Music 

ROMANTIC PERIODE
  Johann Strauss 

Before talking about my chosen composer for the Romantic era, it’s essential that we understand what the Romantic Era was. This time for romantic Music & Art began just around the 1800s and was fairly popular by the 1850s. This was a time of “free reign” creation among those who persuaded art and music. With the Industrial Revolution (The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840) and Revolution of science and understanding the how nature worked. The romantic periods expressiveness with emotion truly showed in music and art. “Colour” was important to be added in the pieces, wood wind instruments carried a light and airy feel in the music so they are easy to associate with love (an intense feeling of deep affection, a light feeling in your chest). Instruments used were: contrabassoon, bass clarinet, and piccolos were very popular to add “colour” and in the percussion section, xylophones, drums, celestes, harps, bells, etc.  “The bigger, the better!” This was a time were freedom became a large thought. 

“a new heaven is begun”

-William Blake(1793)

This quote was affirmed and matched in this quote, a generation later:

“The world’s great age begins anew.”

-Percy Bysshe Shelley

Johann Strauss

Johann Strauss was born October 25th, 1825, right in the middle of the time where romantic music was at its peak. Johann was named after his father, making him Johann Strauss II and he was the eldest child in his family. His father was a composer and wanted Johann to pursue other things then music so he became a bank clerk. After studying the violin without his fathers knowledge, Johann became open to his love of music when his father left his family when Johann was 17. 

His music career included conducting a band in 1844 at a Viennese restaurant, creating his own band (where he found himself against his father), he wrote: waltzes, quadrilles, mazurkas and polkas. After creating his own pieces with a band he created after his appearance in the Viennese restaurant, he became recognizable and popular amount music lovers. He received the position of Honorary bandmaster of the 2nd Viennas Citizens Regiment in 1845 (his father was the first). He started composing for the Vienna Men’s Choral Association in 1847 and two years later his father passed. After his fathers passing, Johann II took control of his fathers orchestra and he became even more famous, gaining the attention of: Verdi, Wagner and Brahms. 

His journey as a composer led him to tour around Russia and England to make himself known in other countries. He got married in 1862 and soon after he quit conducting to become a composer. He gave his orchestra over to his two brothers, Josef and Eduard. During this time, he worked on a dual composition: the Viennese waltz and the Viennese operetta, his operetta bringing more popularity than the other. His well known operettas include Indigo und die vierzig Raüber (1871) and Die Fledermaus (1874). Out of his 150 written waltzes, only a third would leave a lasting position in the world of music. In the 1870s, he continued his touring around America; two of his family members died, his mother and brother, and he started to work on is ballet, Cinderella. While writing this piece he got pneumonia and passed on June 3, 1899 in Vienna. 

Examples:

• Polkas: a song that could be danced too; a lively dance of Bohemian origin in duple time. SHOSTAKOVICH – 2 pieces for strings Quartet II. 2/2
• Waltz: a dance in triple time performed by a couple who as a pair turn rhythmically around and around as they progress around the dance floor                                       CHOPIN – waltz in A minor
• Mazurkas: a lively Polish dance in triple time                                          Pyotr TCHAIKOVSKY: Op. 39, N. 11
• Quadrilles: a square dance performed typically by four couples and containing five figures, each of which is a complete dance in itself JOHANN STRAUSS II: Fledermaus-Quadrille op. 363

Johann Strauss – The Blue Danube Waltz

                 Johann  Baptist Strauss I 
Born: March 14 1804, Vienne (Leopoldstadt)

Classical composer and Romantic composer. Along with his friend, Joseph Lanner, he popularized the romantic music which helped his son in the future. He was a part of the root to the new era.