Encoded in EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/perform.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/2013572138
DACS was used as the primary description standard.
Collection material chiefly in German, with some French and English
Purchase, Josefine Maria Löwenberg, 1938
No further accruals are expected.
Music Division staff originally processed the Paul Löwenberg Collection of Music by the Johann Strauss and Joseph Lanner Families in 1959. These materials were later microfilmed in 1972. Mónica Hurd reprocessed the collection and coded the finding aid in 2021.
The Harold Spivacke Collection contains correspondence and notes regarding the collection’s original acquisition in 1938.
Holograph and manuscript music composed by Johann Strauss Jr. can be found in the following Music Division collections: Fritz Kreisler Collection, Tams-Witmark (Original Library of Congress Collection), Andre Kostelanetz Collection, and the Ferde Grofé Collection.
The Nicolas Slonimsky Collection contains biographical material on Eduard Strauss.
Autograph correspondence between Eduard Strauss and "Herr" Bauer can be found in ML95.S9673.
Joseph Lanner's holograph score for Alpen Ländler is located in ML96.L279.
Materials from the Paul Löwenberg Collection of Music by the Johann Strauss and Joseph Lanner Families are governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.) and other applicable international copyright laws.
The Paul Löwenberg Collection of Music by the Johann Strauss and Joseph Lanner Families is open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Music Division prior to visiting in order to determine whether the desired materials will be available at that time.
Certain restrictions on using or copying materials may apply.
A microfilm edition of the Paul Löwenberg Collection of Music by the Johann Strauss and
Joseph Lanner Families is available on 16 reels that are shelved as Music-744. Please
consult the microfilm inventory
or the collection file to determine the reel number for each work.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [item, date, container or reel number], Paul Löwenberg Collection of Music by the Johann Strauss and Joseph Lanner Families, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Joseph Lanner was one of the leading dance composers to emerge from Vienna during the nineteenth century. He, along with Johann Strauss Sr., is considered one of the fathers of the Viennese waltz.
Lanner was born in Vienna on April 12, 1801, to Martin Lanner (1771-1839) and Maria Schergauff (1771-1823). He was largely a self-taught musician and began his musical career as a violinist in the Michael Pamer orchestra. In 1816, Lanner formed a small ensemble with Anton and Johann Drahanek, which expanded into two orchestras in 1825. At the height of his career, Lanner managed several ensembles and employed roughly 200 musicians. He composed more than 200 works that became widely known throughout Europe and America. In 1829, he served as music director of the Redoutensäle in Vienna, and in 1833 was appointed Kepellmeister of the second Viennese militia regiment.
Lanner married Franziska Jahn (1800-1855) on November 28, 1828, but they divorced in 1838. He died on March 21, 1843, from a typhoid infection at age 42. Lanner’s surviving children included August Lanner and Katharina Lanner (1829-1908).
Johann Strauss Sr. was a second prominent dance composer to emerge from Vienna during the nineteenth century. He, along with Josef Lanner, developed the classical waltz form, a legacy carried on by his sons Johann Strauss Jr., Josef Strauss, and Eduard Strauss.
Johann Strauss Sr. was born in Vienna on March 14, 1804, to Franz Borgias (1764-1816) and his mother (died 1811). After the sudden deaths of his parents, Strauss was taken in as an apprentice bookbinder under Johann Luchtscheidl. This career did not last, and he joined the ensemble formed by Joseph Lanner and the Drahanek brothers (Anton and Johann) in 1823. He later conducted half of the orchestra upon its division in 1825 until 1827, when he left to form his own ensemble. He studied violin with Johann Pollischanzki and Leopold Jansa, and instrumentation with Ignaz von Seyfried.
In 1829, Strauss began a six-year contract with the Zum Sperlbauer, a popular dance hall in Leopoldstadt, where he premiered many of his works throughout his career. This residency helped establish his career, and he soon was performing at dance establishments throughout Vienna and its suburbs. In 1832, he was appointed the Kapellmeister of the first Viennese militia regiment and in 1846 was granted the honorary title of k.k. Hofballmusik-Director by the Austrian Emperor, Ferdinand I.
