This week on Classical Sprouts, we're talking about one of the most famous waltzes ever written, so we’re going back to the year 1865 in Vienna, Austria.
Composer Johann Strauss II was asked by the director of the Vienna Men’s Choral Society to write a piece of music for their choir.
He agreed, but was super busy composing other music, and didn’t get around to writing it until the next year.
And in that time, Austria lost a war and overall the vibes in Austria, and in the city of Vienna were pretty low.
So by the time Strauss got around to writing the piece, he knew it needed to write a joyful waltz song to lift the country’s spirits.
Now, in Europe, there is a super long river called the Danube, and it runs through 10 different countries!
As he was preparing to write the piece, Strauss remembered reading a poem by Karl Isidor Beck, where each stanza of the poem ended with the line: ‘By the Danube, beautiful blue Danube’.
Here’s the funny thing though - at the time, the Danube River didn’t even run through the city of Vienna, and the probably wasn't even blue.
People weren’t very kind to rivers then, and they threw a lot of stuff in them, and didn’t have plumbing or toilets in their houses… so they were pretty stinky and murky…
But, Strauss thought the sentiment of a beautiful blue Danube was nice enough to inspire his new piece for the choir.
It was called “An der schönen blauen Donau” in German, or “By The Beautiful Blue Danube” in English, and premiered in 1867 by the Vienna Men's Choral Society.
But then, later that year, the World’s Fair was going to be in Paris. World’s Fairs were like big parties that happened in different locations around the world, and each country brought things to show off and share about what’s great about their country. (Remember, this was before the internet)
Strauss rewrote the waltz for orchestra to present for Austria and it became an instant hit! And that’s the version that’s still popular today!
It's also been featured in a ton of movies and TV shows.
Where have you heard it before?
Tell us on Instagram!
Classical Sprouts is produced by Emily Duncan Wilson.
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