CBSO Viennese 2006

See me Dance the Polka

The glory of Viennese popular music is, without question, the waltz. Emerging from humble beginnings in the Austrian countryside towards the end of the 18th century, it made its way into the outskirts and then the centre of Vienna and from there conquered the world, both as a dance and a musical form. For most of the 19th century and much of the 20th it was the universal favourite in ballrooms and dance halls from one end of the social scale to the other. It proved to be just as effective in song, at every artistic level from the music hall to the opera house, and - the Strauss family having demonstrated its symphonic potential - it was absorbed at an early stage into just about every kind of music written for the concert hall, the symphony included.

It would be a mistake, however, to underestimate the role of the polka. It was not an Austrian invention - it originated across the border in Bohemia in the 1830s - and it didn’t find its way into the Viennese ballroom until the early 1840s, when it replaced the galop as the must-have item alongside the waltz. Unlike the waltz, which remained a vital source of interest to generations of Viennese and other composers after the end of the Strauss regime, it did not long survive the retirement of Eduard, the youngest of the three brothers, in 1901. Nor, except in the music of Czech composers like Smetana and Janácek, did it penetrate very far into the concert hall and opera house. Even so, the polka was all the rage as it spread through Europe in the 1840s - “Can you dance the Polka? Do you like the Polka? Polka – Polka – Polka – Polka – it is enough to drive me mad,” remarked Punch at the time - and it retained its popularity for decades after that. George Grossmith’s famous music-hall song See me Dance the Polka dates from 1886:

You should see me dance the Polka,

You should see me cover the ground,

You should see my coat-tails flying,

As I jump my partner round;

When the band commences playing,

My feet begin to go,

For a rollicking romping Polka

Is the jolliest fun I know.

Jolly fun it clearly was and, for a while, it was the perfect foil to the seriously sexy waltz. In its basic Viennese form, as the Polka-schnell or quick polka, it was a high-energy dance that could not be sustained for more than a few minutes - which, together with its inflexible duple-time rhythm, meant that it could not be expanded to the symphonic proportions of the waltz as developed by Johann Strauss I and his three sons. They did, however, introduce variants on the polka form, the polka française or slow polka and the polka-mazurka which ingeniously combined the polka step with the triple-time rhythm of the mazurka. They were keen too - perhaps as much to stimulate their own imagination as to retain the interest of the public - to attach a novely element to their polkas. It was sometimes just a title but often actual musical material as well, evoking perhaps a sporting event, a recent invention, some phenomenon of the weather, the thrill of the chase or a train ride, the pop of a champagne cork…

The wit and ingenuity, the rythmic energy and tuneful verve invested in the polka are the qualities that keep it alive as a concert item today. It is such an integral part of the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Day tradition that it is regularly represented not only in the programme itself, where it so effectively offsets the waltzes, but also in the strictly controlled series of three encores at the end - which must always include the Blue Danube Waltz and the Radetzky March and must always begin with a polka.

Johann Strauss II (1825-1899)

Der Waldmeister (Woodruff) Overture

The value of the polka or the gallop in offsetting the elegance of the waltz is most effectively illustrated by the Overture to Johann II’s last-but-one operetta, Waldmeister, which was first performed at the Theater an der Wien in 1895. The story - about a Saxon village that falls victim to the intoxicating properties of a drink made from wine and woodruff - need not concern us. What is important is the hit number of the show, the waltz song Trau, schau, wem? (“Look before you leap”) which is also the main theme of the Overture, where it occurs over and over again. Although it is dressed in resourcefully varied orchestral colours on each occasion, to sustain its seductive attractions it also needs the contrasting duple-time tunes that replace it in the middle, just as it needs the concluding gallop to divert it from one too many star appearances.