To promote his music across Europe, Strauss placed a strong emphasis on touring. With his initial trip to Pest (now Budapest) in 1833, he became the first person to take dance music on tour. The following year he performed in Germany for the Prussian King and the visiting Tsar and Tsarina of Russia. He continued to tour in France, Belgium, and Britain, and in 1838 undertook his first great summer tour with appearances in Paris, London, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. That same year, he also completed a 33-week of the United Kingdom. As a result of these efforts, Strauss became a familiar figure throughout Europe. He continued to tour until his death from scarlet fever in Vienna on September 25, 1849.
Strauss married Maria Anna Streim (1801-1870) on July 11, 1825, and they had six children: Johann Strauss Jr., Josef, Anna (1829-1903), Therese (1831-1915), Ferdinand (born and died 1834), and Eduard (1835-1916). In 1833, Strauss began a lasting affair with Emilie Trampusch, and they had seven illegitimate children from 1835 and 1844. In 1844, Maria sued Strauss for a divorce, which was granted in 1846.
Johann Strauss Jr. was the first son of Johann Strauss Sr. and Maria Anna Streim. He built upon the musical careers of both his father and Joseph Lanner and composed music that captivated the whole of Europe and America for more than half a century. By the mid-1860s, Strauss Jr. had established himself as Europe’s leading composer of dance music, and in 1867, penned one of his most famous waltzes, An der schönen, blauen Donau, op. 314 ("The Blue Danube").
Johann Strauss Jr. was born in Vienna on October 25, 1825, and was originally destined for a career in banking. He was formally educated at the k.k. Normal-Hauptschule bey St. Anna and later at the Vienna Polytechnic Institute. However, he studied music on the side with many accomplished musicians, including violin with Franz Amon, the leader of his father’s orchestra, and harmony and counterpoint with Joachim Hoffmann and Joseph Drechsler. In 1843, Strauss Jr. officially began his musical career by assembling his own orchestra of 40 musicians that debuted in 1844. His popularity grew slowly in Vienna before his father’s death, but during one Viennese carnival season, he was recorded to have grown his orchestra to 220 members to meet the concert demands.
After his father’s death in 1849, he merged his father’s orchestra with his own and went on tour. Unlike his father, Strauss Jr. did not often travel unless he was invited to perform. Regardless, during his life he did bring his music to Russia, Paris, London, Boston, New York, Berlin, and Budapest. In 1845, he was offered the position of Kapellmeister of the second Viennese militia regiment, a title previously held by Joseph Lanner, and in 1863, he was given the title k.k. Hofballmusik-Direktor after his father.
The demanding work load may have contributed to Strauss Jr.'s ill health, and in 1853, he asked his brother Josef to serve as interim director of the Strauss Orchestra. The two worked together from 1854 until 1870 as co-directors and were joined by their youngest sibling, Eduard. Strauss Jr. chose to step away from directing to focus on composing, including a number of works for the stage. However, he found that he never enjoyed working from a previously written libretto, and thus felt constrained by many of his later projects.
Strauss Jr. married three times and had no children. His first wife was singer Henreitte (Jetty) Treffz (1818-1878) and the two were married until her death in 1878. His second wife was actress Angelika Dittrich (1850-1919). They sought a divorce in 1882, but their request was not officially granted until 1887. Strauss Jr. remained married to his final wife, Adèle Deutsch (1856-1930), until his own death on June 3, 1899.
Josef Strauss was the second son of Johann Strauss Sr. and Maria Anna Streim. Like his brother, Johann Strauss Jr., he had a special talent for composition and is known for incorporating the music of contemporary operatic composers into his concerts and musical works. Josef was born in Vienna on August 20, 1827, and established a very successful career as an architect and mechanical engineer as a young adult. At a very early age, he published a series of mathematic tables that were incorporated into many secondary school curriculums. He completed courses in technical drawing and mathematics at Vienna’s polytechnic institute and pursued private study at the Academy of Fine Arts. He published two mathematical books, invented a street-cleaning machine, wrote poetry and a five-act drama, and even served as the head of sewer works at the Trumaner Spinning mill.
Josef was thrust into the family business after his brother Johann fell ill in 1853. He was asked to serve as interim director of the Strauss Orchestra in Johann’s absence, and his first conducting debut was such a success that he decided to become a musician and give up his technical activities. He soon after began instruction in violin with Franz Amon and then composition with Franz Dolleschall.
