How did johann strauss influence the music of the Romantic period?

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  • It’s extremely easy to underestimate both the quality of craft that Joh. Strauss II brought to the 19thC music profession — such casual disregard is commonplace to this very day — and his extraordinary skill as an impresario. It’s no mean feat to convulse an entire continent in a dance craze in an age devoid of all the means of dissemination with which today such global crazes are manufactured as a matter of course. Familiarity in that regard today with such phenomena breed a contempt that falsifies the valuation of a tremendous historical achievement.

    What could not be achieved by any other means, Johann Strauss managed singlehandedly: he got Wagner and Brahms to agree freely on something, specifically on the excellence of his, Strauss’s output. It is in fact very telling how many major composers between 1850 and the present day confess to admiration for the Waltz King’s productions, most memorably Brahms, who instead of gallantly signing a lady’s fan with a musical quote of his own work, penned the opening bars of the Blue Danube with the subscription ‘Unfortunately NOT by Joh. Brahms’…

    Because so many, specifically the more knowledgeable in general terms, of our present day classically oriented musicians and music lovers never bother actually to acquaint themselves with, never mind study the Strauss scores, they miss any knowledge, not to mention understanding of the extreme skill with which they are orchestrated, with a deftness and filigree finesse of textural touch that should be the envy of any orchestrator. However, masters of that craft such as Richard Strauss and, of course, Ravel were not so short sighted and took great profit from Johann Strauss’s achievements. Neither the Rosenkavalier waltzes nor La Valse could ever have been were it not for Johann Strauss the Younger.

    All the best,

  • I wasn’t aware that Johann Strauss had any great influence on the history of Western Music let alone the Romantic era. The man, along with other members of his family, had a knack for composing popular dance music (waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, gallops) and therefore his music and dance band/orchestra was in demand.

    Compared to other dance composers of his day, his music was very melodic and memorable and brilliantly scored. He followed a structure (form) to create his works. For example, what we call a waltz such as the “Tales from Vienna Woods, is really five waltz melodies to which Strauss often created an elaborate introduction and a coda.

    His dance music was superior to his contemporary composers and therefore continues to be enjoyed. Today his dances are heard in the concert hall instead of the dance hall, and therefore are no longer used for dance purposes for which they were originally intended.

    Edit: Nemensis Apparently doesn’t feel that I have praised Strauss enough in my answer. I stated that his dance music was superior to his contemporaries and that it was brilliantly scored. The question is what influence did he have on music in the Romantic period. He took the ordinary dance forms of his day and created masterpieces that are still played in the concert halls of the world. Others of his contemporaries tried to duplicate his music, but most did not succeed. Tchaikovsky and Delibes created some delightful dance music trying to imitate Strauss though.

  • Johann Strauss the father popularised the waltz across Europe; his son brought it even further and also toured the US. All the big composers of the day knew their music. I wonder if Tchaikovsky would have written “Waltz of the Flowers” without Strauss?

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