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Eduard Strauss

 
Artist: Eduard Strauss
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Classical Artists
  • Period: Romantic (1820-1869)
  • Country: Austria
  • Born: March 15, 1835 in Vienna, Austria
  • Died: December 28, 1916 in Vienna, Austria
  • Genres: Orchestral Music

Biography

The youngest son of Johann Strauss I, Eduard Strauss followed his father and two older brothers into music. He was one of the best-trained of the family members, but in many ways the least successful. His dance pieces are not as highly regarded as those of his brothers, and long-running family feuds compromised his work with his brothers' orchestras.

Eduard was adept in languages and anticipated a career in the Austrian consular service, but family pressure pushed him toward a music career. He studied theory, violin, piano, and harp. His debut in 1855 came as a harpist in one of his brother Johann's waltzes. Stage fright brought a premature end to his career as an orchestral harpist, yet he was not too timid to play with and conduct his family's dance orchestras; indeed, he developed a reputation as a martinet on the podium.

Eduard began conducting the main Strauss orchestra in early 1861, and was an immediate success. The following year he was applauded in the Viennese press for his agility and confidence. Yet his performances in 1865 seemed to misfire, and he began to squabble with his brothers over business matters to such an extent that he almost withdrew from music entirely. Even so, he took control of the Strauss orchestra upon brother Josef's death in 1870. That had been the year Josef and Eduard organized a series of concerts in the newly opened Goldene Saal of Vienna's Musikverein, a controversial move for a venue dedicated to art music. Yet the Strauss family's dance pieces attracted huge audiences, and concerts eventually included more serious contemporary works.

Eduard wrote his best music during the 1870s and 1880s, yet it rarely sold well, much to Johann's secret satisfaction (the unpopularity of Eduard's music meant he had to play more of Johann's works). It was as conductor of the Strauss orchestra that Eduard enjoyed his only real success, touring across two continents (the second being North America) and performing in 840 towns over the years. In 1901, after a three-month tour of the United States, he disbanded the orchestra in New York and retired from public life.

Although he was devoted enough to his family's legacy to publish a detailed catalog of the Strauss archive in 1901, Eduard was sufficiently embittered to burn that archive in 1907, earning him the eternal enmity of Strauss aficionados. ~ James Reel, All Music Guide

Discography

Et donem la nota, Vol. 13: Johann Strauss

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Wikipedia: Eduard Strauss
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A drawing of Eduard Strauss on a concert poster

Eduard Strauss (German: Eduard Strauß) (15 March 1835 – 28 December 1916) was an Austrian composer who, together with brothers Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss made up the Strauss musical dynasty. The family dominated the Viennese light music world for decades, creating many waltzes and polkas for many Austrian nobility as well as well as dance-music enthusiasts around Europe. He was affectionately known in his family as 'Edi'.

Eduard Strauss' style was individual and did not attempt to emulate the works of his other brothers or his contemporaries. But he was primarily remembered and recognized as a dance music conductor rather than as a major composer in the Strauss family, and his popularity was overshadowed by that of his elder brothers. Realising this, he stamped his own mark with the quick polka, known in German as the "polka-schnell". Among the more popular polkas that he ever penned for the Strauss Orchestra, which he continued to conduct until its disbandment on 13 February 1901, were "Bahn Frei", op. 45, "Ausser Rand und Band", op.168, and "Ohne Bremse", op. 238. He also found time to pen a few lovely waltzes, of which only a handful survived obscurity. The most famous is probably the "Doctrinen", op.79.

Strauss' musical career was pervaded with rivalry not only from his brothers, but also from the military bandmaster and dance music composer Karl Michael Ziehrer, who even formed a rival orchestra called "Formerly Eduard Strauss Orchestra", and began giving concerts in Vienna under this new title. Eduard Strauss successfully filed a court action against Ziehrer for the improper and misleading use of his name, but Ziehrer would eventually surpass the Strauss family in popularity in Vienna, particularly after the deaths of his more talented brothers, Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss. Their rivalry was to extend until the Strauss Orchestra was disbanded.

Strauss married Maria Klenkhart on 8 January 1863 and had two sons, Johann Strauss III and Josef Eduard Strauss.[1] The eldest son, Johann Strauss III, was to lead the Strauss revival well into the 20th century.

However, personal setbacks in the 1890s, such as the death of brother Johann Strauss II in 1899, and his realization that his immediate family had squandered his personal fortune, led Eduard Strauss to decide on retirement. Eduard Strauss engaged in the final tour of his musical career to North America in 1899 and in 1901, disbanded the Strauss Orchestra, and returned to Vienna where he died in 1916.[1] He retired from public life and never actively took part in any public musical activity, although he did document his family memoirs titled Erinnerungen in 1906.

Contents

Works of Eduard Strauss

Eduard Strauss

The works of Eduard Strauss include:

  • Ideal Polka-française op. 1 (1863)
  • Bahn Frei! ('Clear the Track!') Polka-schnell op.45
  • In Künstlerkreisen ('In Artistic Circles') Polka-française op. 47
  • Mit Dampf! ('Steam Up!') Polka-schnell op.70
  • Auf und Davon! ('Up and Away!') Polka-schnell op.73
  • Fesche Geister ('Fresh Spirit') waltz op. 75
  • Doctrinen ('Doctrines') waltz op. 79
  • Interpretationen ('Interpretations') waltz op.97
  • Ohne Aufenthalt ('Without Stopping!') Polka-schnell op.112
  • Carmen-Quadrille (with themes from Georges Bizet's Carmen) op.134
  • Das Leben ist doch Schön ('The Life is So Beautiful') waltz op.150
  • Leuchtkäferln waltz op.161
  • Ausser Rand und Band ('Out of Control') Polka-Schnell op.168
  • Krone und Schleier ('Crown and Veil') waltz op.200
  • Mit Chic! ('With Style') Polka-schnell op.221
  • Mit Vergnügen! ('With Pleasure!') Polka-schnell op.228
  • Ohne Bremse ('Without Brakes') Polka-schnell op.238
  • Blüthenkranz Johann Strauss'scher Walzer in Chronologischer Reihenfolge von 1844 bis auf die Neuzeit ('Bouquet of Johann Strauss' Waltzes in Chronological Order from 1844 to Present Time') (1894)

Works with Strauss brothers

  • Trifoilen waltz, ('Trifles') (with Johann II and Josef Strauss) (1865)
  • Schützen quadrille, ('Sharpshooter') (with Johann II and Josef Strauss) (1866)

References

  1. ^ a b "Johann Strauss Society: Eduard Strauss". Johann Strauss Society of Great Britain. http://www.johann-strauss.org.uk/composers/index.php3?content=eduard1. Retrieved 2008-10-01. 

External links

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