Beginning in 1854, he served as joint director of the Strauss Orchestra with his brother Johann, and in 1856, he debuted his newly-honed violin skills. Apart from occasional travel, Josef worked exclusively in his hometown of Vienna, where he conducted countless concerts and balls. In 1870, during one of his rare trips abroad, Josef collapsed at the podium during a performance in Warsaw, Poland. He was transported home to Vienna where he died of a stroke on July 22, 1870.
Josef married Karoline Josefa Pruckmayer (1831-1900) on June 8, 1857. The two had one child, Karoline Anna (1858-1919).
Eduard Strauss was the fourth and youngest son of Johann Strauss Sr. and Maria Anna Streim. A musician in his own right, his work is too often compared to that of his brothers Johann and Josef. Eduard was born in Vienna on March 15, 1835, and as a gifted linguist was originally destined for a career with the Austrian consular service. However, he eventually transitioned into the "family business" and joined his two brothers with the Strauss Orchestra in 1855 as a harpist. Previously, he had studied musical theory with Gottfried Preyer, violin with Franz Amon, and harp with Antonio Zamara. At the Sofienbad-Saal in 1861, the Strauss Orchestra was split into three parts, whereupon Eduard made his conducting debut. His debut as a composer occured the following year at the Diana Saale, and his first work was published in 1863.
He became joint director of the family orchestra in 1865 with his brother Josef, and after his brother’s death in 1870, direction of the orchestra passed entirely to Eduard. The orchestra remained in his charge until 1901, when he disbanded it after a large tour of North America. While on this tour, Eduard suffered a broken shoulder bone as a result of a railroad collision. Unable to conduct, the remaining concerts of his tour were canceled save for four final performances in New York that he directed left-handed.
In 1872, he was granted the honorary title of k.k. Hofballmusik-Direktor, which was a title first held by his father. Unlike his two brothers, Eduard shared his father’s interest in touring. According to his own memoirs, in 23 years, Eduard traveled to 840 towns and cities across two continents. He not only brought his own music with him, but also that of his two brothers, his father, and Josef Lanner.
After retiring in 1901, Eduard led a quiet life until 1907, when he carried out the destruction of the Strauss Orchestra’s musical archive. Numerous unpublished manuscripts by his brother Josef were lost in addition to many secondary source copies of contemporary scores transcribed by all three Strauss brothers. He died from a heart attack in Vienna on December 28, 1916.
Eduard Strauss married Maria Magdalena Klenkhart (1840-1921) in 1863. They had two sons, Johan Maria Eduard (1866-1939) and Josef Eduard Anna (1868-1940).
August Lanner (Augustin Lanner) was born in Vienna on January 23, 1835, to Joseph Lanner and Franziska Jahn. He was first educated in music harmony by the k.k. Kapellmaister and later in composition by Professor Josef Mayseder and the Viennese composer Josef Hellmesberger. August's first public appearance at the head of an orchestra occurred when he was only eight years old. Shortly following his father’s death, a young August appeared as violinist and conductor of Lanner’s orchestra for their performance at the Brauhausgarten in Fünfhaus in front of 2,000 attendees. It was not until ten years later that he debuted his own orchestra on March 19, 1853, and quickly became one of the leading light musicians of Vienna. August died very suddenly from a lung illness in Vienna on September 27, 1855, only two years following his debut. During those two years, 33 of his compositions were published.
The Paul Löwenberg Collection of Music by the Johann Strauss and Joseph Lanner Families spans the years 1825 to 1929, the bulk of which dates from 1825 to 1898. Paul Löwenberg, a Viennese railroad baron and Straussiana enthusiast, originally compiled the collection.
The larger of its two series, Music, is a nearly complete collection of all first edition scores for piano written and published by the six prominent members of the Johann Strauss and Joseph Lanner families. The six composers represented are Joseph Lanner, August Lanner, Johann Strauss Sr., Johan Strauss Jr., Josef Strauss, and Eduard Strauss. Among the scores is Johann Strauss Jr.’s An der schönen, blauen Donau (The Blue Danube), one of the best known tunes in nineteenth-century music.
