The Waltz is a dance in 3/4 time (3 beats for every bar of music). It was derived from an old Austrian-German peasant dance, the Landler, which was popular in Bohemia, Austria, and Bavaria, and spread from the countryside to the suburbs of Vienna.
The peasants of Bavaria, Tyrol, and Styria began dancing a dance called Walzer, a dance for couples, around 1750. Some people, however, found the dance undignified, and in 1760 the performance of the Walzer was banned by the church in parts of Germany.
The waltz became fashionable in Vienna around the 1780s and its gliding, whirling movements immediately became the rage throughout the entire population.
The waltz spread to many other countries in the years to follow. By the late 18th century waltzing was common in Paris and other European cosmopolitan cities. People felt the same spirit in the dance that they had perceived in the great political events of the day - the French and the American revolutions.
It's not hard to see to work out why the Viennese waltz set Europe alight. In early 19th-century society public displays of affection were limited to firm handshakes and the occasional blush. The dances of choice were all French, like the gavotte, cotillion and minuet. All of them were formal and distant-the closest they got to intimacy was, was the odd flick of the fingertips. The waltz stood for freedom of expression and freedom of movement. Unlike more courtly dances, with their restricted steps and predetermined poses, the waltz allowed the performers to sweep around the dance floor, setting their own boundaries and responsible to nobody but their partners.
For the first time a woman could dance with any man who asked you to-and not just dance, but be held by him. It was the first time ever that a man's body could legitimately be pressed against a woman's outside marriage.
What looked suspiciously like licensed canoodling suddenly found itself a staple of the grand ballrooms of Vienna then Europe and then the globe.
The waltz was brought to England from Europe by Napoleonic Wars soldiers. When the waltz was first introduced to English ballrooms, it was considered shocking due to the physical contact involved. Its entry in the Oxford English Dictionary shows that the waltz was considered "riotous and indecent" as late as 1825. The Victorian Ladies' Pocket Book of Etiquette devoted ten pages into denouncing the dance.
Nowadays, of course, the waltz is a perfectly respectable dance and we are used to seeing much closer intimacy between dancing couples. Something that shocks one generation becomes normal and acceptable in the next.
In 1831 Frédéric Chopin left Poland for Vienna, where he found the Viennese just wanted to waltz. They weren't interested in his sort of piano music so he composed some Viennese Whirls (waltzes) himself.
Chopin's Waltz in D Flat Opus 64 no 1 (the theme to the BBC Just a Minute radio programme) actually lasts two minutes unless it's played at 78. Chopin originally named the piece "Petit chien" (Little Dog).
Johann Strauss II wrote over 400 waltzes, most notably "An der schönen blauen Donau" (better known to the English-speaking world as "The Blue Danube") In his lifetime, he was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely responsible for the ongoing popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century.
Antony Hopkins composed a waltz in 1964 that was only released years later. The famous actor was afraid that nobody would like it and therefore never got to hear it being played up until 2011 thanks to André Rieu - a Dutch violinist who got sent the music sheets by Hopkins' wife.
815 Radio Times
The peasants of Bavaria, Tyrol, and Styria began dancing a dance called Walzer, a dance for couples, around 1750. Some people, however, found the dance undignified, and in 1760 the performance of the Walzer was banned by the church in parts of Germany.
The waltz became fashionable in Vienna around the 1780s and its gliding, whirling movements immediately became the rage throughout the entire population.
The waltz spread to many other countries in the years to follow. By the late 18th century waltzing was common in Paris and other European cosmopolitan cities. People felt the same spirit in the dance that they had perceived in the great political events of the day - the French and the American revolutions.
It's not hard to see to work out why the Viennese waltz set Europe alight. In early 19th-century society public displays of affection were limited to firm handshakes and the occasional blush. The dances of choice were all French, like the gavotte, cotillion and minuet. All of them were formal and distant-the closest they got to intimacy was, was the odd flick of the fingertips. The waltz stood for freedom of expression and freedom of movement. Unlike more courtly dances, with their restricted steps and predetermined poses, the waltz allowed the performers to sweep around the dance floor, setting their own boundaries and responsible to nobody but their partners.
For the first time a woman could dance with any man who asked you to-and not just dance, but be held by him. It was the first time ever that a man's body could legitimately be pressed against a woman's outside marriage.
What looked suspiciously like licensed canoodling suddenly found itself a staple of the grand ballrooms of Vienna then Europe and then the globe.
The waltz was brought to England from Europe by Napoleonic Wars soldiers. When the waltz was first introduced to English ballrooms, it was considered shocking due to the physical contact involved. Its entry in the Oxford English Dictionary shows that the waltz was considered "riotous and indecent" as late as 1825. The Victorian Ladies' Pocket Book of Etiquette devoted ten pages into denouncing the dance.
Nowadays, of course, the waltz is a perfectly respectable dance and we are used to seeing much closer intimacy between dancing couples. Something that shocks one generation becomes normal and acceptable in the next.
In 1831 Frédéric Chopin left Poland for Vienna, where he found the Viennese just wanted to waltz. They weren't interested in his sort of piano music so he composed some Viennese Whirls (waltzes) himself.
Chopin's Waltz in D Flat Opus 64 no 1 (the theme to the BBC Just a Minute radio programme) actually lasts two minutes unless it's played at 78. Chopin originally named the piece "Petit chien" (Little Dog).
Johann Strauss II wrote over 400 waltzes, most notably "An der schönen blauen Donau" (better known to the English-speaking world as "The Blue Danube") In his lifetime, he was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely responsible for the ongoing popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century.
Antony Hopkins composed a waltz in 1964 that was only released years later. The famous actor was afraid that nobody would like it and therefore never got to hear it being played up until 2011 thanks to André Rieu - a Dutch violinist who got sent the music sheets by Hopkins' wife.
815 Radio Times
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