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The polka is originally a Czech dance and genre of dance music familiar throughout all of Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the nineteenth century in Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. The polka remains a popular folk music genre in many European and American countries, and is performed by many folk artists.
Johann Strauss II, also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger, the Son, was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century. Some of Johann Strauss's most famous works include "The Blue Danube", "Kaiser-Walzer", "Tales from the Vienna Woods", and the "Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka". Among his operettas, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron are the best known.
Johann Strauss I was an Austrian Romantic composer. He was famous for his waltzes, and he popularized them alongside Joseph Lanner, thereby setting the foundations for his sons to carry on his musical dynasty. He is best known for his composition of the Radetzky March.
The Vienna New Year's Concert is an annual concert of classical music performed by the Vienna Philharmonic on the morning of New Year's Day in Vienna, Austria. The concert occurs at the Musikverein at 11:15. The orchestra performs the same concert programme on 30 December, 31 December, and 1 January but only the last concert is regularly broadcast on radio and television.
The polka-mazurka is a dance, musically similar to the mazurka, but danced much like the polka. Many polka-mazurkas were composed by Johann Strauss II and his family. Johann Strauss I did not compose any of this type of music; the first polka-mazurka example written by the Strauss family was in the year 1854 by Johann Strauss II, entitled La Viennoise op. 144.The polka-mazurka was not credited to the Strauss family alone, as many Viennese composers in the 1850s era also wrote many examples. This variant of the polka was seen as cross-cultural, as many of its influences can be seen in the French-polka with its feminine and deliberate steps as well as the exciting schnell-polka, where Eduard Strauss composed many famous pieces of this type.
Hans Christian Lumbye was a Danish composer of waltzes, polkas, mazurkas and galops, among other things.
Josef Strauss was an Austrian composer.
Johann Strauss III was an Austrian composer whose father was Eduard Strauss, whose uncles were Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss, and whose grandfather was Johann Strauss I. He was unofficially entrusted with the task of upholding his family's tradition after the dissolution of the Strauss Orchestra by his father in 1901. His talents were not fully realized during his lifetime as musical tastes had changed in the Silver Age with more popular composers such as Franz Lehár and Oscar Straus dominating the Viennese musical scene with their operettas, although his uncle, Johann Strauss II, supervised his development as a musician, a fact disputed by Eduard Strauss.
Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka, Op. 214, is a polka in A major by Johann Strauss II, written in 1858 after a successful tour of Russia where he performed in the summer concert season at Pavlovsk, Saint Petersburg. It was first performed in a concert in Vienna on 24 November 1858.
Vom Donaustrande is a polka by Johann Strauss II written in 1873. Its themes are drawn from his successful operetta, Der Karneval in Rom which premiered in Vienna's Theater an der Wien on 1 March 1873.
Figaro-Polka op. 320 is a French polka written by Johann Strauss II in 1867 and was dedicated to Hippolyte de Villemessant, who was the editor-in-chief of the Paris newspaper Le Figaro.
Vergnügungszug op. 281 is a polka composed by Johann Strauss II in 1864. It was written for the Association of Industrial Societies' Ball held in the Redoutensaal on 19 January 1864 and was inspired by the opening of the Austrian Southern Railway – the Südbahn – which operated many 'pleasure trains' offering trips from Vienna to the countryside.
Ion Ivanovici was a Romanian military band leader and composer of Banat Serbian origin, best remembered today for his waltz Waves of the Danube.
Franz Friedrich Richard Genée was a Prussian born Austrian librettist, playwright, and composer.
Lob der Frauen, Op. 315, is a polka-mazurka composed by Johann Strauss II. The composition was first performed at the Vienna Volksgarten at the 1867 Carnival in Vienna. The work was performed alongside other compositions that Strauss had written around that period, including the famous waltzes Blue Danube and Artist's Life.
Waldine, Op. 385, is a polka-mazurka composed by Johann Strauss II. The title is taken from one of Strauss' operettas, Blindekuh. Waldine was the last, as well as the least successful, of the five orchestral dance compositions that Strauss had arranged on tunes from the operetta, having been first performed an entire year after the premiere of the operetta, where it was conducted by Eduard Strauss in the Musikverein in Vienna on December 7, 1879.
Charles Émile Waldteufel was a French pianist, conductor and composer known for his numerous popular salon pieces.
Charivari is a composition for orchestra by HK Gruber. It is based on a polka by Johann Strauss II, Perpetuum mobile, Op. 257. Charivari was completed in 1981.
Die Libelle (The Dragonfly) Op. 204 is a polka-mazurka composed by Josef Strauss in 1866.
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Based on original text by Peter Kemp, The Johann Strauss Society of Great Britain. Used with permission.
