Josef Strauss


Josef Luckhardt Strauss was an Austrian composer.

Early life

He was born in Mariahilf, the son of Johann Strauss I and Maria Anna Streim, and brother of Johann Strauss II and Eduard Strauss. His father wanted him to choose a career in the Austrian Habsburg military. He studied music with Franz Dolleschal and learned to play the violin with Franz Anton Ries.
He received training as an engineer, and worked for the city of Vienna as an engineer and designer. He designed a horse-drawn revolving brush street-sweeping vehicle and published two textbooks on mathematical subjects. Strauss had talents as an artist, painter, poet, dramatist, singer, composer and inventor.

Family orchestra

He joined the family orchestra, along with his brothers, Johann Strauss II and Eduard Strauss in the 1850s. His first published work was called "Die Ersten und Letzten". When Johann became seriously ill in 1853 Josef led the orchestra for a while. The waltz-loving Viennese were appreciative of his early compositions so he decided to continue in the family tradition of composing dance music. He was known as 'Pepi' by his family and close friends, and Johann once said of him: "Pepi is the more gifted of us two; I am merely the more popular..."

Family life

Josef Strauss married Caroline Pruckmayer at the church of St. Johann Nepomuk in Vienna on 8 June 1857 and had one daughter, Karolina Anna, who was born on 27 March 1858.

Music

Josef Strauss wrote 283 works with opus numbers. He wrote many waltzes, including: Sphären-Klänge, Delirien, Transaktionen, Mein Lebenslauf ist Lieb' und Lust, and Dorfschwalben aus Österreich, polkas, most famously the with his brother Johann, quadrilles, and other dance music, and also some marches. The waltz The Mysterious Powers of Magnetism with the use of minor keys showed a quality that distinguished his waltzes from those of his more popular elder brother. The polka-mazurka shows influence by Strauss, where he wrote many examples like Die Emancipierte and Die Libelle.

Death

Josef Strauss was sick most of his later life. He was prone to fainting spells and intense headaches. During a tour in 1870, he fell unconscious from the conductor's podium in Warsaw while conducting his 'Musical Potpourri', striking his head. His wife brought him back home to Vienna, to the Hirschenhaus, where he died on 22 July of that year. A final diagnosis cited only decomposed blood. There were rumors that he had been beaten by drunken Russian soldiers after allegedly refusing to perform for them one night. A specific cause of death was not determined, since his widow forbade any autopsy. Originally buried in the St. Marx Cemetery, Strauss was later exhumed and reburied in the Vienna Central Cemetery, alongside his mother Anna.
File:Grabdenkmal Josef und Anna Strauss auf dem Sankt Marxer Friedhof.jpg|thumb|Monument to Josef and Anna Strauss at St. Marx Cemetery, Vienna

Works

The works of Josef Strauss include:
  • Die Ersten und Letzten waltz op. 1
  • Die Ersten nach den Letzten waltz op. 12
  • Die Guten, Alten Zeiten waltz op. 26
  • Mai-Rosen waltz op. 34
  • Liechtenstein-Marsch op. 36
  • Perlen der Liebe concert-waltz op. 39
  • Wallonen-Marsch op. 41
  • Moulinet-Polka polka francaise op. 57
  • Laxenburger-Polka, Op. 60
  • Sympathie polka-mazurka op. 73
  • Lustschwärmer waltz op. 91
  • Schabernack, fast polka op. 98
  • Phönix-Marsch op. 105
  • Wiener Bonmots waltz op. 108
  • Winterlust polka op. 121
  • Brennende Liebe polka-mazurka op. 129
  • Auf Ferienreisen! polka op. 133
  • Die Schwätzerin polka-mazurka op. 144
  • Wiener Couplets waltz op. 150
  • Dorfschwalben aus Österreich waltz op. 164
  • Frauenherz polka-mazurka op. 166
  • Sport-Polka op. 170
  • Dynamiden waltz op. 173
  • Stiefmütterchen polka-mazurka op. 183
  • Transaktionen waltz op. 184
  • Carrière, fast polka, op. 200
  • Die Marketenderin polka op. 202
  • Die Libelle polka-mazurka op. 204
  • waltz op. 212
  • Herbstrosen waltz op. 232
  • waltz op. 235
  • Eingesendet polka op. 240
  • Plappermäulchen polka op. 245
  • waltz op. 258
  • Eislauf polka op. 261
  • Neckerei polka mazur op. 262
  • waltz op. 263
  • Die Tanzende Muse polka-mazurka op. 266
  • Feuerfest! polka française op. 269.
  • Aus der Ferne Polka Mazur op. 270
  • Ohne Sorgen! polka op. 271
  • Nilfluthen waltz op. 275
  • Frauenwürde waltz op. 277
  • Jokey-Polka op. 278
  • Hesperusbahnen waltz op. 279
  • Die Emancipierte polka-mazurka op. 282