Seufzer Galopp op9

Johann Strauss I

Seufzer (Sighs) Galop, Op.9

A forerunner and close relation of both the quick polka and the can-can, the galop was the most energetic - as well as the easiest to perform - of all ballroom dances in the first half of the nineteenth century. Before the polka overtook it in popularity the elder Johann Strauss wrote dozens of them, none more entertaining than Seufzer. In theory, there is no time to stand around sighing in the middle of a galop but, in practice, a resourceful composer can arrange anything. In fact, suspending the apparently unstoppable trajectory of the dance - as Johann I does twice, indulging in four sighs each time - makes the momentum all the more exhilarating.