Premiering on this day in 1867 with a performance of the Vienna Men’s Choral Association, the waltz by Johann Stauss II was originally met with a rather tepid response from the audience but has since become one of the most enduring compositions in the classical repertoire and an unofficial anthem for Austria—the national hymn “Land der Berge, Land am Strome” a tune by Mozart. The lyrics were added after the orchestral part was finished about a year earlier by the Männergesang-Verein’s resident poet Joseph Weyl as a carnival song, with eleven satirical verses lightly lampooning the country’s loss in the recent Austro-Prussian War:
Weit vom Schwarzwald her
eilst du hin zum Meer,
spendest Segen
allerwegen,
ostwärts geht dein Lauf,
nimmst viel Brüder auf:
Bild der Einigkeit
für alle Zeit!
Alte Burgen seh’n
nieder von den Höh’n,
grüssen gerne
dich von ferne
und der Berge Kranz,
hell vom Morgenglanz,
spiegelt sich in deiner Wellen Tanz
Prevalent in popular culture, in Austria, it is played at midnight on New Year’s as well as being the traditional sign-off tune for the end of the broadcasting day, a coda sung to Mexican birthday gatherings as “Queremos pastel, pastel, pastel” to serve the cake and played during the 1970s and 1980s over the PA systems of Chinese domestic flights as reassurance to passengers on landing. Die Donau so blau, so blau.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Amerika, a 1987 mini-series
two years ago: assorted links to revisit plus the fist demonstration of closed-captioning (1972)
three years ago: Decimalisation Day (1971) plus another Roman holiday
four years ago: harnessing the power of falling rain, Japanese business jargon plus a trip to castle ruin Henneberg
five years ago: Trump sends troops to the Mexican border plus introducing OpenAI
