussian War. On June 29, 1872 Strauss performed his "Blue Danube" waltz, amongst other pieces, to great acclaim.
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| World's Peace Jubilee coliseum, Back Bay, Boston, 1872 |
In 1878, following the death of his first wife, singer Henriette Treffz, Strauss married another singer, Angelika Dittrich.
Strauss was diagnosed with pleuropneumonia, and on June 3, 1899 he died in Vienna, at the age of 73. At the time of his death, he was still composing his ballet Aschenbrödel.
He was buried in the Zentralfriedhof (The Vienna Central Cemetery).
Sources Europress Family Encyclopaedia, Compton's Encyclopaedia
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