Show HOME OF COMPOSERS HONORS WALTZ KING KIMG austrian capital remembers the younger strauss washington D C wien Aus music musi loving cap ital is honoring johann strauss the younger whose blue danube waltz is now seventy years old since this famous tune was first played in vienna in 1867 millions of couples in all parts of the world have danced to its undulating measures although viennese received the waltz poorly when they first heard it now they cannot pay enough honor to its composer says the national geographic society in vienna one may stroll along strauss street hear operettas ope at the johann strauss theater or strauss concerts in tho the city park where a bronze and marble monument represents the composer playing his violin ever since the thirteenth century the pages of history have included sheets of music for the cites destiny has been conducted by musical rulers under empress maria theresa vienna became Aus court and social center attracting numbers number s 0 of f composers and musicians who filled with lively strains the vast salons of magnificent pala palace e taught marie alarie antoinette there six year old mozart played by invitation when the boy prodigy slipped on the polished floor and was picked up by marie antoinette daughter of the empress he declared he was going to marry her the german composer gluck appointed court chapel master at heard marie antoinette sing her scales later when marie an toinette antoinette went from this austrian versailles to versailles she invited gluck to play for her there th ere and helped him produce his operas in in paris this was just one of the little things that whipped up french hatred for the austrian and brought her to the guillotine during the congress of vienna in 1814 1815 while diplomats were dancing to gay viennese music c came a me the startling news that napoleon had escaped from elba seventeen years later his sickly young son laiglon died a virtual prisoner in vienna is a city of first nights its residents heard the premieres not only of strauss blue danube waltz but also of his operetta die Beet hovens opera fidelio Moz arts the magic flute and the marriage of figaro and many other operas and symphonies the city was the birthplace of schubert S and fritz kreisler the adopted home for more than thirty years of brahms and beethoven and for shorter periods the residence of schumann and many other musicians there mozart a and n d haydn died beethoven who went to vienna to study with haydn died there in 1827 among his mourners was schubert who followed him to the grave the following year blue danube not blue noted for its light operas and dance music the city is also celebrated for its church music which has been cultivated ever since the founding of the royal choir in the fifteenth century those who attend service at st stephens cathedral may hear music by haydn mozart or schubert and in various chapels singing by talented choir boys haydn was once one of the cathedrals choristers cho although vienna has lost much of its prewar pre war gaiety it still has coffee houses in which one may sip cohee coffee to lively airs and theaters in which operettas ope are performed its in manufacturers though not as busy as in in heyday still make musical instruments especially pianos in the spring and autumn visitors throng the spanish riding academy in the hofberg to watch trained white horses perform to music in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries vienna has become as noted for its schools of medicine and psychology as it had been previously for music its hospitals and clinics draw doctors medical students and sufferers from all over the world sigmund freud father of modern psychoanalysis lived and studied in vienna the donau river the beautiful blue danube on which vienna is situated is not blue but brown and light green at low water it rises in the black forest in southwest germany and flows 1725 miles into the black sea |