Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

716 STRAUSS STEAUSS
to which he succumbed on the fourth day,
Sept. 25, 1849. With him departed a feature
of Viennese life, and that the people themselves
felt this was shown by the vast concourse at
his funeral. A Requiem was performed in his
honour on Oct. 11 by his own band, and the
Mannergesangverein of Vienna, the solos being
sung by Mesdames Hasselt and Ernst, Aloys
Ander and Staudigl, all from the court opera.
Strauss married, in 1824, Anna Streim, daughter
of au innkeeper, who bore him five children, Johann,
Joseph, Eduard, Anna, andTherese. They
separated after eighteen years, on the ground of
incompatibility of temper. There are numerous
portraits from which an idea can be gathered of
Strauss's personal appearance. Though small
he wag 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, his whole being seeming
to expand with the sounds he drew from it.
As an artist he furnished many pleasant hours
to thousands, and high and low combined to do
him honour, while great masters like Mendelssohn,
Meyerbeer, and Cherubini, acknowledged
his talent. He raised dance-music to a higher
level than it had ever reached before, and
invested his copious melodies with all the charm
of brilliant instrumentation. Full of fire, life,
and boisterous merriment, they contrasted well
with Lanner's softer and more sentimental airs,
and mustbe judged by a totally difierent standard
from that of mere dance-music. As a conductor
it was his constant endeavour to mingle classical
names in his programmes, and thus to exercise
an elevating influence on the masses. His
works, published almost entirely by Haslinger,
number251, and comprise 152 waltzes, 24galops,
6 cotillons and contredanses, 32 quadrilles,
13 polkas, and 18 marches, inclilding some
without opus-numbers. The bulk of these have
made, so to speak, the tour of the world ; each
new waltz was in its way an event, not only in
Vienna, but wherever the first printed copies
penetrated. Innumerable pens, including those
of poets, celebrated his works, and the stage
itself took part in the general homage, ' Strauss
and Lanner ' being the title of a one-act comedy
by Topfer, and a three-act piece by Anton
Langer. [His complete works were published in
1889 by Breitkopf & Hartel, in seven volumes.]
Of his three sons, the eldest, Johann, scarcely
less gifted than his father, was born in Vienna,
Oct. 25, 1825. In accordance with the father's
wish that none of his sons should adopt his own
line of life, Johann, after finishing his education
at the Gymnasium and Polytechnic Institute,
became a clerk in the savings bank, although
he had, with his mother's help, long taken
lessons in secret on the violin, and even studied
composition with Drechsler. When only six
he composed, at Salmannsdorf near Vienna,
where the family used to spend the summer, his
first waltz, which was performed on his fiftieth
birthday as 'Erster Gedanke.' The constraint
put upon him became at length unbearable, and
on Oct. 15, 1844, he first appeared as a conductor
at Dommayer's, at Hietzing, playing
compositions of his own, and his father's Loreley
'
Walzer.' His success on that occasion decided
his future career. After his father's death he
incorporated the two bands, and made a tour
to the country towns of Austria, Warsaw, and
the more important towns of Germany. He also
undertook for ten years the direction of the
summer concerts in the Petropaulowski Park
at St. Petersburg. On August 28, .1862, he
married the popular singer Henriette (' Jetty ')
Trelfz, and in 1863 became conductor of the
court balls. This post he resigned after his
brilliant success on the stage, but he had in the
meantime composed nearly 400 waltzes, of as
high a type as those of his father. His music
is penetrated with Viennese gaiety and spirit,
and has made its way into all countries. The
waltz, 'AnderschbnenblauenDonau'(op. 314),
became a kind of musical watchword in Vienna,
and was played on all festive occasions. [ ' Tausend
und eine Nacht,' 'Man lebt nur einmal,'
'
Wiener Blut,' and ' Kiinstlerleben ' are among
the most famous.] Besides Russia, Strauss
visited Paris (during the Exhibition of 1867),
London, New York, Boston, and the larger
towns of Italy. The Theatre 'an der Wien' was
the scene of his triumphs as a composer of
operettas, which rapidly spread to all the
'
theatres, large and small. Indigo und die
vierzig Riiuber ' (his first, 1871), Der Kameval
'
in Eom' (1873), 'Die Fledermaus ' (1874),
'Cagliostro' (1875), 'Prinz Methusalem' (1877),
'Blindekuh' (1878), 'Das Spitzentuch der
Konigin' (1880), 'Der lustige Krieg' (1881),
'Eine Nacht in Venedig' (1883), 'Der Zigeunerbaron'(1885),
'Simplicius'(1887), 'Eitter
Pasman' (1892),
'
Fiirstin Ninetta' (1893),
'Jabuka' (1894), Waldmeister ' ' (1895), and
'
Die Gbttin der Vernunft ' (1897), all published
by Spina, were soon known all over the world,
and were sung everywhere. Posthumously produced
were a ballet Aschenbrodel ' ' and an
prchestral piece 'Traumbilder.' He died in
Vienna, June 3, 1899. Abiogi'aphy by R. von
Prochdzka is in Reimann's series of Beruhmte
MusiJcer. (See Riemann's Lemkon.) After the
death of his wife on April 8, 1878, he married
another dramatic singer, Angelica Dittrich.
His next brother, Joseph, born August 22,
1827, in Vienna, was also obliged to accommodate
himself to his father's wishes, and became
an architect. He had, however, studied
muijic in secret, and during an illness of his
brother's in 1853 he conducted for him with a
baton, as he did not learn the violin till later.
He next collected a band, began to compose.