He didn't write piano music but I had to do a slideshow on the Waltz King and his Beautiful Blue Danube Waltz. Tenth of ten presentations on the piano and classical musicians. And more to come!

1. (Something about speaking German seems to do this to your genetics sometimes. )

10. Johann Strauss Sr.
(He’s also a very important composer. His waltzes are an important part of the classical repertoire
too, as well as his Radetsky March. Do you remember what ‘repertoire’ means?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYYTdtRrg8M

11. When the Dommayer Casino allowed young
Johann to perform his first compositions there, in
spite of his father’s threats…
Young Johann Strauss II. He was born in 1825 and died in 1899.

16.  Voices of Spring
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gG9YSaf4Mg
 Roses from the South
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s9oM_vNlyY
 Tales from the Vienna Woods
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og3joyCntrI
 The Emperor Waltz
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAVvBF7m260
 Wiener Blut
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZQaEv4bgp4
 Die Fledermaus Overture
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QROR4LioU-8

25. …they also adored their ‘waltz king’, as Strauss came to be called.
Johann Strauss II in 1879.
The composer himself was a terrible dancer and never, ever danced to his own music.

32.  You hold your partner during the waltz, which was
considered scandalous at first.
 A minuet has a lot of different kinds of steps, while the
waltz is simpler and has lots of turns.
 Musically, a minuet is in triple time—3/4 or 3/8 or 6/8.
A waltz is always in 3/4.
 Minuets usually have two sections. The second repeats
the first. A waltz is traditionally in ABA form, with the
second section in a different key.
 But a Strauss waltz can be a lot more complex. The Blue
Danube has five sections, plus an introduction and a
coda. A coda is a part put on after the end. (Coda in Latin
means ‘tail’, like an animal’s tail.)

41. And wrote underneath that he was sorry that this particular
music was NOT by Brahms.
Strauss and Brahms. Which do you prefer? The mustache or the beard? Brahms couldn’t grow
much facial hair until he was around forty. But he made up for this after that!

44. This wasn’t what they usually did. During the Nazi
years, other German composers with Jewish heritage,
like Felix Mendelssohn, were completely banned.
Felix Mendelssohn wrote wonderful piano music. There will be a slideshow on him.

46. Strauss’ grave. He’s buried in Vienna next to
Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms—and Johann
Strauss I, his father.
Portrait of Strauss
Two cherubs
Names of Strauss and Adele, his
third wife (buried with him).
This lady represents the spirit of
the Danube River, as in Blue
Danube, to represent that waltz.
The water that flows onto the
slab also represents the Danube
River.

49. EDUARD STRAUSS JOSEF STRAUSS