The full moon rises over the serenity of the Danube River,
near Vienna, Austria.
Picture: www.corbis.com
Click here to listen to Strauss’ Blue Danube Waltz.
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Written in 1867, this famous piece, better known as the Blue Danube Waltz has endured for more than a century. Written for string orchestra, the waltz is a regular feature of New Year’s concerts in Vienna. It also happens to be the waltz whenever one is needed, and you have heard it in the movies 2001: A Space Odyssey, Age of Innocence, Heaven’s Gate, and True Lies, just to name a few.
But the piece itself was not always a waltz, let alone the waltz. The Blue Danube started life as a vocal piece for a local choral society. The lyrics, written by a policeman called Josef Weyl, were a plodding verse about the glories of electric street lighting! The piece failed to inspire anyone except civil engineers and was quickly forgotten by everyone except Strauss.
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A couple of years later, Strauss was commissioned to write something for the Paris Exhibition. He dug up his old music, dusted it off and converted it to a string orchestra piece. It became a legendary hit, outselling every other piece in the world (in sheet music).
What’s more, Strauss had created a ‘musical dye’, working its’ magic to turn the grey-brown Danube in Vienna to a lilting, swirling, clear blue river. It’s almost impossible to contradict him. Could you?
The midi rendition accessible here was sequenced by D.L. Viens.*
For more on Johann Strauss Jr., visit GeoCities Vienna’s very own Strauss Centenary Feature.
* MIDI Sequence from the Classical MIDI Archives. Copyright © D.L.Viens. By permission.
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