Johann Strauss II

Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald (Tales from the Vienna Woods) Waltz, Op.325

The best thing that ever came out of the Vienna woods, the composer seems to be telling us, is the Viennese waltz. Certainly, the Ländler, the peasant ancestor of the most sophisticated of 19th-century dance forms, originated in the countryside round Vienna - the rustic charms of which are poetically evoked, alongside the usual waltz-time fanfares, in the extended introduction to these Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald. And it is from this pastoral background that, after a picturesque flute cadenza, one of the main themes first emerges, not as a waltz at this stage but as a simple Ländler played on a zither (or, failing that, on muted strings). It is introduced in its waltz form - on strings and woodwind this time - in the second of the four central sections of the work, each one of which has its own main and subsidiary themes and sometimes a countertheme in the accompaniment as well. Although it is not recalled along with the other main themes in a coda long enough to match the scale of the introduction, it is heard for the last time, as a Ländler again on zither (or violins), in a brief but show-stopping episode of nostalgia just before the end.

Johann Strauss II

Freikugeln (Magic Bullets) Polka schnell, Op.326

The Strauss brothers were frequently called upon to provide music for entertainment associated with special Viennese events - like national and corporate celebrations, student festivities, public holidays, sports meetings - for which they would always think of something appropriate. The many international competitors who attended the German Federal Shooting Contest in the Prater in July 1868 must surely have enjoyed not only the explosive sound of Johann II’s Freikugeln (Magic Bullets) Polka, its percussive shots heightened by a sparky piccolo, but also its breathtaking succession of briskly diverting tunes.

Josef Strauss (1827-1870)

Delirien (Delirium) Waltz, Op.212

If Josef Strauss had not been plagued by illness, which resulted in his death at the age of forty-three, and if he had been as ambitious as his brothers, he might well have turned out the greatest composer of the three. He might even have graduated from the ballroom to a prominent position in the concert hall. The introduction to his Delirien Waltz is a tiny tone poem depicting the nightmare vision of delirious sleep. Its main theme, which is appealingly anticipated by a solo flute shortly before its definitive entry on violins, is characteristic of Josef in its sensitively drawn contours and, amid the abundance of waltz tunes that follow, there is a rapturous example of the extended melodic line in which he excelled.

Emile Waldteufel (1837-1915)

Les Patineurs (Skaters’ Waltz), Op.183

Emile Waldteufel, who worked mainly in Paris, is with Franz Lehár one of the two most popular waltz composers after Johann Strauss II. In the most famous of all his compositions, Les Patineurs or Skaters’ Waltz, written at the height of his powers in 1882, he reveals not only a considerable gift for melody but also, in spite of an obvious debt to his Viennese contemporaries, an early inclination towards the French tendency to adopt a more relaxed attitude to the form, reducing the number of waltzes in the sequence and occasionally - as in the main theme of the Skaters’ Waltz - sliding rather than skipping into the triple-time rhythms.

Eduard Strauss (1835-1916)

Ohne Bremse (Brakes off) Polka schnell

Johann, Josef and Eduard Strauss were all expert in the three varieties of polka - the Polka-schnell or quick polka, the polka française or slow polka, and the polka-mazurka. They did, however, have their specialities. Eduard, the youngest of the three brothers, was inexhaustibly prolific in creating quick polkas and was particular inspired by images of locomotion - as in Ohne Bremse, which runs non-stop through four high-speed tunes until it is somehow brought to a halt.

Johann Strauss II

Rosen aus dem Süden (Roses from the South) Waltz, Op.388

Although Johann II devoted most of his creative energies in the last thirty years of his life to writing operettas, he did not seriously slow down his production of dances for the ballroom or concert hall. Every Viennese operetta had to be furnished with a generous allocation of songs and other numbers in waltz time and it was a comparatively simple matter to issue these pieces in instrumental arrangements for use outside the theatre. One of the most celebrated of all Strauss waltzes, Rosen aus dem Süden is actually a selection of the best waltz tunes from the now largely forgotten operetta Das Spitzentuch der Königin (The Queen’s Lace Handkerchief), which was successfully first performed at the Theater an der Wien in 1880. Unusually for Strauss, although he anticipates his most distinguished melody at the very beginning of the slow introduction, he avoids presenting it as the main theme - it appears on violins and horn with harp accompaniment as the second of the four waltzes - and he doesn’t recall it in the exuberant and otherwise comprehensive coda.