The Miscellany series consists of four manuscript volumes created by Löwenberg and a water-color portrait of Johann Strauss Jr. The four volumes constitute an invaluable source of information on Viennese music and dance of the nineteenth century.
The collection is arranged in two series:
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
First edition scores for piano by Johann Strauss Sr., Johann Strauss Jr., Josef Strauss, Eduard Strauss, Joseph Lanner, and August Lanner comprise this series. The material is organized according to the original order imposed by Löwenberg, who grouped the scores first by composer and then by musical form. Musical forms represented in the collection include waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, marches, and potpourris.
Materials from boxes 1-74 are available on microfilm, Music-744, reels 1-15.
Organized as six subseries.
This sub-series consists of works composed by August Lanner. It contains 31 of his 33 published works, including two of Lanner's most recognizable pieces, D'ersten Gedanken, op. 1 and Amalien Polka, op. 14. The two works not present are opuses 3 and 10.
Arranged alphabetically by title.
This sub-series consists of 192 printed scores for piano composed by Joseph Lanner. Five of Lanner’s most recognizable waltzes are included: Der Werber, op. 103; Hofballtänze, op. 161; Die Romantiker, op. 167; Die Schönbrunner, op. 200; and Pesther Walzer, op. 93. There are also 17 notable potpourris and four scores by other composers whose works were inspired by Lanner.
Arranged by musical form and alphabetically by title therein.
This sub-series consists of printed scores for piano composed by Eduard Strauss. Although he struggled to have many of his works printed, this material includes 280 of his compositions, including his most popular polka, Bahn frei, op. 45.
Arranged by musical form and alphabetically by title therein.
This sub-series consists of 257 printed scores for piano composed by Johann Strauss Sr. Included among the materials are scores for two of Strauss’ most prominent works, Radetzky-Marsch and his waltz Loreley-Rhein-Klänge, op. 154.
Arranged by musical form and alphabetically by title therein.
This sub-series consists of works composed by Johann Strauss Jr. and chiefly
contains printed scores for piano. It does, however, include three manuscript
scores in an unidentified. Among these materials are noteworthy titles An der
schönen, blauen Donau, op. 314 (The Blue Danube), Liebes-Lieder, op. 114, and
the overtures and potpourris for two of his prominent stage works,
Arranged by musical form and alphabetically by title therein.
This sub-series consists of 285 printed scores for piano composed by Josef Strauss. A number of works composed jointly by Josef and Johann Strauss Jr. are located in the Johann Strauss Jr. sub-series.
Arranged by musical form and alphabetically by title therein.
Four manuscript volumes created by Löwenberg and a water-color portrait of Johann Strauss Jr. painted by A. Pietzner comprise this series. The volumes span from 1917 to 1929 and the painting was completed in 1894.
The four volumes, written in German, document Löwenberg's research into nineteenth-century Viennese music and dance styles. They record his efforts to accumulate a complete collection of published, first edition scores for piano by the six Strauss and Lanner family composers. The first set of volumes, Lanner-Strauss Statistik Vol. I & II, record a complete list of all works written by Johann Strauss Sr., Johann Strauss Jr., Josef Strauss, Eduard Strauss, Joseph Lanner, and Eduard Lanner. They also include the statistics documenting Löwenberg's collection of these works. Works are listed alphabetically, by opus number, and by genre. Clippings of photographs, letters, receipts, contracts, legal documents, theater bills, posters, obituaries, and concert programs and announcements are also included. A highlight of the second volume are the career histories of the four Strauss family composers. The first volume in this set was first displayed in Vienna during the Johann Strauss Jr. Memorial Exhibition as part of the centennial celebration in 1925.
The second set of volumes, Musik v. Tanz der Lanner-Strauss Zeit I & II, contain an overview of Viennese song, music, and dance from 1825 to 1900, a period marked by the beginning of Joseph Lanner's career through the conclusion of Eduard Strauss's career. Completed over twelve years, Löwnberg's record examines all elements of Viennese music and dance styles including information on prominent performers, musical associations, folk singer societies, places of musical education and their instructors, music critics, and prominent musical tours completed at the time. The only element not examined is that of religious music.
Materials from boxes 75-77 are available on microfilm, Music-744, reel 16.
Arranged alphabetically by subject.