A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Waltz

by William Barclay Squire

WALTZ, and WALTZ À DEUX TEMPS. [See p. 385.]

WALTZ. The origin of the Waltz is wrapped in even more obscurity than is usually the case with the best-known dances. The immense popularity which it has achieved in the 19th century—a popularity which has had the effect of almost banishing every other dance—has given rise to a dispute as to the historical genesis of the waltz, into which national antipathies have to a certain extent entered. It would have been thought that French writers could not ignore the evidence of a German origin given by the name waltz, derived from waltzen, to turn; but in the face of the etymology of the word an ingenious theory has been invented by which it is sought to prove that the dance and the name were originally borrowed by Germany from France, and then reintroduced, as a foreign invention, from the former to the latter country.

This theory apparently was first propounded by Castil Blaze, and has been adopted by Fétis, Littré, and Larousse. The French account of the origin of the waltz is that the dance is a descendant of the Volta—known to the Elizabethans as Lavolta—a dance described by Thoinot Arbeau in his Orchésographie, and said to have been a native of Provence, whence it was introduced into Paris under Louis VII. It remained in fashion up to the 16th century, at which period it was (according to Larousse) introduced into Germany, the name Volta being changed into Walzer. The obvious Italian origin of the word 'volta' has been overlooked by the French writers. The German authorities, on the other hand, trace the waltz back to the Drehtanz, or turning dance, a modification of the old form of dances which (like the English country dances) were danced by couples standing face to face, or holding one another by one hand only.

Great confusion exists in the German accounts of these early dances. The Volta, the Langaus, and the Allemande are all mentioned as being the ancestors of the waltz, but none of these seems to be satisfactorily connected with the modern dance. That the volta and the spring-tanz were identical seems pretty certain: in both the indecency of the performance seems to have been a characteristic feature, as a comparison of the descriptions in Thoinot Arbeau's Orchésographie and Johann von Miinster's 'Traktat vom ungottseligen Tanz' (1594) clearly shows; but this feature is different from that which was held up to reprobation in the waltz in later days by Lord Byron and other English writers on its introduction into England. The German dances, like the French, in the 15th and 16th centuries, were either of a solemn or slow character, or consisted in unseemly leapings and jumpings; as Chapman in his 'Alphonsus Emperour of Germany' makes one of his characters say:—

We Germans have no changes in our dances,
An Almain and an upspring that is all.

In course of time the latter became so objectionable that it was not only preached and written against, but was made the subject of local edicts, notably in the towns of Nurnberg, Amberg, and Meissen. The Almain or Allemande was introduced into France after the conquest of Alsace by Louis XIV., but the dance had nothing in common with the modern waltz, and the spring-tanz, which, as has been mentioned, was identical with the volta, no longer occurs in the 17th and 18th centuries. This break in the imaginary genealogy of the waltz has not been made clear by the writers who have treated the subject. It is generally admitted that the modern dance first made its appearance about the year 1780, and the only attempt at connecting the old and the new dances is the suggestion that because the song 'Ach du lieber Augustin' (which was one of the first tunes to which waltzes were danced) was addressed to a wandering musician who lived in 1670, therefore the modern dance was contemporary with the tune. The attempts at tracing the waltz from such a widely spread dance as the volta or spring-tanz have led to further confusion with regard to the humble Ländler or Schleifer, which is its real ancestor. That it springs from a class of country dances, and not from the ancient stock of the volta, must be obvious upon many grounds. The dance itself is first heard of in Bohemia, Austria, and Bavaria in the latter part of the 18th century: in Bohemia it seems first to have become fashionable, since on March 18, 1785, it was forbidden by an Imperial edict as 'sowohl der Gesundheit schädlich, als auch der Sünden halber sehr gefährlich,' in spite of which it found its way to Vienna, and was danced in the finale to Act ii. of Vicente Martin y Solar's 'Una Cosa rara' by four of the principal characters (Lubino, Tita, Chita, and Lilla). On its first appearance in Vienna the music of the waltz was played quite slowly: the tempo in Martin's opera is marked Andante con moto, but in Vienna the character of the dance was changed, and a Geschwindwalzer was introduced which finally led to a Galoppwalzer in 2-4 time. But in spite of the changes that the dance underwent, what it was originally like can still be seen at any Austrian or Bavarian village festival at the present day, where it will be found, perhaps called a Ländler or Schleifer, or some other local name, but still danced to the old slow rhythms which were imitated by Mozart, Beethoven, and (to a less degree) Schubert, in their waltzes written for the Viennese in the early days of the dance's fashionable career. Crabb Robinson's account of the manner in which he saw it danced at Frankfort in 1800 is interesting. 'The man places the palms of his hands gently against the sides of his partner, not far from the arm-pits. His partner does the same, and instantly with as much velocity as possible they turn round, and at the same time gradually glide round the room.'^[1]

