Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1896 — The Waltz. [ARTICLE]

The Waltz.

An earnest attempt lias lately been made by French musical writers to prove that the waltz originated In their own country, that it was danced In Provence as early as the fifteenth century, that It spread all over France In the sixteenth and seventeenth, and was Introduced Into Germany, where It became popular, during the eighteenth, while It died out in France and was reintroduced from Germany in the present century. The historic evidence for these statements does not appear to be satisfactory, for, from time immemorial, the walts under the handler, Schliefer and others, has been danced In Bavaria, Bohemia, Tyrol and various parts of Australia, where, in its original form, it may still be seen any Sunday afternoon in summer in the pleasure grounds of the rural villages. It was originally a slow, graceful, turning dance, but when brougbt into the cities its character soon changed and It, became very rapid. It was forbidden by ah imperial edict in 1785, but spread even faster afterward than before, and. two years later was danced on the; stage of the Imperial Opera House In Vlentfa, in a scene of Martini openi, “Una Caaa Bara."' The early waltz melodies are all Slow. Those written by Mozart and Betboven for the earfy days of this dance are very different in tempo from the,brisk, sjylngihg strains of .Strauss.