Johann Strauss I
| Johann Strauss I | |
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Johann Strauss I, 1835 lithograph by Josef Kriehuber
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| Born |
Johann Strauss I March 14, 1804 Leopoldstadt, Vienna, Austria |
| Died | September 25, 1849 (aged 45) Vienna, Austria |
| Occupation | Classical composer |
Johann Strauss I (German: Johann Baptist Strauß, Johann Strauss (Vater); also Johann Baptist Strauss, Johann Strauss Sr., the Elder, the Father; March 14, 1804 – September 25, 1849) was an Austrian Romantic composer. He was famous for his waltzes, and he popularized them alongside Joseph Lanner, thereby setting the foundations for his sons to carry on his musical dynasty. His most famous piece is the Radetzky March (named after Joseph Radetzky von Radetz).
Born in Leopoldstadt (now in Vienna), Johann Strauss was the father of Johann Strauss II, Josef Strauss and Eduard Strauss, the last of whom had a son called Johann Strauss III. He also had two daughters, Anna, who was born in 1829, and Therese, who was born in 1831. His third son, Ferdinand, born in 1834, lived only ten months. Strauss's parents, Franz Borgias Strauss (October 10, 1764 – April 5, 1816) and Barbara Dollmann (December 3, 1770 – August 28, 1811), were innkeepers (Zum heiligen Florian). Strauss had a Jewish grandfather, Johann Michael Strauss (1720–1800), who converted to Catholicism.
Tragedy struck his family as his mother died of 'creeping fever' when he was seven. When he was 12, his father was discovered drowned, possibly by suicide, in the Danube river. His guardian, the tailor Anton Müller, placed him as an apprentice to a bookbinder Johann Lichtscheidl; Strauss took lessons in the violin and viola in addition to fulfilling his apprenticeship. Contrary to a story later told by his son Johann II, he never ran away from his bookbinder apprenticeship and in fact successfully completed it in 1822. He also studied music with Johann Polischansky during his apprenticeship and eventually managed to secure a place in a local orchestra of Michael Pamer which he eventually left in order to join a popular string quartet known as the Lanner Quartet formed by his would-be rival Joseph Lanner and the Drahanek brothers, Karl and Johann. This string quartet playing Viennese Waltzes and rustic German dances expanded into a small string orchestra in 1824.
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