In England the name and the tune of the dance made their first appearance about the year 1797. The collection of Preston's Country Dances published at that date contains 'the new German Waltz' and the Princess of Wales's Waltz,' both of which are real waltz tunes, though how different the dances were may be gathered from the directions for dancing the former: 'Set and hands across and back again, lead down the middle up again to the top, turn your partner with the right hand quite round, then with the left, hands 4 round at bottom right and left.' The same collection also contains a dance called 'Miss Simpson's Waltz,' the tune of which is written in common time. It was not until 1812 that the dance in its modern form made its appearance in England, when it was greeted with a storm of abuse as 'a fiend of German birth,' 'destitute of grace, delicacy, and propriety,' a 'disgusting practice,' and called forth a savage attack from Lord Byron.^[2] In spite of this reception it seems to have won a speedy victory, and is at the present day certainly more in favour than ever. In France the waltz made its appearance during the war with Germany (1792–1801) which ended with the Peace of Luneville, after which it was said that the Germans had ceded even their national dance to the French. It was first danced at the opera in Gardel's ballet 'La Dansomanie' (1800), for which Méhul wrote the music. Beyond the changes introduced in Vienna by Schubert, Strauss, etc., and adopted all over Europe, the form of the dance has not undergone any material alteration in France, though it was probably there that the misnamed 'Valse à deux temps' (i.e. a faster form of the danse, containing six steps to every two of the waltz 'à trois temps') was first introduced towards the middle of the century.

The music of the waltz originally consisted of two sections, each consisting of 8 bars in 3-4 or 3-8 time. Good examples of these primitive forms will be found in Beethoven's and Mozart's Deutsche Tänze. The next development of the music was the stringing together of several of these 16-bar waltzes, and the addition of trios, and a coda. This was first effected by Hummel in a waltz in 9 numbers, which he wrote in 1808 for the opening of the Apollo Saal in Vienna, but this isolated example cannot have had much influence upon the development of the waltz, since it is not until the time of Schubert that it possesses any intrinsic musical value. The dances of this composer form really the basis of modern waltz music. Though in the main they adhere to the old 16-bar form, yet the beginnings of development are apparent in them, not only in their immense musical superiority to any of their predecessors, but also in the numerous extensions and improvements of the original form which are to be found in them, and which have since become the commonplaces of every writer of dance music. For instance, in op. 9b, Waltz No. 15, instead of having an 8-bar phrase repeated in each section, has two sections of 16 bars each. The next number (16) has two introductory bars of bass solo before the 16-bar melody begins—a device which is nowadays too familiar to be noticed, though when Schubert wrote it was probably absolutely novel. A careful analysis of these beautiful compositions would probably reveal many such points of departure; indeed, in comparing them with the works of his contemporaries, such as Lanner and the elder Strauss, it is extraordinary to find how Schubert anticipated their effects. But if Schubert had so great an influence on the Viennese school of dance composers, it is to Weber that the waltz owes what, musically speaking, is its most important development. The composition of the 'Aufforderung zum Tanz' marks the adoption of the waltz-form into the sphere of absolute music, and prepared the way for the stream of piano-forte and vocal waltzes, not intended as accompaniments to dancing, the best examples of which are the waltzes of Chopin and Rubinstein, though this form of composition has been adopted by most writers of 'brilliant' music. Of late years a tendency has shown itself to revert to what may be called the Schubert type of waltz. To this class belong the waltzes of Brahms, Kiel, and other modern German composers. Brahms indeed may be said to have introduced a new class in his 'Liebeslieder' for pianoforte duet and vocal quartet; but the original type of these is the same as Schubert's dances.

In the early part of the present century the composition of waltzes for dancing was almost entirely in the hands of the Viennese composers. Johann Strauss the elder introduced the habit of giving names to waltzes, and it was at Vienna, under the Strauss family, Lanner, Labitzky, and Gungl, that the waltz became fixed in the form in which we now know it, i.e. an introduction generally in a slow tempo, foreshadowing the principal motive of the composition, and followed by five or six separate waltzes ending with a coda recapitulating the best numbers. Vienna has, moreover, always preserved the tradition of playing what a modern writer aptly describes as 'those irresistible waltzes that first catch the ear, and then curl round the heart, till on a sudden they invade and will have the legs.' France has produced a few good waltzes, but more for operatic or vocal purposes than for dancing, while England is very far below either country in compositions of this kind. The waltzes which achieve ephemeral popularity in England are generally beneath contempt as music, and as accompaniments to dancing are a long way behind the productions of Vienna.

With regard to the tempo of a waltz no strict rule can be given. In England the time at which waltzes are played and danced differs almost from year to year according to what is supposed to be 'the fashion.' The Viennese tradition of introducing rallentandos and accelerandos into waltzes, charming though it is to a musician, has never been caught by any English conductor of dance music, and probably would be found impracticable in England, where dancers may be seen exhibiting their lack of the sense of time and rhythm by waltzing to the music of a polka. Cellarius gives the proper tempo of a waltz 'à trois temps' as = 66, and 'à deux temps' as = 88.

[ W. B. S. ]

1. Diary, i. 76.
2. 'The Waltz: an apostrophic hymn'; published 1818.