Johann Strauss II

Frühlingsstimmen (Voices of Spring) Waltz, Op.410

Written originally as a vocal piece for the coloratura soprano Bianca Bianchi, Frühlingsstimmen was dismissed on its first performance in 1883 as “not very melodious” - which would suggest that Mme Bianchi didn’t sing it very well. Certainly, as an orchestral waltz, it is outstanding for the quality of its tunes, not least the sensitively syncopated and delicately scored first theme of the second section. Although, unlike some others among Johann II’s more ambitious waltzes, Frühlingsstimmen has no introduction, it does have a coda to recall the vigorous opening theme and to put a brilliant ending to it.

Johann Strauss II

Egyptian March Op.335

Like Verdi’s Aida, the Egyptian March was written to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. It was first heard at one of the Strauss summer seasons at Pavlovsk near St Petersburg and was then performed in Vienna as part of a theatrical entertainment called Towards Egypt. A wonderfully weird confection, it is coloured not only by exotic harmonies and percussion sounds but also some curious vocalisation. Whether it was in acknowledgement of this dubious tribute that Ismail Pasha sent Strauss two giraffes, on the occasion of the composer’s Golden Jubilee in 1890, history does not record.

Johann Strauss II

Unter Donner und Blitz (Thunder and Lightning) Polka-schnell, Op.324

Johann II’s Unter Donner und Blitz is probably even more inspired than the same composer’s Tritsch-Tratsch, which rivals it for the ultimate in polka popularity. Certainly, it offers a whole series of brilliantly witty observations on the meteorological situation - a roll of thunder in the opening bars followed by a flurry of evasive activity, a hectic middle section where the storm rages in lightning cymbal clashes and bass-drum thunder claps, and a final section which betrays not the least sign of a dampening of the irrepressible Viennese genius for having a good time.

Josef Strauss

Brennende Liebe (Burning Love) Polka-mazurka, Op.129

Josef’s speciality was the polka-mazurka, the graceful step of which was well suited to his musical temperament. In Brennende Liebe the romantic ardour suggested in the title is kept decorously under control until a change of key encourages a brief expression of passion. When the opening section is recalled towards the end the amorous episode is discreetly omitted.

Johann Strauss II

An der schönen blauen Donau (On the Beautiful Blue Danube) Waltz, Op.314

The Blue Danube waltz is not only the last word in flattery - the Danube in Vienna is a muddy brown in most lights - but also the ultimate example of the concert waltz. This one consists of as many as five distinct waltz-time sections, each one of them based on two different themes. Written for the Vienna Men’s Choral Association in 1867, the most familiar of Viennese waltzes was originally scored for chorus and orchestra and in that form it has achieved something like the status of a national anthem. The choral version, however, doesn’t have the splendid coda which in the orchestral version recalls and brieflly develops the main themes of four of the five sections, referring back to the leisurely introduction and effortlessly completing a perfectly integrated construction. It flows just as easily as the Danube itself, and far more colourfully.

Johann Strauss II

Leichtes Blut (Light of Heart) Polka-schnell Op.319

Johann II’s Leichtes Blut (Light of Heart) polka was written in 1867 in the same fruitful season as the Blue Danube waltz. If it is not as familiar an example of its kind as its waltz-time companion, Leichtes Blut is certainly one of the best of all polkas. In fact, it is a perfect little inspiration, irresistibly propelled through the outer sections by a spring-heeled skipping rhythm, lifted by an exuberant new melody in the middle, and finished off by an ingenious little coda.

Gerald Larner ©2005