About this edition
Few works have so completely come to embody a city and a nation as Johann Strauss Jr.'s An der schönen blauen Donau ("The Blue Danube"), Op. 314. First heard in 1867 — originally as a choral waltz written for the Vienna Men's Choral Association, and then swiftly triumphant in its purely orchestral form at the Paris World's Fair that same year — it opens with one of the most atmospheric passages in the repertoire: a hushed string tremolo, a rising horn call, and the slow awakening of the waltz itself. What follows is a garland of five linked waltzes framed by an extended introduction and a broad, theme-gathering coda, music of such buoyancy and craft that Brahms is said to have wished he had written it.
This printing reproduces the full orchestral score issued in Leipzig by Breitkopf und Härtel (n.d., ca. 1920; plate B. 3281). Founded in 1719, Breitkopf & Härtel is the oldest music publishing house in the world, and by the early twentieth century its name was a byword for clear, meticulously engraved performing editions. This score belongs to the firm's long catalogue of standard orchestral editions that carried the Viennese dance repertoire to concert platforms far beyond Austria, and its careful house engraving has made it a dependable reference for conductors and orchestras for well over a century.
About this edition:
- Format: complete full orchestral score
- Page size: 8.5x11 inches
- Reproduced from a public domain source
- Publisher: Purple 4R Publishing
This edition faithfully reproduces a historical score that is now in the public domain, making a cornerstone of the orchestral repertoire affordable and easy to keep on the stand. We hope it serves conductors, players, students, and scholars well.
